Classy Hippie Tea Co.

Classy Hippie Tea Co. is a café and tea shop at 3200 Broadway, on the Oak Park stretch of the avenue, open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 1pm and Sunday from 9am to 1pm. The room serves hot and iced drinks with sweet and savoury food through the morning, and the shelves carry the house's own loose-leaf line, described on its site as single-origin teas, herbal infusions and artisanal blends. Beside the counter there is a weekly High Tea on Saturday afternoons from 1:30pm to 3:30pm, served in courses and booked through the web shop, which also sells tickets to tea tours and tasting lectures.

Every blend is sold in the same three sizes, named for how many cups they make: a Taster of 10 cups, about an ounce, at US$ 12; a Regular of 20 cups at US$ 19; and an Enthusiast bag of a pound, 160 cups, at US$ 53. That flat ladder covers the English Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream on the black side, Gen Mai Cha, Moroccan Mint and the house greens Jazzy Green and Beautiful People, a Shou Mei white, a Lemon Ginger Oolong, a Roasted Yerba Mate, the Yoga Chai and Stimulating Chai blends and herbals such as Ginger Fresh and Lights Out. Matcha is the exception, at US$ 14 the ounce and US$ 21 the 2 oz.

The shop works best as a morning stop: a drink at the counter, then a taster bag of the blend that was in the cup. The catalogue is built around blends rather than estate teas, so the single-origin side is thin next to the R Street tea house, but the flat price means an oolong, a white and a mate cost the same as a breakfast black. The Saturday high tea and the events calendar are what make it a destination rather than a corner café, and the hours mean it is closed by the time most shops open for the afternoon.