Tea shops · United States
Tea shops · United StatesOur favorite tea shops in Seattle
5 places we'd send a friend to.
Seattle splits its loose leaf between two parts of town. Pike Place Market holds two long-running counters that sell by the ounce and by the pound; Ballard holds two very different shops ten minutes apart; and a fifth, in the Chinatown-International District, sells Taiwanese high-mountain oolong by the canister. The spread is wide enough that one ounce of a house breakfast blend costs $5 and a pound of gunpowder costs $45.
01
Floating Leaves Tea
Ballard (NW Market St) · 1704 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107
In storeShips onlineHours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm· 8 pricesA Taiwanese-tea specialist at 1704 NW Market St in Ballard, where the lots are bought in small batches straight from growers and roasted in house. The catalogue is organised by roast level and sold in 25 and 75 g portions, so a high-mountain oolong costs less than lunch: Fragrant Dong Ding 2026 Spring is $8.50 the 25 g and Midnight Loose Shou Puer $12.50. Ruby 18, the Taiwanese black, is $12 the 25 g, Keemun Black $11 the 60 g, Jasmine Pearls $20, a Special Grade Oriental Beauty $20 the 25 g and a 30 g tin of Charaku premium matcha $27.95. Weekend classes run at a separate Woodland Park studio.
02
The Perennial Tea Room
Pike Place Market (Post Alley) · 1910 Post Alley, Seattle, WA
In storeShips onlineHours: Every day, 9:30am to 5pm· 6 pricesOpen since 1990 at 1910 Post Alley, a few steps off the Pike Place Market floor, and the easiest place in the city to buy one ounce of many things at once: the whole wall goes from 1 oz up to 16 oz. English Breakfast Blend, Genmaicha and Chamomile are $5 the ounce, Wenshan Baozhong $7.50, Qimen (Keemun) Hao Ya A $8.75 and White Peony $11.50. Single-estate Darjeelings from Makaibari and Margaret's Hope sit next to a house Seattle Chai and the deepest British teabag shelf in town.
03
Miro Tea
Ballard (Ballard Ave NW) · 5405 Ballard Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
In storeShips onlineHours: Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm; Sunday 8am to 6pm· 6 pricesA café at 5405 Ballard Ave NW that has been the retail front for its own range since 2007, and the widest single catalogue on this page: Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Indian leaf plus herbals, mate and teaware, all in 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 oz steps. Gunpowder is $11 the 2 oz, Rooibos Organic $13, Big Red Robe $15 the ounce, Mokalbari Assam $16 the 2 oz, Snow Mountain Buds $19 and organic ceremonial matcha $28 the ounce. The Wuyi rock oolong shelf — Big Red Robe, Rou Gui, Shui Jin Gui — is the reason to make the trip.
04
Seattle Best Tea
Chinatown-International District (also University District) · 506 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104
In storeShips onlineHours: Winter 10:30am to 8pm; summer 10am to 10pm, every day· 4 pricesA family shop at 506 S King St by the Historic Chinatown Gate, founded in 1996 and organised by roast: light oolongs for Ali Shan, Li Shan and Jin Hsuan, heavy for Dong Ding, plus aged pu-erh going back decades. Sizes are full canisters or the pound rather than samples, so it is where to go for a tin you will actually finish: a 5.3 oz canister of Ali Shan is $65 and of Jin Hsuan $45, a pound of gunpowder $45 and a pound of organic jasmine $41. Free tastings at the counter are part of the visit, and there is a second branch in the University District.
05
MarketSpice
Pike Place Market · 85 Pike St, Seattle, WA 98101
In storeShips onlineHours: Every day, 9:30am to 5pm· 6 pricesThe Pike Place Market fixture at 85 Pike St, built around its own cinnamon-orange blend, which it sells as loose leaf, as teabags and as a whole rooibos line. The bulk range runs from 4 oz to the pound and keeps classics the newer shops skip: Earl Grey is $5.88 the 4 oz, Pure African Redbush $7.24, Lapsang Souchong $9.75, White Peony $9.94 the 2 oz, Choice Oolong $12.69 and Japanese Sencha $16.63 the 4 oz. There are 3.5 oz ribbon packs for gifts; mail orders ship from a Redmond warehouse and pickup is at the Market.
Also worth a visit
- Panama Hotel Tea & Coffee House · Chinatown-International District · 607 S Main St, Seattle, WA 98104No online prices yet
A tea house inside a 1910 hotel that is a National Historic Landmark, worth the stop for the room itself. It has no online catalogue, so we have no prices to quote here.
- Friday Afternoon · Wallingford · 4228 Stone Way N, Seattle, WA 98103No online prices yet
A Wallingford café and retail store that blends its own teas and sells everything in 1 to 8 oz or as pyramid bags. We found it after this page was written and will price it on the next pass. · Website: fridaytea.com
Teas you can find in Seattle
Every tea below has an exact or close match at one of these shops. Open a tea to see who sells it and at what price.
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