Mary Scherpe 12/4/13 Mary Scherpe 12/4/13

Food in Berlin: Tadshikische Teestube

There are more than one places that are utterly weird in Berlin, and this former GDR pearl of beauty, a Tajik tea parlor in the middle of Berlin is one of them.

Mary Scherpe 8/19/13 Mary Scherpe 8/19/13

Tea in Berlin: Companion Tea

Florian Duijsens 8/12/13 Florian Duijsens 8/12/13

Tea in Berlin: Come Buy

Do you remember the summer of 2012? It was the summer of "Call Me Maybe" and McDonalds started to sell bubble tea at their McCafés in Germany and Austria. That summer, bubble tea was everywhere in the city, every skinny storefront, every empty U-Bahn shop, every former sausage stand started to sell sugary muck filled with gooey little balls.

Mary Scherpe 1/9/13 Mary Scherpe 1/9/13

Food in Berlin: Mamecha Café

This small café is truly Japanese - they serve a big selection of Japanese teas, from Sencha to Hojicha and Genmaicha, and a small choice of food. The perfect lunch option are their bento boxes, that come with a very delicious and gentle Miso soup, a portion of rice, vegetarian gyoza, pickled vegetables and a salad. Its very quiet and certainly rather demure in style, the interior is not fancy, but who needs that when the food is that good. They don't do sushi at all, and are very wise to do.

Mary Scherpe 12/19/12 Mary Scherpe 12/19/12

Shop in Berlin: Paper & Tea

After raving about the highly specialized third wave coffee, it's time to slow down to focus on a similar but different pleasure. Tea enthusiast Jens de Gruyter recently opened his tea business P&T in the quiet part of Charlottenburg's Bleibtreustraße.