A Tea Trip around the World: Miro Tea, Seattle WA
- readingtheleaf
- May 29, 2017
- 2 min read
(Clockwise from top: Oriental Beauty Oolong, Black River Mountain Pu’er, Kabusecha, Mokalbari Assam)
Miro Tea, a cafe in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, may have become my new favorite tea stop. A minimalist space, Miro Tea is filled with loose leaf teas, various hot and cold tea beverages (yes they make matcha lattes!), and delicious sweets. I had a slice of the lemon lavender coffee cake along with my teas and it was just the right amount of sweet and sour. The delicate lavender was the perfect touch. There’s also a gorgeous smell in the shop when you first walk in. The fantastic tea menu with over 40 pages (150+ varieties) of tea to choose from is what contributes to that wonderful odor.
Miro Tea also offers tea tastings on Saturdays from 12-3pm with a very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable staff member. During the tasting I learned so much about Miro, the teas they offer, and got to taste a lot of them too. One of my favorites had to be the Bourbon Barrel Black tea. In addition to the tea tasting, I ordered 4 different cups of tea to try. I had a friend help me get through them, though I would have gladly had them all myself!
We started with the Oriental Beauty Oolong, also known as Dongfang Meiren, which hails from Taiwan and is a very-much oxidized oolong tea. What distinguished this tea for me from the rest that I tried was its smoothness. It goes down very nicely and has a rather subtle, near-citrus flavor.
The Black River Mountain Pu’er, a fermented tea and less-expensive pu’er, was my least favorite cup, but I still enjoyed it. It brews a near-black color and displays a very strong flavor, with nearly smoky notes. I noticed it left a bit of a chalky taste in my mouth.
The Kabusecha, a Japanese green tea, was my favorite cup. I overall love green teas, both Japanese and Chinese, and this Kabusecha did not disappoint! Kabusecha really needs temperate water when brewed, and my cup was perfectly steeped at the right temperature – the leaves weren’t burnt. Though not as marked as in a cup of Gyokuro, the umami flavor of this Kabusecha was quite strong. I personally loved it.
Finally, the Mokalbari Assam was a very strongly brewed cup of black tea, with a full, rich, woody flavor. I would have really enjoyed it as a chai with spices and milk, but it was delicious on its own as well.
Though I'm leaving Seattle shortly, I’m excited to come back to this tea shop at some point in the future to keep enjoying their impressive selection of teas, and, of course, to fulfill my continuous desire for calm spaces to get some reading done. Have you come across Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow? Miro Tea has a rewards program too – even more incentive to come back!
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