It is important to note that specialTEA is a self-proclaimed tea "lounge" rather than a tea house. The best way to describe it is as a coffee shop, but with tea instead of coffee. However, they had plenty of coffee drinks and smoothie options for non-tea drinkers.
Their tea storage was an interesting one. They kept the tea in labelled paint cans on the wall. My question is, how well did they clean out those paint cans?!
Sorry for the blurriness. If you look closely (the first two rows are just the name of the tea lounge), but the first row of the actual teas - the third one is missing. They took it down to get out the leaves to brew my Darjeeling tea!
That is another odd thing about this tea shop, though one I actually appreciated. They would steep your tea for you. All you had to tell them was the size of your order (a "small" which was a large mug, a medium which was a small pot, or a large which was a normal sized pot). They would serve you your tea fully steeped, no leaves, no fuss. It was nice because I wouldn't have to worry about making a mess moving the infuser somewhere, or that the leaves would be oversteeped. However, I can see this being an issue to some control freaks who want to know exactly how their tea is brewed.
I did not like this method because they brought out the mug while it was almost overflowing with scorching hot water. Yes, it was freshly brewed (and tasty!), but then I had to walk back across the "tea lounge" to their additives bar to sweeten the tea. I also didn't see milk readily available.
Food-wise, they had nothing tea specific. No scones, no tea sandwiches, no small pastries. They had the boring, basic muffins, cookies, and bagels. However, I was starving so I ordered an Italian panino (I can't remember the name, and they do not have a menu on their site). It had pesto, mayo, salami, tomato and arugula on a crunchy baguette and was DELICIOUS! It was not what I wanted with my tea, but I would totally come back here for the panino alone.
The lounge itself was very hipster and laid back. The walls were quite bare, and the seating was somewhat limited. They did have free wi-fi, which guarantees younger high school and college students will definitely call this place home for study time!
Overall I'd say I was glad I went and that I would go back again, but only for an incidental mug of tea with an amazing panino.
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