(Gabi Porter)
(Gabi Porter)
(Gabi Porter)
(Gabi Porter)
(Gabi Porter)
COOL AND CLASSIC
The house iced tea ($2.50) at the rustic Lower East Side restaurant Preserve24 is as close to a classic as you’ll find — albeit it elegantly updated. “It strikes the perfect balance of black tea with a fruity finish,” says manager Matt Boms of the Weaver’s black mango tea, selected for the natural sweetness that comes from the fruit and additional floral notes from marigold petals. If you don’t have time to sit at the restaurant, grab it to go from the takeout window.
Preserve24, 177 E. Houston St., 646-837-6100
EXOTIC ESSENCE
Along with more than a dozen traditional high tea options, Midtown restaurant The Lambs Club features an iced option: Iced Thé du Hammam Rooibos ($6). The smooth blend, created by the French tea production company Le Palais des Thés — which partner Margaret Zakarian chose for the restaurant’s tea program — features exotic notes from the Orient such as orange oil, vanilla and rose. “It’s one of our best-selling teas,” Zakarian says. To ensure the drink retains its flavor, the restaurant serves it over four large ice cubes — also made with the bracing yet mellow tea.
The Lambs Club, 132 W. 44th St., 212-997-5262
FOR FRESH FRUIT FANATICS
Traditional Thai tea is strong and black, but Hong Thaimee, chef-owner of Thai comfort food restaurant Ngam in the East Village, muddles seasonal fruits — currently, fresh strawberries — and mixes them with the tea imported from Thailand for her Fruity Thai Iced Tea ($5). Served in a stemless goblet and garnished with lychees, it’s sweet, juicy and fabulously fruity.
Ngam, 99 Third Ave., 212-777-8424
FOR JAVA JUNKIES
“We wanted to create our own definition of gourmet tea,” explains George Kuan, co-owner of the West Village’s new Press Tea, which opened in late May. The family-run business sources teas from plantations around the world and uses espresso-like machines to press them, instead of steeping, for a fuller flavor. Customize your drink, or opt for a house specialty like fan favorite Mont Blanc Wild Himalayan ($4). The secret to this drink isn’t just the full-bodied, chocolaty flavor of the tea, shaken with ice cubes, but the house-made Mont Blanc crème added on top. The sweet-salty dairy mixture first floats like beer foam but gradually sinks.
Press Tea, 167 Seventh Ave. South, 646-678-3909
FOR LEMON LOVERS
There are few things more refreshing than lemon tea, and Union Square newcomer The Fourth, inside the new Hyatt Union Square hotel, serves a lovely glass. Their French Verveine tea ($4) reinforces Harney & Sons tea with lemon verbena from the nearby Union Square Greenmarket, which are slow brewed to draw out clean flavors. A splash of peppermint syrup lends a refreshing herbal note, and a wedge of lemon finishes it off. As owner Jo-Ann Makovitzky points out, the tea is “light and lemony — perfect for summer.”
The Fourth, 132 Fourth Ave., 212-432-1324
IF YOU LIKE PIÑA COLADAS…
With more than 150 loose-leaf teas to explore — from white to green, oolong to rooibos — DavidsTea has no shortage of iced options, although some are more summery than others. Take the Tropicalia ($4.50) for example, one of the shop’s five limited-
edition summer blends. An herbal mix of apple, candied pineapple, coconut, safflower blossoms and sugar hearts, its tropical notes are reminiscent of a piña colada. But even more refreshing, the tea is mixed with crisp carbonated water for an effervescent drink on the go.
DavidsTea, 1124 Third Ave., 212-717-1116 (plus three other locations)