Teyvika

It’s all about the tea here, it really is, and that’s what I absolutely love about this place. The traditional notion of having tea would be to sit down in a comfy arm chair, in a slightly regal Victorian setting, sipping out of little tea cups made with expensive-​looking china. Teyvika is the 21^st century twist on that very colonial concept.
You’re sat in a very clean, slick, bright and friendly café, and everything here makes you feel like it is finally not old-​fashioned to have a cup of when all around you think it hip and cool to have coffee instead. You also don’t feel confined to a warm cup of tea, when the weather outside will inevitably make you desire something much more cooling instead. Teyvika does the meanest, most precise tea however you like it, so of course I put their iced brewed tea to the test first.
I ordered a tall cup of Lady Lychee Black tea ($ 4.50), and you really couldn’t fault the blend. It was very refreshing and not overwhelmingly fruity, mostly because it is brewed with lychee peels, rather than the actual fruit itself. The only fault may be that it wasn’t as sweet as I’d like it to be, but I can see why they’d do that — I imagine that many like it that way, and if I had added the sugar syrup in from the start, I may not have been able to appreciate the very subtle lychee tinge in the tea.
I overheard one of the owners explain how one of their main challenges was actually the lack of tea leaves in their tea. I guess most people do indeed feel that without the leaves, the tea could easily have been from a tea bag, or just not as organic and home-​brewed as they’d like it to be. Yet if they would peer into their kitchen they would see an entire lab dedicated to tea. Boxes after boxes piled up, machines for specified variations of tea, and right by the till is a custom-​made machine that allows for their tea to steep and drip (in my own layman understanding) in four different stages, which studies and testing has shown to be the best way to get the most out of the tea. This means that their tea takes a while to prepare, as they always say — love is patient, and love is very kind.
I stayed on after I’d finished my tea and weighed up between a slice of their carrot cake, which I have been highly recommended to have, and another variant of their tea. The cake did seem considerably small for $ 5.90, so I went for their Lord Earl Grey iced latte. It seems that that tea lattes have emerged from the back door to be one of the trendy concoctions of the decade, and when done so well, it is easy to understand why. I watched as the lovely lady worked up my drink, using measuring cups, and then a shaker — for a moment I wasn’t sure if I was in chemistry class or a cocktail bar, but the result convinced me that I was at the receiving end of a lesson in food science. The Earl Grey was distinctly well spiced, a sensation I often overlook in less well-​treated and more watered-​down versions. I had almost forgot that this tanginess was even meant to exist, but this was a good reminder that earl grey is at the end of the day a blend of ceylon tea and begemot oil. The thick layer of froth was further evidence of its milky texture, and was a fine finish to this smoooth drink.
I had a little chat with one of the owners, and he recounted to me the hours he had spent experimenting each week the different amounts required at various temperatures in order to serve the most flawless tea, and also to weed out the teas they wouldn’t want to put on sale. I guess you could then consider that whatever is selected for their menu is then the crème de la crème, and even ‘scientifically proven’ to be of the highest standard.
My only criticism of this café is that the drinks were served in a plastic cup when it perhaps would have felt more homely in a proper ceramic cup. I guess it encourages you to take away with you what you can’t have time to finish here, but with tea this delicious, surely they wouldn’t have a problem with that!