Seattle
Crimson Lotus Tea anchors a Pu-erh-focused specialty community. Pacific Northwest tea culture overlaps with the broader Seattle coffee tradition.
Seattle anchors a distinctive Pacific Northwest specialty tea community focused particularly on pu-erh and Taiwanese tea. Crimson Lotus Tea — Glen and Lamu Bowers' operation founded in 2014 — is the most editorially serious American pu-erh-focused specialty operation; the Seattle physical presence anchors a community of pu-erh-focused drinkers and the regular in-person tasting events have become destinations for serious specialty tea travelers visiting the Pacific Northwest. The catalog covers young sheng pressings (newer trees, traditional gushu, single-village micro-lots), aged sheng from various decades, shou pu-erh, and adjacent dark teas like Liu Bao.
Floating Leaves Tea (Ballard) specializes in Taiwanese tea — Shiuwen Tai's sister operation to Brooklyn's Floating Mountain. The Pacific Northwest's broader specialty-food orientation (the coffee tradition that produced Stumptown, Caffe Vita, and the wider third-wave coffee movement) extends into tea, though tea specialty density in Seattle is less than Portland's. For pu-erh-serious drinkers specifically, Seattle is essential; the Crimson Lotus events alone justify travel from substantial distance.
Tea houses & specialty experiences
- Crimson Lotus Tea — Glen + Lamu Bowers' Yunnan pu-erh specialist (events + retail)
- Floating Leaves Tea (Ballard) — Taiwanese tea specialist
- Vivid Tea Studio (Belltown) — modern tea experience
- Phoenix Tea (Burien) — Asian specialty tea retail
Retail destinations
- Crimson Lotus warehouse/tasting events
- Floating Leaves retail (Ballard)
- Uwajimaya Asian groceries