Pittador Brews Coffee & Teahouse

Pittador Brews tells its own story on its site: a holiday visit to a San Diego coffee house with cold brew on nitro taps, a search for the same thing in Sacramento that came up empty, and home roasting in a popcorn popper during the pandemic that grew into a small roaster and a mailing list of former customers. Two former employers from the tea trade suggested adding tea and backed the plan, so the company launched as an online brand selling both. The storefront is at 1005 2nd Street in Old Sacramento, with a mailing address in Rio Linda; the site does not publish the shop's opening hours.

The tea list has about twenty loose teas, each sold through a size dropdown from 2 oz to 32 oz, with 1 oz for the powders and the dearest leaf. The greens are the core: Lucky Dragon Hyson at US$ 7.25 the 2 oz, Green Menthos at US$ 6, Hojicha at US$ 10.25 and the Leafy Green from Colombia at US$ 12.50, with an Everyday Matcha at US$ 8.25 the ounce and a Hojicha Matcha at US$ 13. The one oolong is a Quanzhou Milk Oolong at US$ 13.50 the ounce; a White Rose Mint stands in for the whites at US$ 10.75 the 2 oz, and the herbals include Zesty Tulsi at US$ 8.50 and a Spiced Mullein at US$ 11.25.

This is a coffee house first, and the tea shelf is shorter and more flavoured than the two dedicated shops across town, so it is not the place for a Darjeeling estate or a Chinese white. What it does have is a green tea grown in Colombia, which no other Sacramento counter sells, two matchas priced by the ounce, and a seasonal drinks menu that in summer moves to a stand at the California State Fair. The web shop ships the same bags, and loyalty and subscription plans are run through the site.