Tea Time: Harney & Sons

Just to clarify, we didn’t just eat all day Saturday (if you haven’t been following, I’m reliving our Saturday tour of the city which seemed to focus on sweets).

We also popped into Harney & Sons, a tea shop in Soho. We’ve been here before, but I wanted to take a closer look. We were in no rush.

The store and tea salon occupies a large space on Broome Street. The first time we came here, I was certain it was owned by a big company. Pure Dark specialized in chocolate on Bleeker (Nestle) and the Korres store in Soho always seemed a little much for this one product (J&J). You just walk into a store sometime and figure there must be corporate money behind it to afford the space for such a specialized product. Well, I was totally surprised here! There is a Mr. Harney and he has sons! It’s a three generation family run business from Millerton, New York.

What is great is that they’ll let you sample any of the teas in the boxes. How many times have you wondered what it’s really going to taste like when you get home?

And the tea hostess knows exactly how long each should brew for. I enjoyed some Eight at the Fort, while M had a taste of green tea. I loved talking to her about what she puts in tea (sometimes milk, she said my Splenda was fine if that’s the way I liked it) and the family behind the counter up front.