Lil' Buddha Tea

Lil' Buddha Tea of Albany, NY

Usually when people think of eating out, they want a location that serves a full-course meal with all the bells in whistles. In Albany, you learn to be flexible when defining everything as you are stuck in the grey area of upstate and downstate consumers all congregating in the Capitol Region. One of the first foodie establishments I visited in the region was Lil' Buddha Tea, a small tea market and cafe shop. Lil' Buddha Tea is located in the downtown Albany area at 274 Lark Street. I was in the mood for what people would call the inbetween of being hungry and didn't want to stuff myself with too much food, but didn't want to visit a fast food restaurant and feel like I just played an evil tricked my stomache. I was also in the mood to pick up some new tea. (I love tea!)

Apricot smoothie!

Lil' Buddha Tea is a somewhat new location to Albany, it was the Green Leaf Tea Company, but new management/ownership replaced the name and added a small cafe for shoppers to not only buy tea, but also delight themselves in a cup (or two) and some vegan-terian snacks. While picking up some more roobios tea (I prefer the orginal herb blend with added molasses and agave nectar in my teacup) and coconut cocoa tea pu-erh tea I also helped my self to a large cup of the Apricot Escape smoothie. The Apricot Escape smoothie is made with apricots, strawberries, bananas, and soy milk. It was smoothie and with the "just about" mix of natural fruit sugar. It filled me up, the soft sweet smell of tumble-cup delighted my senses and my bag full of herbal teas kept me excited for my next visit at the quaint shop.