Steep Demand

Dining Steep Demand

Independent teahouses provide a welcome oasis

BY VALERIE VINYARD

Enough with coff eehouses. It’s time for teahouses to have a moment.

During the past year, Tucson has experienced a brewed awakening in tea. Inviting teahouses in Midtown Tucson are ample to sip hot, cold and icy versions.

Emily Gastelum, a Pima Community College communications student, wasn’t always a tea lover. Over the years, however, her mindset has changed.

“I feel like tea’s pretty relaxing,” says Gastelum, 19. “It brings more energy to your immune system. It’s a Mexican thing, I guess. It’s the fi rst thing your mom ever tells you.”

Gastelum visits Starbucks to get a tea fi x and rates the chain an 8.5 out of 10, but “I feel like I could try better.”

“I plan to go to more local tea shops. I feel like they have new herbs where people can benefi t.”

Here are three that stand out.

Ni Hao Tea 4726 E. Broadway Boulevard 367-4083, nihaoteausa.com

Ni Hao, which means “hello” in Mandarin, is a small store tucked in a strip mall next to a Planet Fitness.

The shop, which features boba tea, opened in February 2020. Customers can sit at well-spaced tables inside as well as choose to play a variety of board games while they sip their drinks.

“I didn’t like tea before I started working here,” says manager Nicole Goldman, a UA student majoring in American Sign Language.

Now her favorite is the strawberry lemon green tea, which she described as “super refreshing.”

“We have a wide variety of high-quality drinks,” Goldman says. “We try to make our drinks the way the customers want.”

Goldman said boba, which is an Asian root that takes about 90 minutes to cook, is made in-house daily. Ni Hao’s signature drinks include fresh brown sugar boba milk (tiger milk boba), ceremonial-grade matcha latte and real cream cheese tea. In addition to boba, Ni Hao off ers traditional teas.

Customers choose a Thai, green or black tea base for many of the menu options, and an abundance of lactose- and dairy-free options are available.

Guests can also choose the level of sweetness for their drinks. A 24-ounce cream cheese tea with a black tea base and added brown sugar boba ($6.25) with minimal sweetness added was a tasty combination of cheesecake-fl avored cream cheese, semi-sweet boba and the slightly bitter iced black tea.

For non-tea drinkers, an array of iced or creamy slushes are for sale.

Seven Cups Fine Chinese Tea 2516 E. Sixth Street 881-4072, sevencups.com

Tea connoisseurs would be remiss to neglect Seven Cups, a longtime institution that opened in April 2004 across from Bob Dobbs at Tucson Boulevard and Sixth Street.

An aff able server named Ron seated us at a table inside the peaceful room resplendent with Asian décor, music and infl uences. After presenting us with substantial hardcover menus, he patiently explained the diff erences among yellow, white, scented and display teas.

Seven Cups is a traditional Chinese teahouse that off ers more than 80 looseleaf Chinese teas, which can be served either hot or iced. There’s a small area in the front that features packaged teas, tea ware and accessories for sale.

The dining room off ers sit-down tea service ($5 to $14) and a menu of simple snacks that include savory and sweet options ($2 to $5). Try a sweet vanilla or savory red bean paste snack ($4). The $2 hard-boiled egg was steeped in tea, leaving the egg with a fi rm and salty fl avor.

Seven Cups Tea House was named

one of Travel + Leisure magazine’s Best Places to Drink Tea in America and Best of Tucson in the categories of Best Tea Service and Best Bulk Tea Selection by Tucson Weekly annually since 2004. Tucson Weekly is also owned by the Times Media Group.

Transit Tea 2645 E. Speedway Boulevard 433-2886, transittea.com

Tucsonan Manish Shah has owned Maya Tea Company since 1997, but he wanted to off er neighbors something more. Cheesecake-fl avored cream cheese tea and a slightly bitter iced black tea from Ni Hao. (Photo by Valerie Vinyard) “He wanted to shake up the tea world,” brand manager Kristin Brakke says. “He wanted to do something diff erent.” “Diff erent” is Transit Tea, which opened in February to serve patrons out of its store’s drive-thru and pickup windows. Local artists created the artwork. Though there’s no indoor seating, outdoor seating is plentiful on the patio near the walk-up order window. Transit’s menu features a variety of plain, chai, tea latte, tea soda and tea snow. It even off ers a dozen fl avors of tasty tea popsicles for $2.50. Drink prices range from $2.50 for a small plain tea to $8 for a large tea latte with oat, almond or coconut milk. The alluring combination of elderfl ower, pomegranate and anise fl avors that made up the Wanderer black tea ($3.25 for a small) needed no sweetening. Despite the competition from other teahouses, Brakke says the quality of Transit Tea stands out from the rest. “They don’t do tea like we do,” Brakke says. “We have fi gured out a way to brew it where we have turned tea into a shape shifter.”

One of 80 loose-leaf Chinese teas along with sweet and savory snacks. (Photo by Valerie Vinyard)