Danfe Tea

Danfe Tea sells from a stall inside The Shed at the Dallas Farmers Market, 920 S Harwood St, open both weekend days all year round. The name comes from the danfe, the national bird of Nepal, which the shop describes soaring between 9,000 and 15,000 feet across the Himalayas. Everything on the table comes from that one country, and the shop is explicit about why: Nepali leaf is often bought in bulk and re-exported under a Darjeeling label, and Danfe puts it on the counter under its own name.

Every tea is numbered, which is how you keep track of what you have already tried. 01 Ilam is the single-origin black, a 3 oz bag at $15 and the least expensive thing on the list; 02 Yak Mountain masala chai comes loose in the same size at $18. Green is 22 Nepal Jasmine, oolong is 27 Himalayas Best, and 33 Silver Tips, a bud-picked white, sits at the top at $32 for 1.5 oz. A USDA-organic Mt. Pumori line runs alongside the single-estate Ilam leaf.

The stall runs on smelling and tasting before buying, and it carries blends that are not sold anywhere else. Hours are the market's: Saturday 9 to 5 and Sunday 10 to 5, every weekend of the year, so like the other stall in The Shed it cannot be visited midweek. The same teas ship from the website, there is a wholesale line for cafés and restaurants, and the shop runs a beginners' guide of its own, the Danfe Tea Academy, for anyone whose first Nepali black was bought at the counter.