You might think of cheery old England when you think tea but
You might think of cheery old England when you think tea but a couple hot spots are turning Earl Grey and Chamomile into some pretty hip sipping in Chicago!
"We're currently in 7 countries, 4 continents from Sao Paulo Brazil to Saudi Arabia," said Charles Cain, manager at Tea Gschwendner.
And now, Tea Gschwendner has brought its first American outpost to Chicago. The tricky pronunciation isn't stopping them from making quite a name for themselves as true tea connoisseurs. Charles Cain is the manager at the Gold Coast locale.
"We carry over 300 loose leaf teas, some of the finest tea in the world," said
Cain.
Tea Gschwendner has black teas, green teas, fruit teas imported from all over the globe. You name it, they have probably got it.
"Within the Darjeeling family, we have 21 Darjeelings from specific estates, specific pickings," said Cain.
You can either get a cup brewed for you or stock up on the supplies you need to try it out at home. One of the hottest sellers is something called Green Coconut Tea. In fact, the touted health benefits and a nice TV plug have made all green teas a very popular beverage of choice.
"As soon as you have someone like Dr. Phil going on Oprah saying that switching from coffee to green tea for 6 weeks and you'll lose 10 pounds, millions of women switched to green tea that day," said Cain.
And whether you're looking for a health boost or simply a change of pace from your old tea bag, Tea Gschwendner is hoping to refine your taste buds a bit.
"About a third of Americans drink hot tea on a regular basis so, there's a lot of tea drinkers out there and we're hoping to introduce them to the finer loose leaf teas," said Cain. A lot of people simply stick to the bags and we just wanna show them what's possible."
"I love this place. Every time I walk by, he's got my vanilla black tea and he's turned me on to so much different stuff and all the samples I would've never tried," said Laura Hangren.
The next stop on 190 North's tea tour of Chicago is in the Uptown neighborhood where you can brew and browse. Yes, shoppers who like to sip tea will not be disappointed with Unique so Chique.
"We wanted to offer the public somewhere where they could go sit and have a more upscale, true British tea experience and shop at the same time," said Robert Davis.
Robert Davis started the cool combo two years ago. Along with 35 loose teas to choose from, Unique so Chique offers the classic foods that go hand-in-hand with high tea -- finger sandwiches, lemon curd, scones and other sweets.
After high tea, you can check out some high-fashion in the chic boutique up front.
"We were originally going to be just clothing but we decided to expand into other things. We do bath, body, kids and babies," said Davis.
190 North's tea tour picks up in the heart of the Theatre District at the foot of the Oriental marquee. Argo Tea is an urban tea hangout serving up both hot and cold tea drinks.
"From the beginning, our goal was to bring tea to people who are not used to drinking tea, to make drinks that would appeal to them," said Daniel Lindwasser . "The offering is unique. Our tea-based signature drinks were developed by a chef."
Daniel Lindwasser runs the Argo tea stores. He says the more popular blends they make are Bubble tea, Pomegranite tea, Matte Latte or Chai tea and milk and Tea sangria. Argo is having no trouble rounding up reformed coffee drinkers.
"I think it tastes better and there are more varietals. I can't taste the difference between all the coffees," said Billy Mayer.
For more information:
Tea Gschwendner
1160 North State Street
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 932-0639
www.teagschwendner.com
Unique so Chique
4600 North Magnolia Avenue
Suite C
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 561-0324
www.uniquesochique.com
Argo Tea
958 West Armitage Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 873-4123
www.argotea.com
With a Starbucks on just about every corner, it's easy to see Chicagoans
love their coffee but a beverage battle is 'brewing' and more of
us will be cozying up to tea, if some newcomers have anything to
say about it. Michelle takes us on a tour, in search of the hot
new locales for a spot of tea.
