Chaikhana Tea Culture

Hidden Peak Tea house is OPEN and wonderful!
Wanted to let you know.
Want a quiet, exotic place right in the heart of Santa Cruz?
check it out.

They have a good selection of Chinese teas, and good prices… but they can be very snooty. I mean, REALLY snooty.
All in all, it’s an elitist teahouse and they aren’t very welcoming.
My friends (all white), have great experiences here. Even though I send my friends here, I get either talked down to or ignored when I go. But I still go back, because they have good Chinese tea…
I get my Japanese tea over the hill (San Jose)
I wish they either:
–were not jerks, so I could enjoy shopping here
–didn’t have good tea, so I wouldn’t want to shop here

Uplifting, calming, transcendent and euphoric are a few words to describe the experience I had at Chaikhana tea house in Santa Cruz. Read my full review here:

this guy is good!
we needed a break from the long plane trip and drive from san francisco
david talked at length about chinese teas and stories of old leaves
he was giving a private tea sit-​in and he invited us to sit down
used extremely small, traditionally-​sized teapots and very old tea
he’d slosh the hot liquid over everything on his table to cleanse things
we were very taken in by the mood, his wisdom, our insightful conversations and the soothing effect the lovely, east asian tea leaves had on our senses
worth the drive from anywhere to experience

I wish there was a six-​star rating! This store is an amazing blend of high-​end tea store, community center, and temple. No matter how hurried or stressful my day is, i am gently brought to a timeless and simple mood by going there to buy tea. The employees, and especially the owner are friendly and incredibly knowledgeable, and I always feel welcomed by them. I guarantee that it will change how you see tea!

Some friends turned us onto Chaikhana when they gave us some dragonball oolong tea as a gift a few years ago. We’ve been to the shop on Cedar Street a couple times before, and always received wonderful advice. But it was our last trip there when we finally participated in a small tea ceremony to try some of the teas for purchasing.
Dawn was wonderful, inviting, patient, tolerant, and insightful. She helped us find a loose leaf oolong and black tea that we love. We also wanted to try a pu-​erh, but instead decided to sign up for the next pu-​erh class in the shop. I can’t wait to learn more!

I had been wanting to visit this shop for a long time. I wish I had gone sooner. This place is a treasure. Highly recommended.

The Pu-​erh tea was possibly the best I’ve ever had, the tea house itself was sweet, and the woman who served us was very knowledgeable… So why am I only giving it 3 stars? Well, to start with the stools we sat on, while being beautiful were teeny tiny and for one as old and stiff as myself, extremely uncomfortable. Unlike the rest of the reviews of this place, I found the owner pretentious and the staff member who served us so overly sincere and self absorbed as to be cloying. The information was there, but listening to this person go on about energy and Chakras eventually got almost painful.
We honestly did not feel we were made particularly welcome, perhaps feeling judged as not being hip enough for the bastion of grooviness.
I wanted to like this place, the atmosphere was good and the selection was worthy, but you should probably only go if you look and act like them.

This is legit. This is as legit as you drinking tea with chinese tea masters who have studied tea for decades. I’m not even kidding… I’ve personally been to many tea shops in cali, nyc and boston but nothing comes close to this. I’ve even seen tea shops in chinatowns in San Fran and NYC and I still feel like this place is more legit. This guy travels to China and gets his tea from handpicked and non-​chemical induced joints.
He can spend two hours talking about just pu-​erh tea… this guy is knowledgeable. It is absolely breath-​taking as he guides the guests to appreciate the tea culture and all the details of each individual tea. He allows people to just stop the busyness of life to take a sip of the earth where we came from.
I am seriously mad for wasting my time buying and drinking fake tea bag teas. I have been enlightened today. I have begun to appreciate the tea culture and it’s beauty.
I’ve never seen such a variety of teas and to cap everything off, it’s priced pretty low for what we are getting. Just come to this place and you will never be the same. That’s how you know you are a 5star joint. The experience should change you. This place… it captures you to experience something you’ve never experienced before.

This tea room is charming, well stocked, and fairly priced.
Check out the puerh.
The owner is an insightful man who does not hesitate to sit down with you to discuss tea or tea traditions. He exudes kindness and calm.
This place makes me happy to live in Santa Cruz.
I met tea pets here for the very first time and if you don’t know what that means of have never seen a tea ceremony, stop by Chaikhana.

Visited Chaikhana (actually — their satellite location, The Empty Boat) Friday night for the first (but definitely not the last!) time. This is *the* place for people who love all things tea-​related.
This place seems to specialize in Pu-​erh tea, which I’d never heard of before drinking dozens of tiny cups of it at The Empty Boat. Loved it! But equally memorable were the people we met (including mj g., the reviewer below me) and the interesting conversations had over a really relaxing and thought-​provoking tea ceremony. They only ask for a donation ($ 5 minimum, I think, but it’s definitely worth more than that if you can afford to be more generous). We left with 2 kinds of Pu-​erh and a Vietnamese tea cozy, which I love. It’d be a great place to pick up a gift for any tea-​lover in your life.
You’ll definitely meet interesting people, learn something new, taste some delicious tea, and leave feeling more relaxed than when you arrived!

Masterfully stacked, the walls of Chaikhana hold the secrets and savoriness of tea culture from around the world.
If I want to explore the depth of tea further, I come to Chaikhana for a few cups of something new and something true.
This is one of the reasons I moved to Santa Cruz!

If tea is more then just a caffeine injection or it is more then a little flavored water to you then this is the store you always wished existed. This shop will create for your eyes what tea creates in your mind. It will whisk you away to a place of peace and joy with marvelous sights, sounds and tea related treats.
The owner is a true helper in your journey as you open your mind to new possibilities in the area of new flavors and many new vessels. He carries many wonderful teas for even the most discerning customer (and if you are lucky you might even find one of the most wonderful herbal tea mixtures I have ever tasted) and all are more then fresh. He also carries many new and antique tea ware items including boats, decanters and of course pots and cups.
This shop is a great journey for the person who has fallen in love with tea for the first time and for the person who has a long and deep relationship with tea.
And it is cell-​phone free!

Chaikhana is a diminutive, atmospheric little tea shop in downtown Santa Cruz. Their selection is not overwhelmingly voluminous, but it has both depth and breadth. Always staffed by someone who knows their stuff and is more than happy to help you out, this spot is worth traveling to to get your tea fix.
Their selection of green teas is a liiiittle thin but the stuff they carry is good. They have lots of weird and wondrous pu-​erhs and plenty of tea-​ware. Highly recommended.

This place and it’s owner are a treasure to tea lovers. Don’t miss it.
I have always hated the rotten smell of pu-​er tea, and here finally found some that I truly enjoy.

While I was a student in Santa Cruz, I became what one might call a «tea person.» My church was, thus, the little, cozy confines of Chaikhana. Since then, David and Marilee have both guided me through the path to understanding tea. Their puerh is the best in California (if not the West Coast) and is constantly changing, with a primary focus on aged, raw (sheng) puerhs. Also, his yixing teaware is quite good.
Additionally, Chaikhana has branched-​off into new and exciting worlds of tea appreciation with the opening of the Empty Boat. Now living in San Francisco, a city of many teashops/​teahouses, I make the long but deserved journey down to Santa Cruz to enjoy this wonderful space. The membership fee is a small price for such an expanse of opportunities that reside within the Empty Boat. It feels like a dream.
To sum up, I HIGHLY recommend Chaikhana and the Empty Boat. Enjoy for yourself when in Santa Cruz and do as I do… dream of it it when you are away ^_^

Wonderful home-​grown shop where the best tea in the world is meticulously cataloged and available. I come her for pu-​er tea with crysanthemum flowers and matcha powder of the highest grade and dragonwell green tea from outside of Huangzhou. Having visited China and drank some fine brew there, this is a precious store house of some of that treasure, and i’d come more frequently if i could. The owner is generous with the tea tasting, so even if you’re not sure what you like, you may generate some ideas!

This place is fantastic! I moved away from Santa Cruz to Brooklyn over a year ago, and Chaikhana is one of the few businesses I still think of often (along with Logos, the Herb Room, and Zachary’s). The people there are kind and generous with their knowledge, and the space itself is lovely. I miss you, Chaikhana!

Great tea ’boutique.’ Different teas and tea paraphernalia from all over the world. The proprietor is extremely knowledgeable and friendly. Ask him some questions, he’s glad to help. Buy a brick of tea, (interesting history) or one of the blooming teas (which are beautiful). Every tea that I have purchased at Chaikhana has been of the most excellent quality — no sugar needed! It would be respectful if you take your shoes off before you enter.