Hooty Tea Travels – Miro Tea, Seattle WA

My visit to Miro Tea was an impulse visit about a month back. Miro Tea is located in the Ballard area of Seattle. I was heading to Floating Leaves Tea, but I arrived excessively early, leaving me to wander around the area. Miro Tea is less than a 10 minute walk from Floating Leaves, so you can easily visit both shops.  For a special treat, walk a few blocks to visit Full Tilt Ice cream for some tea ice cream! Ballard is yet another tea pocket in Seattle, the other being the International District.

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Miro Tea was busy and had a coffee shop vibe. They had a big range of interesting teas to buy and some tea ware. I felt really weird snapping photos in a busy shop so these photos were taken with hidden owl cam.

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Miro Tea serves food (such as crepes and sandwiches) but what caught my eye was their tea menu. OMG GAIWAN SERVICE! Forget the food, I want gaiwan service!

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Their tea selection is quite big with both unflavored and flavored stuff. Flipping through their tea menu, which was a book on the counter, I learned they certainly have the right teas to gaiwan and quite a bit I would be happy to sample through. They have a nice selection of black teas, some oolong, but surprisingly carried some interesting pu’er. They got a lot of tea to make a traditionalist gongfu cha type happy. I settled on a 2008 Yiwu. They eventually come to your table with a vacuum carafe of hot water, a box tea tray, gaiwan, cup, pitcher, and your tea. CRAP, no strainer! Owl needs a strainer, I’m a feathery mess!

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The gaiwan is freaking massive, it is bigger than any gaiwan I’ve ever owned. If I had to guess, this was a 170ml to 200ml gaiwan. I felt they gave me a lot of leaf I regretted not bringing my AWS pocket scale and baggies to doggy bag extras home. Either way, I said, “to hell with it” and dumped in all the tea they gave me.

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By the time I figured out my tea and they delivered it to my table, I had 40 minutes left. I’ve had multiple people comment that I drink fast, and for this session I steeped it fast and less water, guzzling tea as fast as I could. Mixed with a high amount of leaf, I was flying fast and having a great game session on the Nintendo 3DS. However the gaiwan was flipping massive so I never actually finished the session to my liking. I figured I had another 2 shorter infusions left, and likely 2 long ones. I likely could of stayed drinking this at a leisurely pace for 2 hours, especially if I had my laptop or company.

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Miro Tea’s gaiwan service is totally for 2-3 people. I am not sure if the gaiwan service is intended to be split between people but it should be – this session costed $6-$8, if it was split with a few people that would be a great price!

Also the lack of a strainer made for a huge mess! The puer I got was pretty lawn mowered, so I got a whole lot of mucky slop in the bottom of my cup. I’d suggest going with something more big leafed or not be a nub like me not used to being without a strainer.

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I am pretty sure I looked like a weirdo too. Ballard is a pretty interesting area – lots of young couples and hipsters (After I left I walked by a park and watched two moms fighting). Most people there looked pretty local using it as a work and chill spot, sporting pretty yoga gear. I’m sitting there by myself with a stuff owl, a video game, and chugging tea like it’s going out of style. I got ripping tea drunk, sloshy, and stumbled over to Floating Leaves Tea for the next round.

Overall, Miro Tea was a fun visit if you want a coffee shop that has a good appeal to tea drinkers. I would go again if I needed a place to work and drink tea for hours, or bring company to split some food and a tea session. It seems like a great place to hang out with friends, or bring your laptop and chug tea for a few hours!

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