Yuen Tea (園地茶人)

Yuen Tea sits in Shop 95 on the upper ground floor of China Hong Kong City, the tower complex in Tsim Sha Tsui, by exit E of Austin station. Two floors up, in Shop 215, the house keeps a teaching tea room. Across the harbour it runs a counter in the Freshmart food hall, in the basement of Sogo in Causeway Bay. The shop opens from half past ten to eight; the Sogo counter follows the department store, from ten to ten.

The heart of the list is Chaozhou and Wuyi. Phoenix Dan Cong is sorted by the village it was picked in, and the rock teas by the crag, from Niulankeng to Jiulongke and Liuxiangjian. Around that core the shelf widens: an unsmoked Lapsang Souchong in 80 g, an old-tree Dianhong, Taiping Houkui and a hand-fired Dongting Bi Luo Chun in 50 g. Then come Fuzhou jasmine, white and yellow teas, and aged Liu Bao and pu-erh. From Taiwan come a medium-roast Lugu Dong Ding, an Oriental Beauty and GABA oolong in tea bags.

The teaching room is not decoration. The house runs certified tea-artist and tea-taster courses, and classes in Chaozhou gongfu. That is the small-pot, many-infusion way of brewing its own dan cong list is built for. Online, many lines come as buy-three-get-one bundles beside the single tin. If you are in Kowloon with an hour to spare, the shop is the stop; if you are on the island side, the Sogo counter is the closer door.