Velvet Sky Bakery & Cafe
★★★★★ – 1 reviewwww.velvetskybakery.com
Cafe or Coffee Shop
307 Leedom St
Jenkintown, PA 19046
(215) 884-0254
A cake and cupcake bakery with scones and cookies, serving loose-leaf tea mostly from Octavia tea.
Reviews
★★★★★Alex Zorach (1453 tea reviews) on Jul. 10th, 2014
I absolutely love this cafe, and I'm here all the time. I actually programmed much of RateTea from this cafe, and I'm writing this review from the cafe as well.
Located in the heart of downtown Jenkintown, this cafe has a bright, open storefront with big windows overlooking the town square. The interior is cheerful and zany. There's a big case of baked goods, with a focus on cupcakes, but I prefer the scones, biscuits, and muffins. They also serve quiche.
I've heard that this place has fantastic coffee, but I nearly always get the tea, which is excellent. This place stocks Octavia tea, and brews all the tea to taste, giving you the infuser if you want and allowing you to control the steeping time, or doing it for you if you prefer. They will resteep their teas, and many of them are good for 3 or even more steeps, which for $3 is a steal.
The selection of teas has changed somewhat over time; currently they have a very good dancong oolong, genmaicha, a few flavored teas, and a few herbal teas. In the past they've stocked an excellent Darjeeling. They also periodically get samples in, and will brew and serve these for you if you want. They occasionally serve teas other than Octavia, but Octavia is the mainstay.
I've hosted a tea tasting here, with a focus on Japanese green teas, highlighting Octavia's genmaicha alongside teas from a wide variety of other retailers.
Another thing I absolutely love about this cafe are the people who work here and the atmosphere they create. This place has a really unique vibe that I've never encountered anywhere else. The people here are intelligent, quirky, and often create an atmosphere where everyone is laughing and joking around. I find this is a very friendly cafe where it is easy to meet people who live or work in and around Jenkintown. It's a great place to hang out if you want to become connected into the local community.
So this place can please tea lovers as well as people who just want a cute, quirky cafe with great baked goods, or people who are interested in the sort of community that a place like creates.
