Tea at maison de trois thés, Paris

A long-awaited visit to Madame Tseng's Tea House

Ever since I watched a documentary about Madame Tseng (https://youtu.be/WKKQMXOMr6o?si=Rcpla_JjNc2dheYi), I'd wanted to visit her tea house in Paris.

Madame Tseng is the world's first female tea master. Born in Taiwan and raised in her family's tea fields, she has run Maison des Trois Thés since 1994.

The house carries over 1,000 varieties of tea. She also owns several tea cellars, known as "caves de thé," where she ages teas like Pu'er.

Being let in by ringing a bell felt elegant and intimate. A staff member greeted me warmly and asked what I was looking for.

Since I'm particularly interested in Pu'er, he offered me a 2002 Shou Pu'er with a character similar to the ones I usually drink (soft and calming), as well as one that was different from what I'm used to - a Shou Pu'er Nan Nuo Lao Cha Tou (Nan Nuo is a tea-growing region in Yunnan, China, at the foot of the mountain of the same name, and Lao Cha Tou (老茶头), literally "old tea heads" in English, are compact tea nuggets that form naturally during the fermentation of Shou Pu'er).

I also bought a Single Tree Sheng Pu'er from the 2024 autumn harvest and the same tea from the spring harvest, since I was curious to compare them.

A Wuyi Rou Gui (rock tea), a Da Ping Zhang Gushu Hong (red tea), and a Hu Shan Huang (yellow tea) also made it into my basket.

I spent a good hour there and would gladly have stayed longer, listening to the seller's knowledge. Of course, meeting the maître herself in person would have been a highlight, but I was told she's very busy. Drinking tea on site isn't possible, which would have rounded up the experience.

Now I'm looking forward to sitting at home with Maître Tseng's teas, and maybe feeling a bit of her wisdom through them - because tea is still the best teacher.