New Harlem tea shop heals the community, customers say
Serengeti Teas and Spices offers hundreds of leafy blends, many from Africa.
Harlemites wouldn’t give up their new favorite shop for all the tea in Africa.
Serengeti Teas and Spices, which opened two weeks ago on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 123rd St., has not only become instantly popular — it’s also being credited with curing the sick.
“This shop is great,” said Henry Mattox, 51, who claims a bubbling mix of hibiscus and rooibos, a South African red leaf, reduced his 4-year-old son’s 103-degree fever in hours.
“It broke his fever,” Mattox said. “I know it was because of the tea. I’m a believer in it.”
Shop owner Caranda Martin, a Liberian native, opened Serengeti Teas to offer hundreds of blends, many from Africa, just to name a few.
Martin, whose grandmother was a botanist, credited the antioxidents in the tea he sold Mattox for his son’s quick recovery.
“Herbs are good for your body,” said Martin, who formerly worked for Red Rooster owner Marcus Samuelsson. “The teas have a nutritious factor. That is our objective here.”
The shop is cozy with chairs, comfy ottomans and a long wooden table for laptop tappers, a common laborer in many Manhattan neighborhoods.
Harlem native Christopher Pearson stopped by Sunday to enjoy an iced blood orange tea, which comes from Sri Lanka.
“It’s never been nothing like this in Harlem,” he said. “It adds to what’s going on in Harlem now. I like it.”
Serengeti Teas and Spices, 2292 Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 123rd St., (212) 866-7100. For info, visit www.serengetiteasandspices.com.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/tea-africa-article-1.1472129#ixzz2goMhKjgb