Editor’s Note: This is the fourth installment in a multi-part series of first-person accounts by WTN Contributing Editor

After visiting Seven Cups in Denver, my husband Marko and I drove to the famed Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder, Colo. I had read rave reviews of it, and I do not disagree with them. However, Dushanbe wasn’t what I expected. While I would recommend it to others, I doubt I will return.

I can sum it up this way: People are sometimes surprised that the World Tea Expo is in Las Vegas. They say, “Vegas isn’t a tea town,” but they mean, “Vegas seems too glitzy and hollow to capture how I feel tea should be.” Boulder feels more like a tea town, but if there is ever a tea house on the Vegas Strip, it will be something like the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse.

Many tourists love this place, with good reason. A gift from Boulder’s sister city in Tajikistan, the monumental structure’s authentic decor is lavish and intricate. The Tajik craftsmanship stood out as an enchanting spectacle within a successful urban redevelopment.

The walls were adorned with numerous awards, and the menu had all the right buzzwords, from “Persian food” (that’s actually more pan-Asian and pan-Mediterranean with North American accents, such as pulled pork sandwiches inspired by my home state of North Carolina) to “experimental,” “seasonal” and “seed-to-plate” (the exact nature of which was not specified).

The tea list was large, with more than 80 choices, including rare and seasonal options and a custom blend from Celestial Seasonings. Dushanbe also serves seasonal tea cocktails, which I found unremarkable in scope and execution.

At first glance, Dushanbe was as impressive as it was enormous, but the details I look for in a truly great tea house were missing. Some attention to aesthetics was missing; for example, fire sprinklers poked through holes cut in the Tajik panels. Many patrons were ordering wine or beer instead of tea, indicating this is less a tea house than a tea house-themed restaurant.

This observation was reinforced by a lack of emphasis on traditional Persian teas. Green tea is Tajikistan’s national drink, and Persian culture is known for its spiced teas and blends with roses, but you wouldn’t know that from Dushanbe’s menu.

The staff was rightly proud of Dushanbe, but also smug and prone to dodging questions. The defining moment of my experience occurred when my server credited it as the source of Boulder’s tea renaissance – then belittled the competition. Several new tea businesses have started in Boulder since Dushanbe opened in 1998, but that’s to be expected given the growth of tea in America. Suddenly, Dushanbe didn’t appear so Tajik. It looked more like the Holy Roman Empire before its fall.

I found myself wishing that Dushanbe had lived up to my hopes. On the surface, it did – it is beautiful, the tea was good, the meal enjoyable – but it lacked a deeper significance. Perhaps, sometimes, a meal is just a meal and a restaurant is just a restaurant. It’s just that I expected a place that housed the beauty of tea within it.