Het Kleinste Huis.

The shop takes its name from the building: Het Kleinste Huis calls Oude Hoogstraat 22 the smallest house in Amsterdam, and its own history page traces the plot back to the 1730s. It stands right beside the gate of the Walloon Church and the East India House, built for the VOC in 1606. The house began as a single-storey workshop, and a print from 1787 is the first to show its three floors and bell gable. Since then it has held a cigar shop, a jeweller, an art shop and a flower shop.

The tea shop opened on 15 June 2014, after the house had spent twelve years as a home. Kirsten and Niels, a married couple, run it as a family business on a floor of nine square metres, and the list has grown to more than two hundred teas. The front is only 2.02 metres wide, and the shop itself warns that it is easy to walk past. Leaf is weighed to the amount you ask for, many regulars bring their own tins, and the shop says none of its teas carry artificial flavourings.

Most teas come in 50, 100 and 250 g or in a tin. The range covers Golden Monkey from Yunnan, a green Tie Kuan Yin, a Pai Mu Tan Superior, a tamaryokucha from Miyazaki, a Kagoshima matcha, a shu pu-erh sold by 100 g and a super grade rooibos. Around the tea sit teaware and accessories, plus chocolate, honey, nougat, fudge and liqueur. The shop runs tastings, including private masterclass and matcha sessions. Online orders can be collected at the counter, and the door is too narrow for most wheelchairs.