Tea

Dan Cong Oolong Hides in Palos Verdes

Imen Shah
Imen Shah

You never know what culinary pleasures will spring next from our strip malls. L.A. is lucky to have the country’s only outpost for dan cong, a connoisseur’s tea that comes from carefully cultivated individual trees on a mountainside in Guangdong. The L.A. Times was delighted by careful preparations of these loose leaf brews, one made from a 400-year old tree and bursting with “lush…heavy florality.” California’s master of dan cong is Imen Shah of Tea Habitat, whose customers often walk in for tea shop standards, blind to what makes the place special. Speaking with Shah today she says, “many, many more people are coming in now for tastings of specialty teas after this exposure.” Our favorite part of the story is the old L.A. standby that finds Shah’s shop in a non-descript strip mall in Palos Verdes across from T.J. Maxx.

[La Fo Tea Habitat]

Dan Cong Oolong Hides in Palos Verdes