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Murchie's Tea and Coffee

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girlfromals
girlfromals
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
4
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Murchie's Tea and Coffee

  • April 10, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by girlfromals from Ottawa, Ontario
Murchie's Tea and Coffee

I had a few hours to explore Vancouver and was thumbing through the Vancouver tourist guide provided in my hotel room. I came across an ad for Murchie's Tea & Coffee and decided to check it out. I walked the few blocks over to their Vancouver location and immediately got lost in all the tea choices!

Murchie's began operations in 1894 out of New Westminster, British Columbia, delivering tea and coffee in Canada. It definitely caught the eye of the British Royal family as Murchie's developed a number of unique blends for certain royals, including Queen Victoria, after whom these blends are named. Murchie's also developed blends unique to certain hotels, like Victoria's Empress Hotel whom they supplied with their Empress Afternoon Blend from 1972 to 2001.

The Vancouver location of Murchie's has a very calming modern atmosphere, decorated in sage and eggplant. Surprisingly, it is also spacious giving you lots of room to walk around perusing all the choices of tea, coffee, and hot chocolate on sale. I actually had expected a cramped store with tons of high wooden cabinets full of little drawers holding special and rare varieties of loose tea!

I was not bothered by nosy staff and was instead allowed to look at the multitude of choices available and make up my own mind. In reality, there are almost too many choices available but I managed to narrow it down based on ease of travel. Instead of choosing one of the many prepackaged gift selections, I decided to pick up 4 packages of 12 tea bags each in 4 different varieties. At only $3.99 Cdn each, these were a good deal for high quality tea. I toyed with getting a really nice tin of hot chocolate as a thank you present for someone but decided to pick up some tea here and some chocolates elsewhere instead.

When I was ready I headed to the large counter at the back of the store where they keep the loose and rare varieties of tea. I did not have the time to stop at the small restaurant at the back for a sandwich or a cup of tea as I had to catch my flight home. But I did notice that all the tables were full even after the lunch hour rush was over.

One year after picking up my deliciously smelling tea I still have most of it. Sadly, I do not have a proper tea pot so I save it for special occasions. But if I did manage to make my way through it in a hurry, I could always order online for about the same price as the tea is available in the store.

Murchie's is open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 6pm.

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