Location, location, location. I only know this tea shop because its front opens almost immediately onto one of the exits from Chinatown MRT station, so it is difficult to miss. Most of their stock is from mainland China, and at SGD 1 each, their porcelain tea cups are the cheapest I've found anywhere in Singapore. The quality is generally poor (you get what you pay for): it is easy to spot defects in the clay and in the glazing; and picking through the baskets for the pieces with the fewest imperfections is a time-consuming task. In my opinion, the quality of the tea cups and other paraphernalia has little or no impact on how I brew my tea, and therefore I buy almost all my porcelain from this shop. The one thing I do not buy here is tea pots, because that does have a significant impact on one's tea-brewing experience. Poking around, I did find some teapots costing between SGD 100 and 500 at the back of the shop (they keep them in a glass cabinet by the cash register), but I have never been brave enough to buy one of these. They seem to do the same for their tea: there is a huge range, but most of it is extremely cheap and really quite shoddy. Again, they seem to have some very expensive stuff at the back of the shop; but again, I've never been brave enough to try. There is nowhere in the shop to sit down and try their tea, and perhaps a sample may have convinced me to trying one of their glass-cabinet teas; but since they do not, I am not taking the risk. The fact that they take cash only and do not accept credit cards, gives me the impression that their more expensive items don't really move.The philosophy of this shop seems to be "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" and that business models seems to have worked, because two years ago they opened another shop on Temple Street, just a few yards away.
Old shop:65 Pagoda Street
Singapore 059224
Tel: +65 6225 8307
New shop:
63 Temple Street
Singapore 058608
Tel: 6225 8308