— Contributed by Hannah Li-Weaver

My maternal grandparents are Chinese. They used to go to the Chinese store TS Emporium at S. Nogales weekly for their daily fix of ginseng tea and other dried foods and snacks. But because of the pandemic, my paranoid mom forbade them to go out of the house. I can’t blame her; the older people are more susceptible to the virus!

So my nainai craved for her favorite bird’s nest soup for days, then yeye ran out of his ginseng tea bags and favorite garlic peanuts. Since they couldn’t go outside, I got curious whether these items are available online.

Lo and behold, these items are actually being sold online! TS Emporium does have an online Chinese herb store, which thankfully, was available in both Traditional Chinese and English languages.

What I love about their website is that what they sell in physical stores is being sold online too. I immediately ordered my grandparents’ requests, plus two boxes of my favorite lotus paste mooncake and some packs of noodles.

Here are their current best sellers:

TAK SHING HONG Bird’s Nest

TAK SHING HONG Golden Chrysanthemum Tea

999 Cold Remedy (Granular)

999 Qingfei Paidu Detox Soup

WING WAH White Lotus Seed Paste Mooncake

I also love that they offer free shipping for orders over $49 and special discounts as part of their semi-annual online sale. The checkout was also a breeze. I gotta say, I might be doing my grocery shopping on TSEmporium too!

If you guys need traditional Chinese medicine or are craving for some Chinese food, you can conveniently order at TS Emporium’s website. As I said, the website is in English, so you wouldn’t struggle with shopping on the site.