Image credit: coldspringsstudio.blogspot.com
I wouldn’t quite call teatime American, if anything can be called American at all. I think maybe of a snack of pretzels after school, but otherwise not much more than that. займ 15000 рублейю I have a friend with English relatives who always had tea in the kitchen, and a friend who is into organic foods who dedicatedly keeps several different types in her dorm, but otherwise, tea doesn’t seem to be all that widespread. Mostly when I think of teatime, I think of a hyper-stereotyped British teatime: tea, biscuits and crumpets-style. Maybe it’s just habit and history—I suppose several hundred pounds of tea dumped in a harbor isn’t a great precedent to appreciating the drink. While I’m certainly no connoisseur, a mug of hot tea is great when going over late-night readings at school, and who doesn’t love iced tea in the summer?
With these thoughts in mind, I decided to try a place that specialized in tea. I headed downtown to Podunk, a small tea shop by Cooper Union. I admit I was somewhat worried it was going to be too cute of a place for me to handle. Sometimes tea shops are alarmingly filled with doilies, and frankly it can be overwhelming. Walking through the door, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
Podunk is sweet but not stiflingly so. It’s filled with mismatched chairs—wooden chairs, painted chairs, garden chairs. I chose a deep Adirondack that I nearly fell into if I sat back too far. There are shelves full of picture books, and little knick-knacks like a straw hat and a watering can along the walls
. I checked my phone for the time, and, bizarrely, felt almost bad about it. Although it’s not exactly like stepping back in time, Podunk is definitely a books and paper and conversation type of place.
The tea came in a wooden tray pained blue, with a yellow polka dotted tea pot, a jar of sugar with a pear painted on it, and a spoon set neatly on a napkin. The tea—apple chamomile–was home-brewed and lovely. I was charmed against my will. It’s certainly a unique sort of place, and it welcomes all sorts of people.
Unfortunately, Podunk is on the expensive side. A pot of tea is $8 for one person, $7 a person for more than one person, and smaller options than a pot don’t seem to be offered. There are, of course, plenty of other less expensive cafes around the city for those who are wallet-conscious. Podunk is different, though, and worth it for the experience of it. Small but charming, it’s the perfect place to take your mom on her birthday.
Anais DiCroce
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