I’m Looking for Tea Shops
I know of plenty of places to go to get coffee and beer and wine. If you ask someone for a recommendation, they’re going to rattle off a few of their favorite coffee shops, liquor stores, bars with walls full of taps, etc. These are things that, even if you’re not a connoisseur, you know what you like and what you don’t or at least where to ask if you’re not sure.
So I imagine it’s the same for tea. Except I have no idea where to go or who to ask about buying tea.
I have a newly formed tea habit. I love my tea ball, because I can keep a stash of loose tea at work and brew it up in my go cup. Warm beverages are soothing - especially in the winter - and by all measures it’s better for me than coffee, which I can’t drink without loading up with sugar and flavors (yay pumpkin!).
My tea-buying prowess is pretty much limited to Traditional Medicinals from the “organic” aisle at the grocery store (yay Throat Coat!) or ordering loose tea online from Stash. I’ve had great success, but I’d like to go somewhere I can browse and sniff before selecting.
Tea is supposedly “bigger than wine” and that MinnPost article mentions Tea Source with St. Paul and St. Anthony locations. Is that all there is? There’s got to be more than just two tea shops in all of the metro. Where do you go to buy tea?
(P.S. There’s a “specialty tea think tank”?! The definition of think tank must be getting loose. Ha! Loose. Like tea, get it? Anyway.)
Kitchen Window has a small selection and maybe try Penzey’s? I thought we had a Teavana in the MOA, too…
La Societe du The, 2708 Lyndale Avenue S. Tons of loose teas. Owner travels to buy teas. Lots of interesting teapots, too.
The co-ops will usually have a great selection of loose teas as well- See the Wedge especially. They have specialty loose teas, as well as name brand teas.
Any actual tea shop will also have loose teas for sale- Buckingham Bee’s in White Bear had a row of teas two deep on the walls of their shop, and they went all the way around the shop. I don’t know if they are still around, but they were good especially for black teas.
You can also use just loose herbs and make your own mix for herbal teas. I love this special mixture of peppermint and spearmint that I do myself- it has the exact proportions of each that I enjoy, where as commercial mixed mints tend to have too much spearmint for me. You can also get licorice root in bulk (it’s what coats the throat!), orange peel, spices, etc and so forth.
Tea Source Tea Source!
http://teasource.com/
In St Paul and in NE/St. Anthony Village.
Best tea shop in the Twin Cities by far.
There is indeed a Teavana at MOA. They have samples of some teas every day. They also have a really neat device for brewing tea that I find much better than a tea ball: http://www.teavana.com/Teavana+Perfect+Tea+Maker+16+oz/cid=56/page_no=1/edp_no=3970/shop.axd/ProductDetails
It allows the tea leaves room to expand as it brews.
There’s also Ounces Tea in Southdale : http://ouncestea.com
Teaguide.net lists quite a few in Minneapolis - of course, no guarantee they are still in business.
http://www.teaguide.net/tearoomsminnesota.htm
I get all my tea at this place, http://www.coffeeandtealtd.com/ - the Linden Hills shop
Huge selection and quite a few organic green teas too.
La Societe du The http://www.la-societe-du-the.com/
Go talk to Tony if you want to know about tea.
I’ll third ‘La Societe du The’ over in the uptown area.
+1 on the coffee and tea ltd recommendation.
In the Dinkydome on University Avenue there’s this place called (I think its this…) Bubba Boca. Just go in the entrance that faces Folwell and turn right immediately, its the one right next to the windows. They have bubble tea in all kinds of flavors, though I prefer the black tea without bubbles. I think its just amazing.