Indigo Lounge

Ruth | April 9th, 2010

I just stopped in to see what they had at Indigo Lounge.  I was just there to look.  I left 20 minutes later with a fresh brewed cup of Chocolate Monkey in one hand and two kinds of loose leaf tea in the other.

Indigo Lounge has an array of teas and tea supplies like nothing I have ever seen.  They make coffee drinks too, but they have 120 kinds of tea and I may just have to try them all.

There is a tea menu.  Several pages of a tea menu.  It explains the general taste of the tea and if it is black, green or red, organic and/or fair trade, caffeinated or caffeine free…it explains a lot.

I was drawn to Chocolate Monkey not only because it is a dessert tea and I didn’t know there was such a thing, but the name is just fun.  How can something involving chocolate and monkeys not be fun?

It was delicious.  I can’t really describe the flavor.  It is a combination of subtle flavors.  You really should go try it yourself.  Sweet, subtle and generally yummy.

I have since tried the other two teas I purchased and a few people at the office have tried them too.  Yum is the general consensus all around.

I got Pu-erh Ginger tea.  It is organic and fair trade black tea.  The description says, “Zesty notes of orange and ginger compliment the rich, smooth flavors of pu-erh.”  The ginger adds almost a woodsy note to the tea…in a good way.

The Marlon Rooibos tea is a red tea that is decaffeinated and organic.  It’s description, “A fruity burst of mango and passion fruit harmonizes with the subtle natural sweetness of the Rooibos tea.”

All 120 teas have descriptions like that.  My experience has been that the descriptions are a good indication of the flavor.

If you like tea your really should go read the menu and see what jumps out.

I had a lot of fun looking at tea pots and tea cups too.  They carry a collection of tea pots made from purple clay from the Yixing region of China.

I really liked the cups that came with strainers and the cups that came with thermal rings so you could hold the cup without burning yourself.

Lots of fun colors and styles in tea cups and tea pots.  Now that I have 120 tea flavors to try I may have to buy some tea cups!

Indigo Lounge makes their own pastries and has Miso soup daily and an additional soup from Muster’s Catering.

They have free tea classes too.  Every other Friday (the next class is April 16th) you can learn about different kinds of tea and the appropriate way to brew tea and lots of other interesting things about tea.

Indigo Lounge is at 221 E. 5th Avenue on E. 5th between Barrow & Cordova.  This is a nice place to lounge!  Stop by and see what you think.