Tucked away on a quiet, leafy street and up a small stoop, lies this pocket-sized tea room in the historic West Village. Owners Elena Liao and Frederico Ribeiro specialize in Taiwanese oolong teas sourced from family-owned farms they visit themselves, but visitors can also find herbal teas, iced teas, and a small menu of baked goods to accompany them. You’d be remiss not to try their famous pineapple linzer cookie.

The tea master known in Parisian gourmet circles simply as “Madame Tseng” comes from a Chinese family with generations of experience in tea culture. Tseng curates the tea menus at various top-tier restaurants and patisseries in Paris, but it’s worth a visit to her high-ceilinged tea salon and shop in the 5th arrondissement. You’ll find hundreds of loose-leaf tea variations, sitting in canisters with handwritten labels that line the walls. Tseng compared it to a “large, private library."

This serene tearoom takes up a wing of a 100-year-old traditional Japanese house. The other areas house an artist’s residence and art gallery, where exhibitions often feature ceramics and shows celebrating the art of tea. A rotating range of carefully sourced teas, brewed with mountain spring water, are served with delicate Japanese snacks made by Kyoto’s food artisans, plus a bit of organic dark chocolate prepared with Hawaiian cacao beans. ​

This shop– a quiet, understated haven in London’s Mayfair, just off Bond Street – carries its own collection of teas in the form of packets, each labeled with the blend’s provenance and mailable to friends in small postcard-sized boxes. Behind glass cases sit a selection of handmade teaware by master ceramicists from Japan, China, and elsewhere, to ensure visitors are never without pot or kettle.

The basement teahouse, Sabō, serves a range of seasonal teas and infusions, accompanied by jewel-like wagashi. For the more curious, the four-tea Sajiki tasting menu offers a flight of “tea elixirs” made with spirits. Green tea, from the classic Gyokuro to the smoky toasted Hōjicha, with thick, emerald-hued matcha brews to boot, are the specialty. If you haven’t filled up on mochi or Ice Monaka, a Japanese variation of the ice cream sandwich, stick around for dinner.

This historic tea garden has an extensive menu of oolongs, as well as green and aged teas with names that could double as poem titles. (Will you have a pot of “Spring Mountain Mist” or “Profound Vigor”?) and evocative descriptions that highlight the history, nuance, and diversity of tea culture.

This modern teahouse was founded by Nana Chan, a Buddhist with an MBA who sources small-batch teas from China, Taiwan, India, Japan, and elsewhere. The teahouse is known for its three-tea tastings with experts, who walk tasters through the provenance and history of its carefully curated brews. From this spring’s harvest, try the Darjeeling Moonshine, which Plantation calls the “champagne of tea,” or any of its herbal, fermented, organic, or wild varieties.

This tiny, quintessentially Japanese tearoom is housed in the basement of the high-end department store Matusya, in Ginza, Tokyo’s shopping district. Sit at the wooden counter, usually decorated with exquisite cherry blossoms or ikebana, and enjoy the well-chosen selection of gyokuro, matcha, and wagashi (traditional tea time sweets). Don’t forget to take something home— many of the teas are on sale, along with a beautiful selection of accouterments.

Owner Imen Shan has gained a following for her expertise in and selection of dan cong teas, a rare type of oolong tea whose leaves are plucked from single trees in China’s Phoenix Mountain. Thanks to a unique farming method, dan cong teas have pronounced aromas– peach, honey, orchid– that arise from the leaves themselves, with no flavorings or essential oils added. Her tea tastings are housed in a cozy living-room like salon and serving tea in blue and white porcelain saucers.

Attatched to the White Rabbit Gallery, but deserving of it's own visit is the White Rabbit Tea House. Located on the gallery's street level, the tea house serves a verying assortment of Chinese and Taiwanease Teas ranging from oolong varieties too partially oxidzed teas and even a chilled lychee tea for the summers. White Rabbit Tea House is excellent for those having the first cup of their life or millionth cup, as theyre are plenty of attendants to help you find the perfect strain.