The Tao of Tea

The Tao of Tea began on SE Belmont Street in 1997, and the company still calls the Belmont teahouse Portland's oldest and the place where it all started. Its founder, Veerinder S. Chawla, worked for an international management consulting firm and dreamt of a life in tea while travelling in the Himalayas; the idea dates to 1996. The teahouse at number 3430 was built with natural and sustainable materials, bamboo, reclaimed wood and raw stone, and it opens Wednesday to Sunday from 11 to 6.

Next door, at 3432, the Leaf Room is the retail store, open every day from 11 to 7, with more than 200 teas, herbs and spices sold in bulk by the ounce or in the house tins, whose weight is printed on every product page. The tins on this list run from an English Breakfast at 11 US$ the 3.5 oz and a Golden Tips Assam at 13,50 US$ to a Dragonwell at 14 US$ the 3 oz and Jasmine Pearls at 24 US$; a Da Hong Pao comes in a 2 oz pack at 10 US$, and a ceremonial matcha in a 1 oz size at 32 US$.

The catalogue is organised by origin as much as by type, China, India, Japan, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam, with shelves for Ayurvedic blends, tulsi, yerba mate and tea bricks and cakes, and the site keeps a page for the tea houses it has closed over the years. Orders over 80 US$ ship free; smaller ones pay 9,99 US$, and the shop asks for seven to ten business days to process them, so the Leaf Room is the faster route.