Simon Lévelt is a Dutch coffee and tea house whose founder opened a small grocer's shop in the old harbours of Amsterdam in 1826, and its Groningen speciality shop sits at Zwanestraat 38, a stone's throw from the Martinitoren. The chain describes the shop as worth walking into on a day's shopping in the city, if only to come in and smell: coffee is ground fresh for each customer and matched to their brewing method, and the coffee and tea range is wide and keeps changing through the year.
The online catalogue gives an idea of the shelves: around fifty black teas, forty greens, a dozen oolongs, eight whites, a dozen rooibos and some twenty-five herbal infusions. Most loose teas are sold from 100 g, with 1 kg packs for the everyday ones, and the smaller packs are kept for the rarer leaves: 50 g for the Da Hong Pao and 30 g for the Pai Mu Tan. The classics are all there, from Earl Grey and Engelse Melange to a summer-flush Darjeeling, Keemun Congou, Sencha, Dragonwell, Jasmine Chung Hao and Ti Kuan Yin.
Orders placed on the chain's website can be picked up free at the speciality shops, orders over €50 ship free in the Netherlands and Belgium, and anything ordered on a weekday before noon leaves the same day. The Groningen shop answers the phone at +31 50 311 4333, and the chain's other speciality shops around the country work the same way, with the same range and the same free pick-up.