Van Cheong Tea & Confectionery

Tea is ok, price wise is reasonable given it’s in Canada.
However one bag of oolong tea I bought was spoiled. Had a strong sour aroma. Won’t be returning.

Do your research and know exactly what kind of tea you're looking for before going in. They have a great selection of tea, but if you go in blind, they're more likely to take advantage of your naivety than give you real tea suggestions at a good price. You have to haggle. Do not take the initial price at face value.

The first time I came here was with my mom. We both speak Chinese and conversed with the store owner in Chinese. I was looking for shou puer and was happy to see they offer tea tastings before buying.

They had us taste a shou puer from 1949. Little did I know, shou puer wasn't even invented until the 1970s. Obviously the puer I bought is fake. Oh well, you live and you learn, but at least the tea tastes good. They also introduced us to dong ding oolong.

The second time I came was with my partner, and talking in English this time. Another lady was at the storefront, and she immediately tried to sell me on jasmine tea. When I smelled it, I knew instantly that this tea was the low quality jasmine scent sprayed stuff. I wasn't looking for jasmine tea anyway, but she kept persisting until I switched from English to Chinese.

I was specifically looking for a good black tea. They sat us down for a tea tasting again, except the whole vibe felt different this time. They introduced me to a honey aroma dian hong black tea. It was delicious, and I wanted to compare it to other black teas they had.

But they got annoyed that I expressed interest in other black teas besides the dian hong they presented, then said out loud that they don't think I know how to drink good quality tea. They also tried selling us the same dong ding oolong and were disappointed that we bought it already, which made me think this specific oolong isn't actually the good stuff.

I just kept my mouth shut and continued smiling as if unaware of what they were doing. At least the tea tastes good. Now it was a matter of price.

The shou puer and the dian hong were both around $170 for 250g. We were able to haggle the shou puer down to about $50, and the dian hong down to about $100. Both purchases they added discounted gifts to our order, which was the dong ding oolong, a tea cup, and some tea tools.

I still don't know if we truly got a good deal even after haggling that much since they were willing to give away multiple things. Oh well, at least the tea tastes good and I got a few tea equipment out of it.

I'm not sure I want to come back and play these mind games again just to buy tea. They have good tea, but I'd rather go somewhere where I don't have to be on guard all the time.

TL;DR: they truly have good tasting tea, but they may try to deceive you if you aren't knowledgeable. Know what's the good quality stuff vs cheap tea. Definitely haggle as much as possible to get your money's worth, but you might as well find a better tea shop that doesn't try to cheat you.

The quality and variety of tea is amazing! With great price too They have real Matcha tea which is hard to find

Excellent quality and reasonable price for good quality tea, Definitely recommend!

I am trying to move away from drinking coffee and the staff were very helpful in offering options. They have a very large variety of options.

The tea I like the most and feel really comfortable after drinking

Great place to get tea! Thank you

The Tea test very fash, small very well too

Good services and staffs are very nice.

Love their tea and excellent service

I come here for tea

Highly recommend 👍

Money well spent, nice tea low price

Good quality tea with fairly GOOD price

Lychee tea so good