For coffee lovers, Madison is a Paradise. Local and regionally owned coffee houses dominate our landscape with Starbucks, the chain that is so prevalent and impossible to avoid in any other American city of our size, holding a negligible share of the caffeine market. Of course, not everyone is a coffee guzzler, some people actually enjoy drinking quality tea and Madison, for the most part, is not tea friendly.

Nearly every coffeehouse in Madison carries some form of loose tea to humor the tea drinkers in the community, but few actually store or prepare the tea with the respect it deserves. This isn't a dig on the coffee houses, because, after all, you're coffee houses, not tea houses. Up until 2007, if you wanted tea done right in this city you would likely need to do it at home. Why until 2007? That's the year the much needed Macha Tea House opened in the Hue Art Gallery space on Monroe Street.

They have more than 60 looseleaf teas on their menu, including my personal favorite, Golden Monkey. One of the first things you'll notice as you purchase tea at Ma-cha is that the tea isn't stored in a glass jar like most of the coffeehouses in Madison store tea. Sunlight dries out tea leaves and makes the tea bitter. If you want quality tea, only purchase it from places that store it in containers that block out the sunlight.

Not only does Ma-cha know tea, Ma-cha provides a setting for patrons to properly sip and enjoy the leafy treasure. In addition to doubling as an art gallery, Ma-cha provides a number of themed tea rooms that provide comfort and privacy. One room is even kid friendly for the sitterless tea consumer.

Ma-cha soon won't be alone in their tea insurgency against coffeehouses. Later this year the Dobrá Tea Room will be opening on State Street in the space formerly occupied by Real Chili. This will be only the second Dobrá in the United States with the first being in Burlington, Vermont. The Dobrá website tells the story of the European tea company thusly: