Shinka Tea

This is an excellent tea house and one of my favorite spots on Capitol Hill.
Shinka has a great variety of delicious teas and good service to go along with it. I first discovered this place when I was in grad school and looking for a reasonably quiet non-​library place to study. The tea house has a calm atmosphere with an awesome selection of chill background music to compliment it. The space is very well kept and accommodating with free WiFi, plenty of tables and conveniently located outlets. It’s a great café alternative.
I highly recommend checking out Shinka Tea if you are in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It’s a nice place to meet up with a friend for a chat or to go on your own to work, study, read, write, day dream. :)

Good teas, large tables, free wifi and a quiet, unpretentious vibe. I’ll definitely be back. I’ve finally found my go-​to place to study.

Shinka Tea is where all the Asians in Capitol Hill go to study. This is where you’ll find them. Not at Petes, maybe at Starbucks down the street, but you’ll find the most concentration of us here. Why? Because it’s not infested with pretentious students fighting over outlets and tables. YET.
They have changed quite a bit since my last visit. Upon entrance, there are now two huge shelves on your right bearing a large variety of teas. You can sniff and examine the jars until you find something to match your mood. I picked a Sencha tea and the barista recommended a Pomegranite Sencha tea. The tea was good, but the water was lukewarm. A BIG NO NO for tea!!! The candle that came with the teapot holder barely heated the tea…
The snacks are overpriced. C’mon now… who are you tricking?! Oh, right, your on Capital Hill… but you can’t trick me or my fellow Asians!
However, I can’t deny that you are a great and unique asset to Cap Hill. I will come back for the abundance of tables, outlets, easy access to internet and laid-​back atmosphere.

I always go to the UDist. location because of convenience, but ever since I started drinking ‘hot teas’ I have to-​have to go to the Capitol Hill location. It’s their specialty there, and for good reason. Teas come in a very Chinese-​Taiwanese tea pot that is see-​through and has a little candle underneath. Americans will find it a novelty, but people from Asia will feel at home.
Aside from that, they have a variety of flavors to choose from and the price is very fair. I loved this place before and expressed it in my last review, but I have fallen in love over again after discovering the hot teas.

My friends and I found this place a couple of weeks ago, through Unilocal — to find a place to study/​chill out on a Sunday. Everyone said it was a nice place to study. There were a lot of people there that day but we still managed to find a table to sit at. They have small Asian snacks available (Hi-​Chew candy, one of my faves — also some chips), bao and plenty of drinks to choose from. They also have free wi-​fi! It was working well for a while, but since there were a lot of people there, it kinda burnt out after. I imagine that it works just fine if there aren’t a bunch of people using it.
Service is efficient and friendly!

This is a nice, relaxing place to study (if there aren’t any big groups) with an amazing assortment of teas.
I had the bbq pork bao and the strawberry & black tea smoothie– very pleasing on this sunny Seattle day.
The service was pleasant. Slower service, but only because one or two people were working and they were very friendly.
$ 5 minimum debit/​cc purchase!

Lavender ice black milk tea and wifi to chill music… yes please. This place is delicious. As if that is not enough there is great sticky rice and from the people sitting next to me I hear there are some nice meat filled buns.
A great place to study, read, or chill with friends. And the lady running the place is very nice. Fantastic.

BEST PLACE EVER TO STUDY! Hands down! It is my belief I passed my bar exam because I studied here. It is chill, the people are NICE and its not too loud. They never bothered me here even though I would stay from the time they opened to the time they closed. I would just order a green tea with Boba and write my exams.
I highly recommend this place. They even have sake bubble tea for when you are feeling a bit frisky!

The Japanese minimalist ambiance here is great, and the herbal tea I savored met my satisfaction.
I needed the I-​pod to block out some of the music and chatter as I studied, but, overall, I enjoyed this place. If I’m in the area and need a pot of tea, I will surely stop by here again.

Blah. Boba/​Tapioca places have a long way to go in Seattle.
And I don’t mean this in a bad way either…
Its just that for $ 4.50, I got a relatively small cup of milk tea with really soggy pearls. That’s a little outrageous to me, and the milk tea was just too sweet and not creamy. The pearls were soggy! The WORST thing to happen with tapioca…
The girl was nice, but a little clueless, and the BATHROOM was disgusting and overflowed.
Seems like this is a good study place though, for college students. I felt that Ambrosia Café is a MUCH better place to get your tapioca fix in both taste and price. I wouldn’t come back here, even if i was in the area again…
Go to Ambrosia, and keep some money in your wallet!

Unilocaler buddy and I went trolling on Olive and found a nice sweet spot in front of the bus stop. We had a whole hour to just chill and found this area just sort of relaxing. The cashier was friendly and told us ahead of time that ordering dim sum, which happened to be yummy by the way, would take about ten minutes. I ordered the milk tea, nothing special, it was good.
The tea spot may have had some type of soundproofing glass because I couldn’t hear the busses passing outside, which why the spot may have had a few students studying.
*If you like to study and reading with a side of light snacks and tea, this may be an area of interest.

I only came in to purchase a Matcha Frappé to go, but the girl was attentive and pretty quick. The Matcha Frappé was delicious, it wasn’t overly sweet (like Starbucks’ version), but the ice was pretty chunky. Maybe she was in a rush? I don’t know, it was pretty empty though.
+ Nice interior and they carry Hiroki’s Matcha Tiramisus here.

Dear Companion,
While you were out taking care of my dog today
I went to Sinka Tea and had a Espresso Milk Tea
So warm, so delicious.

This place is my new favorite study spot — it’s quiet, the music isn’t loud and there aren’t obnoxious people talking loudly on their cellphones!
The genmai cha here is delicious — warm and toasty flavored, kind of what I like to drink to warm up my cold, soul-​less heart which school has been slowly destroying with each step that I come closer to graduating.
The only downside is that I wish there were more non-​dairy snack options. The dorayaki (japanese ‘pancake’ with azuki beans) was one of 2 options I was able to eat.
They have a snack menu that is very vegan/​veggie limited, which sucks because if you’re severely allergic to seafood or a totally strict vegan, the shu-​mai might not be a safe bet (cross contamination) and I didn’t see anything I was able to eat on the snack menu with much confidence that I wouldn’t be jabbing myself in the thigh with an epinephrine shot.
When will they build a 15^th Avenue branch? Wah!

When we lived in the U-​District, we really enjoyed going to Shinka to sip tea and read or talk. When the Capitol Hill location opened, we were happy for them. We went a few times and it was a clean, beautiful tea place. However, we went there not too long ago and we were greeted by around 6 people, one of whom gave us two menus and lead us to a table where silverware and cloth napkins strangely rested. HUH? Did we miss something? Are we in a parallel universe?
It seems they were going for a restaurant thing, but we wanted a chill-​out and drink tea kind of a place. We haven’t been back since. Perhaps it was a short, fruitless experiment and we were merely the subjects. We may return one day. ..

Needed a break from all the coffee. Shinka Tea had a great selection. The guy working explained the menu to us and helped in trying to figure out what we might like.
To go along with Tea we also got a couple baos, which were great!
If you need a break from coffee check it out. Or if you are just looking for a different place to sit and enjoy a cup of joe then Shinka Tea is a great place.

I love their vanilla milk tea and their chai frappé.
But caramel, coconut, and probably all of the other flavored milk tea are dominated by over-​pumped artificial flavors. Still, it’s a really cool atmosphere and with a little experimentation you can find what you want.

Shinka tea is finally in Capital hill!
I love bubble milk tea ;-)
Their new drink, Macha vanilla Latte was very yummy.
I know you don’t want a cold drink in winter.
But don’t worry, most of their milk teas can be served hot as well.
I even like hot bubble tea better.
They also have a good selection of Chinese tea.
I think Shinka tea is a good place to try all different oolong teas.
You can get a pot of tea which is good for 2 people or maybe more.
If you need some sweets with tea, mango pudding would be nice.

I have to agree with the last review… I am REALLY happy that Shinka opened their new shop on Capitol Hill. I’ve heard of Shinka before, but I’ve never been to their store in the U District.
I really love Starbucks (and other coffeehouses too), but Shinka is more my style. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but I drink green tea like it is going out of style.
Shinka has every variety of tea imaginable, especially green teas — sencha, matcha, genmaicha, gunpowder, etc. I’m not a fan of heavily floral or herbal teas, but if you like those, Shinka has your flavor too.
For coffee drinkers, they can set you up as well. Unlike any other coffeehouse I’ve seen, Shinka also serves Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk. You got to try it!
The eats at Shinka are great too. I had a mango pudding that really hit the spot. All of their pastries definitely have an Asian influence. Got to love the mochi and Pocky!
I love the large interior of this place… Lots of space. Lots of seating and it’s quiet (unlike the busy Starbucks just up the street).
FREE, SECURED WI-​FI TOO!

I have to go back there!
Today was their opening. I didn’t know. I just walked by looking into the café thinking,“Was this here before,?” Then saw a friendly looking girl waving us «Come on in!» with a smile. So, even though we just had late brunch and super full, we stepped inside. Good decision!
The place has bubble tea. Really good ones. We sampled cold Ti Kuan Yin with milk and tapioca. They told us that they don’t use powder stuff, it must mean something superior because it was tasty! The tapioca was smaller which was really nice. I never knew that!!!
We also sampled fruit smoothie thing which was pretty good. Tasted natural. «Honest and good» kind of flavor.
What else do they have…
Free WiFi!
Good interior. Nice Asian feel. Not over done. Many seating with tables.
Some delicious looking Rolled Cake. Different colors… green, light and dark. (I know I will have to try them all)
Friendly stuff.
Pocky (different flavors) and other snack.
Daifuku (Azuki ball covered in Mochi)
Frappes
Hot teas
I’m very happy that they opened the shop in Capitol Hill :)
They have one in U district according to their business card.