Don't know much about tea, but this place seemed to have a good selection with reasonable prices…read more You go in and they will let you smell different teas you are interested in buying. We picked up two tins of Bird's Tongue Jasmine for around HKD 250. I like Oolong but the ones they let us smell had a strong, almost fermented fragrance that we decided to pass on. Is oolong always like that? 3 stars for the decent variety and friendly service in English, but there also isn't too much that distinguishes this place from all the other options in the city.

Dora was amazing! I don't know why this place had less than five stars, they were super helpful and…read moreknowledgeable. I ended up buying two gift sets because the prices were fantastic. The tea is very strong and hearty, and the staff were so sweet to me. Highly recommend if you're looking for gifts for friends back home on your way through Hong Kong!

Wonderful location to rest after hiking around the peak. Their yellow tea was pretty good.read more

Note this is located in the KS Lo Gallery, you will enter through the main entrance of it and a…read moresecondary entrance through the main. The menu is fully vegetarian and has a host of tea choices. We tried a host of dim sum dishes and they were excellent. A mass of tea choices to accompany it as well.

My friend and I popped in to this location just to peek and see what it was all about. What a nice…read moretea master we met who talked to us about tea and gave us the opportunity to taste different teas and different strengths of teas. Although we did not stay to sit for tea and simply enjoyed sampling the different tea and learning about how to brew tea and when is the best time to drink teas, I am absolutley going to return soon. They sell tea for you to enjoy in the tea room and they also sell tea for you to take home and brew yourself. The tea master indicated that in 2016, they would be offering a class in English to teach people about tea. Currently, the instruction is only in Cantonese.

Good to know: It was rather hard finding the location of MingCha Tea House since it is located in a…read morebusiness area with no real signs on where to go. When you exit the elevator in the building it looks like you got to a butcher, but don't sweat it, the entrance should be right infront of your nose. The store itself is not the prettiest, but that's not why I went here. I heard that the best tea in Hong Kong could be found here and that they had neat little packages of tea which you could gift (手信). My friend and I tasted five different teas and got introduced to a whole new world of tea! It was spectacular. If you are a tea lover like me this is a must go to place. They really teach you a lot about tea and if you would ever forget, all the instructions for each specific tea is on the tea bag! I ended up buying dozens of small gifts for near and dear and from what I have heard they all liked it very much.

I took the Tea Tasting Workshop at MingCha in mid-May (2016) and had a superb experience. I signed…read moreup for the workshop prior to going to HK, but found out later that another expensive and already-paid-for day-long tour to mainland China I'd signed up for had rescheduled the tour to the same day as the tea workshop. I emailed Tomoko to see if I could move to a different tea workshop, and she was very kind and accommodating. In fact, she did a workshop for me and another couple at a time that she usually doesn't do workshops, which I was grateful for. I'd read about the workshop and the rave reviews did not let me down. Tomoko is very, very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about tea, and I learned a lot. We got to try 5 different types of tea, and each tea had three steepings, for a total of 15 tastings. She used several different types of tea sets (pots and cups), which was really neat. She taught us the rituals of making and serving tea, way beyond the boil-water-and-add-tea method. The teas were wonderful, and I learned soooo much about how tea leaves are processed in different ways for the different teas. Now, know that the shop is hard to find, but if you exit the MTR at the right exit (Taikoo station, exit A1), it is literally right across the street, in between a Mercedes Benz shop and a furniture store. When you exit from A1, cross the street. It's hard to see the sign for the Wah Ha Factory Building from that vantage point, but trust me, it is there between those two businesses. Others have provided pictures, which helped me, because the shop is located in an improbable location, and you may be concerned that you've gone to the wrong place. When you exit the elevator on the 12th floor in the factory, the shop is the door on the right. If you're thinking about doing this workshop, go for it! It is really a neat experience.

Cool little tea shop that serves tea drinks with steamed milk or brewed specialty tea. If you come…read morehere don't pass up the pastries. I found the baked goods to be really good. The tea drinks were good also but are on the expensive side where a beverage is around 60 hkd. Definitely a good place for an afternoon tea. Baked goods: 4.5 stars Tea: 3.75 stars Value: 3 stars Environment: 4 stars Overall: 4 stars Recommendations: fog scone, chiffon cake

Great brunch!! Totally vibed with the area, and a change of scene from the normal cha chan tangs i…read morehad be frequenting on my hk trip. Was served three ricotta pancakes ($118 hkd) with blueberries, syrup and bananas. Although the portion was small, the fluffiness of the pancake and light sweetness of the syrup made the dish de-lish! If you go before 11am on mon-fri you get a choice of one of four drinks- i opted for the lemon tea with charred lemons (makes a big difference!!). They also had mint infused water near the bar area, and a separate two floor area for seating, accessible by walking out and around the left corner into a separate below space. Mason jar lights dangle from the ceiling and a light teal wall and yellow flowers brightens the room. My friend and I sat here for a little over an hour sketching the space. They give you a buzzer that beeps when ur food is ready for pick up- my pancakes took around 20 min, as there was a group of 5 in front of me. The bathrooms clean, the service is good, and their playlist is indie coffeehouse! Not crowded on a Monday around 10. A great place!

Matcha. Tea. YUM. An added plus for an English menu!…read more A friend suggested this cafe and I am so glad he did! They have a great menu with different tea and matcha drinks, desserts, and even a chance to try a tea ceremony. There is limited seating in the cafe so you will need to wait for a seat. I tried the sizzling matcha brownie and matcha yin yang (coffee, matcha, condensed milk). The brownie was a bit too sweet for my taste because I poured all the matcha sauce. The brownie also had macadamia nuts. The drink was perfect. You get a hint of the coffee and it didn't overpower the matcha. It was the perfect sweetness. They also have a cute cat at the cafe :)

Simnei Tea is one of those hidden cafes that you find out about through pictures, get super excited…read moreabout, and when you set out to find it you get confused and lost. After a bit of navigation around the solemn-looking office building, finding Sinmei was like hitting a matcha oasis. The ambiance is quite unique: rather than cutesy or modern which has become commonplace and sometimes tacky, Sinmei has a very traditional yet avant-garde vibe--reminiscent of Miyazaki because there's almost something spiritual and a real live cat in residence. In short, Sinmei is matcha / 抹茶 galore, featuring a number of specialty green tea themed items. In my opinion the food at Sinmei is much more unique and worthwhile than the drinks, but in general it is very good quality: everything has a strong matcha taste and that nice dark green hue. Matcha fondant: Lava cake / fondant has become a thing in HK but no matter how many you've had, the Sinmei version is mind-blowing--a perfect plump matcha cake enveloping a warm, luscious matcha filling. The vanilla ice cream with its crumble (soybean powder I think) and matcha powder toppings are synergistically delicious in texture, temperature, and flavor. Matcha sizzling brownie: I didn't try this because the fondant + 2 drinks was definitely more than enough matcha and sugar for two people, but I would give it a try next time (partly because the presentation on a cast iron skillet is so neat). Matcha soul: This looks magical in pictures, but in my opinion it was just okay--mostly a matcha latte with a flashy swirl and sprinkle of soybean powder that looks like gold flakes. Matcha snow: The cold matcha latte with vanilla ice cream was a treat, though I still found myself more excited over the matcha fondant. It's quite pricey for your 下午茶, but the matcha quality is good and Instagrammability is off the charts. Indeed I took multiple photos (including a shameless time lapse of my fondant filling seeping out) that ended up being very popular when I bragged about the matcha delicacies on social media. Advice if you talking to HK peeps: Sinmei does not correlate to the Chinese name 川善茶居 (I'm hypothesizing it's a Japanese phonetic translation, and I'm fairly certain that the owner is Japanese).