Chicago's Chinatown – Not a tea mecca.
I set out about two weeks ago to explore Chicago’s Chinatown — just off the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line stop. I hoped to find tiny tea-houses tucked away off the main streets, tea importers, tea shops — I hoped to find a mecca of tea right in my own city. However, I found none of this. Not even an inkling of hope. I left completely and utterly disappointed.
I began walking around, first North on Wentworth to China Square on Archer, there were many shops, Americanized restaurants, Chinese Herbs, bookstores, and a few stores selling cheap souvenirs. The only store slightly of interest was the Chinese Cultural Bookstore [2145B S. China Place] which had a small selection of Yixing pots (all above $100USD) and an instructional video called “Learn China’s Art of Enjoying Tea With Me” which I purchased and have not yet watched.
I then walked down Wentworth into the heart of Chinatown, going down each side-street a block or two just hoping to uncover a gem of a shop. But there was nothing to be found. I stopped by the well known Ten Ren tea shop on Wentworth. It is a classic Chinese tea shop, the walls lined with shelves of large tea tins. I had to wonder how long the tea had been sitting in the tins. They had one pu-erh cake priced at $20.00USD, and many tea-wares — few items to be found under $50.00USD.
Surprisingly the most “authentic” Chinese teahouse I’ve found in the Chicagoland area is in Evanston. It is called Dream About Tea [http://www.dreamabouttea.com/] if you get up there, make sure you check it out. Lastly, if anyone knows of any tea spots in Chicago’s Chinatown (perhaps I missed a few streets? maybe an entire section of Chinatown?) please enlighten me!
This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 10:38 am and is filed under Tea Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Tony Gebely
Tony is co-owner of Chicago Tea Garden and tweets as @WorldofTea. He has been a tea drinker for nearly ten years and has traveled to tea producing regions throughout Asia.
I found one little shop at the southern end of wentworth at a side street to the west there is a shop called asian tea I forget what street name but will post next time im in there. it is a vegetable shop with a very small corner devoted to tea. the actual tea is not very impresive at first since it is prepakaged but i was looking for a gaiwan and found a very good one at very resanable price ended up buying 2. but the reason i will go back is that the owner invited me to drink tea with him some lung jing dragon well green. wich he served in the gung fu tea style on a 650 year old tea table.the tea was very good and the hospitality. great selection of yixing pots at good prices. and some adged pu eur as well. i also very mch enjoy dream of tea as i visit Mr Daquan very often and recomend his sellection of taiwan oolongs tung ting favorite.
Yeppers, Dream About Tea is a special place to be sure! I am in there often, and always come away smiling!
My husband is from Chicago and we have tried looking for tea shops and they are few and far between. Chicago Chinatown is a big disappointment when it comes to tea considering the size of the city. The only place we even found was a Ten Ren and that wasn’t even that impressive.
Thanks for the heads up to the tea shop in Evanston, I have lived here for a while and had seen is a couple of times but never thought it looked to spectacular or anything. I am definitely going to check it out now.
Yeah its a great shop, very authentic. They have some aged pu-erh tea cakes in there too.. ask about them when you get in there!