A visit to Wistaria Paris

[buullon]

Hello everyone,

I recently visited Wistaria in Paris, the branch famous teahouse in Taiwan. I thought I might as well share my experience for the people interested.

Their teahouse is at Rive Gauche in Paris, easily accessible. After a short walk from the closest underground station, you arrive at the elegant front store.

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I got inside, I went right after lunch during week days, it was very quiet. The staff recommended Taiwanese oolong, since they're from Taiwan. I asked about Puerh, since I had heard and tasted some already, but they seemed to favor oolong. Which is fine by me

I chose their Oriental Beauty, and brewed it as suggested. Boiling water from a cast iron kettle, porcelain teapot, 100°C and 40s. for the first steep, followed by 20s. for the second steep, and increment by 10s. I just did as I was told, because I wanted to taste their "expression" of the tea.

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The tea was really great. I don't have much experience with Oriental beauties, but this was fruity, punchy but very comfortable to drink. It also brewed until tasteless without any off/stewed taste. Drinking tea in that teahouse was a very relaxing experience. They let you handle very nice teaware, you'll have a hotplate, a cast iron kettle at your side. They also provide a waste bowl, and a teaboat for the teapot. The teaboat and waste boal were great Chinese antiques as you can see in the picture.

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During longer steep, it was easy to get up and look around, the teahouse is wonderfully decorated, the furniture looks good and is very comfortable. There are various books (in French, English and various other languages) And there are antique and modern teaware in a few corner of the place. There seemed to have antique (I included Yixing from the 80s as antique, eventhough the owner seemed to disagree ) And a few modern pieces from Taiwan and Japan.

I strongly recommend people visiting the place if they have the occasion. Price wise, it ok, not cheap, not expensive. I paid 18€ for the Oriental Beauty in-house session, and then I bought 50g for home, 29€.

I did had 1-2 other tea experience elsewhere if people are interested.

[Bok]

Sounds like it is pretty close of an experience to the original. Not bad to have an actual Teahouse in Paris. Although I would call it Foreigner-famous only hehe...

Interesting that they promote Oolong more, they are more known for their Puerh collection. The owner is said to have the biggest stash of old Puerh cakes of Taiwan, sold a house and almost ruined himself along as hearsay has it.

Maybe the rising prices have made it un attractive to further sell too much of it, possibly not acceptable for the Western market? They'll make a better profit if they slowly auction it off. Or the Frenchise (lol) does not get access to the old man's stash.

[buullon]

Interesting, I was not aware of their Puerh history, I just knew they had a few popular cakes.

I remember seeing Qing Teng and a quite old puerh on the menu. And a big box of loose qing teng was lying around. I know a few people who bought a cake as well.

I should have asked. They were pretty open to conversation

[Bok]

As far as I am aware, the more top shelf stuff is only available on requestin the Taipei shop, sometimes only in a private tasting. Did you go to the Maison des trois Thés as well? First generation to open up the minds of the Parisians to decent loose leaf tea (without rose petals

[buullon]

Yes! Right after Wistaria! Sadly I could not sit in to have tea because it was in the area where strikes were happening.

But I bought some tea, a shuixian and a roasted tie guan yin (Taiwanese). I still stayed nearly an hour. They showed me some of their new harvest greens, a line of porcelain teapot (big size) designed by Ruyi and the owner. From what they said, Ruyi is a big porcelain brand in Asia, but I could not find much online. And they shared a few pictures of tea tasting with Chinese officials at the Elysées, and their puerh storage in Paris.

The whole conversation felt a bit like marketing talk, but it was still a nice visit.

[Bok]

Interesting. I’ve never been, wasn’t as far in my Tea education when I lived there. But it’s been recommended to me by expat Taiwanese. Heard the owner is kind of a “strong” character.

[.m.]

They have just added an online store to their website https://wistariaparis.com/

[teatray]

Tried them before the website was up (mail order via email/bank transfer). They didn't offer some of the stuff, like Ancient Heights, that gets recommended here (it's only available at their main store in TW). I didn't have high hopes of getting something phenomenal, but ordered b/c they're in the EU. Importing from Taiwan carries the risk of customs hassle in my EU country (Bulgaria). Sometimes I'm too busy/tired to take it & just want a package to appear at my door/post office in a few days. I hoped they could become my go-to place for such cases, even if I had to pay more than usual while not getting something special qualitywise. Unfortunately, I was not happy with the teas. They also took 8 days to ship via the slowest method, while charging €25 (stuff that may have improved).

I don't remember the Dong Ding, but the Lishan & BZ seemed stale & unpleasant. I did finish the BZ, concentrating on the remembrance of flavor it contained. It was obvious it was pretty nice once. I couldn't drink the Lishan, even though I didn't have many TW oolongs at the time and felt like drinking exactly that. Found its pack while tidying up a few days ago and gave it another try before throwing away. I remember questioning my senses (do I have covid?) but a vacuum-packed order arrived from Taiwan shortly after, and I could compare: it seemed a world apart. The Wistaria Paris packs seem luxurious at first (thick metallic foil with a convenient opening "zipper") but the actual tea inside is in separate unlabeled plastic pouches & not under vacuum.

Obviously, a sample size of 3 (or 2, if the DD pops up unopened somewhere) shouldn't convince anybody one way or another, but if you decide to try, I'd suggest a smaller order (& posting here about it). Hopefully, my experience was an exception and I'll see enough positive ones to give them another try sometime.

[Bok]

but the Lishan & BZ seemed stale & unpleasant. I did finish the BZ, concentrating on the remembrance of flavor it contained.

That was my exact experience with their Gaoshan years back in the original shop in Taiwan(and before it was sold to someone else, so still original ownership). They are know for Puerh, so it is probably best to stick to that. Although not sure how much access they have to the stash of the founder, and what kind the franchise, or shall I say frenchise, in Paris gets.

These days it seems Wisteria is getting by with exhibitions more so than being a focus point for tea itself.