Teehaus Winterthur

Susanne Amsler opened the Teehaus in 1994 at the Holderplatz, and in 2009 growing demand moved it to a larger space at Steinberggasse 61, inside the Bauhof — a building with seven and a half centuries behind it. She still owns the shop and works the floor with a small sales team. The street is in Winterthur's Altstadt and closed to traffic: from the station you follow the Untertor to Kasinostrasse, turn towards Neumarkt, and the shop is about seventy metres into Steinberggasse.

Tea is sold mostly by the 100 g, with 50 g for a few and herbs from 30 g. The everyday end holds a Gunpowder, the cheapest thing on the list, and a tarry Lapsang Souchong; above them sit a Lung Ching Grade 1, a Keemun Mao Feng and a Yunnan Jinzhen. Japan is represented by a Kirishima matcha and a Kirishima hojicha, Taiwan and Fujian by a milky oolong, an Anxi Tie Guanyin and a GABA. There are herbs, a masala chai and green mate too.

More than seventy-five per cent of what the shop sells is organically grown: the business itself is certified CH-BIO-006 and re-inspected every year by bio-inspecta. Rather than keep a large store room it orders small quantities from its suppliers, and the finest lots are vacuum-packed. Beyond the leaf there is teaware and accessories, tea biscuits and green-tea chocolate, vouchers and the Teehaus advent calendar, plus an online shop. It closes on Mondays; if you drive, the Technikum car park is two minutes away.