Snapshot: You don’t have to like your tea black to love this tea shop! Small Tea is a highly customized lounge experience intended for Miami’s tea darlings to sample, enjoy, and be educated on all things tea.

The shop is a brilliant collaboration of Small Tea’s owner Daniel Charles Joseph Benoudiz and Interior Designer Andee Hess, founder of Portland-based architecture firm Osmose, resulting in a beautifully considered and soulful space.

The 4,000-square-foot shop boasts a warm and sophisticated interior with polished concrete flooring, oak paneled walls and Hess’ hand-crafted canopy of 1,250 boxes wrapped in woven abaca, a natural fiber typical of the baskets used to harvest tea leaves. Outfitted with light wood stools and Lievore Altherr Molina lounge chairs, the tea shop is as cool as a cocktail lounge with the comfort of a warm café.

Small Tea is all about introducing people to rare teas from all corners of the earth. Their curated music, tea displays, and sumptuous food makes the space feel like a store, but it’s really a modern sanctuary. When you visit, you will experience that immediately. When you leave, you’re going to want to take some of that with you.

Photography by Ken Hayden Photography