Great Lakes Tea is...
1406 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
| Temporarily Limited Hours | |
| Sunday | CLOSED |
| Monday | CLOSED |
| Tuesday | CLOSED |
| Wednesday | CLOSED |
| Thursday | CLOSED |
| Friday | 1PM - 7PM |
| Saturday | 1PM - 7PM |
Visit Us
Tea & Conversation
Visit our tea lounge in Chicago's West Town neighborhood for a large selection of Chinese teas, tea mocktails, and boba.
We brew our tea in the Gongfu style: meaning "with skill". Sit down and be served a traditional array of Chinese teaware along with one of our single-origin hand selected teas.
Interested in a more guided experience? Join us for a personalized tasting session with one of our founders!
A Personal Note from Carter & Lee
come thru pokgai. your manhwa is on hiatus.
When we're not making tea, we're having a good time. Come in and try to convince us your favorite shonen / DEX build / waifu / deck / smash main / webtoon isn't trash. We'll be waiting.
Milk Tea
Iced Tea
Free Wifi
Board Games
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Delicious Tea & Accessories
More than 50+ tea varietals for beginners and experts alike.
Know a tea lover? Our tea and brewing accessories also make great gifts!
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About Our Tea
All of our tea leaves are hand-selected for maximum deliciousness and direct chain-of-origin. We prefer to drink our tea in the Gong Fu style, but great tea can be brewed in any fashion.
Find Your Tea
Our Ethos
At Great Lakes Tea, we source the best directly from China. If we don't like it, we don't sell it. It's that simple. We get the good stuff because we want to drink it ourselves. Fine selection, limited supply, always fresh.
Latest
Recent Blogs
On The Topic of Gongfu Tea
Gongfu Tea, what is it? How to do?
Hi folks, Carter here! Today we’re going to do a very quick break down of Gongfu Cha, also known as Kung Fu Tea. If confused, Cha means tea, and since I'm shooting for bonus points, here is its Chinese character: 茶 As a quick definition, Gong Fu Cha might appear to refer to Chinese martial arts, but when you break it down, Gong Fu literally means (roughly) “to labor with skill”. [...]
Friends, And Why We Keep Them
What is a Tea Pet?
One of the many questions we get whenever we serve tea to new friends is: what is that clay animal next to the kettle? What does it do? First, we must provide context. Tea pets make the most sense when brewing tea in the traditional Gongfu fashion with a tea tray to pour excess liquids into. Tea pets can be kept completely dry as a decorative part of the experience or as friendly decor, but their unique potential is most apparent when regularly pouring liquid on them as part of the Gongfu tea process. [...]
