Sencha Tea Co.

Sencha Tea Co. began in 2010 with a Costa Rican couple who trained as tea sommeliers at the Escuela Argentina de Té before opening their first shop and tea salon at Momentum Pinares in 2011. In 2020 the house added the Tea Bar format: counters that pour prepared drinks made from its gourmet teas, bubble teas included, while keeping loose leaf and accessories on the shelf. The Heredia branch is one of nine around the country and the only one in the province, inside Oxígeno Human Playground in San Francisco de Heredia, open until nine from Monday to Saturday and until eight on Sundays.

The range is organised by type: white, green, oolong, black and pu-erh, an artisan line, sachets, fruit and herbal infusions, yerba mate blends, rooibos and matcha. Most teas come in 30 g, 50 g and 100 g bags and in boxes of 25 sachets; the Master Collection — Milky Oolong, an Osmanthus Oolong from Thailand, Huang Ya Yellow Tips and a Special Golden Black — starts at 50 g. Every price is printed before the 13 % IVA, which is added at checkout: a 50 g bag of English Breakfast or Assam Orgánico sits in the ₡5,000s, and the Master Collection oolongs at a little over ₡10,000.

For anyone outside Heredia the shop ships nationwide: next business day inside its own delivery area, two to three business days through Correos de Costa Rica elsewhere, with the shipping cost shown at checkout. The Oxígeno counter is also the place to taste before buying, because the tea bar pours the same catalogue hot, iced and as lattes: a Formosa Oolong or a Moroccan Mint can be tried by the cup, and the bag goes home afterwards with the tin, the infuser or the matcha whisk from the accessories shelf.