I visited my daughter in Colorado this past week and took the opportunity to find a couple of tea places in the Boulder area: Ku Cha on Pearl Street and Dushanbe Tea House on 13th . They were very different tea places (which most of us are) each offering their own unique experience. If you go to the Denver/Boulder area, make a point to visit both!
Ku Cha is right on the Pearl Street Mall—a primary tourist shopping area of Boulder. It is a large store with wonderful tea and tea ware and I needed a small gaiwan to steep a special tea I had purchased the day before. I not only found a nice gaiwan, but had a large selection to choose from—some really beautiful, full tea sets. I admired the way the teas were displayed and the selection was quite extensive. This is one of the only stores I’ve been in that had authentic, good quality Japanese tea ware in addition to Chinese and traditional western tools. They even had a “blend your own” tea area where customers could work by themselves to put together their own custom blends.
Dushanbe Tea House is a restaurant offering tea, wine, coffee and food. The building is incredible—an authentic Turkish Tea House that was brought into the U.S. piece by piece and reassembled here. Needless to say, it’s gorgeous. I was there in the morning and sat at the bar to have a pot of 2nd Flush Darjeeling. While there I chatted with staff and found a few fun teas to take home. They also have an extensive selection of good quality tea–making it hard to choose, but I forced myself to choose the Honey Orchid Black tea and a White Peach tea.
While in Boulder, I proudly wore my “Pot Head” tee-shirt (or is that tea-shirt?) and received many compliments. I even think the admirers understood the reference to a tea pot! People are so very outgoing and friendly in the Denver/Boulder area and I’m looking forward to going back and trying more tea!
