Tokyo, Nairobi, Lima and Tel Aviv: a dozen countries join the tea shop map

Sixteen cities joined our tea shop pages this week, and twelve of them put a new country on the map: Indonesia, South Africa, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Kenya, Peru, Israel, Ukraine, Italy, Lithuania and Uzbekistan. Each page carries what the rest of the map carries: shops with a street address, the hours they publish, the price and pack size of the teas on their shelves in the local currency, and the counter we would send a friend to first. Forty-one of the new shops have a page of their own, with three picks from the shelf and one tea worth the trip. And Sydney, the oldest page in the queue, gained a second chain and ten more teas.

Japan arrives with four cities at once. In Tokyo, Ippodo, the Kyoto merchant founded in 1717, sells its sencha Nichigetsu at ¥1,296 for 80 g from its Minami-Aoyama shop and tea room; Uogashi Meicha, in business since 1931, has its deep-steamed house sencha at ¥918 for 80 g at Cha Ginza; Senchado Tokyo, two minutes from Ginza station, sells every single-origin sencha first as a ¥440 one-cup sachet; and Yamamotoyama has traded in Nihonbashi since 1690. Yokohama is Chinatown and its neighbours: Goku Chaso, there since 1981, keeps about 100 Chinese teas downstairs and a tea house upstairs, a Tieguanyin tin at ¥1,010 for 50 g, while Kawamotoya on Isezakicho, open since 1910, roasts its own hojicha at ¥918 for 70 g. Hamamatsu is four grower-merchants, among them Muramatsu Shoten, founded in 1939, whose Wakamidori deep-steamed sencha is ¥648 for 100 g, and Maruien, in the Sunayama Ginza arcade by the station since 1920. Ichinomiya has Fukujuen, a family shop since 1948 with a Mino Shirakawa sencha at ¥1,188 for 100 g, and Masumien, founded in 1961 and rebuilt in 2024 around a tea stand.

The rest of Asia follows. Hong Kong has LockCha's teahouse inside Hong Kong Park, a fragrant Tieguanyin at HK$140 for 75 g; Fook Ming Tong at the ifc Mall, trading since 1987; and Sun Sing Tea, a pu-erh house on the 32nd floor of Soundwill Plaza in Causeway Bay where a red-heart Tieguanyin starts at HK$70 for two taels. Taoyuan sells Alishan high-mountain oolong at NT$400 for a 150 g vacuum pack at Hefeng Tea in Zhongli, and the 1926 Daxi Old Tea Factory in the hills past Cihu. In Jakarta, Pantjoran Tea House in Glodok sells Jin Jun Mei at Rp 82,500 for 30 g, Lewis & Carroll blends in Kebayoran Baru, and East Java & Co prices its Java Breakfast at Rp 70,000 for 50 g from a counter in Kemang. Hanoi has Hien Minh Tea House beside the Temple of Literature, open since 2016, with an Ancient Black Tea at 115,000 ₫ for 25 g, and Tân Cương Xanh, nine shops of graded Thái Nguyên green from 34,560 ₫ for 100 g. Tashkent buys Chinese tea at REDDRAGON, two shops open from 10:00 to 23:00 every day with Assam at 125,000 so'm for 100 g, and at Siam, a boutique of some ninety teas in 50 g packs.

Nairobi has one tea house proper, Stir Me Tea, whose atelier in Kenafric Business Park on Baba Dogo Road has sold Mount Kenya leaf since 2017, Earl Grey at KSh450 for 100 g, and five everyday counters, from Zucchini's nine food markets to Chandarana Foodplus, where Ketepa Safari Pure is KSh190 for 250 g. Johannesburg has Nigiro Tea House at 38 6th Street in Parkhurst, the branch of a Cape Town importer that has served tea since 1999 and lists some 500 of them, English Breakfast at R240 for 100 g. Lima has Té Quiero Té on the second floor of Pasaje Los Pinos 114 in Miraflores, open since 2011, English Breakfast at S/32.40 for 50 g, and Quinta Esencia in the Caminos del Inca mall in Surco, an Assam Mangalam at S/29. Tel Aviv has the two Palais des Thés shops, on Dizengoff since 2010 and inside Sarona Market, English Breakfast at ₪49 for 100 g, and Wissotzky TLAB, where tea is kept in kegs and poured from beer taps and the house Earl Grey is ₪14 for 100 g.

Europe adds three. Lviv has TeaRoom at vul. Pisha 2 in the old town, where everything is sold from 10 g, a Tie Guan Yin Lilac Garden at ₴105 for 15 g, and the Epicentr hypermarkets with Ahmad English Breakfast at ₴112.80 for 100 g. Palermo has Camellia Tea House on Via San Lorenzo, more than 180 kinds on the shelves and single origins in 50 g bags, Ceylon Highgrown OP at €5.50 and Earl Grey at €5. Vilnius has Yugen Tea, a Japanese tea bar-studio in Užupis that names each tea after its farmer, Koshun sencha at €19 for 50 g, and Skonis ir kvapas, thirteen counters across the city with Ceylon OP from €1.25 for 50 g.

Sydney was this week's maintenance page. The Tea Centre's four Sydney shops are where they were, Bondi Junction the newest of them, opened in 2025, and its prices have not moved: English Breakfast is still A$ 9.45 for 50 g. Ten more teas from its list join the page: Irish Breakfast at A$ 9.95, Assam Dimakusi, Russian Caravan, Keemun OP, Makaibari Darjeeling, Jasmine Monkey King, organic Gunpowder, Hojicha, a Milky Oolong and a Gyokuro at A$ 42.45. The page also gains a second shop, T2 on Level 2 of Westfield Sydney at 188 Pitt Street, with a Brew Bar and its boxed cubes, English Breakfast at A$ 18 for 100 g. Three older shop pages were rechecked during the week: Tea and Whisk in Las Vegas now sells most teas from 2 oz, Tea Culture of the World in Mumbai moved its Darjeeling Second Flush from ₹648 to ₹658, and Chaayos counts more than thirty counters across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.

Every one of these shops now appears in the “Where to find it” box of the teas it stocks. Open sencha, pick Japan, and the box lists the shops there that carry it, with price and size: the exact tea first, close matches after, and tea houses with a counter ahead of online-only sellers. If you would rather start from the occasion than from the shop, teas by moment sorts the catalogue that way.

— The FindMeTea editorial team