Tea shops · Halifax, Canada
Tea shops · Halifax, CanadaWorld Tea House
A sit-down tea house on Argyle Street, across from the Neptune Theatre since July 2010, with about a hundred loose teas, most of them organic.
Come for a pot at a table, leave with the bag of the tea you just drank: the way a tea house should sell its tea.
World Tea House opened in July 2010 on Argyle Street, in Halifax's entertainment district and directly across from the Neptune Theatre. It is the project of Philip Holmans, who came to tea from small-business management and accounting and built the shop around organic loose tea. The room is made for staying: tables, world music and a menu of pots, tea lattes, tea hot chocolates and tea ciders that changes weekly. It opens Tuesday to Saturday from eleven to eight, Sunday from noon to five, and closes on Mondays and most holidays.
The shop sets out its buying rules on its own site: it buys direct from small farms wherever it can, joins wage programmes where it cannot, and favours certified organic tea, which accounts for a great many of the hundred or so teas on the list. The range runs from Earl Grey and Masala Chai by the 100 g to Chinese greens and oolongs such as Dragonwell, Iron Goddess of Mercy and a Milk Oolong, and a Silver Needle white tea in the 50 g bag.
The tea house is also a classroom. Its two-hour classes taste the five tea types and explain how each is made and where it comes from, for groups of six or more, and gongfu tea sessions can be booked. On Friday afternoons a reader offers tea-leaf readings with a tea purchase. For a first visit, order a pot of a tea you have never tried, then buy the bag at the counter on the way out.
- prices
- 6
- tea types
- 5
- from
- CA$ 17
- shops
- 1
Where it is
Argyle Street (downtown)
1592 Argyle Street, Halifax, NS B3J 2B3
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11:00–20:00 · Sunday 12:00–17:00
What to buy here
Tieguanyin
Iron Goddess of Mercy - Ti Kuan Yin - Green
CA$ 20 · 100 g
Iron Goddess of Mercy, the green-style Ti Kuan Yin: floral and light, and good for several steepings from one spoonful.
See our page on this tea →Long Jing (Dragon Well)
Dragonwell (Lung Ching)
CA$ 20 · 50 g
Dragonwell, the flat pan-fired Lung Ching from Zhejiang, nutty and clean; the Chinese green to start with.
See our page on this tea →Masala Chai
Masala Chai
CA$ 17 · 100 g
Masala Chai, one of Philip Holmans's own favourites on the list, black tea and spices to simmer with milk.
See our page on this tea →
The one worth the trip
Silver Needle - Yin Zhen
CA$ 30 · 50 g
Silver Needle, the white tea made only from unopened buds covered in fine down, pale and delicate in the cup. Order a pot at the table first, because the buds are worth seeing standing up in the water, and then take home the 50 g bag.
See our page on this tea →All prices
Open a tea to see who else sells it.
| Tea | Type | Price | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earl Grey | Black tea | CA$ 17 | 100 g |
| Masala Chai | Chai | CA$ 17 | 100 g |
| Dragonwell (Lung Ching) | Green tea | CA$ 20 | 50 g |
| Iron Goddess of Mercy - Ti Kuan Yin - Green | Oolong tea | CA$ 20 | 100 g |
| Milk Oolong | Oolong tea | CA$ 20 | 50 g |
| Silver Needle - Yin Zhen | White tea | CA$ 30 | 50 g |
Teas you can find here
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