Not a coffee lover? Read on to discover some of the best tea houses in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand!
Honestly, starting to look for tea houses in Chiang Mai might a bit challenging. Thai people do not drink tea that much, although they grow it. Then, considering this, to open a tea house for the westerners, who, accordingly to massive amount of cafés in the old city, prefer coffee and sandwiches, is basically a bit of a mad decision for potential businessmen.
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Best tea houses in Chiang Mai
Siam Seladon Raming
Location: 158 Tha Pae Rd
An elegant and bright place with a small shop of traditional ceramic in the front part and a nice garden in the backyard, with French chansons floating in the air. It’s more a place perfect for a European breakfast than for Asian tea.
The tea list contained just a few choices without specifying which kinds of tea they were. Although the staff was very kind, they couldn’t tell us more about the tea we asked for. The taste of white and jasmine tea we ordered was mild and delicate, though.
Planning your trip to Thailand? Check out our detailed posts!
- Where to Stay in Chiang Mai: The Best Hotels and Neighborhoods
- Things to Do and See in Chiang Mai
- Bangkok Tips: How To Survive Your First Time in the Capital of Thailand
THAILAND INDEPENDENTLY: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE
Vieng Joom On
Location: 53 Charoenraj Rd
If you are more into luxurious and fashionable interiors, then the next place is what you will appreciate a lot. The Vieng Joom On is one of the most stylish tea houses in Chiang Mai, often called a Pink Tea House in Chiang Mai. Here, either you relax indoors on comfortable sofas, surrounded by shiny boxes of tea and some accessories to prepare tea, or you might be more pleased to sit on their patio outside.
Maybe you would even like to choose a romantic table for two just next to the Ping River. The staff is very kind, and as we were the only early customers that day, I personally had a feeling like there was a movie shoot going on with two people on the scene and the crew running around them.
The tea was served in a manner totally matching the milieu, with style and grace, accompanied by jazz music. Together with a good selection of teas, you might fancy ordering appetizers, salads or desserts that are fresh and remarkably tasty. The place is a bit pricey, but how many times in your life have you had your dessert spoon and fork wrapped in a pink bag? Worth the visit.
Check out some great tours in Chiang Mai:
- Chiang Mai: Authentic Thai Cooking Class & Local Market Tour
- Chiang Mai Local Village Exploring with Weaving Experience
- Chiang Mai Lunchtime 20 Dish Food Tasting Tour
Tichaa
Location: Nimmanhaemin road, Soi 17
The next place we discovered randomly was the Tichaa. Although it is not a proper tea house, as they focus mostly on tisanes and beauty products, it is worth the visit if you are keen on herbal infusions and fashionable interiors. You can find a decent choice of tisane, in combination with essential oils, too. We went for red roasted rice & white mulberry tisane and ginger & white mulberry tisane.
The taste and fragrance were indeed unique, especially of the first one. The staff is polite, filling your pot with additional hot water just before you reach the bottom of your first pot. All in all, the ambience and tea went well together.
The place is furnished in style, with massive wood pillars, stone floor and richly embroidered pillows all around. Nice jazz music at the background. You need to be a fan of this particular style of place to enjoy it.
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19 thoughts on “Best Tea Houses in Chiang Mai”
Great post. Heading to chiang mai around April, 2014 timeline and will definitely check a few out. You should keep posting “tea tours” – super cool and unique!
This one sounded the best to me: “Masala Chai with coconut milk and Ginger tea with spirulina powder, lime and honey.”
Did you guys practice yoga at the tea houses who offered?
Hi Brandon, happy to hear you are planning to come to SE Asia!
Thanks for encouragement, we will definitely do our best to see as many tea houses in each city as possible, since we are big tea lovers 🙂
We practice yoga at Sati – the art of Tea and Yoga. Mrs Echo, the instructor, owner of the Sati and tea-artist is an amazing lecturer, with deep focus and willingness to help and support each practitioner. She does Hatha yoga, Mon-Sat 8.30-10.00.
The room for yoga is very cosy. There are usually +- 5 people at the lesson.
ps: for now she is also looking for a person to lead evening class, so you guys may keep in touch with her once you are here 🙂
let me know if you need more details.
Despite of having lived in Chiang Mai for over a decade, I only knew the pink tea house on the river. That’s a great list and I will definitely check the other tea houses out!
We are very happy the list is useful. Actually, there are couple of more of them that we found after we had post the list.
Hope you enjoy the tea in any of them. They are worth of visit as each of them is particular, depends what ambience of tea house you prefer 🙂
This is wonderful and so helpful for me. I arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday and woke up today asking the very question: where are good tea houses around here? Most people pointed me to coffee shops that served instant teas. Which I enjoy the environments of…but not what I am looking for.
And then I found your rundown. Wow. Thank you!
If you know anyone is in the area and would like to tour about with me; send them my way. I am excited to explore and try these places out. Thanks again.
Hi Rob,
Glad you have found the post helpful. We loved our tea tour! Depends what you are looking for, but the most genuine tea house with a real tea artist is definitely at Sati. It might be a bit tricky to find it, but worth to try. If you have any difficulty, please, feel free to contact us so we can put you in touch with the owner who can help you with the navigation.
Regarding the travel fellows, unfortunately, almost all of our friends have left the town, but you might try to contact another blogging couple from http://www.groovytale.com/ They should be still in Chiang Mai.
Enjoy your stay and great sipping tea tours 🙂
Great blog. Tea time is happy time 🙂
Hi Sam, thanks, happy to hear you like it.
Yes, tea is the key 🙂
I love tea and, even though I’m more a coffee person, I enjoy drinking my tea too. These places are very nice indeed and I cannot believe we didn’t go to any of them whilst we were in Chiang Mai 🙁
I really like the look of those whole wheat spaghetti with sesame sauce, I think that would have been my pick too! 🙂
Oh, no worry, now you know where to look for them 🙂 yeah, in Tian Zi they prepare fantastic macrobiotic, too; you will love it there!
Thank you so much for this list!! We arrived in Chiang Mai a couple of day ago. After nearly four months of travelling, I’ve missed my favourite tea houses back at home. We will be hunting down at least one of these today!
Hi Karianne, glad you like the post and great to hear you are in Chiang Mai! We’ll be there in a very short time too, maybe we can have a cup of tea there together 🙂
Aaahhh lovely list! Hope to try out a place or two before leaving Chiang Mai. Pink house by the river sounds wonderful! And the cakes! oh yums! Homm looks good..too bad it’s closed.
Thanks for reading, Poh 🙂 Pink House is a chic place, indeed! You really should stop by, guys. And Sati Yoga & Tea House, that’s a Zen “temple”.
Great article, thank you! We actually checked out TianZi tea house a few weeks ago after reading about it here and we loved it. It seems like it has changed a bit though since you went because we were first given a menu with spicy Chinese food when we arrived and we had to ask about their teas instead. The place is so peaceful that it’s still worth the visit.
Aw, sweet! TianZi is indeed a serene place, so happy you enjoyed your tea there!
I love this post! It’s just what I needed. I’m heading back to Chiang Mai in February, all of these spots sound so lovely, I’ll definitely check them out! I’m a hard line coffee addict, a tea house could be the perfect change of pace.
The tea houses in Chiang Mai are really lovely. We highly recommend Sati for good pu-erh tea, yoga, and zen vibes, and Pink house for some chic atmosphere.
Hope you enjoy a cup of good tea there, Natasha!
Visiting the tea houses in Chiang Mai is very much on my bucket list – even more so after reading this. It just sounds lovely!
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