Tea Mansion | DuPont Circle | Washington DC — Restaurant in Washington

Supremely confused by this place. A few years back, this storefront was occupied by "Capital Teas", the now largely defunct (all stores are closed but there's an online presence), tea retailer. Here's the thing: I walked in the other day and the new store was identical in layout, even most of the tea brands were virtually the same.

This location also has similar flaws. Don't go in expecting a cup of tea - they can do that but this is mostly loose leaf retail. The tea is pretty high quality, but prices are not clearly marked sans an impossibly small sign in the corner, leading to some sticker shock at the register. Expect a hard sell and heavy handed sales as a result. It appears as though the owner really likes going after negative reviewers, which was a staple of the old company as well. Overall, it's a bad experience, and if it is the same company, I'm curious why they brought back this failed retail model -- though my understanding is that the Dupont location was pretty successful.

Looking up the company history, there's no evidence that is the same company as Capital Teas or an offshoot, but seems seems very, very off here. Maybe the company would like to give an...

Tldr: Expensive and non-traditinal. I was a little underwhelmed by this place, but I think my expectations were off. They have a decent variety of tea, though a lot were diet-based like detox and weight conscious teas, which felt out of place in the kind of tea shops I like. There were zero prices on anything I could see, so I was utterly shocked when I was rung up and owed $75 -- and that was after the buy-one-get-one-40%-off deal was applied. One 8oz bag of "Jasmine peach splash" was $50, and a bag of 8oz Japanese Cherry Blossom was $50, which just feels overpriced. Maybe I'm spoiled but I've had some amazing tea for less than half that price. The cherry blossom tea is the "official" green tea used here during the DC cherry blossom festival. Both teas are good but had I known their cost ahead of time, I definitely wouldn't have bought them in such volume. Also, understandably during these here COVID times, they aren't serving any tea or boba at the moment, so I purchased...

I have a vast collection of teas ranging of all different varieties so I was excited to visited this establishment during my trip to D.C. and I was drawn to this place because of the impeccable aesthetic and layout of this shop as well as the extensive and creative selection of teas paired with some fantastic names. I was in the mood for an herbal tea, so I selected two I thought would be amazing, at least from the aroma. However I was met with dismay and grief over the appalling sweetness that originated from this misleading tea. I have had adequate experience with herbal teas and have never come across a tea with so much sweetness it’s as tho they laced it with a pound of sugar. And I am no longer in D.C. to address my dissatisfaction in person. Money is no object when it comes to good tea. But this is practically overpriced sugar. I even tried several different brewing methods to try and cut the sweetness with no prevail. Such a shame, I thought I had found...