F6 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST . SUNDAY,  AUGUST  26 ,  2018

BY ERIN E. WILLIAMS

Teatime in a coffee townIn Oregon, Portland has plenty of room for hot-beverage competition

If you goWHERE TO DRINKSteven Smith Teamaker

1626 NW Thurman St.;

110 SE Washington St.

971-254-3935

smithtea.com

The original Smith Tasting Room is located in Northwest Portland. The 13,000-square-foot Southeast Tasting Room also houses production and a tea lab. Both locations offer more than 50 teas, including seasonal and nitro choices on tap, as well as classes and workshops. Teas from $3.

The Tao of Tea

3430 SE Belmont St.;

239 NW Everett St.

503-736-0119

taooftea.com

The original teahouse — and Portland’s oldest — adjoins a retail store in Southeast Portland. The Tower of Cosmic Reflections teahouse is located in the Lan Su

Chinese Garden. (Customers must pay $10 for admission to the garden.) Menus feature more than 100 teas from $3.50.

Jasmine Pearl

724 NE 22nd Ave.

503-236-3539

thejasminepearl.com

The menu includes sparkling teas, tea lattes and brewed teas. The shop also carries a wide variety of tea merchandise and offers classes. Teas from $2.75.

Tea Chai Té

Three Portland locations

503-432-8747 (Sellwood location)

teachaite.com

The Sellwood location is a caboose featured in “Portlandia.” The menu includes more than 100 handcrafted teas, boba and kombucha on tap. Teas from $2.50.

Townshend’s Tea Company

Four Portland locations

503-445-6699 (Alberta Street

location)

townshendstea.com

A Portland-based chain (with additional locations in Oregon, Montana and Utah) featuring dozens of teas and kombucha on

tap, as well as classes. Teas from $2.50.

INFORMATIONtravelportland.com

E.W.

“I t sounds weird — and itsounds  weird  — but ifyou slurp it, you’ll getbetter flavor,” the server

said as he arranged a flight of fourteas before me. I glanced aroundthe busy tasting room of StevenSmith Teamaker. Everyone elsewas delicately sipping their brews,so I slurped surreptitiously.

I was in Oregon, at the end of awhistle-stop tour of some of Port-land’s best-known teahouses. Al-though Stumptown seems to re-volve around coffee, it is also a cityof tea — from quiet cafes to largerretail operations. Its local busi-nesses have cast a leafy influenceon American tea culture, usheringin a new era of specialized quaff-ing. My informal tally counts roughly two dozen teahouses, plusseveral tea supply shops andbreweries.

The city even celebrates its teacommunity with Tea Fest PDX,which was held this year on July21. The day-long festival bringstogether enthusiasts and vendorsfor workshops, classes, musicalperformances, yoga and more.

On a stereotypically drizzlyPortland morning, I dodged thedrops to reach the Tao of Tea, atwo-story teahouse in downtown’sLan Su Chinese Garden. The com-pany has two local teahouses, aretail store and a microbrewerythat bottles teas for national dis-tribution. One of the first U.S. teacompanies to join the fair trademovement, it also takes pride inusing organic teas and traditionaltea-making methods.

The teahouse was serene, withonly a few other customers. I chose a table near windows over-looking the garden’s courtyardand lake. In front of me, a serverdemonstrated a traditional gong-fu tea ceremony. I had selected afermented pu-erh (or Pu’er) vari-ety — named for the city in China— which she had recommended asbeing “particularly forgiving,” anod to my beginner status.

“How many years do you thinkhave people been drinking tea?”she asked. I guessed 2,000, butwas off by millennia. “Five thou-sand,” she said.

She arranged a few accoutre-ments — teapot, tiny cups andbamboo tools — on a tray whileexplaining the process. Afterflash-steeping the tea to removetannins, she placed some leaves inmy teacup to steep. Then I was onmy own.

Although my hands lacked hersteadiness, three minutes later Iwas sipping the strong, earthypu-erh and nibbling my accompa-nying snacks: spicy steamed tofuand candied mango slices toppedwith coconut flakes and goji ber-ries. I poured cup after steamingcup while watching passersby en-joy the rainy garden.

Jasmine Pearl’s airy flagshipteahouse sits across the Wil-lamette River in Portland’s North-east neighborhood. The companysupplies teas, including 50-plusorganic varieties, to more than500 retailers nationwide. The tea-house’s long stone counter andattractive tables arrayed with teamerchandise awaited the half-dozen or so customers browsingduring my visit.

Dozens of loose-leaf teas areavailable for easy sniffing, and itsmenu includes tea lattes and spar-kling teas. A sign lists classes andevents, such as an introduction totea-leaf reading and a demonstra-tion of a Japanese tea ceremony.

I was jittery from the pu-erh, soI chose a non-caffeinated Earl Grey rooibos, the citrusy berga-mot tempered with steamed al-mond milk. I also bought a vegancaramel brownie — to go.

Further south, customers enterthe Sellwood location of Tea ChaiTé through a deceptively diminu-tive train caboose, which opens upinto a lofty, spacious teahouse.The caboose, dating to 1920, might look familiar to “Portland-

ia” watchers; the series featured itin its second through fourth sea-sons. In keeping with its hipstercred, Tea Chai Té offers kombuchaon tap. Mason jar chandeliers,mismatched rustic wood tablesand a cozy outdoor seating areareinforce the aesthetic.

I was overwhelmed by themenu’s 120 scratch-made teablends, including fair trade andorganic (75) options, so the wom-an behind the counter recom-mended a light-tasting whitepeach tea. I settled into a tablenext to a miniature library, sippedmy drink and tucked a similarlypeachy kombucha bottle into mybag for later.

The next morning, I was readyfor two final heavy hitters. Firstup: the light-filled flagship loca-tion of Townshend’s Tea Companyon gallery-lined Alberta Street.Local photographers’ art hung onthe walls, and the menu offered astunning variety of tea: white,green, black, oolong, pu-erh, chai,rooibos, yerba mate and herbal. Iordered a mammoth teapot ofminty organic Highland Chai, sweet with coconut milk. I alsorefilled my 32-ounce mini-growl-er with an oaky kombucha fromthe tap — Townshend’s distributesits organic, raw (and wind-pow-ered) bottled kombucha through-out the United States and Canada— and purchased three ounces ofvanilla rooibos loose-leaf forhome.

A cluster of tables, a comfort-able couch and an outdoor gardenaccommodate an equal mix of out-of-towners and regulars who havemade Townshend’s their work-space. Many customers comefrom nearby Concordia Univer-sity.

“Our bubble tea is a big hit withstudents,” the barista explained.Townshend’s was tweaking itsbubble tea ingredients to makethem healthier, he added, and in-vited me to a tasting at the Mon-tavilla location.

“Especially here in Portland,people care about what they eat.We want them to have options,” hesaid.

Near the river, Steven SmithTeamaker’s sprawling SoutheastTasting Room is housed in a13,000-square-foot warehousespace in the Central Eastsideneighborhood. High ceilings, ce-ment floors and glass garagedoors frame the communal wood-en tables and provide an indus-trial ambiance that reflects theneighborhood.

The server brought me a flightof four teas, arranged from greento black to herbal — and made thatslurping recommendation. Isniffed the dry leaves and read theinformational cards that accom-panied each variety. The flightrepresented a fraction of themenu’s 50-plus varieties from In-dia, Africa, China, Sri Lanka andother locales.

Behind the counter, anotherroom houses production, blend-ing and packing. A recipe-testinglab also adjoins the tearoom. Dur-ing my visit, several executiveswere sampling new summer teason tap.

Steven Smith was a Portlandnative who co-founded two of tea’sbiggest names, Stash and Tazo. In2009, Smith and his wife, KimDeMent, launched Steven SmithTeamaker in Northwest Portland.

Smith died in 2015, but hisentrepreneurship and palatehelped usher in a new era of spe-cialty tea appreciation in the Unit-ed States. That influence is justone of the ways that Portland’s teaculture continues to reinvigorateand transform the way that weexperience brews from pu-erh tokombucha — in Stumptown andbeyond.

travel@washpost.com

Williams is a writer based in Nevada. Her website is erinewilliams.com.

PHOTOS BY ERIN E. WILLIAMS

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: In Portland, Ore., the two-story Tao of Tea can be found downtown in the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Jasmine Pearl’s flagship teahouse, across the Willamette River in Portland’s Northeast neighborhood, has more than 50 organic varieties. At Steven Smith Teamaker’s sprawling Southeast Tasting Room in the Central Eastside neighborhood, visitors who sit at the coffee bar get a peek into its tea-production facility and lab. Each cup in a flight of tea there comes with an explanatory card.

Among the accoutrements — teapot, tiny cups and bamboo tools — a server begins the gong fu ceremony at Tao of Tea.

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