This is an excellent tea. It's called Ryokucha and the only place I've ever had it is at the Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Gardens. It's right behind the Metreon across from the reflecting pool. It's a genmaicha (with toasted rice) green tea that has a bit of matcha (powdered tea) mixed in giving it a beautiful bright green hue. It took 3 visits before they had the Ryokucha in stock to purchase and take home with me. The first container I bought I gave as a gift to my mom. Thankfully they had it the next time I went there for dinner. I bought a second tin and have been enjoying for the past few weeks. Aside from the health benefits from drinking green tea I drink it because I love it!
The second best thing at Samovar is their tofu burger. It's not like any other tofu burger. Don't think of a slab of white tofu. Nope, theirs is crumbled and mixed with bits of veggies and seaweed topped off with BBQ sauce of all things! It is amazingly great!The other neat thing about the lounge is that it isn't just English or Asian tea. The menu boasts selections that vary from American, Chinese, English, Indian, Japanese, Moorish and Russian. So you can savor one of their many teas that accompany food from the same region.
This is the view from in front of the restaurant. There is indoor and outdoor seating available though I doubt the outdoor service is available at this time of year. The reflecting pool I saw once on an episode of Animal Cops SF. There was a seagull that had fishing line tangled around it's feet so the Animal Control officer had to go wading to catch and release the bird. It was a happy ending so that's all that mattered.
I forgot my camera the last time I went so a big thanks to my pal Carl for letting me use his to take the tofu burger and cityscape shots!
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