The Jaxx Teahouse And Lounge

Purchased: pizza, mac ‘n cheese, grilled cheese, 2 juices
Tried this out with a few friends for lunch. It blends in with the houses so it’s not easy to locate at first. The juices/​smoothies were pretty good (I had the yellow, my friend had the green), but the food was definitely lacking. Friendly staff and the juice gets the stars, but everything else was not good.
It took forever to get our food and drinks (they forget to make my juice and I had to ask for it later), and the taste was definitely not as good as I’d had at other vegetarian/​vegan places. Mac ‘n cheese and grilled cheese were really salty with a really strong coconut flavour (we like coconut, it was just unexpectedly strong). The pizza toppings were good, but the dough tasted under-​cooked and weirdly powdery? It kind of just crumbled in our hands in dry chunks. However, customer before us told us that the waffles were really great… though we didn’t try them.
TL;DR juice was really good, food was not good and took forever to get. High prices, tiny portions.

Review ONLY for the tea. +1 point for the interesting space.
If you eat something there, you will probably have a better experience, so take the score with a grain of salt!
*
For people on a fussy diet, The Jaxx is definitely worth a look as they are wheat-​free, processed-​sugar-​free, dairy-​free, and meat-​free. And hoping to have a liquor license soon.
I didn’t get a chance to try their food menu but did try their teas, which are all house blends with no artificial flavouring. This latter detail was what they suggested to be the cause of their teas coming across as somewhat bland.
I tried two types of tea: Holiday Fruit (pears, cranberries, cinnamon, sugar cane, nutmeg) and Scurvy No More (pears, citrus peels, parsley). Strangely, they tasted alike, and no they didn’t taste like pear. Holiday Fruit definitely didn’t taste like nutmeg or cranberry or cinnamon. Scurvy No More didn’t have any citrusy notes for me. Probably the closest thing to the flavour was the water you get from boiling rice; which suggests that whatever they were using lost its flavour long ago while they dried and shrivelled up.
Could be fluke. Could have been my taste buds decided to go on vacation. Whatever the case, for the cost (more than a tall tea bag hot tea at Starbucks), I definitely expected it to be stronger and clearer flavour-​wise. If I go back I’ll try the food menu and just get water from the cooler with orange slices in it.
As a space, it is very curious and interesting and slightly creepy. The sheer number of strange and funky items making up the décor is juxtaposed by comfortable couches and interesting wooden tables and a variety of boardgames to pass the time.
Taste in music is very subjective, but I found it headache inducing, especially when whatever they were playing started to sound like heavy metal for a while.
Staff are friendly. Position of the washroom is very awkward especially as it involves allowing people through the kitchen.

I saw this reviewed on the front page of Unilocal on October 25, 2015 and book marked it.
One of the best things about living in the city is discovering cool coffee and tea shops.
This is a bit off my beaten path, however, accessible by taking the #27 from either Joyce and or Rupert station.
From the outside it looks like a regular house. If there were no sandwich boards outside I probably wouldn’t have noticed that it was a coffee and tea house.
The interior still has shadows of an old house including this really cute small retro stove. The bathroom is cute and retro. There’s even a bathtub.
The place looks small but there is enough sitting room. There is a large velvet couch. It was slightly uncomfortable but cool as a novelty.
Their main food focus us vegetarian, vegan and raw.
I had the Quinoa bowl with a generous portion of Quinoa for the price point. Sauce was good and the accompanying veggies were grilled nicely.
They’re part of the slow food movement since everything is made with love, therefore, be patient. Well worth the wait. If you’re looking for something quick to go they have pastries.
I got the gluten free banana bread. If they ask to have it pan heated say yes… you do want it grilled. I wanted this to go, however, the grilled bread was teasing me that it didn’t even make it to the bus stop.
I had the skinny mini tea as well.
Plenty of board games and donated books to read.
Great super friendly customer service.
There is a small Wiccan new age gift shop within.