Kusmi Tea

Kusmi Tea opened its first store in North America about a month and a half ago. Montreal happens to be the lucky city :)
The shop is on St Denis in between Roy and Duluth.

In terms of decor, the place is very Ikea - white walls, white tables, white shelves, white floors. Pretty much like David's tea, though the layout is different.
The lady was very nice and helpful. You are allowed to help yourself to the canteens to smell the teas and pick whichever ones you want. So you can both sit & drink tea and buy tea. They also have some little snacks if you want.

I had the Christmas tea and Paw had a different one (the name of which, unfortunately I forgot. We went two tuesday's ago). I just remember hers was a green tea.

Now, I haven't really had much Kusmi Tea in the past (I don't buy it, though it is available in some stores like La Vielle Europe and Exofruits).
I tried both my tea and Pamela's tea. I would say they were generally okay. They definitely have a very strong tea taste with only a hint of additional flavoring. But, in a way, because it's so expensive, I guess I was expecting it to be better.

The shop is a great place for gifts, being that the tea is so pricy. The canisters are very decorative, as are the teacups and tea sets. There are also coffrets available with an assortment of various teas, including their exclusive blends (of which the Christmas Tea was a part of). In addition, they have some other tea accessories, like fillable fabric tea bags (unfortunately, one use only - well multiple infusions, but you can't use it again). What's cool is that the price for their bags is cheaper than at David's tea, which is suprising considering that everything else is so expensive.

Anyways, I'm glad I tried out Kusmi Tea. I'm not sure I'll go and buy tea there for myself, as it's not my favorite thus far, but I'd definitely go back when gift shopping :)