Eli Tea Bar

Eli Tea Bar is at 5507 N Clark Street in Andersonville, on the north side in Edgewater, and it is the second room of a business that started in Detroit: founder Elias Majid launched Eli Tea in 2013 while studying nutrition and food science at Wayne State University, and the flagship is still in Birmingham, Michigan. The Chicago space is a café and an alcohol-free bar with seating at the back, and it is used for studying and for evenings out in roughly equal measure.

Everything is sold from a 2 oz pouch, which flattens the shelf into one ladder: English Breakfast, organic Assam and Japanese sencha at $10, Oregon Mint at $10.50, Earl Grey at $11.50, Kagoshima genmaicha and roasted hojicha around $13, Kenya Kosabei and milk oolong at $14, Lapsang Souchong at $15, jasmine pearls at $18, GABA oolong and Silver Needle at $20. The teas are never artificially flavoured or perfumed, and some of the herbals are grown in the United States. In store, the tea wall prints altitude, caffeine content and tasting notes on the front of each tin.

The counter is not only loose leaf. There is kombucha on tap, and bubble tea made with fresh milk, tea boiled Indian style and tapioca pearls, with oat and coconut milk as options and no corn syrup or milk powder. Evenings bring open mics, trivia on Tuesdays, a book club and arts and crafts nights, which is why the room fills up after work. Orders over $75 ship free for anyone who tries something at the bar and wants the pouch at home.