"Hip, tea shop franchise Tea Bar is opening its fourth location today in the towering skyscraper Park Avenue West. Like the other Tea Bars, the downtown spot will serve a menu of teas, tea-based lattes, matcha drinks, and bubble teas, plus soft serve made with matcha sourced from Japan and pastries delivered daily from local bakery Nuvrei. The 16-foot tall room will feature a similar minimalist aesthetic to the others, with seven-foot tall Birds of Paradise plants set against the clean white interior. The store will be the fourth from owner Erica Indira Swanson, who launched the first Tea Bar on Killingsworth in December of 2014 when she was 22 years old. The goal was to make tea drinks more fun and accessible for a city that primarily thrived on coffee, with a focused selection of teas as well as tea-based latte drinks, matcha, and boba teas, all made with high-quality ingredients. Later, Swanson would open spots in NW Portland and on Division." - Alex Frane
