Tea Review Round Up!

Phew! I did it! All the current standalone(ish) tea places in the bay that I can reasonably get to! It was definitely a journey and I do still love afternoon tea but I think I'll take a pause for a bit unless there's a particularly good theme that someone hosts.

Remember this is only my experience one time and my personal tastes/bias. There's quite a few things (like not preferring smoked salmon, favoring flavored black tea, and being located in the peninsula) that will definitely skew my reviews and ratings. If you live in a different part of the bay area or value different things in your tea experience you'll probably have a different rating than me and that's ok! I'd recommend looking at both my individual review of a place for a more detailed description and other yelp or google reviews to see which you would like to try. 

And without further ado, The List!

8/10: Leland Tea Company

8/10: Dartealing Lounge

8/10: Crown and Crumpet

7.9/10: Pardee Home

7.8/10: Sip Tea Room

7.8/10: Masion Danel

7.6/10: Malaya Tea Room

7.5/10: Lovejoys

7.5/10: Chelo Tea House

7.5/10: Tea Time

7.5/10: The Rotunda 

7.35/10: RoyalTEA Garden

7.3/10: Tyme for Tea

7.25/10: iChina

7.2/10: Lisa's Tea Treasures

7.2/10: Son and Garden

7.1/10 Jade Chocolates 

6.8/10: Dainteas

Honorable mentions that aren't in the bay area:

7.1/10: Casting Whimsy, Woodstock, IL

6.5/10: The Tea Terrace, Las Vegas, NV

Thank you all for coming on my tea review journey with me! It was a lot to do in one year but I am really glad I did it and can now have a more definitive answer for which tea places in the bay area are my favorites 💖

Tea Review: The Rotunda

I ended up at the Rotunda by myself unfortunately. I didn't realize how popular it would be for afternoon tea around this time so by the time I was late getting a reservation they would only let me reserve for 1. This was both a nice deviation from my usual tea experience but also kind of lonely. I did end up sort of ~live blogging~ my experience as there was no one to be rude to by typing on my phone the whole time in between eating 😅

Tea Review: RoyalTEA Garden

I was able to get together a mini meet with some comm members to try out the furthest away tea spot from me! I really did want to do a tea around new years to celebrate a bit with people and since Rotunda was very booked I had to switch to RoyalTEA Garden.

Tea Review: Jade Chocolates

Event Report: Ursa Major 2023

 This year Ursa Major turned into a whole con! With badges and everything😲 It was a really fun time overall! There were definitely some first-year-con hiccups but the issues I saw got resolved quickly. I of course am still a terrible documenter for pictures so pictures will be sparse but I'll show what I can!😅 I think I say this every time but I will endeavor to do better in the future!

Tea Review: The Tea Terrace

My spouse and I ended up on a quick weekend trip to Vegas! The last time I was here was by myself for a library conference in the middle of summer and it was definitely an overwhelming experience. I don't really know if I enjoy Vegas or not it has a lot of unique flair but very overwhelming to the senses on the strip. The tea place I was able to get reservations for was a bit off the strip though trying for a slightly more sedate experience. 

Tea Review: Chelokababi- Chelo Tea House

I learned that a new afternoon tea place opened up in Sunnyvale in September through Discord and very soon someone posted about waning to check it out so of course I had to snatch a spot and add it to the tea review list!