Tea shops in Hawaii

One more post about Hawaii that I almost forgot to share....

Not only are there great places to have a cup of tea in Hawaii, but I was really surprised and a little jealous by how many places I passed that sold tea and tea cups.

One evening while heading to dinner we passed a store called Royal Selection.  I had seen another one earlier that week, but wasn't sure what it was so I didn't go in.  This store had some tea cups in the window so of course I had to go in, and wow.  I could not believe the amount of beautiful dishes they had.  I was so memorized by everything that I spent a good while just looking at everything and completely forgot to take a picture.  If you are in Waikiki and see one of these stores you have to check it out.  They had dishes I have only read about online and have never seen in person before.

Here is a picture from their website to give you an idea of what fun this store is...

Royal Selection Kings Village

The next store I just have to share with you is Lupicia at the Ala Moana Center.  I saw the store from a distance and had no idea what it was, but it looked interesting so I went in.  I was happily surprised to find it was a tea store that sells more than 200 kinds of fresh tea. 

At this point I was in complete heaven and the hubby was being a smart ass saying "see??"...  The store is located on the lowest level outside of the mall, you walk out of the store and you are literally in the parking garage.  It's a very weird setup and when you're in the mall this end looks a little grungy and not very inviting because well its sorta in the garage.  I was going to skip this area and turn around, but the hubby insisted we walk down there just to take a peak and see what stores were on this outside edge.  Well I'm so happy I listened to him.  

Along one wall is the a long line of teas for you to look at and smell.  Once you know what teas you want you can either grab that tea from a display if it's out, or take a piece of paper from the sample area up to counter where they will retrieve it for you.  

I had the hardest time deciding which teas were going home with me.  There were so many yummy ones I wanted to try but only so much room in my suitcase....

I finally narrowed it down to five:

• Muscat Oolong- Full-flavored tea is exquisitely accented with sweet muscat grapes.
• Cookie- Black tea scented with an image of freshly backed caramel cookies. Best served with milk.
• Chocolate & Strawberry Puer- Decadent with chocolate on the nose finishing with the juicy tart flavor of ripe strawberries. 
• Rosé Royal- A black tea with enchanting aromas of sparkling wine and sweet strawberries.  This is their signature tea.
• Thé Au Chocolate- Black tea scented with dark chocolate.  Blended with cocoa nib and cocoa powder

They all sound and smell so delicious.  I can't wait to try them and share with you if they taste as good as they smell