Named Best Atlanta Tea House by Atlanta Magazine

Soon after we opened ZenTea, we were fortunate to be named the Best Atlanta Tea House. Here's an excerpt from the magazine's review (or read the full tea review article online at Atlanta Magazine)...

© 2009 Atlanta Magazine

Atlanta Magazine Review of ZenTea's Tea House

by Christiane Lauterbach
11/1/2009 

"I didn’t grow up drinking tea. As a child, I had a big bowl of café au lait with plenty of sugar every morning, eventually graduating to espresso as a teenager. Until I was in my twenties, the closest I ever came to tea was soothing tisanes made with chamomile or linden blossoms when I had an upset stomach and couldn’t get to sleep. Tea was something the English did, and we, the French, would have none of it.

One summer, broke and between steady jobs, I worked in a small hotel in the mountains of Corsica, where I was something less than a waitress but more than a chambermaid. In the kitchen’s massive fireplace, there was a nail on which tea bags were hung to dry for reuse in case a customer was crazy enough to order this outlandish beverage. When I moved to Atlanta, I found that iced tea made my teeth hurt and gave me the jitters. And as a restaurant reviewer, I firmly believe that anyone who pays $3.50 for a tea bag dumped by a waiter in a cup of lukewarm water is the biggest fool.

Yet, thanks mostly to ethnic restaurants and a few inspiring shops, I have discovered my inner tea drinker. Moroccan mint tea, strong coppery Persian tea sipped through cubes of sugar, black Russian tea mixed with jam, Indian chai boiled with milk—I love them all and order them whenever I can. But the teas I truly worship and can’t live without come mostly from Japan and China.

Connie Miller of Zen Tea in Chamblee imparts extraordinary knowledge without a hint of geekiness. Official tastings are held every Friday, but Miller can’t help herself: She is like a Cheers barmaid with a hint of meditative enlightenment, shaking leaves into a canister lid, encouraging you to admire and smell the delicacy of a white organic pai mu tan (her favorite) or the brightness of matcha green tea powder mixed with green tea leaves and pearls of toasted rice. Before you know it, you will have five or six cups in front of you, perhaps alongside an iced green tea latte or a tea spritzer in a stemmed glass."