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| - An oasis of calm in the middle of Old Montreal's tourist trap.
Somewhere around the Basilica, Casse-Noisette (a lovely stationery shop where it is inexplicably always Christmas) and a surprisingly good cupcake place, lies possibly my favourite spot in Old Montreal.
AESTHETICS
MTX manages to be both intimate and spacious, both rustic and modern, both airy and cavernous. The space is a bit larger than you might expect, but laid out in a way that somewhat separates seating into small clusters. The glass cabinets and large windows work well with the dark wood furniture and traditional tea vessels, some of which are displayed near the entrance (presumably for sale).
SELECTION
The tea menu is a physically large book, divided into categories (green, white, black, wulong, flowering and so on). As with many tea joints, they have those large canisters displayed behind the counter, which you can request to sniff.
There's also a small food section in the menu, with pretty phenomenal dumplings, among other things.
SERVICE
You can buy looseleaf or brewed tea to go, but this place really is all about the in-house experience. The staff (who appear to be a family) will bring your tea over, and take you through the steeping procedure. In some places this can feel a bit pretentious, but there is definitely none of that to be found here. That magical ability of a server to leave you to it, but always be near when you need them... yeah they have that here.
FLAVOUR
This is definitely one of those places where everything tastes better than you can get it to at home. Tea/coffee home brewers will probably be familiar with that phenomenon.
AMBIANCE/EXPERIENCE
This is about as Zen as it gets. If you come alone, you'll be able to think clearly here. If you have company, the environment lends itself to great conversation. I used to duck in here at the end of a particularly stressful day at work, and it never failed.
RECCOMMENDATION
Give yourself at least 45 minutes to really enjoy what this place has to offer.
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