A new tea shop has debuted in Frisco with a bold, bold claim: Called Greenova Tea, it just opened at 3401 Preston Rd. #15, in a former Zero Degrees shop in the busy Center at Preston Ridge, where it professes to serve "the world's most caffeinated tea."
"We pull tea like espresso — rich, bold, and powerful — not for the caffeine sensitive," says founder Joseph Be.
The shop has created a proprietary tea extraction method which is truly original: They've retrofitted an espresso maker which they use to draw espresso-like shots of tea. Then, to make the tea more potent and flavorful, they add extra tea in a powdered form, resulting in an intensely flavored tea version of espresso. They call it "teaspresso."
From there, customers can choose milk, syrups, or other flavor additions, just as you would to an espresso drink.
"Our goal is to be as close to a coffee shop as possible but only selling tea," Be says.
The process has a scientific name: Dual phase pull. First, they extract the tea from the machine in a method using high pressure, designed to get all of the tea out of the leaves they possibly can.
Then they add a second round of tea called "dancha" — their original word for the finely ground powder of oolong tea leaves, similar to matcha powder. They whisk it in with the same whisk method used in making matcha green tea.
The result is a complex, velvety tea shot they say rivals espresso in taste and strength, without relying on coffee beans.
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Their drinks have 130 to 150 milligrams of caffeine — significantly higher than the 95 milligrams in a cup of coffee, and double the amount of a typical cup of tea.
"This method is exclusive to Greenova and is the key behind our signature Teatte, a high-caffeine tea drink that outperforms your average café latte in both energy and experience," Be says. "Our Teatte contains more caffeine than the typical café latte, but with a smoother, longer-lasting energy."
Their menu includes:
- Teatte — a tea version of a cafe latte, with tea and milk
- Maple Sea Salt Teatte
- Coconut Crunch Teatte — topped with whipped cream and toasted coconut shavings
- Olive Pistachio Teatte — with pistachio cold foam, channeling the Dubai chocolate dessert craze
The fun part about these drinks is dropping the tea concentrate into the creamy base, be it oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or cold foam, and seeing the dark-against-white marble effect, as well as experiencing the pleasing softening the milk has on the concentrated teaspresso flavor.
You can also get the Dancha tea, featuring the oolong powder whisked like matcha, in similar flavor options; as well as a half dozen matcha drinks, in trendy flavors such as Matcha Lavender Teatte or the insanely buzzy Matcha Strawberry Latte. Prices range from $5 to $7.75.
Outside of the drinks, they currently offer an avocado toast topped with a fried egg, but Be says they'll be adding more food items over the next few months.
Be is a beverage-savvy pioneer: He previously founded Meccha Matcha, which opened its first location in DFW in Plano back in 2018, a lifetime ago in the matcha world, making him among the first to usher in the matcha craze which is absolutely on fire right now, not just in Dallas but across the U.S. (The Plano original closed during the pandemic, but there is currently a wildly popular Meccha Matcha location in Grand Prairie.)
"There's so much matcha right now, and we have it on the menu at Greenova, but I chose not to spotlight it," he says. "Our purpose is to redefine how the world sees tea, starting with coffee drinkers, in an innovative manner. We're on a mission to convert even the most loyal latte lovers by offering a tea experience that's just as bold, energizing, and satisfying."
A variety of dishes at Luna Roja.Photo courtesy of Luna Roja
The bar area, which looks out to the patio.Photo courtesy of Luna Roja