The Most Unpronounceable Store in Chicago

By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 20, 2008 4:25PM

Chicago is a great city for tea drinkers. With all of its independent coffee shops, Argo Tea’s 10 locations and the opulent snobbery of high tea at the Drake, it takes something pretty special to get noticed around here. Operating out of a cute (but tiny) storefront at 1160 N. State, TeaGschwendner easily stands up to the competition. Their store carries more than 300 varieties of high quality, loose-leaf tea, tea brewing paraphernalia and many attractive china tea sets.

For the tea aficionado, they carry a wide variety of expensive single-estate teas sure to impress your gourmet friends. For the casual drinker, the mixed origin and flavored teas are infinitely better than anything found in a teabag – and much cheaper per cup. We bought three 100-gram bags this weekend and it cost a total of $22, which may seem expensive until you realize that 300 grams makes 90 cups of tea. It’s cheaper than Starbucks, and they throw in free samples! Check out the blood orange black tea from their “aroma” line – it’s like Constant Comment on steroids.

Sit down with a friend on a cold winter afternoon and enjoy a few pots, they'll be glad to brew any tea you want to try out.

TeaGschwendner is located at 1160 N. State Street. You can check out their selection at www.teamerchants.com