Capital Teas

Let’s all get oolong!
I’m glad this little joint is around my neighborhood as I love drinking tea. I was looking for a good jasmine tea and the staff knew exactly where to direct me. There are an array of teas mounted on the wall, each signifying a star level (1 being the cheapest and 4 stars being aged for 20 years in the golden forests of rural China wrapped in cocoons and buried underground). #ImNotJoking
TIP: Be sure to try the tea samples. They’re super unique and the staff may have some hidden teas to sample ;)
If you really enjoy the tea and can’t wait to go back and brew the tea yourself, you can order to go drinks! I definitely took advantage of the turmeric rosemary herbal tea. All sorts of tea schwag are located on the left hand side of the store. The OG asian in me always want to purchase a $ 200 tea cup set. One day… One day.
Overall, My experience at Capital Teas has always been great! Definitely stop by here to get the par-​tea started!

The teas here are great! I first went to its Georgetown shop a few years ago with a Groupon voucher. Or was it Living Social? Anyway, the young man there helped me select some very nice teas. I don’t remember their names, but they were good.
The next time I went there I discovered the shop had closed, but the Connecticut Avenue location was open. I go there a lot. Right now I’m enjoying Roasted Almond mixed with Crannyberry. Very tasty!

Amazing teas, friendly and knowledgable staff, and stocked with accessories and gadgets that any tea connoisseur can appreciate. I’d give five stars if the prices were a little more down to earth.

I love this place. They have great teas and they exam not only what they taste like but the benefits of each. Highly recommend. Even the price is decent.

Awful customer service. Acted as if I interrupted them. Iced tea was very good but was very pricy.

Stopped in over the weekend and what a cute shop! I love how organized the shop is and how friendly the sales associates were. I loved how canisters with samples of the tea were on display so you could pick them up and smell them without having to bother anyone. There was a large selection available and they offered some samples in the store for you to try. I selected the creamy earl grey and and the detox tea. The pricing goes by how big of a tin you want and I got the smaller tins which held maybe 4 oz? and it came out to about $ 17 – 18 for each tin. I was a bit disappointed that you could only purchase the teas by tin and not by bags or samples, so I thought it was a bit more pricey in the end, but the teas taste great and I got a very generous amount in the tin (which might I add are very pretty and a great extra to keep your teas fresh!).
As for the teas — the creamy earl grey was certainly different. It was strong with a caramel-​vanilla hint to it which made it yummy and unique. The detox tea was absolutely delicious. I was looking for a detox tea that had some extra citrus flavor with a moderate amount of caffeine, and their detox tea fulfilled all of that! Also, if you buy 8 oz of tea or more (I think) then you get a free cup of tea to go!
I took one star off only due to the limited size options. The quality, however, was excellent and luckily I love both the teas I purchased because you get a ton of it in the tin. The shop also offers a large selection of pots, infusers, and other tea accessories and gifts.

The best customer service I’ve had in a while! I am new to tea and they were so helpful! The sales girl even gave me a sip of what she was drinking. Definitely a customer for life.

Loved this tea shop. They have a fabulous selection of teas, tea pots and decanters. And, the store keep was so personable and helpful. Quality products a plus!

Ever since I was little I’ve been a big fan of teas. I’m pretty sure there’s not too many kids in the early 90s that asked for oolong and roobios for Christmas! Everywhere I go I seek out tea shops and while in DC for business recently I was pleased to meet the folks at Capital Teas.
I can’t remember the name of the gal who helped me. Jamie? Well, we got to chatting and I found out she’s from my hometown (San Diego) and we traded some fun stories and she showed me some of the local faves and went into detail about the key ingredients, vitamins and magic that makes Capital Teas special.
I purchased 2 4 oz tins of Green Goji Superfruit (one as a gift) and a Sailor’s Delight ($ 17.95 each). Jamie also gave me a catalog which I’ll make good use of when ordering online.
Quality tea is a little expensive but worth the investment. Glad I met Jamie and Capital Teas!

I was in DC for three days and specifically sought it this store after seeing it online. I have to say, i was impressed! The staff was friendly (and knew their stuff), the shop looked great and i was impressed with their selections. A bit pricey, but worth it for the quality of the tea your getting. I’d highly recommend stopping in here if your a tea lover! The highlight of my trip.

Knowledgable staff providing great service.
I came to capital teas during a vacation to DC. I was walking around Dupont Circle, feeling a little under the weather, and happened upon Capital Teas by a stroke of luck. The staff helped me to find several teas to help with a sniffly nose and offered samples of a few different varieties. I can’t say enough about how good the service here was. If it had more seating, it would be the perfect place to spend a fall day in DC.
I highly recommend stopping by Capital Teas for a wide variety of fresh, delicious tea.

If you love tea you will definitely love and enjoy this place. Capital Teas have an extensive list of flavored teas, which you can smell. There was so many unique flavors I felt overwhelmed lol. If you want a cup of tea the staff can brew you a cup right there (of course after you have bought it). If only they had a seating area it would make the place even better.

I stopped in here on a business trip because I was in DC for a week and wanted to get some loose teas and filters to keep in my hotel/​office while I was there. It’s a small space, but it has a very good variety of all types of teas.
The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. We spent a few minutes talking about what I usually drink (straight, black tea) and they made a few recommendations, one of which has become my new favorite (Kosabei).
Since I don’t live in DC, I’ve started ordering tea from them online. They always ship orders promptly, and each order actually comes with a hand-​written note saying thanks for the order. It’s just a small thing, but it’s just another level of their great customer service.
I definitely recommend stopping in and talking to them if you’re in DuPont or ordering from them if you’re outside the area.

Capital Teas has bad scented loose-​leaf tea, good expensive tea, and almost nothing in between. Capital has one or two nice teas in each variety, and then a number of flavored or scented ones of which they likely sell much more. The shop is built for the general DC consumer who wanders by, not people who like tea. It’s effectively a local-​chain version of Teavana, or a less-​impressive David’s Tea.
The set-​up is above-​average for an American tea shop; you can smell samples of the teas à la Palais des Thés without feeling overly ridiculous, or worrying that sticking your nose in a full-​sized caddy will make the tea less-​than-​sanitary. The staff seem to know the basics of tea, but their knowledge is not deep. The tea ware was fine, but not extensive; don’t expect yixing pots or gaiwans.
The biggest problem with Capital Teas, though, is prices. While they’re still cheaper than equivalent coffee, their price points are roughly double what is widely available. I’m sure part of that pays their expensive rent, and apparently the rest is funding their rapid expansion. What really irks me, though, is that their less-​expensive teas are almost all scented, and their straight teas cost multiples more. Thus, they are pushing new tea-​drinkers into bad tea, instead of offering affordable step-​up teas.
Given that you can’t smell through the internet, I advocate local tea-​buying, but unless you’ve got excess disposable income — as I suspect they are counting on, given their choices in location — you’re better off saving your money and buying big when you’re in the neighborhood of a better shop.
My recommendations from my search so far: Fang Gourmet Teas in Flushing, Queens for oolong/​pu-​erh/​Chinese/​Taiwanese (well-​worth the trip from Manhattan), and Betjeman & Barton in Paris for black/​Indian/​Sri Lankan. High-​quality Japanese is pretty well-​dispersed, unless you want super high-​quality.

Came in here with two goals, get some good green tea and some non-​caffeinated tea for those days I don’t want to be wired all night. I ended up gettingthe Sinny Tea Sampler Set which fulfilled my request of a green tea and a non-​caffeinated tea. I also picked up a packet of the Tea Lager beer enhancers. They definitely add flavor to any alcoholic drink and I would highly recommend it!
Overall as others have mention, the staff is extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. This place is more of a store than a sit down place for tea, but they do offer free samples or you can purchase a cup of tea. It’s exactly what I want from a store, everything right out in front and no shady packaging done in the back (something that I have been warned about from buying teas in Chinatowns).
Also it’s worth mentioning that their online site offer slightly different teas/​packages that was not offered in the store.

Adorable little tea shop in the heart if the DuPont circle neighborhood. They have a very decent selection of mixed and unmixed teas. The staff is friendly and helpful. If you get 4 ounces of tea you get a free tea box, be warned that this it’s a terribly tempting offer, since they also give you a 2 $ discount if you bring it back for refill.
I tried the Presidential blend and the Talk of the town and I really like them both.

Wall of tea is impressive and a full range of green, white, black and oolong as well as others not easily seen by the passing by eye. This isn’t a sit down environment but more of a shop to get and go but it’s worth the stop for sure.

The prices are about as expensive as their franchised competitor Teavana but I’m going to continue giving them my business even though they are farther from my place than the ten minute walk from my place that Teavana is.
Why? Sure let’s get into the reasons why! First I am not pressured to buy anything or buy more than I would like. Second I like being able to browse and sniff all the teas to my heart’s content and try out the samples, some of which are pretty unique. Creamy iced earl grey? Yes, it’s possible! They also have cool little honey sample straws that you can get for 25 cents each, so cool. The staff is also really helpful and offered me some of the tea that he was drinking when I visited, I like that.
Summed up you get pleasant helpful service that’s unobtrusive, and quality teas and honey/​sugars and you’ll be supporting a small business. What’s not to like? Totally worth the trip out of my normal way!

I’m an avid tea drinker (30+ teas in the cupboard and I’m on Steepster). I’ve visited Capital Teas’ other location in Bethesda and find the Dupont Circle to be a more enjoyable experience. The staff were enthusiastic about their product and knowledgeable about tea preparation. The price point is on par with Teavana, but the staff at Capital Teas won’t push you into buying larger quantities of tea, rock sugar, or cast iron tea pots. If you just want some tea to go, they offer that option. There are three price points, depending on the grade of tea, and they have chai lattes as well. They sell a variety of tea ware by Bee House, an Alice in Wonderland-​themed tea set, and other tea pots and cups.
I only bought two teas today: pumpkin spice (flavored black tea) and lemon drop (tisane). Lemon drop smells super citrussy, like Lemonheads. It’s going to be great when cold/​flu season rolls around. I’m also thinking of blending it with honey to amp up its therapeutic benefits. Right now I’m drinking the pumpkin spice, at midnight, because I’m hardcore like that. It’s good with almond milk and honey. It’s never going to taste like a pumpkin spice latte, but I suppose you can intensify the flavor if you had pumpkin spice syrup.
I also purchased a bar of the milk chocolate flavored with jasmine tea and tangerine orange. I normally am a fan of dark chocolate, but milk chocolate provides a really good canvas for flavor combinations. You can smell the tangerine before you open the packaging. The jasmine tea and tangerine pair really well together. At $ 4, it’s not cheap chocolate, but it’s a better value than the high end chocolates that cost $ 7 – 12.
Anyway, it was fun to shop there, and it felt good to be supporting a family-​owned local (Annapolis) business. Definitely give them your business if you’re in the area.

I spotted this place today, in a spot where there used to be another tea shop which I knew was going out of business when I last was there. So it was a surprise, but when I found out they were actually a new place, unconnected with the old, a pleasant surprise, as places where you can buy quality tea are few and far between. It turns out they have several other stores, one in Bethesda just a short way from one of my other favorite places to buy tea: Zen Tara (see my review). So I’ll probably be there more often than here, as I’m in or near Bethesda a lot more often than in the Dupont Circle area.
They have an amazing variety of teas — many of which are not available anywhere else. I’m partial to fruit flavored teas, and today I got one with figs and cherries. (I’d never seen one with figs before!) And you can smell them all — they have little glass sampler jars in the entry area. The ladies who run the place seem as devoted to tea as my friends at Zen Tara, which means you’ll get quality.
I normally buy tea in 2-​oz. amounts, because I keep a large variety and so 4 oz. would last forever. So I didn’t run into the problems with the tins that other reviewers stated; I was told that if I bought 4 oz., they’d put it in a tin, and when I’d finish with the contents, they’d refill it with any tea (not just the same kind as before) which doesn’t sound like the situation described by the other reviewers, but since I bought only 2 oz., I got it in a bag, and when I got home I transferred the contents to a sealed container as I do with all loose tea I buy — no different from the situation at Teavana, Teaism, or Zen Tara Tea. Thus I don’t understand the quarrel other reviewers had.
The only negative comment I’ve seen in other reviews that I’d echo is that I wish they’d post the prices somewhere. Apparently there is one tea they actually charge $ 100 for 2 oz. of! But the tea I got was $ 9 for 2 oz., and I don’t think that’s so overpriced, as the last time I was at Teavana I bought teas which were higher than that. (The prices for 2 oz. at Teavana ranged from $ 7 to $ 20 — I never buy the really expensive ones, but a lot of the ones I buy are $ 10-​$ 15.)