New Century Tea Gallery

My good friend Jason V. turned me on to the New Century Tea Gallery almost four years ago. New Century is a traditional Chinese tea shop located on Maynard Street in Seattle's International District (often called "the I.D."). The shop is run by a husband and wife team, Dafe (pronounced Daw-Fay) and Grace. They travel to China a few times each year and import many incredible teas. I recommend their shop to any connoisseurs of Tie Guanyin oolong, Puer tea and/or Wuyi Mountain Cliff tea. They also stock a great selection of teaware. I recently sent my buddy Michael A. down to this shop where he found an excellent yixing clay pot for brewing his high mountain oolongs. Grace and Dafe also sell beautiful Chinese art and furniture. If I had two thousand dollars lying around, I would definitely buy one of those big tea tables made from a single piece of finished wood (even though I don't have any room for one in my little house).

Thanks for reading my endorsement! Here are a couple of photos I took this morning while tasting a 16 year old loose leaf black puer expertly prepared by Dafe. Delicious.