05 Rare Tea

Recently in Vancouver I stopped in to a relatively new tea shop called O5 Rare Tea Bar.  It is truly a unique and amazing shop.  Pedro, the tea shop owner has such a passion for tea.  You feel it when he speaks about tea, and his business of direct trade with specific farmers that he has developed long standing relationships with.

When you enter off the street into his shop you are in quite a small space, with one long counter that has about 3 teas brewing stations set-up.  Upon sitting down a person comes out right away and greets you and serves you a sample of one of their house made elixirs.  Today it was a rootbeer elixir that was to die for!!  We then perused the menu and the server asked what types of tea I was interested in.  I mentioned that I preferred greens and oolongs and she made some suggestions.  I ended up trying the Balhyocha Noeul oolong.  A dark longer oxidized tea.

To start with they pulled out a chest of the tea

from behind the counter to smell and view the tea, then they took some out and put in in the brewing pot.  They brewed the tea similar to Gungfu Cha with more leaves and shorter infusions.  They re-steeped the tea as many times as you wanted them to.

I had the oolong.  The oolong was a long oxidized tea, and the dry leaves smelled of cocoa.  It tasted like cocoa as well, with hints of fig and plum.  It was the most exquisite oolong I have ever tasted to date!

 and Brian ordered the ginger beer elixir.  It was cold, and it was bubbly.  It was also quite spicy.  They served it with candied ginger that had been sitting in honey.  Together they were to die for!!

Soon after we were lucky enough that the owner Pedro was in the shop and he came over to chat with us.  He talked about the tea, that it was from South Korea, and how he meets the farmers and sets up deals with them.  He had a slide show from his tea travels where he would select pictures from to show you and further enhance the experience.  He also entertained us with stories about Pu-Ehr, and showing us the differences between and handmade and machine made cakes.  I definitely recommend this place to anyone searching out a unique experience - whether it be tea related, or 'just something different'.  Here is the link to his website.

O5 Rare Tea Bar - It's about obsession with Origin.  5 natural elements that make-up terror:  Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and Void.

I ended up purchasing the Balhyocha Noeul Oolong from South Korea.  I can't wait to get home and make it!!