Conscious Choice: Tea Time

May 2006

Tea Time

With so many new choices brewing in Chicago, here’s a guide to help you find your perfect cup of tea

By Christine Mangan

Once responsible for conjuring up images of Jane Austen novels, knitted tea cozies, and gossiping old British marms, the practice of drinking tea is currently experiencing a renaissance. No longer confined to the drawing rooms of England, people all over Chicago are trading in their all too familiar cappuccinos for the Teappucino.

That’s right. The coffee bean’s new competition is none other than the classic tea leaf. And with its newfound popularity, it has finally broken free from its stuffy past, acquiring a whole new set of devotees along the way.

To satisfy these tea enthusiasts, an expanding number of tea shops and cafes have managed to shoulder their way in, claiming a spot alongside Chicago’s numerous coffee houses. Similar to their counterparts, they offer a versatile menu that includes everything from specialty drinks to loose teas whose quality is now taken just as seriously as any roasted coffee bean. And some are even cleverly disguised as coffee houses.

Metropolis Coffee Co. For Tony Dreyfuss, part of the father-and-son duo that runs Metropolis Coffee Co., the smell of hot jasmine tea is forever mingled with the memory of his childhood.

“We lived in Indonesia when I was a kid,” he explained. “And there, after playing, instead of drinking water or Gatorade, we drank hot jasmine tea, even though it was hot outside. Whenever I come across it, I’m transported back to childhood.”

Since then, both Jeff and Tony Dreyfuss, father and son respectively, have made both tea and coffee a part of their everyday lives. Though you can guess from its name that Metropolis is not strictly a tea café, this 2-year-old establishment offers something many others do not. In a town of increasingly corporate-run coffee houses — and now tea houses — Metropolis offers a refreshing divergence. You might never get the chance to meet the owner of Argo Tea, for example, but you most certainly will run into either Jeff or Tony during one of your visits, and you’ll witness just how infectious their love of coffee and tea can be.

Well known for their excellent coffee drinks, Metropolis offers an abundance of fair-trade coffees roasted in the back of their shop. And though many may not know it, they also offer teas, some of which are also fair trade-certified. In fact, with the upcoming expansion of their store, Tony said he also hopes to extend their already impressive tea selection.

Their variety of teas has really caught on with a lot of their customers, father and son agreed. A few customers have even managed to work their way through the entire tea selection. But for those who are unsure of what to try first, no problem. Tony and Jeff, wanting to share their love and knowledge of the tea leaf with others, also make sure to train their employees behind the bar to present some basic knowledge and facts to customers who might be overwhelmed at first by the diverse choices.

Ultimately, with both father and son interested in learning more about the tea leaf, their mission is to travel to different parts of the world and explore the ways in which tea is grown. Sumatra appears to be first on the list. It’s a trip that might even take place as early as this summer.

“We want to show what whole-leaf tea is all about,” Tony explained. “We want people to give whole-leaf tea a try and not have their experience be limited to the type of packed ‘dust’ that comes in most tea bags.”

Jeff added, “Tea is an interesting thing to get into. It takes you to exotic places and you can’t help but learn about much more than just tea.”

Metropolis Coffee Company, 1039 W. Granville Ave. 773-764-0400.

Argo Tea If you’re a fan of specialty coffee drinks, if white chocolate mocha and frappucino are the names that most frequently cross your lips at the coffee bar, then the newly opened Argo Tea may be for you. Offering such choices as Maté Laté, MojiTea and the ever-enticing bubble tea, this café offers a place to sit and relax while enjoying your exotic drink. Beyond the café, Argo Tea also offers an array of loose-leaf teas, with over 30 different choices in the categories black and green, rare and exotic, herbal and fruity infusion teas.

This self-proclaimed Starbucks wannabe for tea drinkers already has three locations in Chicago, with more on the way, and promises to be a comfortable haven for those used to such hangouts as the aforementioned coffee cafe. With similar food choices, a small number of available coffees, and a place to plug in your laptop, this is a good transition for those who are ready to make the switch from coffee to tea. In fact, except for the changes in the menu, customers may be hard-pressed to find any difference at all.

Argo Tea, 958 W. Armitage Ave. 773-388-1880; 819 N. Rush St. 312-951-5302; 16 W. Randolph St. 312-553-1550.

Teavana For all those weary Michigan Avenue shoppers, Water Tower Place offers up a tea lover’s heaven with the recent addition of Teavana. Though the shop features a much smaller café menu than Argo Tea, shoppers have the advantage of pursuing a larger choice of loose leaf teas while they sip away on their chai tea lattes. With teas like Raspberry Sangria and Green Tea Mojo, the names alone are enough to spark the interest of even the most die-hard coffee fan.

Though the shop offers enough teas to qualify as a serious purveyor — it has over 100 different teas — with all the extra toys and trinkets, Teavana may come off feeling more like a gift shop than a tea shop. In fact, a second glance is needed just to ascertain that loose-leaf tea is even sold there, as it is stored in drawers behind the counter. And even though there is a café, there are no seats for customers to relax in. However, it still might offer welcome respite for some weary shoppers.

Teavana, Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan Ave. 312-335-9802.

The Coffee and Tea Exchange Tightly packed with large barrels of coffee and jars of tea, The Coffee and Tea Exchange is the perfect place for those who want a little room to experiment with their tea concoctions. With a helpful staff, this cozy shop offers a variety of choices in oolong, green, white, black and herbal teas. The staff will also make personal blends, adding the herb of your choice, which could include anything from peppermint to lemongrass. Some of the existing teas have even been created by members of the staff themselves, including Detox Tea and Women’s Tea, the latter of which, according to one staff member, promises to make menstrual cramps disappear in just a half an hour.

The Coffee and Tea Exchange, 3311 N. Broadway; 773-528-2241.

TeaGschwendner Imported from Germany, where it has over 60 locations, this environmentally minded tea store has recently found a new home in Chicago. With two locations already on the scene, including one that resembles a European bistro while the other remains largely a retail shop, Chicago is currently the only place in the U.S. where you can stumble upon this high-quality tea shop. A lucky happening for Chicagoans and all tea fanatics, as TeaGschwendner takes its tea very seriously.

With over 300 loose-leaf tea varieties, TeaGschwendner is prefect for both old and new tea drinkers. Offering classic black, green, herbal, and fruit teas, all of the tea is shipped from Germany, where it is first examined in a company-owned laboratory. Every sample is tasted by a Tea Master and must pass the Code of Practice criteria that TeaGschwendner enforces before finding its way onto the company’s shelves.

Quality, along with a knowledge of the working and living conditions of the tea growers, is of the utmost importance to TeaGschwendner. “One of our missions is fair trade,” the manager of the Gold Coast location said, citing the growing movement in tea to ensure that Third World growers are not exploited.

With more than 30 organic teas featured on the menu, TeaGschwendner is also mindful of what goes into each tea.

All this is explained in the Book of Tea, a free 100-plus-page manual that the retail shop offers to its customers. It also includes a mini-lesson on the different teas that TeaGschwendner offers and what ingredients can be found in each. It is a helpful guide to what differentiates a black tea from a green tea or a rooibush tea from an herbal tea. One thing is certain: a visit to TeaGschwendner will turn a novice tea drinker into an aspiring connoisseur.

TeaGschwendner, 1160 N. State St., 312-932-0639; 2142 N. Halsted St., 312-932-0639.

Christine Mangan is a Chicago-based freelance writer who has recently stocked her cupboards full of loose-leaf tea.

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