At New Portland Shop Bardo, Tea Is Treated as Seriously as Wine | Eater Portland

"On Saturday mornings I find Veronika Vogler standing at the entrance to Bardo Tea on Killingsworth, greeting visitors who remove their shoes and hang up their coats before moving to a back room where a ring of meditation cushions surrounds a station with three small teapots and glossy ceramic vessels bumpy with the potter’s thumbprints. Vogler leads a tea meditation—preparing a pu’erh with the almost damp, floral funk of an April backyard, daffodils and grass and earth—while guests sit in lotus, using the sound of pouring, the feel of steam, and the lingering flavors to anchor themselves; as Vogler says, “In meditation, we use mantra to return to the present, we use breath. Here, we use tea.” Founded by Vogler and tea curator Ravi Kroesen (formerly Smith Teamaker’s vice president of tea production), Bardo began online in January 2023 and opened the Killingsworth shop this year; it’s become a cult favorite among Portland’s culinary community—bartenders like Jim Meehan are customers and collaborators, and Willamette Valley destination restaurant Okta serves cups of Bardo after its tasting menus. Kroesen and Vogler talk about teas with the seriousness of sommeliers—considering terroir, season, cultivars, and farming practices—while teaching customers to use a gaiwan and to slow down and feel tea, selling single-origin teas for gongfu service (examples include Yu-Fang Tseng’s Eastern Beauty oolong and Fu Chen’s Jade Mountain), pu’erh cakes, loose leaf, and house blends such as double-fold vanilla earl grey and jasmine-oolong with sarsaparilla and rose; Saturdays then shift from meditation to social tea rooms where many regulars treat the visit as a weekly ritual." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden