At the Northern Tea House, there may be no such thing as a bad choice. Owners Maria and Ibn Bailey want every visit to be an experience, from picking a tea cup and pot to their selection of more than 100 teas from around the world.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m there, I go straight for the minimalist red tea pot, a Japanese-style cup and the rooibos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s delicious and it is great for you,\u201d Maria said of the distinctive red tea made from a South African bush, adding that it is good for high blood pressure and diabetes. \u201cAnd adding some cream and sugar to it \u2014 the not so healthy part \u2014 to me, it\u2019s like dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tea house, which opened last year, is the culmination of Ibn and Maria\u2019s vision of a comfortable and homey space that \u201creflects Ibn and I…from the colors to the way we decorated it,\u201d Maria said, calling it \u201cour heart and soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just tea. They offer food as well, keeping their cooking \u201cvery much homestyle\u201d and to items that \u201cgo great with tea.\u201d They are also is working on introducing desserts from around the world, like mochi from Japan and Malva cake from South Africa. \u201cIt tastes like syrup and pancakes but way better,\u201d Maria said.<\/p>\n
They feature local artists\u2019 work on their walls and take part in First Friday, despite their Valley location, and also Final Friday, the Valley\u2019s answer to downtown. They have had local musicians come and perform, including Veinglorious (See a Capital City Weekly article on him at http:\/\/bit.ly\/28VX8lG). The tea house has also become the site of many birthday parties, meetings and pop-up trunk shows; the shop\u2019s Green Room rents for $18 an hour to private parties.<\/p>\n
Tea is \u201ca social kind of thing, so a lot of people come here and they meet up, catch up on things,\u201d said Maria.<\/p>\n
The tea house has even converted some coffee drinkers into regular customers as the Baileys work to raise awareness about tea.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people are like, \u2018It tastes like water. Water and leaves.\u2019 (But) there\u2019s a lot more to tea,\u201d said Maria, from educating people about the health benefits of oolong to brewing the perfect milk tea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t brew it just by pouring some hot water on top of our leaves,\u201d she said. \u201cSome people buy the tea and then (come back and say), \u201cit doesn\u2019t taste like when you guys make it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Such was the case with my own strawberries and cream, a delicious concoction the Baileys make with sencha, a green tea from Japan. Each purchase comes with instructions but it might take sometime to reach the Bailey\u2019s level of skill. The leaves are sold by the ounce, however, allowing you multiple tries at perfection.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AN OPEN FUTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s all kind of things that we\u2019d like to try,\u201d Maria said of their future plans.<\/p>\n Their Valley shop is their home base, she said, but they haven\u2019t ruled out expansion downtown or even \u2014 as one customer has asked \u2014 to Douglas. \u201cI think a lot of people would be excited,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n They\u2019re always looking for new teas. They research and try out new samples at home but have also been traveling for their work, including to a tea festival in Seattle last year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of crazy. You\u2019re thinking, \u2018Oh, a tea festival, it\u2019s not going to be a lot of people,\u2019 (but) it was very packed,\u201d Maria said. The crowds and the wait were worth it, however, to try out vendors from around the world. \u201cWe found some vendors that we\u2019re now offering here because it was so good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In the future, they plan to add tea plantations in Asia and elsewhere to their travel itineraries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CHOICES, CHOICES<\/strong><\/p>\n But back to the tricky task of choosing your tea. The tea house offers some aids to the indecisive customer. Each Saturday, the Baileys offer free tea samples, \u201clike Costco but better,\u201d if you don\u2019t want to commit yourself. One customer has solved the problem by starting on the top shelf of the shop\u2019s \u201cwall of tea\u201d and working his way down.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a tea passport where you can keep track of which teas you\u2019ve tried and rate them. \u201cI have folks (who) are just going down the list,\u201d Maria said. \u201cThat helps, if you\u2019re adventurous. We have some crazy teas that are not very delicious. You do have to get used to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Like the Alberta Street Chai, combining Lapsang Souchong black tea with both roasted and unroasted m\u00e1te, vanilla bean, rooibos, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. \u201cThe smoky chai,\u201d Maria calls it. \u201cWe have people that love it.\u201d<\/p>\n While this tea lover is still on the fence about the loveability of Alberta Street Chai, one thing is certain: Whatever you choose at the Northern Tea House, you won\u2019t be bored.<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly staff writer and design wizard Randi Spray at randi.spray@capweek.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the Northern Tea House, there may be no such thing as a bad choice. Owners Maria and Ibn Bailey want every visit to be an experience, from picking a tea cup and pot to their selection of more than 100 teas from around the world. When I\u2019m there, I go straight for the minimalist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":24564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24563"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}