Recently, I had the opportunity to have a delicious tasting menu at TWG. The store is where Urban Tea Merchant used to be but the space was recently renovated and opened as TWG last December (Georgia/Thurlow)! The store offers a huge selection of loose leaf tea and accessories but you can also sit down to enjoy high tea, full meals and also special set menus!
Currently they are offering the Sakura Tasting Menu which is inspired by the limited edition Always Sakura tea blend and will be available only until early April ($65 for 3 courses + 1 tea). I’ll be sharing some photos of the beautiful food and giving you a bit insight into the menu.
To start off the meal, the soup is a Japanese sweet potato curry with a rice cracker on top that has lobster and asparagus. I thought the whole presentation and use of ingredients was very unique. The asparagus had a wonderful earthy taste and the soup was so delicious and definitely infused with Eastern influence.
The main dish of the night was a duck breast. The full menu description is quite long but in essence it is a chicken breast and two types of fish – cod and kanpachi. The sour cherry sauce on the bottom and the miso carrot puree was the perfect pairing for the meat. I actually don’t normally eat duck but I found the meat to be juicy and tender. There was a bit of mashed potatoes at the bottom and together with the sauce was just heavenly. I scraped this dish pretty clean!
I was already pretty full at this point but I would come back hungry and just start with dessert! This is a chocolate cherry mousse cake with a Sakura tea infused gelato. The inside of the cake was soft and the cherry flavor keeps it from being too rich! I wish I had more room to savor this!
You also can’t forget about the teas that come with it. You can choose from a hot or an iced tea drink. The hot tea is the Sakura Sakura blend which was smooth and elegant. You can definitely smell the floral coming through the green tea but it is still quite traditional. The iced tea is Green Beauty and many of us loved this! I think there was an extra syrup that was added but it was such a lightly sweet and refreshing drink!
Overall I really enjoyed the whole experience and this would be a fantastic set menu for a special occasion! The food was cooked perfectly and presentation was made for the camera! If you are interested in going, the store is open Monday-Sunday from 10am-8pm.
The whole tasting menu is inspired by the Always Sakura blend. This is a green tea blended with Rainier cherry and sweet florals. I thought the taste was very smooth and the floral smell was not overpowering at all. There are full flower buds inside and is beautiful to look t. This retails for $47 and is a limited edition release.
Not all the teas at TWG are this expensive though! You can order TWG online and the price actually varies quite widely. There are many blends that are quite affordable around $9-$12 for 50g which is comparable even to David’s Tea. I recently tried the Follow Me blend which is a green tea with pineapple flavor and super delicious! I’m definitely going to be stalking out more blends and exploring TWG more!
If you like tea, make sure to read about the best places to buy tea in Vancouver! Please check out my other food posts and events around Vancouver!