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Alison Stewart: We'll continue our conversation about tea, with some suggestions on where to find green, black, white, or Puerh tea across the five boroughs. Our next guest, Caroline Shin, compiled a list of tea shops in New York City for Eater, titled 14 Places to Try Tea in NYC, including a spot inside a mall in Downtown Flushing in Queens, a Taiwanese tea parlor in the West Village, and a husband and wife team shop in Bed-Stuy.

Caroline Shin joins us. She's a freelance food, culture journalist, and founder of Cooking with Granny, a web series and workshops, with diverse immigrant grandmas. Love hearing about that. Caroline, thanks for being with us.

Caroline Shin: Oh, thank you. It's my pleasure.

Alison Stewart: We'd love to hear some of your suggestions. If you're a tea drinker, what's your favorite tea? Do you like green, chamomile, Matcha, or maybe you're more a fan of chai? Where do you go to get your tea in NYC? 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can call in and join us on air. You can text to us as well, or hit us up on social media @AllOfItWNYC.

What do you look for when you're looking at a tea shop? When you were putting together this list, what were your criteria? Was it atmosphere? Was it tea? What was going on?

Caroline Shin: Okay. I definitely went through a lot of different guidelines in my head, and I came up with-- it took a while for me to come up with the methodology around this map, because I wanted to make sure that it was comparing apples to apples and not say apples to oranges. I wanted to focus really on those places where they had a singular focus on tea. That kind of took out a lot of the Hong Kong-style cafes that have great teas or the British afternoon tea places, or the dimsum spots. I really wanted to focus on the places where they have superior attention to tea, and food is more used as a pairing or an afterthought to the splendid teas that they have.

Alison Stewart: Let's start in Flushing, Queens. Cuppa Tea is a small casual corner shop inside of a mall. What kind of tea does Cuppa Tea specialize in?

Caroline Shin: That is actually one of my favorite teas. It's a Hong Kong-style milk tea. It's a milk tea, but its very strong. It's one of those adrenaline shot to the body kind of tea, which is why I love tea. Actually, it's my substitute for coffee. They make it very strong, but what I love about what they do is that you can adjust the sugar level. I like mine super low on the sugar, and then you compare that with, they have a pineapple bun that sells out all the time. They go really well together. What I love about this place also is that you can get it to go. You don't need to sit there. You can if you would like, but you can always just get it to go. It's not one of your meditative settings.

Alison Stewart: Now this may sound like a really obvious question, but I want to ask it for people who might be thinking this at home. When we're talking about milk tea, what are we talking about? You noted in your piece that their milk tea at Cuppa Tea is quite strong.

Caroline Shin: Milk tea spans different, spans various cultures. There's Hong Kong-style milk tea, where each Hong Kong-style café will have their own proprietary blend. They'll have black tea leaves and then maybe a different varietal of black tea leaves, and then maybe different spices they'll add to it. Then, of course, they'll have like condensed milk, and then maybe evaporated milk.

That's kind of your Hong Kong-style milk tea, but you'll also have chai that's also a milk tea, and then whether it's like an Indian chai or a Bengali cha that would incorporate all different, again, each shop would have its own proprietary blend of spices and tea leaves, and then always with some sort of milk, whether like I was saying, condensed milk, evaporated milk, whole milk.

Sometimes in the more modern places, you can have your soy milk, or your, I don't know, your macadamia milk or something, so that's a milk tea.

Alison Stewart: Someone has texted us a place that is on your list. I wanted to give a shout out to Brooklyn Tea. They're an incredible tea shop in Brooklyn. I have many options from great resources. Tell us a little bit about how Brooklyn Tea sources gets tea. What makes this shop unique?

Caroline Shin: What I love about Brooklyn Tea is that they have probably one of the most robust rooibos offerings and among the tea shops that are on this list. I heard you talking about rooibos earlier. It's caffeinated like a red bush tea from South Africa, and they have what it's like really interesting because they have an unoxidized one. Then they also have an oxidized one. If you think about oxidation of a tea leaf, like if you look in an avocado oxidation is what causes it to become brown. A green tea leaf then becomes a black tea leaf. With the rooibos that Brooklyn Tea serves, they actually sell both the oxidized version and the unoxidized version.

You get this really exclusive take on rooibos tea that you can't really get elsewhere in New York. I think that's really where they stand out. Of course, they have a very wonderful, very lengthy tea menu, tisanes, black teas, green teas, but they thin out. They really stood out to me for their expensive offering of different rooibos.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Georgia, calling in from the West Village. Hi, Georgia, thanks for calling All Of It.

Georgia: Good morning, Alison. I love tea. I drink it every day. I wanted to recommend two places that have already been mentioned. Té Company in the West Village and T Shop in Nolita. They both sell loose-leaf teas. They have really great oolongs. If you want really good tea bags, sachets, I also recommend Harney & Sons. I think they're on Grand or Broome.

Alison Stewart: Yes.

Georgia: Those are my recommendations.

Alison Stewart: Someone else mentioned Harney & Sons as well. Tea was on your list as well, Caroline. What experience do you have? Because part of this I think is about the experience as well.

Caroline Shin: Yes, and this is the thing that I love about tea is that it really introduces you to this vast world of experiences. As I was saying before with Cuppa Tea, you can have this like real quick zippy experience. You get your caffeine high, you get your tea to go. You go to somewhere like T Shop at Nolita, you go to Té Company, and that's really more of like a very sit-down discovery of different flavors, of different teas, and then you can go somewhere like Cha-An, which completely focuses on Matcha, but then you can have the Matcha in all different forms. They'll turn it into all different desserts.

It becomes this really kind of fun experience. That's the thing, I just love the world of teas because you can get anything from like surreal gain and meditative, to really quick and super caffeinated, like adrenaline shot to the body.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Erica, calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, Erica, thank you so much for calling in.

Erica: Hi, thanks for having me on. I just wanted to share two things. Puerh Brooklyn, P-U-E-R-H Brooklyn on Grand Street in Williamsburg is a fantastic tea shop, where I know that the shop owner, Grippo, has good relationships with many of the farmers, and actually goes and visits them himself. Definitely recommend that place. Then also the non-profit Tea Arts and Culture. It's an organization that does tea cultural events and educational programming. A community gardens all throughout New York City from the Bronx down to Staten Island. If you find them on Instagram, @teaartsculture. Then also website is teaartsculture.org.

Alison Stewart: Erica, thank you so much for calling in. My guest is Caroline Shin. She wrote about great tea shops in the city. We'd love to hear some of your suggestions. If you have a tea shop that you'd like to go to, a tea you'd like to recommend to your fellow public radio listeners, 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. We got a text about something that's on someplace that's on your list that says, "Is your guest familiar with the tea room at Genesis House in Manhattan? What can you tell us about it?"

Caroline Shin: Oh, that is on my list, [laughs]. Yes, I am quite familiar with the tea pavilion there. I actually end up spending quite a bit of time up there. You take these two little steps, and then you're in this very kind of like you're within the restaurant, but it's like this little oasis within the restaurant and you're surrounded by these books. You have these kind of mats on the floor that you can sit on, and they have Genesis House's Tea Pavilion specializes in Korean tisanes, which are not so much like the tea leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant, but different types of fruits and different types of herbs that are better. Sometimes they're aged. Sometimes they're a little bit more fresh. They're all imported from Korea, and then you can just sit back and relax. They have probably the most extensive offering of Korean tisanes in the city.

Alison Stewart: Where is it? Where's--

Caroline Shin: Oh, it's inside the Genesis House. It's in Meatpacking District. Genesis House is the restaurant, and it's inside the restaurant in the Meatpacking District.

Alison Stewart: I went on a little field trip after looking at your list yesterday when it was cold and rainy, and I went to a place that's right up the street from WNYC. I went to Paquita in the West Village on West 10th Street. I made up a little video about it. It's on my personal Instagram, @iamalisonstewart.

Caroline Shin: Love it.

Alison Stewart: It's so visually beautiful. When I went in there, and I felt like a clod a little bit, because I was like, "Oh, where's the menu?" They're like, "There's no menu."

[laughter]

Just look at all these beautiful canisters and pick a tea.

Caroline Shin: The walls are the menu.

Alison Stewart: Yes. Would you explain to people how one approaches drinking tea at Paquita?

Caroline Shin: Oh, sure. The walls are the menus. You just browse, and each canister of tea has a handwritten label that has the amount of caffeine in it. Of course, whether it's a green tea or it's a black tea or an oolong tea, sometimes it's also a white tea, sometimes it's an infusion. All that information will be on those labels. It's almost like, I don't know, it's almost like you're in Hogwarts, but in the tea library, and then you can actually drink it. It's a beautiful scene. Then what I love about it is that it tells you the caffeine levels of each, in addition to the different ingredients that are in each blend.

Alison Stewart: I had elderberry caffeine free. It was quite lovely. The tags are all handwritten, which is really, really beautiful. There's this whole ambiance. Let us take a call from Lauren, calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, Lauren. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Lauren: Hi, thanks for taking my call, longtime listener.

Alison Stewart: Go for it. We'd love to hear your story.

Lauren: Oh, can you hear me?

Alison Stewart: Yes, you're on the air.

Lauren: Yes, I'm calling in about my sister's tea studio based in Brooklyn. It's called Masha Tea. She takes people to come by the studio by appointment and also sells at cafes throughout town, but it's a really sweet place to visit. She sells teas that she direct sources from farms in Japan, as well as herbal teas that she direct sources from organic farms throughout the Northeast. If you get a chance to go to the studio, you can also shop for antique teawares, and she has custom tea bowls that are specifically made for her as well.

Alison Stewart: Oh, wow.

Lauren: It's a really small, sweet space. Our family is from Soviet Ukraine originally. Also have a really long history of tea drinking since we were children. It's a really great female-owned business to support all organic teas that are really well sourced.

Alison Stewart: The name of it, again?

Lauren: It's called Masha Tea, M-A-S-H-A.

Alison Stewart: Thank you for calling in. That's some sisterly love. It also sounds like quite a bespoke experience as well. I love this on your list, Caroline, the Hideout Chai Bar. You say you can drink a toasty oat milk chai and listen to trap music.

Caroline Shin: Yes.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Describe for me this experience.

Caroline Shin: I almost walked past it because I couldn't tell what it was. I couldn't tell if it was your real cool minimalist art gallery or if it was a fashion store. I was there, it was me, my husband and our daughter, and we were just like, is this the Chai? Is this the Chai place? Or what is this? Then you go in, and then they may have some real good trap and hip-hop music. Then at the same time, this is definitely one of your more modernist chai places. You could get it with different types. You can get it, I think, actually, no, that one is with all with oat milk. You get like this, yes, you get, it's hot steaming, cup that you can actually look into the kitchen, and then they have these big vats that they're stirring in the back, and then they'll pour one out for you, and then you get to drink it steaming hot. It's really cool. I guess Instagrammable, too, if you're into that real, cool modern, like Lower East side look.

Alison Stewart: Nando from the East Village says, "I buy my loose-leaf tea from Duals Natural, and Indian shop on First Avenue and Fifth Street in Manhattan are also on Broadway in Brooklyn at the corner of Rodney Street in Williamsburg. Huge selection currently in my tea of choice is a mixture of loose-leaf Tulsi called Holy Basil in India, and a premixed pouch with turmeric, ginger, lavender and black pepper. That's a great combination. Tell me a little bit about-- I'm going to get you, let you pick the last couple we talk about Caroline on your list.

Caroline Shin: I really want to talk about-- it's Setsugekka East Village and Kettl Tea in Greenpoint. They stand out because I believe those are the only two Matcha shops that have their actual own stone grinder in the store. A stone grinder like that is, I don't know, like hundred. I don't really know exactly how heavy it is, but it's this large contraption. I had the fortune of being able to see Zach at Kettl Tea in Greenpoint actually, grind a Matcha tea from the whole tea leaves into the powder that we all know as Matcha.

Those are the two places where they actually grind it from scratch, and then you're able to actually purchase it. I'm not sure if you can purchase it for a seating, but I know that they have membership services, where at Kettl Tea you can subscribe, and then they'll send you their fresh batches, which is a really, really great idea. At both places, you can get a tasting of super exclusive Matcha. They both offer a very kind of meditative, ceremonial vibe. Their teas are really great. If you're there for a tasting, you will end up very zippy at the end, which I loved. It's a really wonderful experience at both places.

Alison Stewart: We got so many great texts. Thanks to everybody who texted in and called in. Even if we weren't able to get your comments on the air, we do appreciate you participating in the conversation. Thanks to Caroline Shin. The name of the piece is 14 Tea Shops to Try Tea in New York City. Thank you, Caroline, for sharing your reporting.

Caroline Shin: Thank you.

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Alison Stewart: There's more All Of It on the way. Today is the late great drummer Max Roach's a 100th birthday, grew up in Bed-Stuy, and there are a series of centennial concert planned this month. We'll talk about it after the news.

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