Review: Tea-tasting at Peet’s Coffee & Tea in San Jose

Peet's Coffee & Tea downtown San Jose. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach.

Although better known for their coffee, as a major competitor to Starbuck’s, Peet’s Coffee & Tea is a good source for loose tea and good-quality bagged tea in San Jose. The California-based company offers free tea and coffee tastings, both pre-scheduled ones and for walk-ins, in their Bay Area stores. That’s right, you can walk in to a Peet’s Coffee & Tea store in the San Jose area, and ask them to set up a tea tasting for you right then and there!

The South Bay Ladies’ Tea Guild went to the Peet’s store in downtown San Jose on Santa Clara St. recently for one of their tea tastings, and were very pleased with the experience. Peet’s staff prepared seven teas and tisanes for tasting, all from their organic tea collection:

• Gunpowder, a rolled Chinese green tea which was savory and slightly smoky in flavor and aroma. Peet’s describes its flavor as “bittersweet and slightly smoky character”.
• Jade Mist, a Chinese green tea that was fresh-tasting and savory. Peet’s describes it as “fresh, bright taste with a mildly brisk flavor … with aromatic hints of green peas and kale, leaving a crisp aftertaste.”
• Ancient Trees, a pu-erh from Yunnan in China, that was earthy and mildly smoky. Some of the tea tasters thought the first infusions were too strongly “dirty” but the later infusions were milder and more enjoyable. The staff member who led the tea tasting said this was one of Peet’s most popular teas. The website describes it as “rich, earthy, nutty and densely flavorful, as thick and dark as coffee, yet exceptionally smooth.”
• Darjeeling Fancy, an Indian black tea with a mild astringency, smooth aftertaste and surprisingly rose-like aroma. The website says it is a second flush Darjeeling and has a “sweet, floral aroma, and a pungent taste.” Although I don’t tend to like Darjeeling teas – I find them too bitter – I am happy to say that I liked this one; that may be due to the milder tannins in second-flush Darjeeling teas. I did notice that it became much more bitter than astringent after 5 minutes of steeping.
• Buddha Peak Ceylon, a Sri Lankan black tea that had a slight lemony aroma. The website says it has “bright malty flavor and brisk tanginess.”
• Pure Peppermint, a tisane that was strongly minty and refreshing. The website reveals that it is Oregon peppermint, which “has an intensely minty quality.”
• Red Rooibos, a South African herbal tisane that featured the tart, almost citrusy herbal flavor characteristic of rooibos. The website describes its scent as “saffron-vanilla”, with a rich “faintly malty” flavor.

Peet’s has a Tea Wheel with information about all of the teas they sell, but the staffer who conducted the tea tasting was

Peet's tea tasting set-up. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach

very knowledgeable as well. He was careful to heat the water to the proper temperature, used a timer to infuse each tea for the proper amount of time, and provided cups of plain water so we could cleanse our palates. The attention to detail also included separate tasting cups for each type of tea, so that the fragrance and flavor of one tea would not influence the next. While the company seems to spend more on promoting their coffee, it’s good to know that they take good care with their tea as well! There are over 10 Peet’s locations in San Jose alone, along with two in Milpitas, two in Santa Clara, and more stores throughout the Bay Area.  Peet’s Coffee & Tea is a good tea-tasting destination in the San Jose area.

Copyright 2012, Elizabeth Urbach.

Like what you read? Leave a comment below, click on “Subscribe” above, visit the San Jose Tea Examiner page on Facebook, read my blog, or follow me on Twitter @SanJoseTea!

For more information:
Peet’s Coffee & Tea company website
“The Perfect Cup: Tasting Tea” from the Peet’s website
“Tea Tasting Terms”
Peet’s Coffee & Tea article on Wikipedia
“Peet’s Tea Assam Golden Tip (review)” on Lainie Sips
“Tea tasting 101: characteristics of a good-quality black tea” 
“Tea 101: what is pu-erh tea?”
“Chinese black tea in San Jose”
“Tea-tasting San Jose area day trips: San Francisco’s Chinatown”
“What you need to make a good pot of hot tea”
“Tea 101: How to brew a pot of hot tea using loose tea”
“What are the different kinds of green tea available in San Jose?”

Review: Peet’s Coffee & Tea, downtown San Jose

 

Peet's Coffee & Tea downtown San Jose. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach.

Peet’s Coffee & Tea is well-known in San Jose for their coffee, but they also sell both loose-leaf and bagged tea, and have a whole range of organic teas. All of their teas are Fair-Trade certified, I believe. Prices are about equal to Starbucks, but the tea quality is higher. While coffee is much more prominently featured on the Peet’s website, they are a good source for tea, as well, and store staff are knowledgeable and take great care with their coffee and tea selections.  They have flavored and unflavored black tea, oolong, green, white and pu-erh blends.

One of the more popular locations is the Peet’s in downtown San Jose, on Santa Clara between Market and First St. I have been to this Peet’s several times since it opened in the Spring of 2008. It is one of the only places in town that a person can get a pot of loose tea, and although they have more varieties of coffee than of tea, the tea is good quality and prepared well. You can order hot tea by the cup or by the pot, made with tea bags or with loose leaf, all at different prices. Chai and iced tea, as well as a limited selection of cold tea beverages, are also available. Tea tastings are available, although they are not posted on the website or anywhere in the store; however, if you walk in and ask, the staff will set up a tea tasting for you, and it’s free! Peet’s company policy also includes giving to local charities every month of the year, and this Peet’s location has donated tea to the local non-profit 13th Street Cats for their Cat Rescue Tea fundraiser for two of the past three years that the event has occurred.

There are over 10 Peet’s locations in San Jose alone, along with two in Milpitas, two in Santa Clara, and more stores throughout the Bay Area.

South Bay Peet’s locations:
DT San Jose
66 W. Santa Clara Street
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 213-4770

# SPECIALTY’S CAFE & BAKERY #306 – SAN JOSE
115 S. MARKET STREET
SAN JOSE, CA 95113
877-502-2837

# SAN JOSE AIRPORT
TERMINAL B, 1701 AIRPORT BLVD
SAN JOSE, CA 95110
408-441-2691

Rose Garden
1295 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 213-7285

Santana Row
377 Santana Row, Suite # 1130
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 213-1071

Willow Glen
1140 Lincoln Avenue, Suite C
San Jose, CA 95125
(408) 975-9281

S.J. Blossom Hill
1110 Blossom Hill Rd., Suite 20
San Jose, CA 95118
(408) 256-4584

Santa Clara
3932 Rivermark Plaza
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(408) 213-0810

# SPECIALTY’S CAFE & BAKERY #302 – SANTA CLARA
3399 BOWERS AVENUE
SANTA CLARA, CA 95054
877-502-2837

El Paseo
1330 El Paseo De Saratoga
San Jose, CA 95130
(408) 871-0907

Camden Park
2035 Camden Avenue
San Jose, CA 95124
(408) 371-9088

# NOB HILL SAN JOSE #635
6061 SNELL AVENUE
SAN JOSE, CA 95123
408-225-0546

Milpitas
543 E. Calaveras Blvd.
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 416-0700

# SPECIALTY’S CAFE & BAKERY #502 – MILPITAS
690 N. MCCARTHY BLVD
MILPITAS, CA 95035
877-502-2837

Copyright 2012, Elizabeth Urbach.

Like what you read? Leave a comment below, click on “Subscribe” above, visit the San Jose Tea Examiner page on Facebook, read my blog, or follow me on Twitter @SanJoseTea!

For more information:
Peet’s Coffee & Tea
“The Perfect Cup: Tasting Tea”
“Tea Tasting Terms”
“Who We Are: Community – Product Donations” 
Peet’s Coffee & Tea article on Wikipedia
“Peet’s Tea Assam Golden Tip (review)” on Lainie Sips
“Tea tasting 101: characteristics of a good-quality black tea”
“What are the different kinds of green tea available in San Jose?” 
“Tea 101: what is pu-erh tea?”
“Tea-tasting San Jose area day trips: San Francisco’s Chinatown”
“San Jose’s Cat Rescue Tea raises over $4,000 for local nonprofit!”
“San Jose’s Cat Rescue tea party: a fundraiser you can put on for your favorite non-profit!”
“What you need to make a good pot of hot tea”
“Tea 101: How to brew a pot of hot tea using loose tea”

New and improved tea at Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe

English Trifle at Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach.

Hurry and get your tickets to the Dickens Fair, because December 17 and 18 is the last weekend!  New for 2011, afternoon tea at Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe has a new format.  Instead of ordering your full tea off the menu when you arrive, as in the past, Afternoon Tea or High Tea at Cuthbert’s is now completely prix-fixe, down to the kind of tea you are served, and they are now only served at certain times of day, with a la carte items available in between.  Reservations are still highly recommended!

High Tea, served late in the afternoon, begins with a small pot of English Breakfast tea on the table waiting for you when you sit down.  Shortly after that, the servers bring each person two 2-inch scones with a small amount of lemon curd, strawberry jam, and whipped cream in individual mini paper cups.  Then, a plate of tea sandwiches with a variety of fillings (4 small sandwiches for each person), and lastly, a small plastic goblet full of English trifle, made with pound cake, strawberries, vanilla pudding and whipped cream.

Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe commemorative teapot. Photo: Virginia Urbach.

I was pleased to discover, when I was at Cuthbert’s for the 2011 season, that even though the staff were serving close to 100 people at one time, the scones were still warm when they reached our table!  They were your standard cream scone, crumbly and slightly sweet, but very nice.  The sandwiches included one or two of each kind of tea sandwich on the main menu, and for my party of two, we had four cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, two smoked salmon, and two egg mayo (egg salad) sandwiches.  Each of these sandwiches was the more usual ¼ of a whole sandwich, instead of the half sandwiches formerly served at Cuthbert’s; it was nice to have a variety of fillings this time, though.  The English trifle was tasty, but I thought the pound cake and vanilla pudding tasted slightly artificial in flavor.  Last, but not least, the tea was bagged instead of loose, and the servers only replenished the pot with hot water throughout the meal, instead of offering fresh tea, so the last pots of tea were considerably weaker than the first.  However, allowances must be made when dealing with non-standard food preparation areas like behind the scenes at Dickens!

Coventry Carolers at Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe. Photo: Virginia Urbach.

Also new this year was a little bit of entertainment included with the tea.  The Coventry Carolers were in the tea shop, providing live music as the guests were seated.  After about 15 to 20 minutes, their performance ended, and the food began to be served.  Halfway through tea time, there was a great deal of noise coming from one wall of the shop, where there was a decorative fireplace and mantel.  This noise turned out to be a group of chimney-sweeps, who literally climbed down the “chimney” and through the fireplace, into the tea shop, accompanied by more noise and lots of dust.  Authentically covered in soot and wielding chimney brushes, they spent a few minutes walking around the tea shop handing out “business cards” for their “sweeping service”, Miracle Sweeps of London (“If it’s a clean sweep, it’s a miracle!”), before gathering at the front of the shop to sing a funny song in fake Cockney accents that made the words almost unintelligible. Unexpected guests at tea!

Chimney sweeps at Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe. Photo: Virginia Urbach.

Another change from last year was the small teapot included in the $21 price; instead of it being a 3-cup commemorative teapot with the Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe logo on it, they were 3-cup teapots in a solid color, with no commemorative logo.  My guest and I both received solid purple teapots.  Perhaps, with the increased service of the prix-fixe afternoon and high teas, they ran out of the commemorative teapots?  Or, perhaps they decided that a solid-color pot with no logo would be more fitting for year-round use in the customers’ homes.

Cuthbert’s has a new location within the Dickens Fair layout, and has doubled its size with a second dining area called the Solarium.  If you make your reservations for tea online, before you arrive at the Dickens Fair, you are automatically seated in the Solarium; if you make your reservations immediately upon arriving at the Dickens Fair (and they sell out all their seatings very quickly!) you are seated in the main dining area of the shop.  There still seem to be some bugs to work out in their system, as indicated by the fact that we were seated almost 10 minutes later than our reservation, but the crowding was considerably less with the new expanded location, and the organization and staffing seemed to go much more smoothly than in past years.  At any rate, the $21 price was still a reasonable one for the food and entertainment that the customers receive.  It has the Ladies’ Tea Guild and the San Jose Tea Examiner’s “Seal of Approval”!

Copyright 2011, Elizabeth Urbach

Like what you read?  Leave a comment below, click on “Subscribe” above, visit the San Jose Tea Examiner page on Facebook, read my blog, or follow me on Twitter @SanJoseTea!

For more information:
The 33rd Annual Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party website
Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe website
“By Dickens, a Victorian Pacifican serves up delectables at Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe”
“When the exhibits are people: first-person cultural interpreters at Dickens Christmas Fair.”
“Tea 101: what do we mean when we talk about tea?”
“What you need to make a good pot of hot tea”
“Tea and San Jose’s Christmas in the Park”
“The Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco (photos)”
“Victorian costumes at the Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco”
“The Great Dickens Christmas Fair launches SF’s holiday season”

Review: Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe at the Dickens Christmas Fair

Commemorative teapot from Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach.

Having afternoon tea at Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe at the Dickens Fair is a popular holiday activity in the Bay Area.  The tables are full of Dickens Fair patrons from the time it opens in the morning until the last tea seating in the late afternoon, and for good reason: having tea at Cuthbert’s is a wonderful way to spend some time at Dickens. The staff, and many customers dress in Victorian costume, and add to the seasonal atmosphere, making the people-watching inside the tea room as much fun as it is outside the tea room.

If you want to have tea seated inside the tea room, you’ll need to make a reservation first thing upon arriving at the Dickens Fair, or make your reservation in advance, online. Otherwise, you can take your chances that they’ll have room for walk-ins, or order your tea and treats a la carte from the take-out window at the back of the shop.

The English afternoon tea in the shop is a fun way to refresh yourself at the Dickens Fair, however. Pots of tea and treats are available a la carte, but the most popular choice is to order the afternoon tea for $21 per person. This includes: a pot of tea (regular, decaf or herbal), scones or crumpets with butter, cream, lemon curd and jam, assorted tea sandwiches (choice between salmon, cucumber, watercress, or egg salad), English trifle, and a commemorative teapot to take home.

The San Jose Tea Examiner met with some members of the South Bay Ladies’ Tea Guild, the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild and the San Diego Costumer’s Guild, for tea at Cuthbert’s. Several of us ordered tea and sandwiches a la carte, but most of us chose the prix fixe afternoon tea.  The food quality is good, it is tasty and filling; most of it is purchased, but the tea and sandwiches are made on site. The tea is loose-leaf, served in individual teapots, and you get a choice of lemon curd, cream, or jam with your scones or crumpets (you get two small scones or crumpets).  The sandwiches are large; basically they make a whole sandwich with two full slices of bread, cut off the crusts, cut the sandwich in half, and serve you both halves. You get two large tea sandwiches, both with the same filling; I usually order the smoked salmon, but the other fillings are also tasty. Although it’s not listed on the menu, the Rum Cake served at Cuthbert’s is apparently famous for its richness and flavor, and you could probably ask your server to bring you some rum cake instead of English trifle! Your take-home teapot is brought to you with your bill, and it’s a small 2-cup teapot with the Cuthbert’s logo on it. Altogether, the tea is a good value and worth $21.

There is some room for improvement, however. Since Cuthbert’s is so popular, it is always crowded, and the servers often get flustered with all the customers and are not entirely organized. The last time I was there, we had our food order mixed up several times, and we seemed to have three different servers waiting on us. Also, the lemon curd, jam and cream are served in tiny bowls, containing one spoonful to share with everyone in your party, and you have to flag someone down to ask for more. I briefly considered bringing a jar of my homemade Meyer lemon curd to the Dickens Fair with me just to avoid this! Also, the tea leaves are left in the teapot when it’s served to you, so the tea tends to get bitter by the end of your tea time. A tea strainer comes to the table with the teapot, so try to strain and drink your tea quickly! However, these are small quibbles compared to the fun of participating in the whole scene, especially if you have dressed in costume! It is also a wonderful photo opportunity.

To get to the Dickens Fair from San Jose, take 101N, towards San Francisco, and take Exit 426 A/Brisbane. Merge on to Bayshore Highway, and take Bayshore to Daly City. Make a left off of Bayshore and onto Geneva Ave. once you get to Daly City, and follow the signs to 2600 Geneva Ave. Parking is $10 per car.  You can also take BART to the Dickens Fair and use your BART pass for a discount on your entrance ticket!

Copyright 2011, Elizabeth Urbach.

Like what you read? Leave a comment below, click on “Subscribe” above, visit the San Jose Tea Examiner page on Facebook, read my blog, or follow me on Twitter @SanJoseTea! 

For more information:
Dickens Christmas Fair website
Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe website
“By Dickens, a Victorian Pacifican serves up delectables at Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe”
Review of Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe on Yelp!
“How to have afternoon tea at the Dickens Fair in San Francisco”
“When the exhibits are people: first-person cultural interpreters at Dickens Christmas Fair.”
“Favorite tea-time recipe from Gourmet magazine: Meyer lemon curd”
“Where can I have an English or European-style afternoon tea in the San Jose area?”
“Tea 101: what do we mean when we talk about tea?”
“What you need to make a good pot of hot tea”
“Tea and San Jose’s Christmas in the Park”
“The Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco (photos)”
“Victorian costumes at the Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco”
“The Great Dickens Christmas Fair launches SF’s holiday season”
The official Dickens Fair costume guide
Food booths at the Dickens Fair
“Take BART to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair”