Brewing a perfect cup

Unfortunately, I think you are right. But I can imagine that a
momentary tea fad could change expectations about what people serve as
"tea", so that it would be possible to get something other than lipton
at restaraunts. Maybe some day, getting a pot of hot water and some
loose leaf tea at a restaraunt will not be so unheard of. I only say
this while keeping in mind that in the early nineties, canned or
instant coffee seemed to be more common than Starbucks in most places
in this country. Starbucks, despite its imperfections, is better than
what most people had before and I would guess that most people never
thought of coffee details such as bean roast or geographic origin
prior to the Starbucks era. I personally am not crazy about it, but
I'll sure drink it over chock-full-of-nuts, or even an overpriced bag
of lipton. I will also note that I have seen some coffee places (e.g.
Caribou Coffee) offer looseleaf tea brewing if you look closely at
their menu. Maybe a sophisticated brewing machine could aid the
transition from tea bags to tea pots in non-niche markets outside of
places such as New York or Seattle or Portland. This change could
bring enough converts to tea so as to make more "hardcore" tea brewing
restaraunts more financially viable in smaller areas.

On Jan 23, 9:34 am, "Dominic T." <dominictibe...@> wrote:

> People want mediocre, fast, impersonal, loud, uncomfortable, and
> hurried.

Dominic,

I can't believe that people really want impersonal, loud, and
uncomfortable. We all want calm, comfortable, and intimate, but many
of us just can't figure out how to fit it in our lives. We're always
in a rush.

I know a number of tea houses that seem to keep afloat, and they all
have a take-out counter for quick daily-brews, loose-leaf teabags in
paper cups, baked goods, and random novelteas (bubble tea, matcha
smoothies, books, accessories). I'm sure it's the counters that pay
the bills, but in the back there's a nice place to sit and relax,
Louis Armstrong is cooing quietly, a gas fireplace defrosts your
bones, and there are tables where small groups of friends gather. I
think that, sometimes, even the frantic caffeine junkies up front need
a breath of air, and when the do they look beyond the front counter
and sit down for a moment with a cup of tea.

Tea is an acquired taste, and many will opt for the decaf caramel
mango tango at first, but a teashop full of possibiliteas will
definitely win some converts.

It's no starbuck's through..

m

Dominic T. wrote:
> My background in business and logic tend to
> overrun my emotional side, I'm slowly changing that and would still
> like to do it at some point or in some way...

Dominic, it is a very liberating step if you let your emotional side
reign, but you'd need some backup options. We keep hoping that people
DO care, but it seems that it's not even 1 in 100...

> I did some different research projects into it and exactly what you
> state is correct. I had tastings and questionaires at a coffee shop,
> and the only two teas anyone liked were a strawberry sencha and a
> ginger peach black tea. Both flavored teas. Even things like jasmine
> were passed over.

Since there is nothing I loathe more than aromatized teas (my homeland
Germany seems to be dominated by this kind of "tea"), we made the
decision to not carry any flavored teas (exceptions are a few
traditional flower-scented chinese teas like high-end Jasmine pearls).
We do have the odd person asking for a lime-sencha, but that happens
rather rarely. I think, the problem is to get people to try something
new (a rather inappropriate term in regards to tea, I know). If they do
try it, they are almost guaranteed to be back. There is a strange
misconception about what tea tastes like. Give them a good pu-erh or
Darjeeling and it blows them away...


> I don't want to
> do food (beyond basics), and my only other choices so far are an art
> gallery or niche book shop/filmhouse with cool indie films.

Like-mindedness? Your paragraph reads like a snapshot of our thoughts.
We don't do food (beyond basics), which is a bit of a problem. And one
of our ideas was to show "cool indie films". I hope you will come to
New Zealand in the near future. I'd love to chat, watch some movies and
drink tea...

I'll send you a private message about our teahouse (remembering the
passionate discussions and flame-wars regarding tea merchants here in
this group last year...).

Jo