Stuff we like / Tea at Beaner's Central

Somewhere on my mother's side of the family -- the Anglo-Saxon side -- I inherited a gene that makes me a tea snob.

A tea snob in Duluth has much to be snobbish about. Tea served in a typical Northland restaurant consists of a generic tea bag inserted in a cheap metal container filled with hot water. You steep the tea in this container, pour it into the cup and try to imagine what it would taste like if it were a decent cup of tea.

Later, the server approaches your table and says, "Would you like more hot water for your tea?"

What this really means is: "Would you like me to further dilute your tea, making it even weaker?" You never get more tea, just more water.

Some local coffeehouses have better selections than the restaurants, but few serve a really satisfying cup of tea.

A refreshing exception is Beaner's Central in West Duluth.

Beaner's is best known for coffee, conversation and adventurous live music. I like it for its friendly baristas, the fact that most customers don't have laptops, that it's a 10-minute walk from my house and because it serves the best tea I've found in the Twin Ports.

One reason for the superior quality is that instead of serving tea that's scrunched into a little bag, Beaner's serves loose-leaf tea. The tea leaves are placed in a brew basket, and that is placed in a mug in which steaming-hot water is allowed to flow through the leaves. If you've never tasted tea served this way, you've never really tasted tea.

Beaner's offers 13 loose-leaf teas from Rishi, a Milwaukee company that offers nothing but organic, fair-trade teas. My favorite is China breakfast tea. Beaner's also has a Darjeeling and an Earl Grey that are pretty good.

The China breakfast consists of inky black tea leaves that quickly produce an amber-colored tea. Steeped for between four and five minutes, the tea becomes a rich brown.

The taste is sublime: hearty but smooth. This is a soothing tea, but a tea with enough oomph to get you through the dragging hours of the afternoon. As teas go, it's the strong, silent type.

The ideal scenario for enjoying this tea is to get one of the window booths at Beaner's on an afternoon when it's snowing. Have a warmed-up cookie or perhaps a slice of cheesecake on the side. You sip the tea slowly, luxuriously, while reading a book or staring out at the snow or eavesdropping on the always fascinating Beaner's conversation.

The Beaner's baristas say their tea is ample enough that you can get a second equally good cup of tea from the original tea leaves. I contend there's a slight drop-off with that second cup, but it's nothing like the lame seconds at most restaurants.

Stuff We Like is a weekly feature in the Wave that talks about the food, drinks, places and things unique to this area that are great. Reader submissions are appreciated and can be sent to clawler@duluthnews.com .