No, you’re not dreaming. RealiTea has hit Richmond’s streets to bring you a new café experience. This cozy tea lounge, which opened nearly three weeks ago, provides those walking the 1500 block of West Main with a delicious variety of loose-leaf, organic, fair-trade teas.
Family owned by Eric Owen, wife Roma and her cousin Avinash Ramjit, RealiTea is an attempt at embracing tea in a very coffee-driven society.
"Tea has a much more dynamic palette. There’s so much more you can do with it than coffee," Eric said.
And at their shop, it’s true. With 30 different teas and more on the way, RealiTea offers blends from Italian Blood Orange to Pumpkin Pie to Morrocan Mint — all for under $4. They also sell locally made baked goods, like mini bundt cakes and scones for just $1. Eventually, they intend to expand into a lunch menu with a sandwich press and homemade soups.
While Eric is a Richmond native, Roma and Avinash plan to bring their own spice to the food. Having grown up on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, these co-owners intend to provide cultural twists not frequently represented in Richmond’s restaurant scene.
Their background, too, gives better insight to RealiTea’s obvious passion for tea. All the owners believe strongly in carrying only free-trade, hand-picked, high-quality products. From that, they are equally concerned with the art of the brewing; focus on the water, time and temperature makes the perfect cup.
Think it can’t get any better? It does. Unbeknownst to my coffee-addicted self, tea can have as much caffeine as a cup of Joe. The difference lies in the time it takes for it to reach your bloodstream, which is more gradual with tea. There’s also less crash, a tip many students walking in the area might like to know.
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"What we’re bringing to the table is different," Eric said. "We look at range, the whole spectrum of tea flavors. But it’s more or less a guessing game, because were not sure what Richmond’s taste is yet for tea."
With free Wi-Fi, local art on display and a comfortable space to relax, I’m sure this new tea-centric café satisfy Richmond’s taste buds just fine.
Robin Hertel is Richmond.com’s Fall Intern and a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. With a particular passion for food and culinary arts in the community, you can normally expect her to be perusing new restaurants or the local farmers markets and festivals. With any luck, she will graduate this fall and find a job that supports these expensive habits.
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