Amanzi Tea

A nice little oasis in the middle of the city. Went here after going to Selfridges. Its a quick walk from that area, but feels like it is a world away. The woman behind the counter had lovely recommendations for tea. If you love tea, but dislike coffee, and have always been jealous of all the coffee based drinks, here you will be able to find those types of drinks but based on tea.
Would recommend, downstairs there is a cute area of couches and tables. It is worth waiting at the group table for these. Seriously makes you feel like you are not in Central London anymore. Great place to sit and chat for several hours.

The wide selection of teas to choose from at Amanzi puts coffee shops to shame. There’s a wide variety of herbal teas, loose-​leaf, brewed lattes, and even bubble teas to choose from. Hot teas are around 1.75, and the staff was extremely friendly, and willing to give suggestions.
The atmosphere here is great. The inside of the café has a sleek, modern, trendy feel to it, and there is plenty of seating (including a few outside tables).
The bubble tea is a refreshing treat, and comparable to anything you’d find in Chinatown, both in price and quality. Each bubble tea costs 3.75, which in my opinion, is well worth it.

I come here just for their green matcha latte.
Friendly staff, wifi, cozy sitting in the basement and tasty-​looking pastries (never tried any so far)!
Pros: You can choose your milk amongst a wide variety (skim, semi-​skimmed, whole, almond or soy).
Cons: Price is a bit high. Can be loud.
In a nutshell: great tea shop

Okay forget all the bubble tea places in China town, this is honestly the best bubble tea in London in my opinion.
They give you so many tapioca pearls its like a meal in itself! And the tea is ice blended frappé, which so awesome during the heatwave and also means that there are never lumps or unmixed bits.
The staff there are always super friendly and service is quick. I love all the teas that are on display and would love to have the time to browse but I’m always nipping there for a quick tea break during the day at work.
Definitely try the honeydew with tapioca, it’s my fave.

«I wanna get freaky with you.»
Have I got your attention?
‘Cause tonight I wanna get freaky with you.“
I was a bit surprised to hear this little diddy by Silk (90’s?) running as the soundtrack as I entered Amanzi Tea. It didn’t stop me from singing along in my head as they made me a super iced roobios passion fruit tea.
And…its now been stuck in my head since I visited 2 days ago. Catchy tune eh? ;)
*Service was lovely.
*Bubble tea! All green tea frappé based.
*Plenty of options, including what they can do iced (thank God, this heat).
*Some nice outside tables
Overall great, silky experience that put me in the mood for… tea. Tea, of course.

First thing that comes to mind is yummy! The Amanzi teas smell good enough to eat. I am usually not a fan of flavored teas, but with the delicious scents of roasted almond, lemongrass and coconut and vanilla chai, I almost bought the whole store. I was hogging jars of tea like an animal thinking food will run out of the world if its not eaten now.
The shop and café its self is not that impressively decorated. Its a bit minimalist and perhaps loud. There are not that many seats, so not the place to park yourself for a full day with the computer. Having a cup of tea at the café is very reasonably priced with portions like Starbucks coffees, a regular cup of tea is already generous, not to mention when ordering a grande. In addition to a large selection of regular tea they have a set of other tea-​inspired drinks: frappes, lattes, smoothies, virgin cocktails and my favorite, bubble teas (a blend of exotic tea with popping bubbles or tapioca pearls). I went for a regular tea this time (or two), but I can just imagine how nice it will be in the summer to sip on a Lychee Mar-​TEA-​ni or sparkling iced tea. The café also has a selection of yummy pastries and croissants to have on the side.
The shop part of the café is nicely separated from the people sitting and having their teas. So everyone can browse and sip in peace. There is a wall of tea where you have the selection laid out. Each flavor is sold both as loose leaf and bags, and you have a tester jar to soak in the scent properly (I don’t prefer if people fiddle and sniff the jars that are for sale).
The staff at the café were very nice, clearly tea-​enthusiasts. When they saw us browsing around vigorously, they came with tasters of both warm and cool teas. They also gave good advice on how to prepare the tea, and I love that also the packaging (that is btw. very nice, something to lay out on your kitchen table) explains dosing, brewing temperature and time. The selection varies with seasons, so you can be sure to find me there again.

I’m a self-​confessed tea snob, so this might get a little nit-​picky.
Ambience: Amanzi has kind of an IKEA feel to it. This is not your grandma’s tea room. Upstairs has the loose leaf tea selection on display for your sniffing pleasure. They also had a number of samples to try today. The staff are almost too helpful, I just wanted to browse and got accosted by three different people while trying to read the descriptions of the teas. Downstairs is a lovely sitting area with couches and chairs. The wooden chairs were a little uncomfortable, though. Not terribly cosy or good for long chats.
Menu: Pretty decent tea list. Definitely better than many I’ve seen in London. If you really like herbals and blended teas, you’ll love it. I wasn’t impressed with their straight tea selection. No Taiwanese Oolongs, only two traditional Chinese Oolongs, and a solitary white tea. This makes me one sad panda, because I LOVE a great loose leaf Chinese green, and they are seriously lacking. Lots of fruit + tea blends, a good list of bubble tea flavours (I detest bubble tea, so I didn’t try any), and they also serve coffee if you’re not a tea person, but it is going to be 2 quid for a small Americano.
Teas: The actual teas themselves were pretty good. I tasted the Yerba Mate with Caramel (⁷⁄₁₀), Passion Fruit herbal (⁷⁄₁₀), Thai Green (⁵⁄₁₀), and Spiced Chai Latte (⁸⁄₁₀). I ordered a Spiced Chai Latte and was pleased, but it wasn’t the best I’ve had. It also appeared to have been made from a powdered mix, which was disappointing. I expect better from a tea room. I bought the Roasted Almond herbal blend to take home because it’s unique and smelled lovely. A bag of 18 pyramid tea bags was 7.99, so not cheap, but we’ll see if it was worth it.
Food: I was pretty hungry, and their site mentioned sandwiches, so I thought lunch was a possibility. Not so much. The sandwiches looked small and pretty unexciting, so I opted for a Goat’s Cheese Brioche instead. It was really tasty, but not filling and not what I was hoping for. The pastry selection was awesome, though, so while I don’t suggest it for a meal, it’s great for a small snack.
I plan to go back and try them again for a pot of Oolong or Assam and a pastry, but I really wish they had more in the way of traditional Chinese teas. I was sorely disappointed by the emphasis on blends with fruit and stuff in them. The staff was also very friendly, but not terribly knowledgeable, which was also a bit of a let down. It cost us about 13 pounds for two small Chai lattes and two brioches. Not cheap, but about on par with the area.

Amanzi Tea is a nice change from the usual coffee shops you may find. While they do do coffee, it seems a bit silly as they have a massive selection of teas. The place also feels a bit new agey, so if you’re not into that, this place might not be for you.
I had the Lapsang Souchong because I’m a huge fan of smokey teas. And the tea was glorious. And they don’t care if you just order a tea and chill and drink it and read and waste some time while you’re waiting to meet up with some friends for dinner.
They have a massive selection of teas, so I’m looking forward to going back and trying a few more!