Our newly established tea shop has been created to provide Central Illinois a place to go to and obtain quality tea and a place to learn and appreciate the benefits that tea provides. We welcome everyone and we look forward to sharing a cup of tea with you.

We offer tea, white tea White Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea, Red Tea, black & Puer tea, Herbal Tea, yixing pots Yi Xing Tea Pots, tea wares and accessories, private gongfu tea and Private Tea Ceremony.

Chinese Tea Classes


The Chinese Tea Emporium not only has rare and wonderful teas, but we will teach you how to brew them properly to extract all the nutrients from those leaves. We offer a four-part series that covers:
Part 1: Black and Red Tea
Part 2: Oolong Tea
Part 3: Green and White Tea
Part 4: Herbal Teas and Tisanes

In each part, we:

Discuss how each tea is processed,
Discuss the Health benefits of each tea,
Instruct how to brew the tea properly in the Chinese Gongfu way,
Provide several samples of the type of tea we carry in-store for you to take home and practice.

The four part series is $100.00. Classes are every Thursay from 6:05 to 8:00 pm. Each month we start a new four-part series.

Walk-ins are also welcome. Walk-in prices are $30.00 per person.

Bonus for our students that paid for the class and attending classes will also receive 15% discount on all purchases in store.

If you have a group that would like to do a class please contact us for the group tea class prices.

The Chinese Tea Emporium carries only high quality tea. Our Green and White are the freshest and our Pu"erh tea is old and smooth. Our Oolongs vary in an array of tastes. We hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.

White teas have arrived! They're wonderful, light and refreshing taste. These teas are high in antioxidant. We usually sell them out quickly, so come and get this treasure before they're all gone.

The leafy buds and sometimes not more than the second leaves are harvested to make white tea. Because the leaves have not fully developed, they have not gone through the photosynthesis process and still retain much of their polyphenols and antioxidants. The harvested leaves then are not processed more than withering and drying to lock in the natual nutrients.

White tea is best used soon after harvesting and processing in the Spring.

Steep white tea in lower temperature (crab eye) so that the antioxidants and polyphenols are preserved.

For purchase inquiries, please call us at 309-556-0135. Thanks.

Anji Bai Cha White Tea Anji Bai Cha White Tea,
$20.00/40 g
Silver Needle White Tea Silver Needle White Tea,
$40.00/20 g

Green Tea (camellia sinesis) has a light and refreshing taste. Like white teas they experience very little processing, therefore the nutrients are unaltered and the high levels of antioxidants are preserved. After harvesting, the leaves are processed by heating, rolling and drying.

Some green tea can be very delicate just as white tea. Steep green tea in lower temperature, from crab-eye to fish-eye stage. Play with the water temperatures and steeping times to achieve different tastes, but be careful not to steep in too hot water or for too long, because it will turn very bitter.
Dragon Well Grade 2 Dragon Well, Grade 2
$45.00/20g
Mao Feng Green tea Mao Feng #2
$22.00/20g
Mao Feng green tea Mao Feng #3
$15.00/20g

Oolong tea comes in quite a large variety of shape, form, taste and smell from processing. The edges of tea leaves (camellia sinesis) are broken to enhance oxidation (enzymatic fermentation). Oolong tea are processed by withering, rolling, heating, and drying.

Because oolong tea straddles green tea and black tea in characteristics, steep oolong tea in different temperatures will draw out different tastes. As the leaves are rejuvenated and unfurled in each successive steeping, you get different tastes. Play with different temperatures and steeping times to fully experience oolong tea.

Drunken Lady Oolong Drunken Lady Oolong
$26.00/45g
Ben Shan Oolong Ben Shan Oolong
$27.00/40g
Iron Buddha Oolong Iron Buddha Oolong
$25.00/40g
Twin Leaf Fresh Oolong Twin-Leaf Fresh Oolong
$22.00/40g

Red tea are tea tips that have been processed by whithering, heating, and drying. When the leafy buds same as white tea such as Silver Needles tea are used, such red tea does not have caffeine either. Red tea provides a wonder energy for the body. Historicaly Martial Arts Masters would drink this tea in preperation of class. This wonderful tea has a deep roasted flavor to be enjoyed for 7-8 infusions.

Steep red tea in hotter temperatures between fish eye stage to full boil. Lengthen steeping time in later infusions to draw out the sweet minerals of red tea.

tea Golden Red 1
$21.00/30g
Dry after-taste
tea Golden Red 2
$21.00/30g
Sweet after-taste

Black and Puer tea are akin to red wine, the older they become, the better they are. Well, most of them any way! Black tea could be any types of tea leaves, from silver needle tips to large and fully developed leaves. Black tea are most processed, through withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying. Some are pressed into cakes, bricks, mushroom-shaped, or simply left as loose leaf. As they aged and depending on where they were grown and how they were processed, the taste and smell change over the years.

Black tea are best steeped in rolling boiling water for a few minutes.

Black Green Label Yunnan Chi Tse Beeng Cha - Green Label, 1987
$300.00/cake (375 g)
Black Yellow Label Yunnan Chi Tse Beeng Cha - Yellow Label,
$250.00/cake (375 g)
Black Menghai Chi Tse Beeng Cha - Red Label,
$150.00/cake (375 g)

Chinese tea classification does not have Herbal Tea. Mainly if it"s not made of the camellia sisnesis tea leaves, then it is not tea.

Tisanes or herbal tea are infusion/steeping of flowers, herbs, roots, grains, seeds, or fruits.
Floral tisanes include rosehips and chrysenthemum. Herbal tisanes may contain lavender and mint.
Roots such as red ginseng (for men), American ginseng and Dong Quai (for women).
Tisanes with grains, fruits and seeds such as rice, lotus seed, and citrus fruits.

Traditionally tisanes are consumed for their medicinal and healing properties. Tisanes offer caffeine-freed alternative, often with soothing and calming affect. Rosehips is a favorite to many people as a soothing bedtime drink.

herbal orange Orange Puerh
$10.00 / each

Steeping the orange peel, use from a third to the whole, especially when you get a cold, will make you feel wonderful.
rose hips Rose buds (rosehips)

We also offer Yixing or purple clay tea pots which are unglazed. Each pot is devoted to just one type of tea, so that over time, the residues and tannin from that type of tea coat the pot, improving the visual appearance of the pot, enhancing the taste and smell of the tea, making tea-drinking the more enjoyable experience.

We carry a variety of utensils and accessories to enhance your tea drinking experience: cups, gaiwan (lidded cups), fair pots, tea boats, tongs, picks, scoops, knives, and decorative items.

$20.80 / 40 g
Soothing and calming, steep in lower temperatures (crab to fish eye) until rosehips turn white.

We serve Central Illinois, Pekin, Peoria, Elmwood, Bartonville, East Peoria, Morton, Bloomington, Normal, Chillicothe, Hanna City, Metamora, Washington, Peoria Heights, West Peoria, Peoria County, Tazwell County, Fulton County, Livingston County, McLean County, Woodford County, Stark County, Marshall County, and Putnam County for all your tea needs. Please call us at 309-556-0135 and visit our website at http://t-emporium.com/
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