The Dish on Tea

Generally speaking, tea is not an exciting drink alternative; in fact it’s a lot like drinking brown water.

A few years ago I never drank tea at all, my wife is the one who got me hooked on iced tea and from there I developed a beginner’s taste pallet for hot tea as well.

My interactions with tea over the course of my life have been far from exhilarating. Traditionally it involved putting a tea bag in a cup of boiling water…. (how exciting).

It wasn’t until this past week that my perspective on tea changed forever.

After finishing up lunch at Outback Steakhouse I was walking through the parking lot of the plaza off of Henderson Blvd in Tampa and my eye caught a sign that read: Dishtopia & the Anytime Tea Bar. First…what’s a Dishtopia? And second, what the heck is a tea bar?

My curiosity got the better of me and a few minutes later I found myself in deep conversation with Stephanie (owner of Dishtopia) about tea, tea leaves, steeping and the proper way to drink tea.

Wow have I been wrong about tea.

Here’s the thing I never knew: tea is a romantic, cultural and cultivating experience that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Dishtopia is an amazing place that has an enormous amount of respect for tea. Not only do they offer 90+ types of raw tea leaves for brewing, but they also serve homemade scones, and pastries. The tea they serve ranges from bold to green and they also have a few "rare" teas that I doubt you would be able to find anywhere else.

Aside from the loose tea leaves the real magic happens when they make a drink for you. Maybe it's the fact that they are using real leaves that don't come from a bag or maybe it's because they have a certain special touch...whatever the case the tea they make taste like it came from the heavens. The lattes especially are revolutionary. Never before has tea tasted so good.

The only other time I've had a tea experience that came close to Dishtopia was when I was in London, and no offense to London....Dishtopia might be better.

We need a place like Dishtopia. A place to escape, hang out and relax. You do have the option to take your hot tea, latte or iced tea to go or you can just sit and enjoy the cool hip atmosphere of Dishtopia. I encourage you to stay instead of taking it to go because you get your own personal tea pot and tea cup….all for an extremely reasonable price. Two people could go and both enjoy rare hot tea for less than $5 total.

The “dishtopia” is the shelves upon shelves of fine china, tea pots, tea cups and dishes that are all for sale.

They also sell all of their loose leaf tea by the ounce so I went as far as buying my own personal tea pot with filter to brew Dishtopia's tea at home. The Masala Chai and Passion Fruit tea are absolutely superb.

Dishtopia is quite possibly one of the coolest places in Tampa Bay. If you go visit I guarantee that you will be impressed and you'll also never look at tea the same again.