CHOW – USA

Tea—hot and cold, old-school and new—is the main event at Gramstand. Jenny O is hooked on Mocha Grey Latte, a milky-chocolatey Earl Grey variation, and the bracing, herbaceous Eucalyptus Well. Also recommended: Citrus Berry, a refreshing cold beverage sweetened with Korean citrus honey, and the eye-catching Hibiscus Pear, which gradually turns from yellow to red thanks to a hibiscus leaf steeped in the sweet, fruity brew.

More traditional choices include Dragon Well green tea, Shou Mei white, and the signature Gramstandard, a Sri Lankan black tea with hints of mango and magnolia. No reports yet on the food—they serve sandwiches, pastries, and other bites.

Gramstand, which started out on Irving Place, moved in January to its current, larger space on Avenue A. It’s a warm and welcoming hangout, says Westpointisland. If the tea isn’t stimulating enough, diversions include free wi-fi and Lego sets.

Gramstand [East Village]
214 Ave. A, between E. 13th and 14th Sts., Manhattan
212-533-1934 Map

Chicagoist – Chicago, IL, USA

Tea is a hot commodity these days. With almost as many varietals and blends as coffee, better organic farming practices, less acid, and health benefits galore, it’s becoming a welcome alternative to the morning cup o’ joe. John Daley first found this out during two trips to Sri Lanka after college. Later, when he was working in Washington, DC, he sipped tea when his workmates were downing multiple cups of coffee every morning. From those nascent awakenings, Daley decided to dive headlong into the world of tea, soaking up every bit of knowledge he could. 

Daley now applies that knowledge and passion for tea in his new addition to the growing dining scene in the South Loop. Open for nearly two weeks, Hi Tea is a tea/coffee store and sandwich shop that’s already attracting students, families, and tea drinkers from the neighborhood and beyond. In visiting, you’ll learn a little bit about the art of tea and get a nostalgic look at a Chicago that only seems like yesterday. Entering the store, you’ll find tea services of varying price levels and quality for sale, a painting of a camellia sinensis plant (the common tea bush) in the entryway alongside artifacts and knick-knacks — antique speakers, an old policeman’s uniform, classic Chicago television programs from the ’50s airing on plasma screens, and cool jazz pumped through the sound system — from a Chicago some of us only know from books or the sepia-toned memories of our parents.

This sense of history and nostalgia comes easy for Daley (pictured, second from right, with manager Heather Horner, and partner Dino Bezanes and Tom Bezanes. A fourth partner, Andy Pappas, is not pictured), considering the integral contributions of his family to the city’s fabric. His father is Cook County Commissioner John Daley; among his uncles is one we refer to around these parts as “His Elective Majesty,” Mayor Richard M. Daley. But sit down and talk to Daley for a spell, you come to the conclusion that he and his partners are just folks from Bridgeport, bringing a sizable amount of that neighborhood’s can-do spirit to another small business. From what we saw on our visit, the signs point to Hi Tea having a marvelous upside. The food here offers nice twists on standard coffeehouse fare, and the tea is top notch. Our full review of Hi Tea is after the jump.

Hi Tea offers 54 different blends of loose-leaf tea, all selected by Daley and his partners. Different blends are placed on special daily. As we mentioned earlier, you can also buy all of your basic tea service accessories here, from bags and mesh infusers to vintage tea services. We often have a taste for yerba mate, and were surprised to find Hi Tea carries two varietals on the menu. Gentler on the stomach than coffee and black teas, yerba mate has an herbal, grassy flavor similar to green tea. Our almond cocoa mate had a prominent, heady malt flavor. Splashes of cream and raw sugar brought the almond to the forefront. Cup liners at Hi Tea are made from cork. It’s a welcome and different aesthetic touch from standard paper liners, and one keeping in line with ownership’s focus on the art of tea. However, cork expands when heated, and our cup liner kept slipping off until the temperature of our mate cooled. If you’re hesitant to drink tea, don’t fret. Hi Tea has a full-service espresso bar with unique takes on latte art. A Zummo machine is at the ready for fresh-squeezed juices.

Hi Tea has a fully functional kitchen serving up mouth-watering soups and sandwiches. All sandwiches are served with the house’s signature jicama apple slaw, the brightness and sweet flavor of which is muted under an oil-heavy vinaigrette. All that was forgiven with our selection of a turkey and gruyere baguette. The inclusion of oven-roasted tomatoes and a citrus vinaigrette made this sandwich a winner. This sandwich was coupled with a hearty bowl of creamy roasted carrot soup. This soup had a rich, buttery texture and an undeniably sweet carrot flavor.

Artwork adorns every available bit of wall space at Hi Tea, most of it from local Bridgeport artists. Daley said that the plan is for most of the artwork to rotate on a monthly basis, with the exception of a couple pieces which are on permanent loan and complement the shop’s atmosphere perfectly.

South Loop residents looking for a tea fix should give Hi Tea a try. Hi Tea is located at 14 E. 11th St. They’re open Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m. – 9 p.m., and 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Their phone number is 312-880-0832 (TEA). Drop on in, sit a spell, and say hello to Daley, Horner, and the Bezaneses.

Town Crier Online – Toronto, Canada

By Lorianna De Giorgio

Your search for a perfect cup of tea ends at Rosedale’s House of Tea.

Whether you’re in search of an English Breakfast brew to complement your morning array of eggs and bacon or just looking for an exotic fruit blend to warm you up on a chilly afternoon, owner Marisha Golla knows everything there is to know about tea.

It seems that it’s tea, not blood, that runs through the Sri Lankan-born proprietor’s veins. The tea trade has been part of her family history for more than a century. Her family owns two tea estates back home, where Golla worked as tea taster for the government’s tea board.

Golla and her husband Michael opened the Yonge St. store just north of Rosedale subway station only two weeks after their arrival in Canada. The oldest independently owned loose leaf tea shop in Toronto is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

“I like the taste of it,” Golla simply said about the product that she has based her livelihood upon all these years. “Coming from a third world country, it’s either tea or water (to drink).”

While the House of Tea’s success has become as sweet as the tea that Golla serves, the first year of operation, she admits, was challenging.

In 1997 loose leaf tea didn’t seem to be all that well known among Torontonians, and Golla wondered whether her business would survive its first year.

After all, Canada is a country filled with coffee and tea bag drinkers, she was told.

But with the shop’s anniversary this year, there’s no doubt those who might not have been familiar with loose leaf tea 10 years ago are now tea tasting converts.

And the years that have proceeded the first year have been nothing but joyous, Golla explained with her trademark friendly attitude.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s been very good. I don’t see this as work.”

Tins upon tins of loose leaf tea fill the moderately sized store. Golla carries more than 300 tea blends from around the world, from a vast selection of black, green and white teas to exotic blends such as Camillo, a chamomile orange blossom, orange peel, mint and lemongrass tea.

Golla also concocts her own custom blends to help a variety of her customers’ health ailments.

House of Tea is also populated with tea accessories — teapots and tea sets — that guarantee your tea sipping experience is as visually pleasurable as it is delicious.

The teas comes in 100, 250 and 500 gram bags, with prices ranging from $10 for an inexpensive blend of Blood Orange with Flowers black tea to $100 for a rare Japanese green tea.

And like all good businesses, the House of Tea has expanded. It has tea counters at both of Pusateri’s Fine Foods locations. And Golla supplies the tea for several restaurants, including neighbourhing café, Black Camel.

But despite her business’s growth, Golla doesn’t plan on expanding too far beyond her control.

After all, individually serving her customers in a friendly and knowledgeable way tops her plans of ever taking over Toronto’s tea scene.

“I’m not a person who has ever been interested in scattering myself around,” she said.

She leaves that up to her tea.

The Olive Press, Orgiva, Granada, Spain

by Arpi Shively

In the narrow lanes of Granada’s Arab quarter, perfumed secrets wait to be revealed.

TURN off bustling Calle Elvira into the cobbled street-alleys of Caldereria Vieja or Nueva and you have left Europe behind. The Albaicín has maintained its identity as Granada’s Muslim quarter since the Christian reconquest in 1492, and long before. Today, alongside small open shopfronts festooned with jewel fabrics, odorous leather goods and eager proprietors, the fragrant darkness of the traditional Arab teahouses or teterías beckons you in for refreshment from the inexorable Andalucian sun.

Since its introduction in the late 18th century, consumption has risen to make Morocco the world’s largest importer of Chinese green tea, the base for a rainbow of subtly scented varieties. Throughout North Africa and other Arab regions, drinking sweetened mint tea is an all-day habit, and offering it to guests the first act of hospitality (you are generally offered tea three times and should accept twice).

Though they reflect an established Arab tradition, most of the teterías in Granada today were opened in the past 30 years by homesick Moroccan immigrants working in the city who wanted familiar – and alcohol-free – venues to meet their friends or relax after a hard day. Today they also host a mixture of newspaper-rustling locals, tranquility-seeking tourists and students deep in textbooks.

The tetería is an oasis of quiet in a noisy city. Modern North African background music provides soothing drum and guitar rhythms, a continent away from the typical Spanish sound cocktail of television, coffeemaker and fruit machines all talking at once. Something – the absence of alcohol perhaps or the delicate fabrics and furnishings – particularly welcomes women, who seem comfortable whether reading alone or devouring gossip and sweet pastries together around a traditional three-legged sinya table.

Strolling through Caldereria Vieja on a bright winter afternoon, you are as likely to hear “Salaam Aleikoum” shouted in greeting as “Hola!” From the open doorway of Al-Andalus tetería a soundtrack plays: the Arab singer bends the notes until they break, chomping the ends off his words. Chalked menus offer couscous with everything, and tajines, meat, vegetable and rice combinations cooked in the traditional dome-lidded earthenware pots, make a guest appearance in the faded colour photographs on display.

Nearly all the teterías in Granada are concentrated in Caldereria Vieja and Caldereria Nueva. Opening times vary considerably, from 12 noon to the more usual 3.00 pm or even later, and most stay open beyond midnight. Kasbah, at Calle Caldereria Nueva 4, makes poetry even out of its opening hours, “from three in the afternoon until the last candle burns out.”

Nazari, Pervane, Meknes Rahma or Dar Ziryab. The names of teterías taste exotic on your tongue, all the more beautiful for not being understood. Pervane at the top of Calle Nueva is all hidden corners and tables for two, while Meknes Rahma, also in Calle Nueva, groups seating around the walls for a more spacious, less private ambience. And it has the most over-the-top lighting. Pick any one you like and leave the glaring sunshine behind as you step into the restful gloom.

Though each tetería is subtly different, the décor is emphatically oriental, with long benches cushioned in rich velvet and often draped with rugs, facing low carved stools and tables. Light from extravagant lamps in pierced and coloured metal throws shadows over lacy carved archways and wall reliefs. The tea service is no less a feast for the eyes. Small drinking glasses are frosted with gold and the chased metal teapot has a graceful curved spout for greater accuracy – tea is traditionally poured into the glass from a great height to create a frothy surface.

Teterías serve a range of herb, spice and fruit teas. Even reading the menu at Kasbah seems to have a cooling effect: “The Last Sigh of the Moor,” “Tarrying in the Desert” and “Flor de Sherezade” are listed next to Egyptian Rose-mint-cinnamon, violet and bergamot teas.

For more substantial refreshment choose from a long list of batidos, delicious blends of milk with fruit, less cloyingly sweet than many commercial shakes. Avocado, banana and coconut or almond, date and honey are just two of the unusual flavours on offer at Kasbah.

Cloyingly sweet indeed but heavenly in small doses are the typical Arab pastries such as baklava and khadaifi that seem made to accompany the delicate teas and shakes. If you are hungry, try pastela, a rich filo pastry filled with spicy chicken and egg.

By now you may be quite carried away by the whole Moorish experience. If so, end your meal with some leisurely puffs of a hookah or narguile. This traditional Arab smoking apparatus is filled with tobacco, often perfumed with mint, rose, apple or banana. A hookah costs between eight and ten euros and sharing is thrifty and fun.

Finally, exercise caution when you leave a tetería, or you may experience culture shock when you find yourself too swiftly back in Europe. So stop and bargain for a pierced leather lamp, stroke a silk scarf or two and pop in to Pasteleria Nujaila to buy some shimmering almond tarts. Then stroll back to Calle Elvira and the brave EU world of modern day Granada. The shadowy charms of the city’s teterias will be waiting patiently just around the corner, ready to welcome your return with a gilded glass of sweetly minty té marroqui.

3 Grownups & A Little Lady: English Rose Tea Room

Sara Hawkins, Carlton Hawkins, Perri Hawkins, Kyle Drake – azcentral.com

For this week, we brought a special guest reviewer with us, Carlton’s mother, Mildred Thomas. None of us had ever been to the English Rose before, but we had no trouble finding it, thanks to the map and directions on their Web site.

We entered the beautiful lobby, which contains a small sampling of the items available for sale at the gift shop next door. The hostess, who turned out to be owner Joanne Gemmill, led us to our table, which was set with a gorgeous combination of mismatched bone china and silverware. The effect was very shabby chic, and made for a lovely and inviting table. The ladies were invited to choose a hat to wear for our tea. The restaurant was very full, and it felt cozy.

Our server arrived almost immediately and was very friendly. There are 21 teas on the menu, including full-bodied and medium-bodied black teas, four green teas and three herbal tisanes that have no caffeine. Sara selected one of the special teas, the cinnamon spice, which seemed like a good choice for the cold day. Mildred chose the jasmine blossom green tea. Carlton’s choice was the fruit and honey tisane, a fruit-, herb-, and honey-flavored tea. Kyle ordered the peach tea, a black tea infused with fresh peach and marigold petals. The adults had ordered the Duchess of Bedford’s formal afternoon tea ($21.95 per person), and a nursery tea ($10.95 per person) was available for younger guests. The nursery tea includes a pot of decaffeinated tea, but when we requested a pot of hot chocolate for Perri, it was readily substituted.

After a short wait, our tea and hot chocolate arrived. The bone-china teapots were small, about two cups per pot, which saved space on the full table and prevented the teas from becoming too cold or bitter. The English Rose uses loose-leaf tea for their service, so we were given a tea strainer to catch stray leaves while pouring. If you prefer not to fuss with a strainer, the server can have the tea decanted for you.

Perri said her hot chocolate was delicious. Carlton’s fruit and honey tea was very fragrant, with a delicate, sweet flavor that he enjoyed very much. Mildred said the jasmine blossom green tea had a more “earthy” taste than she was expecting, but it was good. Kyle said her peach tea was much lighter in taste than most peach teas but that this was most likely due to a lack of artificial peach flavoring and the addition of the marigold petals. Sara’s cinnamon spice, on the other hand, was a very strong tea and definitely lived up to its name.

While we were enjoying the first sips of our beverages, the rest of our meal arrived. Both the afternoon tea and the nursery tea are served on three-tiered cake stands, rather than in courses. This is nice, as it allows you to nibble a bit from each tier in whatever order you prefer. Tier one of the afternoon tea had finger sandwiches, including chicken and walnut with tarragon; cucumber, orange and mint; and smoked salmon and cream cheese. Tier two featured fresh scones with strawberry preserves and Devonshire cream. Tier three contained a selection of miniature cakes, pastries and petit fours. The nursery tea’s tiers included peanut butter and jelly and cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches, fresh fruit, homemade cookies, baby cakes and candies. The serving sizes were more than generous.

The chicken and walnut with tarragon sandwiches were made with cracked wheat bread, with one edge coated in finely chopped walnuts. The chicken salad had the consistency and flavor of deviled ham, which was somewhat unexpected but not unpleasant. The cucumber, orange and mint sandwiches were prepared with a crustless white bread and were extremely delicate. The cucumber was thinly sliced, and the filling contained what appeared to be orange-infused butter with a slight hint of mint. The smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches were made with a light wheat bread. The salmon and cream cheese were thoroughly combined, making for a sandwich with consistency similar to the chicken and walnut with tarragon.

The scones were amazing to behold, looking more like popovers than any scone we had encountered before. They were served with pots of Devonshire cream and strawberry preserves. The scones were light and fresh, with a texture similar to traditional Southern biscuits. Sara and Kyle enjoyed them very much. Carlton thought they were a bit dry but were wonderful with the cream and the preserves. Mildred had never eaten scones before and was extremely satisfied with her first scone experience. Though lemon curd was not served with the scones, when we asked our server if it was available, she brought us a dish immediately. The lemon curd was delicious.

The pastries and cakes are made daily at the English Rose, and the selection is different each day. On the day we visited, they included miniature eclairs, lemon tarts, tiny heart-shaped dark chocolate boxes filled with strawberry mousse, miniature pink cakes with pink frosting and tiny carrot cakes. The lemon tarts were light and delicate, with a wonderful fresh whipped cream topping to balance the tart custard filling. The chocolate boxes were a pleasant addition to the pastry selection, adding a lot to the presentation. The strawberry filling was not overly sweet and was delicious with the dark chocolate. In contrast, the little strawberry cakes were incredibly sweet, topped with a pink frosting and pink sugar crystals, and they had an unusual consistency somewhere between a cream cake and a cheesecake. The group was evenly divided, with Mildred and Carlton liking them, and Sara and Kyle not particularly caring for them. The eclairs and carrot cakes were faithful representations of their larger versions and were enjoyed by all.

The nursery tea’s peanut butter and jelly and cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches were served on crustless white bread and were accompanied by fresh berries. Perri enjoyed both equally and finished all of them. The fresh fruit consisted of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes and sliced apples, dusted lightly with powdered sugar. The miniature cakes, pastries and petit fours that completed the tea included heart-shaped milk chocolates, a gingerbread bear cookie, a shortbread cookie with a candy and pink sugar decoration, a pecan pie bar and a pink petit fours with a white chocolate drizzle.

We enjoyed our afternoon at the English Rose Tea Room and felt that the prices were more than reasonable for the quality of the food and the service. We will definitely be returning. The English Rose Tea Room is open from 10 a.m-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with the last tea seating at 4 p.m. Sundays are reserved for private parties. Reservations are strongly encouraged.

Allston-Brighton TAB – Needham, MA, USA

By Ed Symkus

Every morning, before work, Tricia McIntyre has a big mug of black coffee. Then she heads out to spend her day surrounded by tea bags.

McIntyre owns the Allston-based company Bag Ladies Tea, which distributes tins and pouches and, in the near future, boxes, of tea she has imported from Sri Lanka. Her gimmick — and you’ve got to have some sort of gimmick these days — is that her product is aimed at women. Tins of 25 bags are titled “Working Girls,” “Forget Him,” “Sisters,” “Girlfriends” and so on. And each bag has a funny, pithy quote attached to it, ranging from a lyric from “Lady Marmalade” — “Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister” — to Phyllis Diller’s axiom, “Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”

“It’s a one-person operation,” says McIntyre, 46, whose previous career involved owning pushcarts and kiosks with gift items all over Boston. “I contract out my illustrators, my design team and the shipping. But I do everything else — the customer service, the trade shows, communicating with gift reps. I work with buyers in the States and Canada, the UK, Australia. We just did a small consignment with South Africa, and we recently did an order in Amsterdam.”

Yet, she admits, when she first started the business, in 1998, “I knew nothing about tea.”

Back then, her sister-in-law and her family were visiting San Francisco when they came across a boutique named Girlfriends. Her niece thought it would be great to start up a business of the same name and, well aware of McIntyre’s retail background, called to see if she was interested in getting involved.

But it was her sister-in-law who noticed the shop’s display of mugs and suggested that a great way to market mugs — if they decided to do this — would be to put tea bags in them on the shelf, and write little quotations on the tea bags.

“We talked about doing a franchise,” recalls McIntyre. “But the tea bag idea never left my mind, and when I decided not to do the store, I thought about doing something with quotes on tea bags.”

Her sister-in-law and niece left the new business after a while, and McIntyre, with a bit of help from her mother, ran the operation out of her Mission Hill home.

“I was able to buy wholesale bags of English breakfast tea,” she says. “We printed our tags on sheets of cardboard and cut them up into little squares, and my mother would sort them. Then we would pull the original tags off the bags, and staple our tags on by hand.

“Thinking back on that now,” she adds, “it was insane.”
McIntyre is still surprised at how the business took off, and how far it’s gone.

“It took a year to do the packaging,” she says of finding the right design team. “We started out with five mock-ups, and then I started calling stores. I said I had a new product, would you give us 20 minutes of your time. And every one of them said yes. Five of them loved it and said they would do an order as soon as it was ready. Then we got a gift rep to take the product to gift shows. And we did shows all over the country,” which led to hundreds of small accounts.

Then things got crazy.
“The Fancy Food Show in New York is the biggest show of the year, for gourmet retail, food brokers and others like that,” says McIntyre. “The ‘Today Show’ visited there one year, and they picked 10 products they thought were hot, and Bag Ladies Tea was one of them. So Al Roker was on the ‘Today Show’ reading all the funny tags.”

More recently, McIntyre got a call from the producers of “Will & Grace,” asking if she would do a custom tin for their wrap-up party.

“We did the tin, then picked 25 quotes from the show, printed them up and sent them off to LA. That just came out of the blue. Then we did the same thing for ‘Wicked’ on Broadway.”

Though business is quite good with the 13 different 25-bag tins and the 12 five-bag pouches, McIntyre thought it was time for a change.

New line next month
“The current line is really fun, very whimsical,” she says. “But I had always wanted to do something more understated and sophisticated, so we just designed a new line — the Blossoms Collection.”

These come 20 bags to a box, which features a floral print as opposed to the original line’s goofy cartoon drawings. The six new brands are: My Friend, Thank You, Happy Birthday, Morning’s First Cup, Afternoon’s Tea and Evening’s Comfort. And McIntyre has gone beyond just English breakfast tea. The new collection offers chamomile, fennel and rooibos. The line should be hitting the gift shop shelves by mid-February.

But getting back to that business about a mug of coffee every morning, does McIntyre drink tea?

“I do. I love tea,” she says. “But I didn’t drink it for years because there was not a lot of really good tea around, and now there’s wonderful tea available.

For more information, visit bagladiestea.com.

The hardest part about picking a place to grab a cup of coffee in Milwaukee is deciding which of the five cafes within walking distance you’d like to go to. The hardest part about finding a tea house in Milwaukee, is, well, actually finding one. That’s not to say there aren’t any, but when Brew City Tea opens up in the Third Ward on Feb. 1, it’s safe to say that it’s a welcome addition to a fairly untapped market in Milwaukee.

Brew City Tea is a bulk tea shop and café that occupies the quaint, 780-sq. ft. space at 140 N. Jefferson St., the former home of Bon Bon Café.

Much like specialty wine shops, entering the world of bulk tea without an education on the subject can be somewhat intimidating. Here, ordering a cup of tea finds you facing some serious decision making: Green? Black? Herbal? Flavored? A Blend? And the fact that most of your choices for each category look nearly identical certainly isn’t helping.

This is where owner Jean Vitrano’s enthusiasm and savvy comes into play.

“I don’t want Milwaukee’s tea experience to be Lipton,” she says. “I want to be a tea educator.”

Backed by a tea specialist certification from the Specialty Tea Institute in New York, Vitrano has hand selected 65 tea varieties to offer her customers. To help the tea drinker in training navigate her shop she’s complied a helpful handbook that references and describes in detail each tea she sells, down to its specific steeping time.

And for the tea drinker who prefers trial by taste, Vitrano is planning her in-house tea tasting nights, which she says will double as mini classes.

“I’d like to keep them small,” she says. “Probably six people at the time, and we’ll taste six different teas and learn about them.”

Brew City Tea is for sale by the cup ($2-$3.50), pot ($3.50-$5) or in bulk by the ounce ($2.50-$10) and every tea can be served iced upon request. The shop is small — it’s able to accommodate about 15 to 20 people inside, and more when the weather allows for outdoor patio seating — which creates a comfortable, intimate setting where Vitrano hopes people will sit and read or engage in a game of chess or two.

“I’m not doing any wholesaling or anything — that’s Rishi’s niche.” Her niche, rather, is more for people to come in to buy a pot or a cup of tea and relax, or learn about tea.

In addition to traditional teas, Vitrano carries what she’s calling “children’s tea,” which by definition isn’t actually tea at all, but rather a tisane, which is an herbal infusion of various herbs, dried fruits, flowers and berries. Some tisanes come stocked with high amounts of vitamin C and other nutrients that parents can feel good about.

“I wanted to get something for the kids to get them interested in drinking tea a little bit,” she says. “They are a bit sweeter, but are also good for you.”

Brew City Tea does not have a full kitchen, or even anything close, but there will be a small yet tasty selection of snacks, including desserts — cheesecake, scones, muffins — paninis and tea sandwiches.

OnMilwaukee.com Marketplace

Souvia™ opened the doors on its latest location in Arizona at 4320 N. Miller Road #107, located in the heart of Scottsdale. The new location offer the same large selection of loose leaf teas it has offered for over a year.

Scottsdale, AZ (PRWeb) January 20, 2007 -

Souvia™ opened the doors on its latest location in Arizona at 4320 N. Miller Road #107, located in the heart of Scottsdale. The new location offer the same large selection of loose leaf teas it has offered for over a year. “This location will help us meet the demand for our products. Our unique approach to selling tea is already attracting customers from the Scottsdale Market and the Southeast Metro area,” says Kerstin Wingert, president and founder of Souvia™. The new Souvia™ location will also feature the popular classes from the Phoenix Location such as Tea 101, Tea with Origami, and Tea and Food Pairings. Gail Sauers, the managing partner for the Scottsdale location, said, “We will deliver the same great experience our Valley-wide customers have come to expect.” The Scottsdale Souvia™ official Grand Opening will be held the 2nd and 3rd of February with tea specials, live music and drawings for tea related gifts. The location at 4320 N. Miller Suite 107 is open 9:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. on Saturdays.

About Souvia™
Souvia™ has Arizona’s largest collection of premium loose leaf teas and herbals that can be prepared at home or enjoyed right in its stores. Souvia™ is the source for information on tea through its passionate, knowledgeable staff and regular classes and tastings. Souvia™ has been featured on Good Morning Arizona, Sonoran Living KPNX’s upFront programs, as well as in Gourmet News and the Arizona Republic. With a contemporary European design that reflects the natural basis of the product offered, Souvia™ strives to create an environment that appeals to tea drinkers of all levels. For more information please visit www.souvia.com.

Emediawire.com