New Gowanus Tea Shop's 'Gowanus Canal' Drink Is Not As Toxic As Its Namesake

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A new Gowanus tea shop has named one of its flagship drinks after the canal that sits just a block away.

Unlike what the state calls "one of the nation's most extensively contaminated water bodies," though, the drink is not toxic at all. In fact, it's pretty healthy.

Mirror Tea House soft-opened earlier this month as a tea and coffee shop that doubles as an art gallery and event space. The shop serves herbal teas and coffee along with some light snacks.

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Owner Fumio Tashiro created the drink because he wanted to make something "unique."

"People think, 'Oh it’s polluted with really bad water,'" he told Patch. "Actually, this is very healthy — the healthiest drink."

The drink combines Banana, milk, butterfly pea flower and hibiscus ginger tea. It's served in a glass with a layer of red on the bottom and blue on the top.

The ginger tea can help with cholesterol and blood pressure management; the butterfly pea flower is full of antioxidants. It gives part of the drink the bright blue color.

"It’s not toxic," Tashiro told Patch. "It’s actually the opposite."

Other drinks include a banana milk coffee and banana milk matcha.

Tashiro hopes to have a grand opening soon, and in the mean time the store is open to the public. It hosts open mic nights on Thursdays for musicians, artists, comedians — "anybody," Tashiro says — in the event space in the back.

He is hoping to add a mini-loft of sorts above the bar, a "tea ceremony room, where customers can drink tea. They'll have to crouch or sit, though, it the small planned space.

Read more about Mirror Tea House on its website here.

All photos via Marc Torrence