January 26, 2008
Smith & Hsu
Excellent whole-leaf tea and fresh baked goods served on stylish chinaware.
The fancy tea shop opened a while back right on the bustling 忠孝東路 near Exit 1 of the Taipei City Hall subway station. We pass by a number of times but never quite had the time to step in to check it out. Finally we had a dreary Saturday afternoon with nothing to do and a spot of afternoon tea seemed like just the thing.
The small store is made smaller split in half with one half acting as the showroom for their selection of high-end tea and teawares, while the other half contained a row of heavyset tables and designer rattan chairs for the teahouse crowd. On this gray day, the bright halogen spots was a fair substitute for the ray of sunshine.
There's a wide variety of black, green, and herbal teas on tap from their extensive catalog and various light pastries and sandwiches for accompaniment. The signature fresh-baked scones was a must, and we also picked a slice of thick-set apple pie.
The apple pie was pretty good but it seems to have been sitting in the cold case for a while. On the other hand, the warm scones had that fluffy texture that only comes with freshness. The scones came with small dishes of fruit jam (your choice of flavors) and clotted cream for that perfect extra touch to go with my Darjeeling tea. The pot contained delicate whole leaf in a removable filter basket to prevent over-extraction. The SO had some herbal tea mix which had an interesting flavor and is probably good for you but it sure doesn't taste anything like Camellia sinensis.
For the price of tea and cake we could've gone around the corner and got a couple of big fat 便當 meals to go. But there's something to be said for nice furniture, too. The wife was happy, so that's good enough for me.
Smith & Hsu
台北市忠孝東路五段33號
No.33, Section 5, Zhong Xiao East Road, Taipei
02-2747-4857