Annie Chang/Staff

Walking down Shattuck Avenue, I’ve passed Venus many times, but it never stood out to me, because I was always in a rush to go elsewhere. It wasn’t until my roommate gushed about how delicious brunch there was that I made a point to go there. Having arrived early, I peered inside and was surprised to see how small the restaurant really was. At first glance, it looks like a diner because of the different sauces and bottles on each table. I decided to wait inside and ordered a cappuccino before delving into menu. The cappuccino tasted similar to any other average cappuccino: a deep, roasted flavor that was slightly acidic. The taste of coffee pierced through, unmasked by milk and foam, but I had hoped for a stronger and purer taste with more layers and flavor profiles. My preferences go to full-bodied, rich cappuccinos with fruity and acidic notes, which this cappuccino did not have enough of.

Glancing at the menu, I had difficulty sifting through the numerous selections. There were brunch dishes, such as a chicken-and-sausage scramble, the “Venus Benedict” and an apricot almond chicken salad. In the end, I went for the lemon ricotta hotcakes, which I hadn’t seen anywhere else. The choice turned out to be amazingly satisfying even before I took a bite, as the fruity aroma rose up through the steam and into my nostrils. One bite in, I started gushing to my roommate, who was dining with me, about how quickly it melted in my mouth. The softness from the ricotta cheese that was smoothly mixed into the hotcake batter enhanced the melty texture, and chewing was almost unnecessary. Because ricotta is so mild and creamy, it only added moisture to the hotcakes, all the while preserving the pure sweetness of hotcakes that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The hotcakes also came with small servings of lemon curd and homemade blackberry sauce. The lemon curd was a bit too sweet, but when mixed with the tangy homemade blackberry sauce, the combination perfectly complemented the hotcakes. I will definitely be back for more of these lemon ricotta hotcakes, and I have high hopes for the other tantalizing names on Venus’ menus.

Venus is located at 2327 Shattuck Ave. Call 510-540-5950 for reservations.

Contact Annie Chang at achang@dailycal.org

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Mai Truong/Staff

When the question “What should we eat?” crops up, my first response is usually izakaya.

Some people refer to izakaya food as Japanese tapas, but I think of tapas as “Spanish izakaya” because izakaya includes a wider range of dishes, from the small appetizers that serve as drinking snacks to the filling rice and noodle dishes to be had after drinks. Izakaya plates are also designed for sharing, which sets the perfect atmosphere for get-togethers, and the restaurants should be casual and affordable, with more emphasis on taste than artistry of the food. In the Berkeley izakaya scene, not only does Kiraku fit that bill, but it is also conveniently located on Telegraph Avenue to cater to the student community on the Southside.

In an izakaya, it’s a good idea to start off with something cold and adventurous, knowing that you can always return to the warmth of fried chicken and potstickers if all else fails. Although the fermented firefly squid, with its strong sea flavor, will not appeal to everyone (it wasn’t for me), “spicy” jellyfish and “spicy” boiled baby octopus (iidako), which looks fiery red, are not spicy at all but mildly sweet, springy and fun to eat.

Some of the starters are best enjoyed as nibblers throughout the meal. On one end of the spectrum, there’s takowasabi — raw octopus chopped and marinated in a light wasabi sauce, which appears slimy but tastes clean — to refresh your palate between heavier plates, like barbecued spare ribs and grilled beef tongue. And on the other end, there’s renkon chips, thinly sliced lotus root deep fried and sprinkled with celery salt, a light snack to be enjoyed while waiting for the seared albacore tataki, which is a whole different kind of delight dressed in ponzu and onion sauce.

The fried dishes at Kiraku are always sure bets. Corn tempura with green tea salt and kisu tempura (whiting fish) with umeboshi salt is airy enough to make you forget that it is deep-fried. Karaage (fried chicken) comes piping hot, and deep fried rock shrimp with spicy mayo is both visually inviting and texturally addicting, as the shrimp is still moist and firm inside the light, crispy batter.

After indulging in tempura, I always choose the omelet salad to give myself the illusion of healthy eating — shredded cabbage with sauteed pork belly blanketed with a thin omelet, topped with katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayo and soy sauce. The salad looks big and fluffy but not too filling, and it leaves enough room for an “after-sake” (shushoku) dish.

Actually, by the time you get to the after-sake, you’re typically a bit inebriated (izakaya are Japanese drinking establishments, and Kiraku has more than 40 choices of sake, shochu, chuhai and beer). That means your palates are either dulled or totally dead, so the shushoku just has to be filling. Kiraku’s shushoku does just that. Literally. While filling, the oyako don, rice with simmered chicken and onion omelet, was a little too mushy, and the yaki udon did not leave a strong impression despite featuring many flavors — small bits of octopus, hearty noodle and salty katsuobushi with a sweet basil pesto twist.

What the shushoku lacked, the spare ribs made up for perfectly with tender, fall-of-the-bone meat in a savory orange marmalade barbecue sauce. It’s a dish that I can always recommend, for it is not an acquired taste and would please every palate (except vegetarian ones) — just like Kiraku is the perfect middle-range restaurant that everyone would like, regardless of your preference to stay in the pork-belly zone or venture into the fermented-squid zone.

And if, by some miracle, you still have room after the shushoku (there’s always room for ice cream, right?), there’s grapefruit yogurt with fresh blueberries and green grapes. The tartness woke me right up from my food coma, a bright note that kept me smiling all the way home in the crisp air of the Berkeley night.

Kiraku is located at 2566 Telegraph Ave. Call 510-848-2758 to make reservations.

Mai Truong is the editor of Eating Berkeley. Contact her at mtruong@dailycal.org.

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Erin Alexander/Staff

As both a freshman and a foodie, one of the first things I set out to do upon my arrival at Cal was to survey Berkeley’s local food scene, which I discovered is not only thriving but also growing. After scouring the likes of Yelp and Open Table, Brasa caught my eye: a self-proclaimed Peruvian “joint” located on University Avenue near Martin Luther King Jr Way. Having visited Peru a little more than a year ago and fallen in love with both its breathtaking sights and delicious food, I could not have been more excited to find a spot to satisfy my Peruvian craving right in Berkeley, and I was even more disappointed to find out it has recently closed.

What I found at Brasa wasn’t exactly authentic Peruvian, but that’s one of things about it I loved best. Brasa’s menu took your standard pork or chicken sandwich and livened it up with the fundamentals flavors in the base of Peruvian cooking. They also offered a few undeniably traditional favorites, such as the maracuya juice (passion fruit) and house made alfajores for $4. The $2 passion fruit juice was light, refreshing and the perfect complement to my chicharron (pork) sandwich; the alfajores were composed of soft, gooey caramel sandwiched between two large, buttery shortbread cookies. The chicharron sandwich — though, at $8.50, was priced a bit higher than a similar sandwich you’d find in Peru — was packed with flavor. The tender, perfectly seasoned pork paired nicely with the crunchy red onion and cabbage — all of which was sandwiched between two hot, buttery sandwich buns. The saltiness of the pulled pork was well complemented by the sweetness of the red onion and tied together by the spicy, creamy dressing.

Alfajores: soft, gooey caramel sandwiched between buttery shortbread cookies.

Although the prices may have been a little higher than most are willing to spend, the owners behind Brasa were right to blend Peruvian flavors with simple dishes, like the sandwich and rice bowl. I’ll miss the taste of other Peruvian staples, such as their lucuma soft-serve ice cream (lucuma is a sweet fruit indigenous to the Andean region of South America), lomo saltado (steak) sandwich and, for when I was feeling adventurous, their anticuchos (beef heart and rocoto chili peppers).

Perhaps it was the steep prices, the location — tucked away on University Avenue near Trader Joe’s — or the lack of interest in Peruvian food (though I highly doubt that, as Berkeley seems to be a hub for ethnic food) that led to Brasa’s end. All I know is that I will now have to return to Yelp, Google and the like to fill the void created by this culinary tragedy.

Contact Erin Alexander at ealexander@dailycal.org

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Annie Chang/Staff

Intense dim sum cravings require a certain quality of the doughy delicacy to satisfy. Dim sum is not just a meal or just some more Chinese food. It is a part of a weekly routine, a form of slowing down and relaxing. I will always remember my dad’s longtime college friend; every Sunday morning, while his wife and daughter slept in, he went to the nearby dim sum restaurant with a newspaper and enjoyed the food for three or four hours. He savored every bite while pondering the latest news. It’s a ritual for him. I always say to myself, “This man truly enjoys life and the small intricacies of food.” Dim sum is about savoring every bite of all the unique tastes. In Cantonese, dim sum holds many different meanings. The word can mean “treat” or “snack”, but it also means “to touch the heart.” The meal is designed to enlighten and touch you deep down in your passion for food, to be a treat for oneself. The warmth of dim sum embraces you each time you savor a bite.

As students, we might not have time for a three-hour meal, but we still deserve delicious dim sum. Asian Pearl is one of the good dim sum places accessible to UC Berkeley students by bus. Located in an indoor plaza with 99 Ranch Market and other Chinese shops, Asian Pearl draws crowds like no other. Go on a weekend, and be prepared to wait for about 30 minutes to an hour. Do not be scared away though; the restaurant is well worth the wait because its dim sum is one of the best around Berkeley.

In a brightly lit restaurant with white tablecloths, white ceilings and tan and beige walls, the mood is sure to please. Look through the windows and see a sea of people eating their hearts out. Although the food is great, the service is average, probably because there are so many people that the servers forget little things sometimes. I have always gone for the dim sum and order my staples: steamed shrimp dumplings, shiu mai (pork dumplings), baked barbecue pork buns, steamed egg custard bun (filled with salted duck egg’s yolk), shrimp rice noodle roll, baked crispy egg custard tart and turnip soft cake with scallops. Actually, I am especially judgmental about the egg custard tart. I order it every time I eat dim sum. Unlike the other dishes, every restaurant makes egg custard tarts a little differently. An excellent egg custard tart should be noticeably flaky, easily crumbled, so soft that I barely have to bite down and able to melt in the mouth. Asian Pearl’s egg custard tarts are almost up there with the best tarts I’ve had in Hong Kong and San Francisco’s Chinatown. Including the egg custard tart, all dishes arrive hot and fresh, creating the distinct light aroma of dim sum.

Dim sum exists to slow down life and to help one forget about stressful problems. Dim sum represents something a little bit different for everyone, whether it be a time to socialize with friends and family or indulge in filling treats to satisfy a passion for food. When I eat at Asian Pearl, I always feel relaxed, free and true to myself. Somehow the restaurant makes me regain a positive attitude toward daily life. I wonder if it was the same for my father’s friend.

Asian Pearl is located at 3288 Pierce St,, Suite A-118, Richmond, CA (inside the 99 Ranch plaza). You can call the restaurant at (510) 526-6800, but it doesn’t take reservations.

Contact Annie Change at achang@dailycal.org

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Erin Alexander/Staff

To say that I know anything about Ethiopian food would be an overstatement. My knowledge of food from this highly populated African country is pretty much nonexistent. But since I came to Berkeley, it’s all I seem to be hearing about. A few recommendations later, I found myself at Café Colucci, dubbed by a few publications as one of the “Best in the East Bay,” a title that luckily did not disappoint.

Erin Alexander, Staff.

Located on Telegraph Avenue just south of Ashby Avenue and a short bus ride away from the heart of campus, Café Colucci is the perfect spot for a quick, tasty lunch between classes. The wooden patio tables, shaded by lush trees and fenced in by bamboo dividers, proved to be the perfect setting for a sunny, crisp September afternoon.

I was immediately greeted at the door with a friendly smile and welcome from the hostess. For a while, I stared at the menu dumbfounded— nothing seemed familiar, I had no idea what messer-wot or doro tibs were. Luckily, our waitress guided us toward the meat sambussa appetizers ($6.95) and the vegetable combo platter ($8.95 for the lunch portion).

The meat sambussas were the perfect combination of sautéed beef, garlic, onions, red bell peppers and savory spices, all wrapped in a thin pastry and deep-fried to perfection. The vegetable combo platter offered up a sample of six different vegetarian dishes, perfect for sharing. Three of them are different preparations of lentils, while the other three were a mix of collard greens with garlic, cabbage and potatoes, and my personal favorite, chickpea mash. Each dish in the combo platter is meant to be eaten using traditional Ethiopian bread, teff injera.

Teff injera and vegetable combo platter. Erin Alexander, Staff.

This addictive Ethiopian staple is doughy, sponge-like and tastes a lot like sourdough. Eating with teff injera is a hands-on process. Be prepared to get your hands a little dirty scooping up the different bits of each dish. But the mess is worth it. My favorite bites were those in which I experimented with different combinations of each, especially the red lentils with chick peas.

For the more adventurous, there’s kitfo, raw beef finely minced and seasoned, or doulet, raw lamb-tripe, liver, and lean beef. I plan on saving those for my next visit. I’ll be back to Café Colucci very soon; it’s a place you absolutely have to try, especially if like me, you’ve never had the opportunity to try some delicious Ethiopian food.

Café Colucci is located at 6427 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94609. Call (510) 601-7999 to make a reservation.

Contact Erin Alexander at ealexander@dailycal.org

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On Center Street, a block from campus, a cloth with Japanese writing hanging in the doorway marks the entrance to Ippuku. This cloth, a cedar table and possibly a bartender standing behind a counter are the only street-front features that flag Ippuku as a restaurant. Instead, the facade of Ippuku is quiet — a contrast from the other restaurants along Center Street: Ben and Jerry’s, Top Dog, Starbucks, Oasis Grill and Sliver, among others. Most people who have not been to Ippuku swear that they have never seen it. Others swear that they never have passed by.

When you walk through the cloth-draped entrance, a waitress or waiter receives you at the end of the shochu bar. So many things about the place add to its refreshingly calm vibes: Some tables face the main aisle of the restaurant, while others are huddled around the grill. Others are in separate rooms with tables low enough to the floor so that you may take off your shoes, sit cross-legged or lie long-sided and eat. Throughout the long narrow restaurant, dim lighting is given off by paper lanterns. Masterful woodwork by a Zen carpenter makes up the bars, booths and doorway. Hanging above the bar are 24 shochu bottles. For dinner, the chefs use small coal stoves to grill.

Ippuku is run by servers and chefs who speak Japanese. As a custom, the restaurant offer customers a hot or cool towel, depending on the weather. They serve soba and ramen noodles homemade with flour from Japan, grilled fish, veggies, various parts of chicken, bacon-wrapped mochi, chicken-rice porridge and cold and hot sake. One of the more popular dishes is corn fritters, the kernels of which are knitted in deep-fried golden goodness in the form of hexagonal lattices. If you sit all the grill, the whole time you will see, hear and smell the steam of fish and vegetables grilling.

On a hot day, the food was so good that I wrote a haiku:

into broth oyster
mushrooms, chives, clover spill over
soft tofu boulder

They serve soba on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in an event not to be missed. Soba, ramen, fish and vegetables are all so fresh and accompanied by masterful woodwork and a passionate staff. Ippuku offers meals sourced locally, as they would be in Japan. The staff is respectful and warm. It’s interesting noticing how the chefs going from full-hearted banter to a totally present focus when the orders arrive. It’s fascinating to see how quickly they move and how quickly the waitress moves when she runs orders and responds to the lingering looks of diners indicating empty glasses of water, beer, tea or sake. The dark, cozy atmosphere brings food to the foreground, and those who work at Ippuku take the food to the level of the elemental.

Image source: minwoo under Creative Commons

Contact Josh Escobar at jescobar@dailycal.org.

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David Lau/Courtesy

It is a hot, humid afternoon, and you and your friends are walking around Shattuck aimlessly. Or maybe it’s a cold evening and either your GSI has just slashed your grade, or your lover, your heart. What you want now is some steaming matcha, as thick as they can make it, or taro milk tea with ice and bubbles and a giant colorful straw. This is where Asha Tea House comes in.

At Asha Tea House you can get your fix of sweet, aromatic and flavorful tea. Asha’s exclusively loose-leaf selection is based on variety, freshness and ethics. They serve traditional teas, like 12th century Taiwanese traditional, as well as the classic, much loved boba milk teas.

Teas at Asha Tea House are sourced from small farms. David Lau, Courtesy.

Asha Tea House, which opened July 13, 2012, is located in the rosy-peach marble building on Shattuck and University, between Chase Bank and Bobby G’s. Owner David Lau completely renovated the space from what was a rug depot into a sleek, elemental cafe. He also made a lot of the furniture, such as the cedar bar tops and linen pillows, by hand. On the pillars and walls are photographs of hillsides covered with tea and the small scale roasting plants in Alishan and Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan. Beside them is Lau, waving.

David Lau, Courtesy.

“Our furniture was made by hand just like the tea we buy,” he says over a cup of matcha. “The construction took months and was laborious, but in the end it was worth it. And it was fun.”

The interior of Asha is vibrant and unified, yet cozy — like being here at home. Lau informed us that during harvest season, traditional tea farmers work from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. for the first two days. Handpicked, handcrafted tea is usually harvested twice a year in Taiwan. Lower elevation teas can have up to six. There, people drink tea like Americans do coffee.

“Every year growing up I visited my family in Taipei, a city much like Manhattan or San Francisco, though it took the constant back and forth of working in Taiwan and China to realize that Taiwan has an amazing countryside,” he says. “When I visited, I got to see the sheer amount of physical labor that go into making tea, which is something that people everywhere drink. It was amazing.”

All of the tea at Asha was harvested and roasted using traditional methods. The milk Asha uses is organic, the fruit, real and fresh.

“When someone drinks tea at Asha, I want the experience to be so engaging and fresh that they disconnect from their lives in order to reconnect with life. I want people to slow down and have a good time.”

The prices at Asha reflect two values: appreciation and access. Lau imagines that if the President of the United States wants tea, he should have a fresh cup at his command. If a working person wants a cup every morning and night, they should be able to drink the best quality available. If both the working person and the President want tea at the same time they have to wait in line together at Asha. And both can sit together at the bar.

“Tea is not a luxury,” says Lau. “It’s a passion.”

Green Milk Tea. David Lau, Courtesy

Swing by for the tea of the day: $2 for a 12oz, 50¢ more for 16oz. Slow down and share with your fellow bears a round of ceremonious Hashiri Shincha or a cup of mango milk tea with bubbles. Breathe and take it all in. The tea at hand came an ocean away and was produced by methods which have outlasted dynasties.

Asha Tea House is located at 2086 University Ave,  Berkeley.

Contact Josh Escobar at jescobar@dailycal.org

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Karen Kwaning /Staff

What sucks the most about not having a car in the Berkeley area? Not being able to easily get to In-N-Out. Relying on public transportation to take you out to Oakland or Richmond merely increases the craving for that burger that’s too delicious for words. The experience is miserable. But until you finally obtain a Zipcar membership to satisfy you and your famished buddies, a nice Downtown surprise awaits you along Shattuck Avenue.

If you decide to have a burger date at Oscar’s, make sure you’re not starving. Trust us. The closer you come to reaching your destination, the stronger the smell of delicious grilled patties wafts down the street, and you’ll likely be miserable. Although originally named Oscar’s Hot Dogs, Oscar’s cheeseburgers are to die for — and the staff knows it. As soon as you enter, they’re ready to get things cooking; just step up to the grill and place your order — Oscar’s grill is the center stage of the restaurant. Feast your eyes, and try to tame the fiercely starving bear as you watch your meal being made right before you.

If you’re a little adventurous, you’ll have plenty of options. Oscar’s menu is not as limited as In-N-Out’s. Besides having awesome burgers, fries and shakes, Oscar’s can serve up a chicken grilled sandwich, turkey burger, hot dogs, steak sandwiches, cookies and soft cones! So many calories, so little time. Veggie lovers can also join in on burger date-night: There’s always the option of having a classic veggie burger.

And on top of the definite weight-increasing deliciousness, Oscar’s is adorably decked out with Cal gear. It definitely makes sure to show its support for the Golden Bears, with a signed Cal jersey and numerous Cal flags and posters on the wall. It’s a burger place not really made by the students but definitely for the students.

Know of any local restaurants that serve delicious grilled burgers? Let us know in the comments!

Oscar’s is located at 1890 Shattuck Ave.

Contact Karen Kwaning at kkwaning@dailycal.org.

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Maryanne Ching/Courtesy

If you’re a mac and cheese enthusiast, your response to the picture above may or may not have included drooling and crying tears of joy, followed by an awkwardly erotic food-gasm from this top-notch food porn. None of that soft-core Kraft bullsh*t.

If you reacted in any of these ways, then Oakland’s Homeroom is for you.

Homeroom’s menu features a number of delicious mac ‘n’ cheese dishes. If you’re in the mood for some bacon in your mac, try Homeroom’s Smokey Bacon Mac, a combination of rich and bold smoked cheddar, jack cheese and bacon. The menu also includes dishes like the restaurant’s Mexican Mac, a blend of chorizo and chipotle peppers, and Ivy Leaguer Truffle Mac, a gouda cheese take on truffle macaroni and cheese. The photo above is just a little tease of what you will actually get if you head to Homeroom.

If this post makes you uncomfortable, it’s highly suggested that you do NOT eat at Homeroom, because if you can’t handle this, then you will not be able to handle the multiple cheese-gasms you will experience simultaneously. But if you’re down for some upfront, live, in-your-face macporn, head out to Homeroom. Your waistband might regret it, but rest assured that your taste buds won’t.

More food-gasms can be achieved by clicking here.

Homeroom is located at 400 40th St., Oakland, CA 94609.

Contact Gabrielle Nguyen at gnguyen@dailycal.org.

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Mai Truong/Staff

Once a week last spring, I took the 51B line to Teance at 5 p.m. so that I could make it to TeaCal by 5:30. TeaCal is a DeCal class on tea, and last spring was the first time it was organized at Teance. Actually, after the first few weeks, I started taking the 4:30 bus, sometimes even the 4 p.m. bus, because I wanted to arrive early to talk to the bartender and enjoy more tea before the class started. That’s right, Teance has a bar for tea and a staff member to make tea in front of you in gongfu style and talk a bit about the tea, its production, its steeping method, its health benefits and sometimes even its history.

The tea bar at Teance is unique in Berkeley because it’s round. Most tea houses don’t have bars, and most bars are long rectangles at which you can’t talk to anyone except the people next to you. I’ve lost count of how many amazing conversations I’ve had at this round bar. Its smooth, cool-yet-earthy shell-and-glass surface usually surprises the customers, who begin conversing in mutual admiration.

Complete strangers share one another’s bewilderment as they inhale the gardenia aroma of freshly infused Baochong oolong or share a cup of Yunnan Gold and nod in agreement when one person joyfully exclaims that she detects a peppery note in the tea’s sweetness. Then they go on to share business dreams, youthful memories, their children’s performance in school, political and religious beliefs. They bond over the tea bar. “The roundness brings people together,” says Winnie Yu, Teance’s director and founder.

Every year, Yu travels to the fog-shrouded tea mountains in Asia and hand-selects whole-leaf teas from award-winning tea farmers. She says one connection always leads to another while she searches for the best teas.

“Asians are all about connections — otherwise, they wouldn’t talk to you anyway,” Yu said. “You know one tea master. Then they introduce you to a farmer. A lot of farmers connect to other farmers, family members, their friends in the industry. Through years and years of legwork and introductions, eventually you find some good farmers.”

Yu’s motivation for opening Teance was simple: to create a public environment where tea drinkers could gather and share teas.

“Let’s say you want to drink tea with your friends — where would you go?” she asked. “You go to a cafe? A coffee shop? It’s horrible tea there, and it’s usually teabags. It’s also a different kind of environment. Coffee shops smell like coffee. They’re not very tranquil. They’re not aesthetically the kind of place that I would like and that I’m used to in Asia.”

So with her friend Fu-Tung Cheng of Cheng Design, Yu strived to make Teance the serene oasis that shoppers on Fourth Street could duck into to seek shelter from the hustle and bustle outside and at the same time still feel connected with the outdoors through the abundance of sunlight, the water cascade that showers from the ceiling into a small pond with goldfish in it, the fresh flowers and even the bamboo coasters.

It’s no surprise that Teance’s calming atmosphere attracts many artistic patrons: designers, musicians, poets, dancers. It also hosts a number of book-signing events, Lunar New Year festivals and spring harvest tea parties, at which teas are served with artisan snacks such as mochi, tea-flavored ice cream, tea-flavored truffles and cookies all handmade by Teance staff members and their friends, all of whom embody the “slow food” concept that defines Berkeley cuisine.

Yu’s wish is for people to “think about tea as fine dining, as produce, a world of excitement, something very sophisticated but also extremely accessible.” Currently, Teance carries roughly 65 types of tea across all categories: white, green, yellow, oolong, red, pu’er, herbal. These teas come from Japan, China, Taiwan, India and sometimes Korea, depending on the season, considering that, just like those of wine, the tastes of the teas change from season to season.

All this may seem daunting at first, but TeaCal is a good start for students like me. For everyone else, the bar and the knowledgeable bartenders make it easy to taste everything and find out what one likes. The more enthusiastic tea learners can also make a reservation for a private tea lesson with an experienced bartender, and the cost is just the regular bar cost.

“We try to carry the highest grade of each type of tea,” Yu says, “so that the tea bar is the place for (customers) to be adventurous and try different teas and train their palate (for the high-quality teas).”

The more I learn about this beverage, some of which comes from trees that are hundreds of years old, not to mention the yixing teapots and the porcelain gaiwans in which it’s infused, the more I realize how much there still is to learn. The range of taste alone is overwhelming.

There’s the simpler Anji Baicha with a buttery note or the somewhat complex Honey Jialong that tastes sweet like jicama with an aroma of chamomile and plumeria. Then there’s Song Zhong Phoenix, in a single sip of which you can taste pine nut, unburnt cigar, malt, clove, the black tip of a young banana and something sweet, aged, smoky, resinous that you can’t exactly pin down with a name. And you know that this tea is high in quality because you can steep it again and again, sometimes more than 10 times, and the flavor remains strong or new flavors emerge.

One evening, I asked Mr. Moghaddam, one of the managers of Teance and the bartender that evening, to tell me the name of the tea that I was enjoying. Refusing to say its name, he told me to enjoy its flavors and the moment because even for the same tea, it will never be the same again. That may sound too philosophical, but there’s a bittersweet fact behind it.

In 30 years, these kinds of artisan tea will be history because of pollution and climate change and, most importantly, because the tea masters are aging. The youngest tea master in China is about 60 years old, and it takes a few decades to master the art of growing, picking and producing the tea, which does not yield enough financial benefit to entice the young generations to take up the art.

“Now is the time to drink tea,” Yu said.

Teance is located at 1780 Fourth Street in Berkeley.

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