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Tea Bar Coming to NE Killingsworth

A previously forlorn stretch gets an updated building with a serene spot for tea.

Courtesy of Tea Bar

She's just 23 years old, but Erica Indira Swanson knows about business, and she knows about tea. She's been drinking it since she was a kid, she's lived in China for many years, and she speaks Mandarin.

And now the seasoned tea drinker and manager of Little Beirut Properties is pouring her two passions into Tea Bar, a new tea house on N.E. Killingsworth, just a few blocks from Alberta Park and steps from Podnah's.

Located in one of Little Beirut's newly renovated buildings, the 1,000 square-foot space, decorated with a modern, airy aesthetic, gives visitors plenty of space to stretch out and relax while sipping 30 different varieties of properly steeped organic, loose-­leaf teas. Snacks are curated from local baking luminaries: Two Tarts cookies, Bake Shop pastries, and Bowery Bagels.

Tea aficionados can also look forward to cups of matcha, directly sourced from a small family farm in Shizuoka, Japan, as well as bubble tea -- just not the bubble tea you're used to. Swanson doesn't use powders or syrups. Rather, her gourmet bubble tea is black-­tea based and thickened with condensed milk for a smoother and less saccharine taste. Swanson will also sell loose-leaf tea, matcha and tea-making supplies retail, so you can brew her teas at home.

Herbal teas, Magic Kombucha out of Olympia, Wash., and Earl Grey-­infused breakfast mimosas round out the drinks menu. Swanson's shooting to officially open the doors to her 40­-seat cafe by the middle, and possibly the end, of November.

Tea Bar: 1615 N.E. Killingsworth St., Portland

Tea Bar

1615 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97211 (503) 477-4676 Visit Website