I found another interesting spot for afternoon tea, and what’s more exciting, it is a speakeasy afternoon tea spot! The entrance is through The Burgary which is a burger place. I didn’t really do my research on this before I went, so I didn’t know how to get in… I was ringing the doorbell to no avail. Then, the owner Amy came out and told us we were not supposed to do that. Oops!

She lead us to the back of The Burgary where they had a secret door that looked like a huge purple vault. I believe they have this door cracked open during the Janam Tea business hours.

From there, we walked up the stairs to the speakeasy afternoon tea spot. Right off entering thought the vault door, the decor and atmosphere changed quite a bit from the downstairs burger joint. More calm, elegant, and sophisticated.

The inside was really pretty, with a good amount of natural light coming in from large windows. We were the first customers of the day, so we got to choose where to sit. They had about a handful of seating options for a party of two.

They had a table for a large group by the window, but I assume that can be separated into smaller table if needed. On this day, they had a group celebrating a birthday while we were there. Most of others were table for two or four, or even for one.

The decor of this place was pretty much antique-looking, perfect with the speakeasy theme. And when it comes to “old” things, their furniture seemed to be old too… The chair that I was sitting on had an unstable leg, so I had to keep adjusting it often, which was king of annoying… I wonder if they consider purchasing a new set of furniture that has the similar, antique-style in a near future? I sure hope so… We took a seat by the fireplace, nice and cozy.

It was a hot and humid day, so Amy asked if we wanted chilled white wine. We said SURE! And she brought us nice glasses full of their House Wine ($9). The cold wine went down real smooth… A great way to calm down your overheated body before the afternoon tea! They only offer Afternoon Tea ($40/person) here, and you must make a reservation beforehand.

First, we had to choose our tea. So, the unique thing about their tea is that They curate ONLY farm-to-table tea from India. The teas are pure and unblended, and at the peak of their flavor and color. With this, they rotate their tea offerings often so that they can provide teas that are fresh and new. I love tea of all kinds, but not really familiar with teas from India, so I was curious to try some out. Amy first asked what kind of teas we usually like, and then proceeded with her recommendations. She said that she just got a couple of new teas, which she was excited about. So we went with those ones. She doesn’t blend them, doesn’t add flavor, serve the way it is made, the way the nature intended…this way, you get to really taste the true flavors of the tea.

The first one was Darjeeling Black Tea with a light color, like a scotch. It has earthy notes of tobacco and cedar, with sweet perfume fragrance to it. This tea was very unique in flavor, nothing I have ever had. It certainly had earthy flavor, but also some underline sweetness to it, with notes of caramel and brown sugar. Another one was also black tea, that looks almost exactly the same, but drastically different. It is an Assam tea with notes of cherry, orange blossom, and apricot. A really fun tea for sure. Amy said that if we don’t like the tea, she can make a different one. But, we decided to keep them both as they were interesting and high quality. And we did enjoy them both.

And I liked how they use loose tea leaves instead of tea bags. That is always a plus for me. Both teas had nice balance of flavors and aroma, my first real Indian tea experience was pretty darn good!

While we were enjoying the tea, she had to go downstairs to where the kitchen is, in order to get create the food part of our afternoon tea. It is good to know that they are not pre-made, sitting somewhere getting all dried and stale. With the time it took her to make the three-tier tray, I am pretty sure she was creating most of them right there (other than desserts and such). She explained beforehand that it will take a little bit of time before she can bring out the food, and politely asked for our patience and thanked us for waiting. Right before the food came out, I was wondering how we are going to fit everything on the table, but then the mantle on top of the fireplace acted as our side table. Perfect!

The top tier had desserts, just two items per person. Didn’t look like much, but that is ok… I never judge a book by its cover anyways. Taste is what counts when it comes to food.

The middle tier had scones with cream and jam, and another set of dessert that decided to take a walk from the dessert tray.

And the bottom tier had finger sandwiches. It had four kinds of sandwiches per person, and not all of them are “sandwich” per say.

We started with the savory kinds, the sandwiches. Smoked Salmon on Multigrain Cracker with horseradish cream, fresh dill, and sesame seeds. It was interesting to see smoked salmon on a cracker, but it was really nice! Generous amount of fresh smoked salmon that was almost plump. The horseradish cream went perfect with the salmon with a nice little kick. I liked this cracker concept, it was fun and more unique than having it on a piece of bread. Curry Chicken Tart was another unique item here, with black pepper and celery. This little guy was quite tasty! It was really good, I wish if I could seconds (and thirds) on both of these.

Then the Egg salad on wheat bread with wholegrain Dijon mustard, chive and micro-greens on top, I always enjoy egg salad sandwich, so I was happy they had it here too. This was the largest of all the finger sandwiches, and was open-faced style. The egg salad unfortunately was way too salty. I heard another customer saying the same thing…seems like someone in a kitchen had a little (or huge) salt & pepper accident while making this batch of egg salad. Otherwise, it would have been delicious.

The last but not least, Cucumber on a white bread with mushroom and scallions. This unusual looking cucumber sandwich with dark brown ingredients (mushrooms) in between was the winner of them all. It was SUPER delicious! The cucumber was fresh, crispy and moist, cream cheese was velvety, and the combination of cucumber and mushroom was match made in heaven. It had a nice seasoning, just the right amount to enhance the flavor of the mushroom. The unusual jewel sitting atop the fluffy pillow of bread. Nice!

After that, we were ready for the middle tier to the scones. These scones were just baked that morning, which was great. They are All Butter Scones with clotted cream and jam.

Not any ordinary cream and jam, but homemade clotted cream, and homemade blood orange black tea marmalade jam. She said that the process of making clotted cream takes something like 30 hours! Wow! It is not like churned butter or whipped cream, but much thicker and dense. The Jam is made with their own tea as well, which makes it extra special. And the fruits in the jam? Well, the person who makes the jam grows his own fruits for the jam. Oh yeah, totally homemade!

You can put them side by side, or layer them, or whatever the way you like to have them. Just make sure you get loads of them on the scone, because they are GREAT! If you put too little amount on the scones, you don’t get the “decadent ratio” according to Amy. And you want that decadent, rich, delicious flavor! The jam on its own was a bit too sweet, and the cream on its own needed a little more sweetness. Them together, pure perfection.

Red Velvet Cupcake with sweet cream cheese frosting was moist, more chewy (in a good way) with nice density to it. It was good but not as good as those tasty scones. Dark chocolate pot de crème. It had good cacao flavor to it instead of just being sweet. Creamy yet firm, nice little dessert.

Now, this plain-looking, ordinary-looking, almost boring-looking cookie. Bust just wait, after one bite, it can change your world! Brown Butter Cookies, covered in three different kinds of sugar, was simply magical. The flavor exploded after a bite, it was almost surprising how delicious this cookie was. And the more you eat, you start to get the different flavors of the sugars. It also had a tiny amount of salt that enhanced the sugar flavor even more. Not overly sweet but elegantly done. It was crunchy, soft, and chewy, sweet and decadent, brings joy to your soul and tummy. If I put some of these cookies in a forest, I wonder if unicorns will come and get them, and spread rainbows after eating them…

They have one uni-sex bathroom near the entrance, by the tea bar. The interesting part was this that they had black toilet seat… I wonder that is how it used to be back in the days, or it just looked like black toilet in their black & white photos? Anyways, it was kind of small, but clean.

We got the bill in a glass tea cup which was cute. It took us a while before we cold pay and leave, as many more customers kept coming in, and Amy was the only one who was doing everything – greeting them, seating them, explaining about the tea, making the tea, making the afternoon tea trays… She actually asked if we could stay a bit longer, good thing we were not in any rush! It was good to chill out after a pleasant afternoon tea for a while anyways.

When she finally got a little break, we paid for our afternoon. We were instructed to exit through a purple door right by the fireplace. This was really interesting to me, you don’t see entrance and exit being separated like this. I think it makes it even more “speakeasy” which was fun! And also, this gets you right out to the street, instead of going back through the burger joint.

We had a super relaxing afternoon tea time here, and Amy took a good care of us even though she was busy. She came by a couple of times to see if we needed refill in our pot without us asking for it. Great service! One thing to note is that they have a strict cell phone policy. They want you to take a “digital detox” so that you can truly appreciate the experience, and connect with your company. I think that is great! You can take photos with your cell phone, but no talking, texting, etc. So if you are looking for an interesting afternoon tea with Indian tea, try this place out. Just don’t ring the doorbell!

 

Janam Tea – 67 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002