Walking into No Longer Human feels less like entering a storefront and more like stepping into a quiet refuge emblematic of the natural world.
That’s what owner Yaoyu Tong and his staff, John Klotter and Luke van Oene, are hoping to cultivate for customers when they visit the new specialty tea shop, which officially opened to the public last month and is located at 1810 Central Street in Evanston.
Tong told the Pioneer Press that No Longer Human aims to combine “traditional Asian, Japanese design” with modern American influences, a bona fide experience for visitors who have previously been to Asian tea houses in Japan and China.
The space was designed by Chicago-based architect Sam Sang Chai Park, who worked with Tong to evoke a minimalist atmosphere in a century-old storefront.
“We’re very mindful of hitting that perfect balance, that it’s authentic, but at the same time it’s also very modern [and] relevant,” Tong said.
“Whoever comes in, we want this space to be very accessible. Even if someone is new to tea, we want it to be inviting, appeasing, more encouraging for them to come in.”
An Evanston resident himself, Tong isn’t new to retail. As the current owner of three additional “concepts” in the Chicagoland area, he’s well-acquainted with what it takes to run a successful business.
Tong opened Five Elements Home, a design and home goods store in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood back in 2016, and then Passenger Paper, a stationary and specialty paper store on Evanston’s Chicago Avenue in 2024.
His third venture, Tokaido General Store, opened in November 2025 across the street from No Longer Human. Tokaido offers traditional Japanese pantry and general items.
Tong said he travels to Japan every summer for one to two months to source products for his stores. He prides himself on being the primary seller for most of his goods in the U.S. market.
“All the teas we sell, we did all the importation ourselves, and it’s all small plantation farms here,” he added.
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No Longer Human offers a wide assortment of classic Japanese teas – everything ranging from Sencha and Gyokuro to Bancha and the widely sought after Matcha tea.
“Because Japanese tea is so diverse and so nuanced, both domestically in Japan and also what they export, we think it’s quite important during this kind of intense matcha craze to give a little bit more of a detailed spread of options to show what the industry has to offer out of Japan and across eastern Asia,” van Oene said.
“It’s been really fun to see customers come in and realize that there’s similarities to matcha that are outside of the matcha category specifically, and there’s things that are very diverse, outside of the matcha world that are still very popular.”
No Longer Human offers their teas in both hot and cold forms. But if you’re looking for a coffee alternative, you’re in the wrong place.
“We find that people treat the beverages a little differently and they fit into slightly different places in people’s lives,” Klotter said. “Coffee is often associated with productivity, and you kind of fit it into your commute, much more of a morning rush, whereas tea is something people make the time for… it’s kind of like a recentering.”
Both Klotter and van Oene agreed that drinking tea is about much more than just the taste; it’s the experience of what it does to your nervous system, the calming energy it provides.
And that feeling is what inspired the shop’s captivating name.
“I think everyone constantly has that moment of, ‘Oh life is so difficult,’ you’re busy, you’re stressed, but when you have a really good cup of tea, it’s just so good that that transcending experience makes you feel like you’re not human, in a good way,” Tong said.
“The intention is to help you find all your senses back in this space and also your humanity…when you come in, you might be feeling a little stressed, but that hopefully, whether you stay for 30 minutes or one hour, by the time you’re leaving, you feel a little bit more human.”
Tong said after the first week of being open, No Longer Human has received a continuous warm welcome from the Evanston community.
While phones and electronic devices aren’t banned from the space, No Longer Human encourages visitors to take a moment to unplug and connect with the community around them instead.
“I’m really happy to see customers connect to each other, like [we’ve seen] people sitting next to each other, and they’re just chatting, saying ‘what are you getting?’ That looks beautiful. And then they say goodbye to each other at the end. That’s something so precious in today’s world,” Tong said.
“We hope that people feel more human, they feel more connected, and feel more love, and it is happening.”
No Longer Human is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, closing an hour earlier on Sundays. The tea shop will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays.