The Tea Lab (Lakewood)
www.thetealab.us
Tea Shop - sells its own brand of tea
14534 Detroit Ave
Lakewood, OH 44107
(216) 712-4410
Tea shop in a small storefront with a few tables and chairs for drinking tea in-house.
Reviews
★★★★★Alex Zorach (1453 tea reviews) on Jul. 11th, 2014
I recently visited Cleveland, and I took a brief visit to my old neighborhood in Lakewood, Ohio, where I lived for two years. I was surprised to find this place, a new tea shop, to have opened up in the heart of the downtown, right next to Aladdin's, one of my favorite places to eat.
I was even more surprised to find that the quality of the tea is top-notch, and the prices are very reasonable. I've been posting reviews of the tea, but here I'll comment on the store.
The store is in a small storefront, but it is bright and cheerful, and the space is well-utilized. There are big windows overlooking the street, and on either side of the entryway, there are little alcoves, each with a table and enough chairs to seat four.
The shop itself has a wide selection of loose-leaf tea, properly stored in metal tins, behind the counter. On the side walls are many different types of teaware, including teapots, tea tumblers, and tea infusers. I bought a basket infuser here. The prices on the teaware are very reasonable, and the items here seem to me to be both high-quality and practical, the sort of thing that would be great for people who want to seriously get into brewing their own loose-leaf tea.
I recommend this place to anyone who likes tea and finds themselves in downtown Lakewood. It would even be worth going out of the way to come to Lakewood specifically to come to this shop, because it has a level of quality in both the tea and the teaware that I find is hard to find anywhere in the U.S., and, unlike Teavana, the prices are fair.
Lastly, the store itself is cute and it's a great place to enjoy a cup of tea--which they will brew up for you--if you just want a place to hang out for a little while in downtown Lakewood. It doesn't quite have the space or charm of my favorite hangout place, the now-closed Phoenix coffee, but it does have enough of a mini-cafe space in the front of the store to warrant mention.
I hope to see this place thrive! It (and the downtown location of the same company) will be a huge asset to tea culture in the whole Northeast Ohio region.
★★★★★b22johansen (44 tea reviews) on May. 3rd, 2015
I just visited The Tea Lab for the first time this week. I purchased a few of their teas and have been impressed both with their quality and their price. They are very affordable, with teas ranging from 2 dollars to 6 dollars an ounce, with most between 2 and 4 dollars. Their store is quite clean and modern, and even has a table to sit at if you'd like to enjoy a cup of tea. The store also has a wide selection of tea accessories including tea pots, cups, kettles, and storage containers. Overall, a great local place to support if you're in the Lakewood/Cleveland area.
