At Argo Tea, there truly is something for everyone. The tea is second to none with a gigantic variety of loose teas, everything from your basic black teas, green teas (yes, there are multiple varieties!), the elusive and extremely healthy white teas, and a huge variety of tisanes (herbal teas, like Chamomile, Jasmine and Rooibos) and flavored teas of all of the above.
Teas aside, they have a full coffee bar where, if not a "tea person," you can cappuccino, latté, and brevé to your heart's content, with illy, the world's best and most consistent coffee. Did you know that Illy invented espresso and the espresso machine? The coffee is never burnt and the lattés are fantastic.
Even on top of the basic tea and coffee, there's more! The Chai and Chai Latté at Argo is like an art form; actual loose tea is used rather than some powder or mix, and the result, if a Chai fan, is phenomenal. Additionally, their Maté Latté is to die for.
And the PASTRIES, my lord the pastries! Most (the croissants, quiches and a few other things) are purchased from Sweet Thang bakery, and all the others (like chocolate cheesecake brownies and lemon blossoms) are also obtained from local bakeries to promote local business. Very cool, huh?
The reason I promote the Armitage location is simply that it was the first, and the only one that existed before July. The environment in Lincoln Park is completely different from those at the other two downtown locations (State&Randolph, Rush&Pearson) - cozy, small and incredibly well-suited to studying, newspaper reading, or croissant-ing in the morning on the way to work.
One drawback is that their expansion seems to be affecting the pastry selection, as I suppose some of the caterers simply cannot keep up any more with all of the demand with the new opening stores. The croissants and quiches, though, are not only staying, but they really and truly are the absolute best, most delicious, most easily obtained of their class.
Good luck! Even you can get excited about tea and a tea shop!
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