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Tea Blendz
Category: Food Coffee & Tea Coffee & Tea [Edit]
2877 Dundas St WToronto, ON M6P 1Y9
Neighbourhood: The Junction
(647) 346-2307
- Hours:
Tue-Sat 10 am - 7 pm
- Price Range:
-
$
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
3 reviews for Tea Blendz
3 reviews in English
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Review from Michelle A.
Toronto, ON
I just discovered Tea Blendz and I'm hooked! On the surface, Tea Blendz looks a lot like David's Tea. Rows of very flavourful, unique teas in silver jars with colourful labels. However, there are a few key differences:
1) You don't smell the communcal jars that everyone gets served from. Instead, they have little squre containers of the teas on display that you can smell before you line up. I like this much better than having 1,000 faces inside my cup of tea.
2) The flavours are more fun. So far, I've tried caramel green and pumpkin rooibos - both were so delicious.
3) They use a cool espresso maker to make the tea, so you don't have to wait five minutes for it to steep and there are no messy bags/floaty pieces of tea. It also seems to make the tea taste much stronger than waiting for it to steep.
The owners are also awesome. Very friendly, cheery service, and they're great at making recommendations. If you want to sit down and have your tea, they have a few tables and chairs. The tea cost $2.65 a cup - a few cents more than David's but the cup is bigger.
It's located on Dundas (West of Keele).Listed in: Coffee faves
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Review from TOFoodReviews n.
Toronto, ON
There sure are a lot of tea places showing up nowadays, especially since the monstrous success of David's Tea. Say what you will about that corporate beast, but in my opinion, David's Tea has had a firm hand in pushing tea into the hands of mainstream Toronto. So, in a market on its way to becoming pretty heavily saturated, what's Tea Blendz doing to differentiate themselves? Plenty...
First off, it's not a corporate beast. It's a little boutique shop owned by Khadija, an incredibly nice person whose passion for all things tea-related is almost contagious. That feeling of non-corporateness runs throughout the experience at Tea Blendz. Khadija is easily approachable, encourages you to ask questions, and is obviously passionate about the stuff she's selling. Not to say that the staff at those corporate places aren't passionate, but at Tea Blendz, it just seemed more honest.
They also have a pretty kick-ass teaspresso machine--one of the only ones in Toronto right now I'm told. Basically, it allows them to quick-press loose-leaf tea rather then steep it. That means you can get it faster and cleaner, and the whole process is under more control of the brewer rather than being at the mercy of the boiling water. Your tea will still take a few minutes, but those few minutes can easily be spent talking to the warm and pleasant staff. In fact, I ended up staying and chatting about tea and the neighbourhood for far longer than those few minutes that my tea was pressed.
Using the teaspresso machine, Tea Blendz also brews up some pretty amazing tea lattes. Khadija claimed they were the best in the city, and I can't say I'd disagree with her. While I'm self-admittedly not a tea or tea latte expert by any means, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I could definitely see myself going out of my way to enjoy another one.
Khadija works with local tea blenders to come up with a lot of her blends. They have plenty of classic flavours, like Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and Bourbon Street Vanilla, and some of that are hers and the blenders creation, like Chocolate Mint Delight, Root Beer Rooibos, and Sweet Pumpkin Spice. Despite being pressed and not steeped, the subtle flavours that the tea descriptions promised were still prevalent. I also picked up on a slight sweetness, which amazingly highlighted the even subtler flavours in the tea. All-in-all, I'd sort of equate it to wine-tasting; after tasting it, discussing the tea and its flavours seemed almost natural.
Khadija mentioned that there's a growing trend in food and tea pairing. Because of that, I wondered if she planned on offering any food at some point, which right now she doesn't. I don't mean sitting down and eating a club sandwich and fries, but a small, one-bite of something that was specifically made just to be paired with a particular tea would certainly have been interesting. But Tea Blendz just opened a month ago, so things aren't yet set in stone.
All-in-all, I had a great chat with Khadija. I learned some stuff, and I even left with a few bags of tea. I brought home a bag of Chocolate Mint Delight and the Sweet Pumpkin Spice, and at 5 bucks for 50 grams, I left feeling pretty good about buying it.
So if you're in the neighbourhood, this honest-to-goodness, non-corporate boutique shop is definitely worth checking out and supporting. Even if you're not in the neighbourhood, it's worth the drive if you want to learn more about tea and if you appreciate truly nice customer service.Listed in: 5 Star Eats in Toronto
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Review from J S.
Toronto, ON
3/15/2011
Yup, The Junction is gentrifying, although Starbucks and Subway notwithstanding most of the new businesses seem to be independently run and owned. Tea Blendz is the most recent arrival, a loose leaf tea store located on the south side of Dundas West just west of Keele. When I saw the sign first go up I had mixed feelings; on the one hand it would be great to not have to go down to Bloor West Village to get my tea, but on the other hand it's one of my major pet peeves when businesses intentionally misspell their names.
Refusing to let my pedantry get in the way for once, I visited shortly after it opened last weekend. I had some idea of what to expect based on their webpage but it seemed like there was a lot more variety in-store, with several rows of large tea tins behind the counter and what appeared to be small smelling samples accessible to the customer. There were also some shelves with accessories but I didn't look too closely at them; I assume it's the regular fare you'd expect at any tea shop.
If you're more interested in getting some tea to drink right then and there they've got some fancy machine that allows them to skip the steeping process so it's ready quite quickly. I believe they only serve eight or so varieties this way, unlike somewhere like David's Tea where you can order any type to go; the cost is $2.60 or $2.65, which I continue to think is too expensive. They also serve six or so varieties of tea lattes, including vanilla bean, caramel rooibos and chocolate raspberry, and which can be made with cow or soy milk.
The decor is not really to my taste but there are more places to sit than at some of the places on Bloor, and the owners are enthusiastic about their business and the neighbourhood. I will be back, and I hope it does well.
Specialties
Loose leaf tea, tea drinks, tea accessories. We have a large selection of green tea, black tea, oolong tea, rooibos tea and white teas. We also have a large wellness tea selection to help detox, relax, hydrate and energize you.
History
Established in 2011
Tea Blendz is a new tea boutique in Toronto geared to tea drinkers new and old.
