Update: Tipple & Rose permanently closed December 2019
I just discovered a new tea shop in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood in Atlanta.
Tipple & Rose Tea Parlor and Apothecary opened in late 2015. Located in the heart of Va-Highlands near Dark Horse Tavern and Surin, the shop is housed in a former hair salon.
Entering the long narrow shop, you pass by the wood tables and exposed brick walls to get to the counter towards the back of the store. There, scrumptuous looking desserts tantalize you through the glass window. The L-shaped counter has workers busily brewing tea, dishing out desserts and ringing up purchases. On top, you will find a multi page tea menu. Organized by type (black, green, white) and region, there is a corresponding number to it. At first I thought it was just so the staff know what you want.
The owner explains that the menu numbers correspond to the numbers on the sniffing jars sitting on the other glass counter. How I missed it, I don’t know. There’s a huge board of about 100 jars.
I tried my hand at this. One of the black teas was called Gingerbread. As I held the menu, my husband found the corresponding number and passed me the jar to sniff. I love this place already!
It took me some time and fun to smell about 10 different teas. One was Monk’s blend. Didn’t smell how I wanted it to. A group of three people came in and went directly to the cash register to order a scone to go. I wondered how this place worked. Did I order at the cash register? Or to the lady owner not at the register? I did ask if we ordered before sitting down and she said yes.
We ordered a pot for two of the #7 – Keemun Panda. The choices of scones that day were cornbread brown sugar and a gluten-free cranberry. I ordered the cornbread brown sugar scone with clotted cream. She said it’s good because she hand makes them.
By the exposed brick wall, there were tables of four and two. Some tables had white tablecloths and were obviously for high tea. We found a two-top near the front. The chair by the brick was like a living room upholstered chair. It looked comfy, but was a little to low for the table.
A few moments later a French press tea came. The amber brown liquid looked soothing and the waitress placed a 5 minute hourglass timer. “When it gets finished,” your tea will be ready. I thought it would be forever, but the five minutes went by quickly as I scanned the room. On the other long wall were gifts – special soaps, bath salts, books, etc.
The owner started to clear the table next to us and set it up for another tea. The place was bustling. The two ladies next to us has their laptops open and pots of tea. Towards the middle a lady with her two children were finishing their tea. It was about 2:45 so I didn’t see anyone eating lunch. The scone came out. It was fluffy and tasted as delicious as it looked. It wasn’t the dense hard scone, but warm, fresh and light. The clotted cream was real and real dense. A tiny bit went a long way. The scone was big enough for two to share and was a bit crumbly – again the way I like it. All I can tell you about the flavor was it was a little sweet, it wasn’t glazed in brown sugar (thankfully) and if there was any cornbread, I didn’t taste it. It was a regular scone with added flavor which I wanted, not a substitute made from cornbread.
The parking is a bit tricky. Street parking if you can find it is by meter. At $2/hour, it’s good that it takes credit card or the parking payment app. We needed to leave so DH asked for a to go cup for me. The pot had at least 4 cups of tea, I had 2 left. I put it in the fridge the next day and had it for breakfast.
For more information visit Tipple+Rose.