Tea Places: Cha &

I first encountered Cha & when I visited their space at the New York Coffee Fest. They recently opened a space on the Lower East Side. It is a modern tea bar with a focus on high-quality beverages. This area of the city doesn’t have many other tea places, so they are a welcome addition. Cha& recently invited me to visit their space and try a tea flight. In this post, I’ll be sharing a review of my experience.

Details

The outside of Cha & is fairly unassuming. I would have missed it if not for the sandwich board outside. When I first walked in, there was a little vignette with their menu, a plant propagation, and a handful of river rocks. Inside can best be described as light and airy. The walls were bright white with lots of plants scattered around. There was a large white bar with stool seating. A few groupings of benches and chairs off to the side. I liked that the seating area felt divided from the busy bar as that would lend itself better to conversation with a friend.

Although Cha& had just recently opened, it was quite crowded on the Saturday afternoon I visited. Good thing I had a reservation! The staff were running around making sure everyone was taken care of. I’ve worked in a cafe before and it is not each when there is a rush of people needing to be served. They did such a phenomenal job that I would not have guessed they had just recently opened. It was encouraging to see that the menu showed the origin of their teas. The focus seemed to be primarily on cold teas. There is also some coffee available as well as pastries.

I was seated at the bar next to a very nice couple who were there to celebrate a birthday. It turned out that they were also getting the tea flight. Even though I’m a big tea nerd, seeing people experience tea in new ways is still one of my favorite things. The flight started with a short introduction to Cha& and what they do. Their goal is to make tea more accessible and inviting to everyone.

First, Jeff hot brewed the teas for us in a beautiful glass shiboridashi. We learned a bit about each of them and why they were selected. I loved seeing loose-leaf tea highlighted in a cafe setting like this. The cups were smaller ones that might be used for gongfu brewing.

After the hot teas were finished, Jeff started preparing our iced tea flights. That was a surprise and delight since we all thought the hot brewed portion was the flight. The white tea, sencha, and Darjeeling are cold brewed, which is smart because they can be prepared ahead of time. The gyokuro was flash-chilled in a cocktail shaker. The last two selections were black tea with lemon and honey and then finally as a milk tea. What a cool visualization of the variety that tea can offer! I really liked that they utilized the same tea in different ways.

After finishing the flights, I thought the experience was over but there was still more to come. We were given pieces of a few different sweet buns as well as a full-sized beverage of our choice. I opted for the iced white tea as that was the standout for me. It was a fairly hot day out so the cool tea was a welcome refreshment.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Cha& and would recommend visiting any tea lover. This might be a good spot to bring your family when visiting the city because there’s a bit of something for everyone.

They are only just getting started so I’m sure things will continue to change and evolve. Jeff talked a bit about their plans to expand their menu as well as fun events like a candlelight reading party.

Have you had a chance to go to Cha&? What did you think? Is there another tea places in NYC that I should cover next? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Tea flight courtesy of Cha &. Opinions are my own.

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