Čaj Chai Teahouse

Čaj Chai opened in 2004 at Carrer de Salomó ben Adret 12, in El Call, the medieval Jewish quarter inside the Barri Gòtic, and calls itself Barcelona's first specialty teahouse. It is run by a Czech importer who buys directly from producers and gives every lot a number. The name pairs čaj, the Czech word, with its international echo; the model is the Central European čajovna, a room built around the ritual of tea rather than a café with tea on the menu.

The house lists over 140 teas and sizes each portion to what the tea is. Six grams buys Wuyi Ban Tian Yao; ten grams, a Baozhong aged since the nineties; fifteen, Enshi Yu Lu; twenty, Duyun Mao Jian; twenty-five, GABA Ruby Red Oolong, a 2016 charcoal-roasted Dong Ding, a 2021 sheng or a 2002 Liu Bao. Fifty grams is the Japanese and Korean size, for Ureshino tamaryokucha, Gyokuro Jade Dew, Saemidori sencha and Korean sejak. The everyday teas, organic Assam, bancha and lapsang, come in 100 g.

There is a counter for gong fu cha, the high-leaf, short-infusion method the house has practised for two decades, plus guided ceremonies, seasonal tastings and workshops on brewing, tea history, sensory evaluation, pu-erh and Japanese greens. A quarterly Tea Club ships in January, April, July and October in two tiers, with live virtual tastings, and reaches the rest of Europe. Opening hours are not posted on the website, which points visitors to its Google profile, so check before walking over.