Thursday night, I met up with a knitting group that I found through Ravelry, the absolute best knitting website on the web today (Seriously, every knitter out there needs to check out Ravelry. It’s amazing! Still in beta, though, so there’s a waiting list to get on.) The Capitol Hill Knitters decided to meet this week at Remedy Teas, a tea shop just around the corner from me that I had been meaning to go to ever since it opened last winter but hadn’t quite gotten around to yet. Somehow, when it comes to going out for beverages, Robert and I seem to always choose beer over tea. Now, I finally had the perfect excuse to check it out.
The first thing I noticed upon entering Remedy Teas is that it is very modern inside. Bright, lime green walls and gleaming silver chairs and stools abound. A couple of funky white vinyl ottoman-style chairs are available in the center of the room. Teas are kept in test tubes giving the place a slight laboratory vibe. Despite the ultra-modern furnishings, however, Remedy Teas is very cozy inside (as any good tea shop should be!) It is a pretty small space so the tables and chairs are closely packed together creating a friendly, jovial atmosphere. That, combined with the mellow lighting and bluesy music that was playing when I was there, made me feel like I was in some kind of cool mad scientist’s lounge room.
Remedy Teas offers over 150 types of tea, divided up between wellness teas, white teas, green, oolong, black, pu-erh (rare teas that that are aged like wine,) and many others. Not being a huge tea drinker myself, I found the tea list to be pretty overwhelming. I mean, I get overwhelmed by the number of teas in our cabinet at work, and that doesn’t even compare to the offerings at Remedy. I had finally settled on the Citra Pu-erh only to find out that it was one of ten teas that they were out of (wouldn’t you know it.) The gentleman working behind the counter happily gave me a recommendation, though, so I felt that I was in good hands. He suggested the Winter Pu-erh which is a blend of bold leaf pu-erh, ginger, cinnamon sticks and clove. That sounded perfect.
You can order tea by the cup, small pot and large pot. All of the tea is served in really cool glass serving ware. My tea arrived at the table in a clear glass pot, with a clear, round-ish cup and another cup full of the brewed leaves which you can use to strengthen the pot of tea if you so desire. In addition to tea, Remedy offers tea sandwiches, such as cucumber or radish and red onion, as well as other snacks. They also have delicious-looking pastries and cookies including lavender shortbread and cornmeal rosemary (yum!) And, if you really want to go all out, you can order full tea service in which you get a “tower of treats” perfectly paired with your tea.
Apparently, tea is the new hip thing. At least, it is at Remedy; the place was packed when I left. I can see why, though. Remedy makes you want to drink tea all the time. My Winter Pu-erh was the perfect “remedy” for Thursday’s cold, blustery weather. I’ll certainly be back. Plus, now that I know they offer organic beer in addition to tea, I should easily be able to get Robert to go with me!
Remedy Teas is located at 345 15th Ave E and is open from 7am-11pm every day.