Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.12.2016, Blaðsíða 26

The R
eykjavík G
rapevine
B
est of R
eykjavík 20
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26
Okay, full disclosure: the idea of a
“Tea House” guide in Reykjavík is
a little bit misleading. Reykjavík
runs on coffee, so it quickly be-
comes apparent that a tea guide
will be more of a guide to coffee
shops that just happen to serve
tea, sometimes. But we needed
to weed out which readers are
really looking for a well-brewed
cup of leaves, and which are just
trying to get their caffeine fix.
There are plenty of places for
the latter—type “coffee” into your
Google Maps search engine and
Reykjavík’s centre will explode
into a caffeine emporium. And
while there is no proper tea scene
in Reykjavík yet, the waters are
warming. We’ll just give you this
cup here and let it brew…
There are three main suppliers
of loose leaf tea in Reykjavík: Te
og Kaffi, Kaffitár, and Krydd og
Tehúsið. Te og Kaffi is a bit Star-
bucks-y in that there are so many
of them packed into 101 you can
hear what someone is ordering
from the branch across the street.
But we’re not here to talk about
ambience. We’re here to talk about
tea. And if it is tea you seek, then
there is only one branch of Te og
Kaffi for you: Laugavegur 27. This
shop is the only one in town that
carries all of their 50 different
teas—from their least expensive
herbal blends like chamomile and
lemongrass to more high-end
greens, blacks, and whites. You
can order a pot on the spot or buy
a 100g bag to take with you.
If you want to try a tea from this
Reykjavík staple but aren’t into the
whole corporate monopoly thing
(or you just forgot your computer
charger) you can head to Kex Hos-
tel, which serves some of the main
names from the collection. Here
you’ll find a few fewer laptops, and
a lot more view—the back wall of
Kex’s café-bar-restaurant looks
out toward Esja, and the sea. You
can practically feel the wind whip-
ping your hair, which makes grab-
bing onto that warm mug all the
more satisfying.
The second main distributor of
teas is Kaffitár. Kaffitár has an
outlet café at Bankastræti 8—as
central as it gets. Because of its
high-traffic location, the café
itself stays pretty full most of the
day. That may sound like a turn-
off at first, but in the depths of
winter a little bit of colour and
sound actually pair quite well
with a hot pot of their personal-
ly blended teas.
For a different scene, Grái Köt-
turinn on Hverfisgata serves a
selection of Kaffitár’s loose leafs.
This just-off-the-main-drag and
just-below-street-level café is
tighter, dimmer, and packed in
all sorts of ways with books.
Kaffibrennslan on the corner of
Klapparstígur and Laugavegur
also carries Kaffitár’s teas. Brenns-
lan stays open until 23:00 on
weekdays, which makes it a great
place to do some after-hours work,
in that interim when it’s too late
for coffee, but just right for tea.
One tea treasure that we dug up
isn’t actually a café at all—it’s an
herbs and spice (and everything
nice) shop called Krydd og Te-
húsið. The shop is teeming with
scents that are at the same time
comforting and exotic. The own-
er, Omry, hand-selects all of the
teas that make their way into the
well-organized display. They im-
port from all over the Far East
and carry a little bit of everything,
from the “charismatic” ginger-
and lemon-infused green teas,
to more specialty teas like dark
Pu-erhs from China.
Just up the street from Krydd og
Tehúsið is Reykjavík Roasters
on Brautarholt. Reykjavík Roast-
ers opened its first location at
t he sma l l t r ia ng le lot on
Kárastígur, and built a strong
reputation on local sourcing and
hand-crafting. Keeping in tune
with their emphasis on what’s
local, Reykjavík Roasters is one
of the only places in town that
you can order a cup of Krydd og
Tehúsið’s finest.
Sufistinn is the always buzzing
book café on the top floor of Mal
og Menning (bookshop), and the
only other place you can get served
a selection from Krydd og Tehúsið.
Besides the two main distributor
cafés, Sufistinn had one of the
best selections of loose-leaf teas
that I came across. On a small
end-table was a display of about
ten different beautifully pa-
per-wrapped canisters, each one
holding a different white, black,
red, green, or berry blend.
TEA HOUSES
Sweet Leaf
Words PARKER YAMASAKI