The Cultural Side of Tea: Musuems

Tea Museums

Most of the museum sites do not provide much content about their collections, but I include them as a resource should you find yourself traveling to the cities where they are located.

Ping Lin Tea Museum. A large site describing the museum with particular attention to Wen Shan Baozhong, a specialty of this region north of Taipei, Taiwan.

Ping Lin - The World's Largest Tea Museum. Article about the museum, the surrounding tea gardens, and the teahouses and related products available in the town nearby.

The China Tea Museum is located in Hangzhou. It is composed of four groups of buildings featuring tea growing areas south of the Yangtse River and five halls of tea history, famous varieties, utensils, customs, and art exhibits. Visited this museum in the spring of 1997 and it was an all day undertaking. Wish I'd had more time.

Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware. Not heavy on content but a reminder that there is such a place, if you are in Hong Kong. When I visited, the museum was being renovated and less than 2% of the collection was available for viewing. Still spent six hours there, mostly on one exhibit that demonstrated the various equipment used in China during each of the dynasties. Highly recommended.

The Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum is located "amongst the atmospheric tea warehouses of Butlers Wharf" in London. Butlers Wharf alone used to handle 6000 chests of tea a day. The museum examines the reasons that tea became so popular, the Boston Tea Party, and the great clipper races of the nineteenth century, among many other tea related topics.

The Cutty Sark. Now, anchored in the Thames in London, the Cutty Sark "is the last surviving example of an extreme clipper built for the lucrative China Tea trade . . . . In her time, no clipper was finer, faster or more famous than the Cutty Sark." The content at the site is rather thin, but the story of the restoration is interesting. The "Tea Exhibition" link is on the blink.

Teekanne Tea Museum. Dusseldorf, Germany. International tea conglomerate Teekanne's in-house museum displaying the Company's role in the history of tea. The development of the teabag, the double-chamber teabag and the automatic and semi-automatic teabag-packing machine are some of the contributions documented in the museum.

Twining Teapot Gallery. The Norwich Castle Museum houses the Twining collection, displaying nearly 3,000 teapots dating from around 1720 to the present day.

Celestial Seasonings. Not really a museum, actually an operating factory, and a popular stop on the Colorado tourist trail. The "tea tour" is fun, as are the relics of hippie-dom upon which the Company was founded.

The following museums have on-line exhibits.

The Tokagawa Art Museum's garden tea houses.

Urasenke Foundation. The Japanese tea tradition tracing lineage back to Rikyu, the man who perfected the style of chanoyu. The Foundation (Zaidan Hojin Konnichian) owns tearooms and a garden, considered the epitome of the rustic, thatched-hut style. The tearooms are designated an historical site and important cultural property. The Urasenke compound is not open to the public, but you can take a virtual tour at this site.

Kyoto National Museum. Located in Japan, this museum has put photos of some of its artifacts on the 'Net. Learn the story of the "Bunbuku" Tea Kettle or see Tenmoku Teabowls and learn about the difference between Japanese and Chinese teabowls.

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I am grateful for the recognition others have given this page. Please see my Awards page.

This site is updated regularly [most recently 11/14/98]. If you have a site you want to contribute, want to suggest a new topic, or just want to talk about tea, please e-mail me [wazee17th@aol.com].

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	*Most of the museum sites do not provide much content about their collections, but I include them as a resource should you find yourself traveling to the cities where they are located.*
	Ping Lin Tea Museum. A large site describing the museum with particular attention to Wen Shan Baozhong, a specialty of this region north of Taipei, Taiwan.
	Ping Lin - The World's Largest Tea Museum. Article about the museum, the surrounding tea gardens, and the teahouses and related products available in the town nearby.
	The China Tea Museum is located in Hangzhou. It is composed of four groups of buildings featuring tea growing areas south of the Yangtse River and five halls of tea history, famous varieties, utensils, customs, and art exhibits. Visited this museum in the spring of 1997 and it was an all day undertaking. Wish I'd had more time.
	Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware. Not heavy on content but a reminder that there is such a place, if you are in Hong Kong. When I visited, the museum was being renovated and less than 2% of the collection was available for viewing. Still spent six hours there, mostly on one exhibit that demonstrated the various equipment used in China during each of the dynasties. Highly recommended.
	The Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum is located "amongst the atmospheric tea warehouses of Butlers Wharf" in London. Butlers Wharf alone used to handle 6000 chests of tea a day. The museum examines the reasons that tea became so popular, the Boston Tea Party, and the great clipper races of the nineteenth century, among many other tea related topics.
	The Cutty Sark. Now, anchored in the Thames in London, the Cutty Sark "is the last surviving example of an extreme clipper built for the lucrative China Tea trade . . . . In her time, no clipper was finer, faster or more famous than the Cutty Sark." The content at the site is rather thin, but the story of the restoration is interesting. The "Tea Exhibition" link is on the blink.
	Teekanne Tea Museum. Dusseldorf, Germany. International tea conglomerate Teekanne's in-house museum displaying the Company's role in the history of tea. The development of the teabag, the double-chamber teabag and the automatic and semi-automatic teabag-packing machine are some of the contributions documented in the museum.
	Twining Teapot Gallery. The Norwich Castle Museum houses the Twining collection, displaying nearly 3,000 teapots dating from around 1720 to the present day.
	Celestial Seasonings. Not really a museum, actually an operating factory, and a popular stop on the Colorado tourist trail. The "tea tour" is fun, as are the relics of hippie-dom upon which the Company was founded.
	*The following museums have on-line exhibits.*
	The Tokagawa Art Museum's garden tea houses.
	Urasenke Foundation. The Japanese tea tradition tracing lineage back to Rikyu, the man who perfected the style of chanoyu. The Foundation (Zaidan Hojin Konnichian) owns tearooms and a garden, considered the epitome of the rustic, thatched-hut style. The tearooms are designated an historical site and important cultural property. The Urasenke compound is not open to the public, but you can take a virtual tour at this site.
	Kyoto National Museum. Located in Japan, this museum has put photos of some of its artifacts on the 'Net. Learn the story of the "Bunbuku" Tea Kettle or see Tenmoku Teabowls and learn about the difference between Japanese and Chinese teabowls.

	I am grateful for the recognition others have given this page. Please see my Awards page.

	This site is updated regularly [most recently 11/14/98]. If you have a site you want to contribute, want to suggest a new topic, or just want to talk about tea, please e-mail me [wazee17th@aol.com].