Tea time in Harbor East

As my brother and I were walking around Harbor East this weekend, we saw Teavolve, the new tea lounge on the bottom floor of the Eden apartment building. Timothy fell in love with eastern tea during his tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, so we went inside to check it out.

Very cool space. Modern, minimalist design. Floor to ceiling windows with tables for groups or lounge seating for hanging out. Teavolve is a full restaurant and tea lounge, but we weren't hungry.

I was intrigued by the many teas I'd never heard of, including oolong tea. We called one of T's buddies who used to have tea shipped from China to Iraq when they were overseas. We figured he could help us decipher the menu.

According to this guy Will, oolong tea is a green tea that evolved as a light-weight alternative to Chinese green tea during long transportation routes. The oolong tea is fermented green tea that weighed less than transporting the entire green tea plant. 

While Will's explanation was interesting and I'm sure contains merit, it seems that the origin of oolong tea is still to be determined, according to Wikipedia. Oolong is a tea that falls between green and black tea on the intensity scale.  

Timothy got a black tea since they didn't have any Iranian tea, and we lounged for a while to Putumayo music. According to a brochure on the table, Teavolve will soon be opening a cocktail bar with fruit-infused teas. Nice. 

I definitely plan to go back and curl up with a book come fall. Or maybe I'll be back this Friday for the all-natural happy hour where "acoustic soul meets herbal tea" from 5-9pm.