Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Cool Down With Sweetleaf - And Not Just With Coffee

Well it certainly seems like summer is upon us.  While I can't complain, since I prefer the warm weather to a harsh NY winter, it has been pretty hot and sticky outside. 

One way to fend off the discomfort that sometimes comes with the humidity is to keep yourself properly hydrated.  And yesterday while my brother and I were walking back from Greenpoint, Brooklyn back to LIC, we stopped at Sweetleaf for a much needed liquid refresher.

Although Sweetleaf is known for their coffee, they also carry interesting, herbal and fruit teas, which can be made iced.  Each tea is prepared especially for you, so the process takes about five short minutes.  Fruit teas are highly recommended iced, as their fruitiness really stands out when chilled.

Here are the 2 varieties we tried:

Coconut Lavender -
This was my tea and it was really excellent.  Light in color and in taste, it was slightly bitter with a lovely coconut accent that hit your palate after each sip.  The lavender was more present in smell than in flavor, which I was fine with.  Since this concoction was slightly bitter, I sweetened it with a few glugs of simple syrup. Yum!

Blood Orange Citrus - My brother chose this tea, which couldn't look and taste more different than mine.  First off, it was bright red/dark pink and tasted tropical, with a hint of orange zest at the end - like the effect that the coconut had on my tea.  And contrary to my tea, this one didn't need to be sweetened, as it had natural sweetness already built in. 

Service and Cost:
The service was awesome, as always, and very personal.  We received good recommendations about tea flavors and even a detailed explanation about why they now carried different baked goods and less chocolate (they changed their baker, and the Nunu chocolates are coming back in the fall).


Costs are moderate, and for two medium sized iced teas, we paid a total of $5.50 ($2.25 each).

3 Mmmms


Sweetleaf - 10-93 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City NY 11101

917.832.6726
7 Train to Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave
www.sweetleaflic.com

4 comments:

  1. Sweetleaf also seemed to be a really nice and unassuming spot. Though it's not huge, it looked like a good place to bring along a book.

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  2. Totally! It's a great place to chill. Very different from Starbucks.

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  3. You had me at coconut and lavender.

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  4. Ha! I know...I felt the same way.

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