Theehandlung Schönbichler

The Theehandlung Schönbichler is at Wollzeile 4, in the first district, a short walk from Stephansplatz towards the Stubentor. It opens Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 18:30 and Saturday until 17:00, and is closed on Sundays. The web shop carries the same list as the counter, with every price shown including VAT: black teas from Assam, Ceylon and Darjeeling, Chinese and Japanese greens, oolongs, white teas, rooibos, fruit and herbal blends, a separate section for the Kräuterpfarrer Benedikt herbal line, and then coffee, English marmalades and a house orange punch for the winter months.

What makes the shop Viennese is the blend list: Burgtheater-Mischung and Sacher-Mischung sit in the Earl Grey section, the Akademietheater-Mischung among the herbal teas, and Lady Hamilton and Roter Weinbergpfirsich among the flavoured blacks. The single-origin side is just as long: Assam FOP and a Galeriemischung, a Rangeet Valley first flush and a Feinst second flush from Darjeeling, Gunpowder Temple of Heaven, Lung Ching, Sencha Makato, Milky Oolong, Tie Kuan Yin, a Formosa Silver Blossom oolong, a China Yin Zhen and a white tea from Nepal.

Most teas come in 100 g and 250 g packs, the premium greens, oolongs and whites also in 50 g, and the herb shelf is sold by the single plant in the Monokräuter section: melissa, rosemary, hops, mallow, plantain, orange blossom, marigold, anise, birch leaf and more. It is the kind of list a household used to buy from once a month, and the shop still works that way: a Haushaltsmischung Assam in a 500 g bag sits beside the 100 g packs, and the shop's own tins, including a Jubiläumsdose, are sold for keeping the leaf at home.