Eatery - Teaism (DC)

400 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20004 (Neighborhood: Penn Quarter)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - Asian Fusion, Teahouse
www.teaism.com

Since my priority for the DC trip was to go see the Art of Video Games exhibit, my first planned place to eat was to be nearby. Teaism caught my eye with its afternoon tea special that others on Yelp had talked about so we went for that (which is from 2:30-5:30).


The inside was quaint and had their multitude of teas up top to look over. Luckily, my friend knew that he wanted green tea so our choices narrowed down a lot. Our green tea was their Dragon Well which tasted more herbal than I think my friend liked. We shared the traditional menu (they have an Asian version) for the afternoon tea which came with tea sandwiches, sweets, and a whole pot of tea. Yum!


Let's start with the sandwiches. There was a smoked salmon on that had a bit more mayo on it than I would have preferred. The presentation was nice but the sliminess from the sauce was a little much. The cucumber sandwich was actually fairly good if not substantial. There was ginger in it and what tasted like wasabi so there was definitely some Asian influence there.


As for the sweets, they were impressive. We both especially enjoyed the ginger scone as we hadn't heard of or had one before. There were fresh pieces of ginger inside! The lime curd tartlets had a tasty curd as well as hardy tart shell. Then there were the white chocolate truffles covered in matcha powder - these were delightfully smooth and good. It's hard to pick a favorite amongst any of the sweets because even their cookies were delectable. It was a well-put together shortbread that was light and had a lot of texture from chocolate chips and perhaps nuts? It was a good experience - I'd definitely want to come back next time I'm in DC, especially to browse their attached tea shop!