Update-Sadly, this place closed in 2014.
I’d been wanting to go here for a while and was able to stop by for only a few minutes on a Saturday afternoon. I was anxious to see if the proclamation on their webite, “Elizabeths’ also boasts the largest loose leaf tea selection in this area, along with bagged teas, china teapots, cups and accessories,” was true.
Well, they do have a whole room dedicated to tea (and away from the coffee). Since I was in a hurry though, I did not have a chance to estimate the number of teas in stock. Their selection ranges from the usual black to greens to herbals as well as rooibos. Sorry, I can’t recall any white tea.
The woman who was working was very nice and she seemed to know a bit about the teas. According to her, the owner has been in business for 25 years so it’s nice that a local place can survive.
There was no minimum weight amount you have to buy and the clerk was happy to measure me out four types of tea at the cost of $1.50 each. (A great way to sample!) The prices seemed lreasonable but were marked per pound and not per ounce so I can’t really give a cost range in terms most Steepsters are used to. The only thing I wondered about was that some of the tea was stored in plastic containers. I thought air tight and dark canisters would have been better.
They serve coffee there so I assume they will also make tea, but as I was in such a rush, I didn’t ask for details.
P.S. If you have a coffee lover in your life, this is a place you will both enjoy.
You wouldn’t know this place carries loose tea by the name. I’d been in there a few times before I realized they have a corner dedicated to over 100 loose leaf teas. Mostly you notice the chocolate and the ice cream, which are wonderful, but the tea is there too.
They have a decent selection of blacks to herbals to greens which all have smelling jars. The down side is that you have to buy in two ounce sizes. (Correction – I was there on 5/17/13 and they now have one ounce bags.) One plus is that if you purchase a tea tin you get 10% off all future purchases (over two ounces). Another down side is that not all of the staff who works there knows a lot about the teas.
You can have them make you a pot of tea and enjoy it in the ice cream parlour, but given that the kids behind the counter know mostly ice cream, I am unsure if they know how to steep tea. That being
said, I haven’t tried a hot tea in store yet.
