Tea Gschwendner

I love tea. I drink about 2 – 3 liters a day. Caffeinated, herbal, earthy, sweet– I’ll drink it all. The staff gives great suggestions and you can get a sample of damn near any tea before committing to a purchase. The price is a good value for the amount of tea, especially when you compare it to the quality of others (David’s, Teavana), because next to tiny mom & pop tea shops, this place has the best quality and freshness of their teas.
I bought several herbal/​fruit blends, some fancy matcha, and a really delicious black/​green blend. There were so many great teas, we spent about$ 150 and became part of their rewards program.

The absolute best selection of high quality teas. And if youre willing to splurge, they have top of the line kettles & cups too!

We ended up here on our food tour where we met some of the most knowledgable people in the tea industry. These guys were extremely friendly and welcoming and just super excited to help us out in any way possible. They offered to give us samples and recommendations all without pressuring us to purchase anything. We ended up purchasing 2 bags of tea where they threw in a fancy-​tea brewer for $ 5 if I recall correctly. We ended up ordering more online when we got back home to NYC. I’d definitely recommend swinging by this place if you’re in the area even if you don’t buy anything, it’s a fun shop to visit!

This was our second stop on the Gold Coast & Old Town Food Tour so I got to try Tea Gschwendner. This is a cute tea place that has everything you need to make tea including so a big selection of different tea flavors to choose from. Some of them smelled so good. The tea that was given as a part of the tour was just okay. It was just not my cup of tea. It was Oolong and I do love Oolong tea, but I didn’t like this one as much. It didn’t exactly «wow» me.
Staff seems to be very knowledgeable about tea and one of them actually gave a great presentation. Before Tea Gschwendner, I actually did not know there were so many things to learn about tea so I guess i did learn a lot about the different types of tea and how to brew them. It seems like I’ve been brewing tea the wrong way my whole life.
Overall, I would recommend this place for tea lovers. There are so many different types of tea here for a tea fanatic to try. I’m sure you’ll find your cup of tea here.

This place is pretty great! They have a solid collection of fresh loose-​leaf teas and excellent staff to help guide the way. I came in describing what I wanted and the staff was friendly and spot-​on with helping me pick up exactly what I was looking for — they even through in a free sample! The price seemed moderate, and my tea was high quality. I expect to be back regularly throughout my first Chicago winter!

Stopped in on a whim one day while exploring the neighborhood, and was pleasantly surprised! They have various teas you can sample, which hit the spot on a cold day.
If you’re a tea fan, this is a great place to stop in. The staff is super friendly, knowledgeable, easy to talk to, and are happy to guide you through the huge selection of loose leaf teas they have. People aren’t kidding when they call it a tea library, and you can browse to your heart’s content.
A big plus is that they brew cups to go as well as sell it by the pound, so skip the Starbucks and Argo. A cup from here is comparable in price, with more more choice and quality in selection, plus it smells gorgeous!

I came to Chicago with my girlfriends for vacation and we did a tour with Planet Food Tours. This was one of the stops. I don’t remember what kind of tea we had, but it was a really good, light-​tasting tea. The workers here were so friendly and knowledgeable and you could tell that they really care about tea and your experience with it.

Ryan was awesome. Most friendly helpful guy ever. Very insightful on the tea and a pleasure to deal with.

I love this place. Their tea is fantastic, and they have varieties that run the gamut of type and price. Also the staff is extremely friendly and knowledgeable. They will gladly tell you all about the different types of tea, give personal recommendations, and they give free samples along with your purchases. I was even about to buy 40 dollars worth of tea and accessories when the salesperson mentioned that they had a groupon available that would knock 15 dollars off the price. So I bought it on the spot and redeemed it for instant savings! They really know how to treat customers, and their not full of themselves and pretending to practice medicine like the people at Teavana do.

Staff and manager are great, Ryan always gives great recommendations of the varieties and hospitable service. It’s always nice and clean, has an assortment of gifts, and a great knowledge base for tea — their specialty!

Riesige Auswahl, freundliche Mitarbeiter, schönes Geschäft. Ich habe den PURE JOY, den nepalesischen Oolong, und den chinesischen Jasmin grünen Tee gekauft. Ich habe auch einen kostenlosen Messlöffel bekommen. Wir konnten alles probieren, was wir wollten, und es hat mich sehr gefreut, dieses Geschäft besuchen zu können.

Like no other tea vendor. The selection of unflavored black teas is unrivaled ANYWHERE. The staff here knows their tea, loves their tea, and dang, hooks yiunup with the good stuff. Best tea store in America.

Extremely knowledgeable employees who customised the experience completely to my own tastes. As a big tea fan I highly rate this place for their service and variety of choice.

Hands down the best place in Chicago to buy loose tea. I’ve bought tea from Teavana and David’s tea. Teavana is way overpriced for the quality of tea you get, IMO. TG isn’t cheap but everything I’ve tried so far has been worth the price. Here are some of my favorites
— Rooibush Cream Caramel: smells heavenly, perfect dessert tea
— Vata Ayurvedic tea: earthy spices, has a very calming effect
— Kashmir Khali Kahwa: black tea with Indian spices, this one is amazing!
— Green coconut: the coconut completely transforms this green tea

For all you tea fanatics!!! It’s like a tea library, with great selection of tea of any type. They have it labeled and categorized. You can choose or ask what they recommend, and they will ask you a few flavor questions.
1.Tea
A) Best place to buy dry tea leaves.
B) Find your cup of specially tea here, they can brew it fresh of any of their #### tea selection.
2. Décor: Clean and organized.
3. Price: Pretty pricey, but you really get what you pay for with them.
4. Service: Friendly staff and they are very knowledgable with the products
Its amazing here, if you love tea I recommend making a stop here. They only have 3 locations in Chicago and the rest in Germany.

I went here for a cup of tea every day I was in town on my most recent visit to Chicago.
The first visit turned me off a bit. The guy that «helped» me was less than helpful and a tad bit rude. The staff seemed a bit busy with themselves and less inclined to help me that day. I wouldn’t have gone back typically — but I LOVE tea and needed my fix and Starbucks just doesn’t do it for me. (My hotel wanted $ 10+ for a pot of tea. No way! A cup of tea here was around $ 3.) So back to this place, it was.
All of my visits afterwards went very well. One of the guys who hadn’t helped me the day before, but who was in the shop on the first day, helped me on all of my following trips. He was quite helpful and let me know that the cost of a cup of tea was the same, no matter what the cost was per oz for the tea leaves themselves. This inspired me to play around a bit. I had some wonderful teas. He was quite helpful.
The China Royal Jasmine Curls was probably my favorite tea from here. I love a strong green tea with nothing added.
They brew your tea and give you just the tea — not the leaves. :(I’d enjoy the opportunity to re-​steep my tea later. To me, it feels like a waste to only get one cup out of your tea leaves.
Don’t forget to check in here on Unilocal.There was a discount for a cup of tea on one of my visits.
I feel like maybe something happened shortly before my first visit and maybe I came in at a bad time. I’m willing to let the bad experience slide, thanks to my other visits. I will be returning here when I’m in town again.

I’m new to tea but I’m a fan now thanks to Teagschwendner! They have a million of different varieties and all the employees are very knowledgeable especially the owner, Agnes.
I love all their teas but I’m especially loving the green coconut tea. And you have to try the seasonal varieties like Rooibush Eggnog and Christmas Tea. Delicious!
And they have special gift sets.
I love stopping by once a week and sample different varieties.
Hands down, BEST TEA SHOP in Chicago

OK these people are AWESOME! I’m from Chicago originally, but moved to Florida a few years ago. My boyfriend and I flew to Chicago for a few days and OF COURSE I got a sinus infection three days before our trip.
Long story short, we get to Chicago and I feel fine, just really run down. I’m a huge fan of tea in general, but lately I’ve really been into the healing properties of herbal teas. I stopped in looking for something to A) warm me up (it was the end of May and literally FREEZING in the Chi) and B) make me feel better.
Whatever the tea barrista mixed up for me was literally ahhmazzinnggg. I literally felt a million times better after drinking just half the cup. He was super informative and friendly and he mixed me a miracle hot tea!
The price was super reasonable considering he SAVED MY VACATION from sickness. I’m telling you, whatever he mixed up for me had some serious healing properties in it. (I of course for the life of me couldn’t tell you what it was he gave me now, three months later.)
My only complaint is I’m really sad I have to go all the way to Chicago to get some more of this amazing little tea shop. Love love love.

If you’re a tea snob, you will appreciate this place. There are soooo many kinds. If you ask to see one of the boxes on the wall, they will take it down and waft it at you. It all smells so good!
I ended up leaving with a small bag of Marzipan black tea, which is my new favorite. They have a few sizes of bags, the smallest one started at maybe $ 10? I asked for something smaller and got a bag for $ 5, which is perfect. They also give you a sample of whatever you want, which is good for 2 cups. I got Indian Chai and it was the best mix of chai I’ve had as a loose leaf.

So when I want good quality tea, this is where I go. About every six months, I make my pilgrimage here to stock up on excellent quality tea leaves. (For «fun» teas I go to David’s Tea, and for Chinese teas I go to Ten Ren Tea Company.)
In my opinion the combination of quality and price can’t be beat. Forget Teavana, come here!
I’ve never been disappointed in anything I’ve gotten, and they even have a beautiful catalog, the reading of which is an education in itself!
I actually do research in the catalog before I go, because the selection available can be overwhelming. Their website is also a good choice for narrowing down what one wants to try.
The staff is EXTREMELY helpful and will help you select what you need.
There’s a broad selection of black, green, oolong, white and herbal teas of moderate to extremely fine levels of quality. They also have fruit teas and flavored teas.
Also, when one makes a good sized purchase, they’ll throw in a sample of your choice and a tea scoop!
The only downside is that while they will brew you up a cup of whatever you want to try,(for a price of course), there’s no seating at all in the shop.

I love TeaGschwendner!
The store smells so good the moment I walked in: Fruit, spicy, floral, herb…
Great selection of different kind of tea from around the World. And you can ask them to make you a cup of hot or cold tea to enjoy right away! And they offers different samples for you to try.
Staff is nice and friendly. I can really stay here and smell all the tea for awhile.

Ich liebe TeaGschwendner!
This cute little tea shop carries so many teas that it’s a little overwhelming. But to help narrow things down, just ask one of the friendly staff members what they recommend based on your taste preferences (e.g., green, white, oolong, etc.). I was presented with 4 really good teas, I bought a bag of green tea to take home and purchased a cup of oolong tea. Both were very good. Only downside is that there is no place to sit inside to drink your tea. But no big deal. I’ll be back, often.

I really enjoyed my visit at this tea shop. I had gone once before several years back at the Halsted location but after it closed I never frequented this store since then.
The teas are nicely laid out with descriptions and the service/​staff is exceptionally nice at this store. I got the Formosa tea and it was delicious!
Now that I know where this cute shop is in the Gold Coast I will be sure to visit this shop more often!
Go if you want to learn more/​try teas!

Lucky duck M had the fortune of encountering the best tea of her life years ago in Hong Kong. Some of us go our entire lives without finding our true match. So, you can imagine her ardent search to find it again in the United States. Nothing whet her taste buds the same since. Funny enough, the closest she found was an Irish Breakfast Tea from Trader Joe’s.
Enter TeaGschwender on State Street, the German tea shop’s only location in the United States. I’m accustomed to the quaint (but orderly) tea shop called Todd & Holland in Forest Park. TeaGschwender was completely different. Modern. Sterile. The tea is kept in silver drawers behind the counter — futuristic style. A conversation with the shop-​keeper about M’s tea search led him to withdraw two shiny metal drawers from the wall behind him. He showed the tea to me and gave an educated explanation.
M tried one of the teas the next morning and there was a glimmer of recognition. She loved the tea. She doesn’t know if her tastes have changed over the past years or if this was her tea mate again. If it wasn’t the same tea, maybe M is lucky enough to have two tea matches!
I’ve gone to TeaGschwender again and I must maintain that they are knowledgeable and generous. They’ve given me books and measuring spoons. They’ve told me all about the teas. It’s super techy and cool. I would never have thought that something as comforting as tea could be presented in that manner. I might still prefer the cozy feel of Todd & Holland, but TeaGschwender will surely become a good friend.