Like steam engines and cryogenically frozen sea monkeys, tea leaves come to life with just a little hot water. Harness the transformative power of hydration with today’s Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of loose tea at Tea Embassy.
The Sims family collects tea from around the globe and stocks the sippables in a historic nineteenth-century home-turned-storefront. Customers can peruse more than 200 loose-leaf teas—named the Best Tea Selection in 2008 by the _Austin Chronicle_—that come in a rainbow of steepable hues such as black, green, white, and herringbone. Jade oolong ($20/2 oz.) emanates floral flavors, and ginger pu-erh ($13/2 oz.) melds the naturally candied taste of Chinese tea with organic ginger morsels. A South African chocolate-mint rooibos ($12/4 oz.) blends cocoa with mint to achieve a caffeine-free slurp so addictive it inspires drinkers to test the edibility of peppermint shampoo.