Stillwater Tea Room · Vine Street, Berkeley Reservations encouraged for the ceremony hours · open Wed — Sun The kettle is on at 10:30

№ 04 Vine St · Berkeley CA · since 2017

A room for tea & for the slowness it asks for.

Single-origin teas from small farms in Yunnan, Uji, Darjeeling, and the Wuyi mountains. Brewed gongfu-style at the table, in clay pots, over many short infusions. No phones at the bar. No music after 4 PM.

Reserve a sitting → See this week's pourings

Tea being poured from a ceramic teapot into a small cup

— Pouring this week —

Six teas, brewed gongfu.

The list is short by design. We pour each tea over five to eight short infusions; you stay as long as the leaves give.

Yiwu Sheng '21Yunnan, China · raw pu-erh

Stone-pressed, four-year aged. Forest floor, plum skin, a long sweet aftertaste that builds over the third infusion.

Brew90°C · 5 sec

$ 22per sitting

ii.

Da Hong Pao '24Wuyi rock · oolong

Rock-mineral and a roasted cocoa core. From a 60-year-old garden on the Tongmu cliff. Holds eight infusions, deepens through them.

Brew95°C · 8 sec

$ 28per sitting

iii.

Gyokuro AsahiUji, Japan · shaded green

Shade-grown twenty days. Umami-rich, marine, almost broth-like in the first pour. We serve it at 50°C, with two cups so it cools properly.

Brew50°C · 90 sec

$ 26per sitting

iv.

Jin Jun MeiTongmu · black

Made only from the very first leaf-buds of spring. Honeyed, soft, almost dessert-like — no bitterness, ever.

Brew90°C · 6 sec

$ 24per sitting

Castleton SFDarjeeling, India · first-flush

Pluck of March '25. Bright, muscat-y, the famous "champagne" character. Drinks best on its own, after lunch.

Brew85°C · 60 sec

$ 18per sitting

vi.

Bai Hao Yin ZhenFuding · white

Silver-needle buds, hand-picked in three days each spring. Cucumber, melon, the faintest honeysuckle on the back palate.

Brew75°C · 90 sec

$ 20per sitting

On the ceremony.

A sitting is not a transaction. You come in, you take off your coat, you sit at the bar or at one of the four low tables. We pick a tea with you — or we ask you to pick one based on a feeling — and we brew it at the table.

Each tea is poured five to eight times. Every infusion is different; the second pour is rarely the same as the first, and the fifth is sometimes the best. We ask you to drink slowly, and to notice.

You do not order food during a sitting. You may order a small sweet — usually a single piece of mochi or yokan — at the end. That is the room.

i.The warming. The pot, the cups, and the fairness pitcher are warmed with hot water. Discard.

ii.The rinse. The leaves are awakened — a short five-second steep, discarded — and you smell the wet leaves.

iii.The first pour. Short. Bright. Drunk in three small sips, no more.

iv.The body. Pours three through six. The tea opens, sweetens, sometimes turns. Notice the differences.

v.The end. When the leaves give up, we offer to brew a second tea, or to bring you the bill.

A dark, cracked ceramic gaiwan tea bowl with lid and saucer, evoking the ceremonial gongfu brewing setup

— The rhythm of a day —

Three windows. One door.

Morning

The first quiet hours

10:30 — 13:00

The bar is open seating. Walk in. We pour with less ceremony in the morning — order at the counter, take it to a table. No reservations needed.

Afternoon

The ceremony service

13:30 — 17:30

Reservations only — sittings are 75 minutes. Two seatings at the bar, four low tables. This is when we brew gongfu-style at the table.

Evening

The cellar evenings

18:00 — 20:30

One night a week (Friday). A flight of aged teas from the cellar — usually three sheng pu-erh from one mountain across three decades. Eight seats only.

The first sip of the Yiwu was forest. The third was a pear. The seventh, somehow, was a song my grandmother used to hum. I have not had an afternoon like it in years.

— J. Watanabe · The Bay Area Book Review

Come sit.

Reservations open two weeks ahead, on Sundays at noon. The ceremony service usually fills the same day. Walk-ins are always welcome in the morning.

Reserve a sitting → Gift a cellar evening