I had a better experience here than at the Teavana in Walt Whitman Mall, so I’m giving it three stars. I have a difficult relationship with Teavana – their selling tactics are abominable, buying tea just should not be that stressful, but I do love their actual tea – especially their fruit infusions which are unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere. The Teavana at Roosevelt Field Mall is a very busy one, so the staff aren’t so desperate to continually upsell you and will actually sell you two ounces of herbal tea in a paper bag without protesting that much. Also, this Teavana has the usual sort of retail scale, the kind with two readouts so both salesperson and customer can see how much everything weighs. It is the first Teavana I’ve been in that had a scale the customer could read, and that matters a lot to me as owing to their high pressure sales techniques I really don’t trust them. Sad, but true. Anyway, I think next time I need some more Teavana I will drive an hour out to this one rather than deal with the impossible staff at the Teavanas nearer to me.
The address and map reference for this are the same as Robinson’s Tea Room, so that is what I’m reviewing here: I’ve never heard of Robinson’s Tea Room referred to as The Tea Room at Stony Brook Ltd, but maybe that is its proper name? Everyone around here calls it Robinson’s and it is a local institution. Anyway, it is a tea room, it is in the heart of Stony Brook village and it is awesome. If you are nearby, you must pay a visit, they have an extensive range of tea and their cream teas (scones with clotted cream and jam) are legendary – to be honest, I’ve had better clotted cream in Britain, but Robinson’s scones are a cut above. There is a cozy old fashioned English atmosphere, but with staff that are definitively American in their sweet eagerness to please. It’s a lovely place to meet up with a friend you’d like a long happy chat with.
This is a nice little tea shop in the heart of Port Jefferson. It’s quite small, but they will make cups of tea for you to take away and they offer a nice selection of British teas & delicacies for us local British expats. If you are desperately in need of a tin of spotted dick and a box of PG Tips, this is the shop for you. They also offer an extensive range of loose leaf teas, and what I like especially is that next to each tea they have a small sample jar, so you can stand in front of the tea wall and browse through their selection, sniffing anything that takes your fancy without any fuss.
