Tea Garden: Puerh review – Another drink, sir?

When you first get Tea Garden on the table, there is no doubt that the Japanese theme gives off a sense of coziness. After all, my thoughts of Japan are serene vistas, snug gardens, and delicious food.

Tea Garden is cozy in design and aesthetics, but deep in mechanics and strategy. I thought the base game was a really great experience, and was intrigued when Capstone Games sent over a copy of the expansion, Puerh.

Puerh adds two more main actions to the game, and while this doesn’t complicate the teaching of the game too much, it does add to the options available to players. Is this simply something to water down a really good experience, or is this one that enhances the game?

Two new actions to think about

Who doesn’t love bit of food along with a nice cup of tea? Puerh cakes – which I found out is pressed tea that is left for years before being consumed – are a new collectible item in Tea Garden.

These cakes are broken down into 1/3 pieces, and when purchased, provide bonuses; further Puerh cake purchases are added to the current cake, and then ALL bonuses are triggered, which allow for some great combo moments. There are two types of Puerh cakes, and there are times when they can be obtained by visiting the grand courts with your Courtier.

Visiting the courts not only provides you with some immediate bonuses, but whoever has the most influence in the courts at the end of the round will get some bonus points as well.

More options doesn’t make for a better game

As I noted off the top, I really do love Tea Garden a lot; I think it’s a great medium-weight game that is not too hard to teach, attractive to play, and provides a lot of fun, thought-provoking moments. That said, introducing Puerh to the table has resulted in some mixed reactions.

Some players really love the extra action choices each game, as it forces them to diversify their strategy. Sometimes those one-time bonuses in the grand court will get you what you need, allowing more complex strategies over the course of the game.

For these people, more is more. But for so many other board game players, less is more, and I found that to be the (slight) majority opinion as this was introduced. To be honest, the new actions are really balanced, and I think veteran board game players, or those who have played Tea Garden a lot, will really benefit from the new actions and options. It will force players to be more aware of what is on offer at the table, and those old, tried and true strategies from the base game just won’t work anymore.

So what do I think?

Ultimately, though, I personally like the increase in options. When playing with the right group, I’ll always add this to the experience. It does make the setup a little bit more comprehensive, and just a few extra minutes when teaching, but it provides what I think is a better board game experience when compared to the base game.

That said, there are people in my gaming group who I know won’t enjoy this, and thankfully, the base game of Tea Garden is still really good.

While I’d prefer to play with the expansion, I’d never not play if someone just wanted to experience the base game. This expansion isn’t necessary – that is, because it doesn’t fix an inherent problem with the base game – but it is one that I recommend for very strategic gaming groups.

What you need to know

Authored by Adam Roffel

Adam has been writing about video games since 2014 and board games since 2018. If he's not rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs or Toronto FC, he definitely has a controller in his hand - probably playing on a Nintendo platform - or is sitting at a table playing a board game. Adam also has firm opinions on a few key topics: there are much better board games than Settlers of Catan, and Nintendo doesn't need to compete with Sony and Microsoft.

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