Palais des Thés Oslo

Palais des Thés runs three shops in Norway and two of them are in Oslo. The Majorstuen shop at Bogstadveien 31 takes click-and-collect orders from the web shop and opens ten to six, Monday to Saturday; the downtown shop at Grensen 10, with its entrance on Øvre Slottsgate, opens eleven to six on weekdays and until five on Saturdays. The third is in Sandvika Storsenter, west of the city. All three sell the same catalogue as the Norwegian web shop, which prices in kroner and ships within the country.

The range splits in two. The organic everyday teas come in 100 g bags, with a tin or a box of 20 muslin bags as alternatives: a Ceylon Breakfast, a Golden Assam, a Darjeeling Mist Bari, a Xiao Lapsang, a Yunnan Da Ye, a Dila from Georgia, an Anxi Tie Guan Yin, a jade oolong, a Bao Zhong grown in Mae Salong in Thailand, a chamomile from the herbalist line, a roasted-barley mugicha and the N°25 blends. Above them sits the Grand Cru shelf: single-garden lots such as Long Jing Premium, Yin Zhen Silver Needles, jasmine pearls, a Huo Shan Huang Ya yellow tea, a Liu Bao dark tea and a run of Japanese greens named for the farmer who grew them.

The house also runs tea courses, evenings at 500 kr on Chinese teas, Japanese teas, matcha and an introduction given in English, and sells the equipment around them: cast-iron teapots, glass teapots, washi tea tins, matcha bowls and whisks and the electric whisk for lattes. Matcha itself comes in a 30 g tin or a 90 g bag in two grades, Ichi and Kokoro, with flavoured versions and a starter duo. For a first visit the Grensen shop is the easier one to reach on foot from the centre; Bogstadveien is the one with pickup.