Elixir Serves Up Hours of Tranquillity in the Garden of Teas

The other day, feeling out of sorts, I wandered into Elixir, a gracious Melrose Avenue tea shop. Here, teas are sold from Chinese red lacquer containers. Many come from single estates, especially the green teas, such as Zhejiang Private Estate Green or Dragon’s Peak, and are available in limited quantities. These latter can cost up to $7.50 an ounce, but an ounce will brew eight or nine pots of tea. Herbal teas are the firm’s own blend.

Shelves hold a collection of diminutive Japanese iron tea kettles and Xi Ching teapots in fanciful shapes. In one corner is a bar with a handful of stools where you can sip herbal tonics proposed for a variety of minor ailments, including melancholy. Elixir’s remedy is called Blues Buster. Ah, but here’s a hangover reprieve (the Morning After), and a woman’s sensuality tonic dubbed Chi Devil.

A glass cake stand displays tall, paper-wrapped banana-nut muffins, crumbly cranberry and blueberry scones or muffins--and cookies (another well-known remedy against the aforesaid melancholy).

But outside, through the French doors, is a broad porch shaded by split bamboo, with a garden beyond. And this contemplative space is Elixir’s real treasure. The Japanese board game Go is set up on a bamboo tray. Wicker chairs and wooden tea tables are set in discreet groupings. Tea is served on ebony-stained trays, and you can choose from more than 20 varieties. No tea bags here; the loose leaves are brewed in an ample terra-cotta pot.

Sipping a cup of fragrant Jasmine Golden Water Turtle or a bracing Pu-erh Tuocha and watching the breeze ruffle the bamboo, I begin to unwind. On the sound system, Sting sings a lilting Irish ballad. Lulled by the sound of the fountain, I’m far away from the Melrose Avenue where high-riding four-wheel-drives honk and jockey for pavement space.

As for that Blues Buster tonic, frankly I don’t need one. Twenty minutes in Elixir’s garden has worked wonders.

BE THERE

Elixir, 8612 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood; (310) 657-9300. Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Street parking. Teas $2.50 to $8.50 per pot; herbal tonics $4.50 to $7.50; pastries 50 cents to $3.50.