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A Full Infusion
Market Trends,
Tea Associations,
History, and
Brewing Vessels
The Quality
Question
Determining the
Value of Tea
A Spiral Through
the Tea Leaves
An Exploration of
Tea Clonals
Specialty Education
Cultivating
Connoisseurship,
One Consumer
at a Time
A Study
in Sommeliers
Sages of the Tea Leaf
In the Garden
A Tradition as
Old as Tea Itself
Italy Takes to Tea
The Land of Espresso
Ushers in a New
Hot Beverage
Tea as Teacher
Display Teas
An Artistic
Expression of Tea
Kombucha
The Myth and the
Magic of an
Ancient Elixir
Far Leaves
Berkeley, California
Crazy Wisdom
Bookstore &
Tea Room
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Teany
New York City,
New York
From the Publisher
From the Editor
Tea Industry
Directory 2003
Advertiser Index
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A Study in Sommeliers
Sages of the Tea Leaf
by Karen Foley
The story goes something like this. It's the fall of 1998, the setting is New
York City, and a certain tea expert happens to meet a certain executive chef from
a soon-to-open restaurant in a certain chichi hotel. The two get to talking and
the chef mentions his appreciation for fine teas and his desire to offer them
in this new restaurant. They go on to lament the state of tea service in American
dining establishments, discuss their favorite teas, and hungrily explore the possibilities
of imaginative food and tea pairings. By meeting's end, the chef says to the tea
expert, "You're going to be our tea sommelier."
And so James Labe, an experienced tea taster and operator of a
successful teahouse in Seattle, accepted chef Michel Nischan's proposal and went
about designing and overseeing an inventive tea program for the trendy Heartbeat
restaurant in New York City's W Hotel. "I don't think anyone had ever used those
words before," says Labe. "As far as I'm concerned, Michel Nischan coined the
term tea sommelier."
For anyone who tends to get caught up in semantics, the term "tea
sommelier" may be a bit puzzling. After all, the title really belongs to the wine
world, which has long used it to describe the professionals who manage a restaurant's
wine list, sometimes circulating among tables to advise diners on ideal wine and
food pairings. Even Webster's Dictionary defines sommelier as "a waiter in a restaurant
who is in charge of wines and their service." But if you're willing to accept
linguistic adaptations and acknowledge the many parallels between wine and tea,
the term tea sommelier might just assume some relevance-even some appeal.
On Being a Sommelier
Even today, fours years after Nischan and Labe's
fortuitous meeting, only a handful of practicing tea sommeliers-at least those
who use the title-exist in the field. And perhaps because he led the way, Labe
is still the first name that comes to mind for most people trying to conjure up
a list of tea sommeliers. Even more elusive is an agreed-upon definition for "tea
sommelier," probably because so few people have ever heard the term. But Labe
puts the title into context. "In a restaurant, a tea sommelier is someone who
walks around making recommendations and preparing tea for people," Labe asserts.
"That's the big difference between a wine sommelier and a tea sommelier. A tea
sommelier should be the person who goes back into the kitchen and prepares the
tea so that it's perfect. It's someone who is an expert on the origins, varieties
and preparation of tea."
That said, how does a would-be tea sommelier become worthy of the
title? Is there an official certification process? A special training course for
tea sommeliers? In the wine industry, prospective sommeliers can attend any number
of training programs offered by prestigious wine and sommelier societies, but
as of yet, no such organized instruction exists in the tea industry. There is
the occasional tea-tasting seminar offered at trade conferences, but the best
training for a potential tea sommelier will likely be found in the field. Labe
came to the job with more than 10 years of tea retailing experience and a discerning
palate that lent itself well to the world of fine dining. "Something that became
very important in my work in New York," he says, "was pairing tea with food and
understanding flavor well enough to match tea with food in a way that really worked-not
just to say, 'Why don't you try this dish with this tea,' but to have people really
relate when they tasted tea with food and say, 'Oh, I see what you mean. I'm finally
tasting that tea for the first time because that food really brings it out,' Without
being a tea taster, you wouldn't really know what teas to choose for a menu."
Brian Keating, president of Seattle-based Sage Group International,
publisher of the U.S. Tea Is "Hot" Report, agrees but believes that understanding
how to pair tea with food is secondary to being able to brew and serve excellent
tea. "You need to first work in a tea environment-in a café, a shop, a tearoom,
or a salon-and serve thousands or tens of thousands of pots of tea. You need that
nitty-gritty experience," he says. "Pairing is the second part of the equation.
And certainly someone who has been a chef, a cook, a waiter, a waitress, a food
developer, or a foodie has an advantage in this area. But you first need to have
impeccable knowledge of brewing teas in a variety of circumstances and be able
to get them out on the floor in perfect condition."
In a Restaurant
At Heartbeat, tea sales have climbed to as much as $40,000 a month, a staggering
figure by any standard. According to Labe, the restaurant has bought up to $5000
worth of tea every month, and it's not uncommon for large tables to rack up $80
tea tabs. Many customers don't flinch at the prospect of a $10 pot of oolong,
and they savor the expertise a sommelier brings to the table. "A true tea sommelier
can assure a restaurant that when it sells something at a high price, the customer
will be satisfied," he says. "So when you charge someone $12 per pot, they don't
mind. I convinced restaurants to think of tea as a food cost. If a typical teabag
company gave a restaurant teabags for free, that restaurant could not make as
much profit as I made selling loose tea."
Aside from Heartbeat, Labe has worked as a tea sommelier for such
dining establishments as the swanky Earth & Ocean in Seattle and New York City's
renowned French restaurant, Montrachet. His responsibilities vary with each venue
depending on their needs and goals, but he says that ultimately, he must know
how to buy tea, how to prepare it and how to help customers enjoy it. "They just
hope that I know enough to tell them what to do," he says. The Heartbeat is perhaps
the most sophisticated of Labe's programs because like a wine list, the tea menu
changes every season. "Very rarely does a chef have an idea of what kind of tea
he or she wants because they don't know enough about tea to know what to ask.
They know they want good tea, and they believe that I know what that is. In New
York, I was lucky enough to have the budget to bring in good tea, but the proof
of it working was that people loved the tea."
Perhaps one of the earliest restaurants to see the value of hiring
a full-time tea employee was Berkeley, California's Chez Panisse. Helen Gustafson,
who prefers not to be called a tea sommelier, has been running the tea program
for Alice Waters' legendary restaurant since the early '80s. She says that in
the beginning, she was given free reign to create any kind of tea menu she could
dream up. "No one cared how much money I spent," she says. "I once spent $400
on a Darjeeling that went bad. It was so bitter that the chef said he almost got
a headache from drinking it. No one was supervising at all. In a regular restaurant
there would probably be instruction not to pay someone over a certain amount for
tea, but we didn't have that at Chez Panisse."
Chez Panisse's waitstaff is responsible for serving tea to patrons,
and Gustafson is firm in her training and scrutiny of new employees. "They don't
get the job until they pass me," she says. "I'm the last cog on the hiring wheel."
Once hired, she holds regular training sessions that employees are required to
attend. She demonstrates how to brew and serve tea, she answers questions and
she provides some historical context. But she says that her first meeting with
new employees is always motivational. "It's about the history of tea, the glory
of it, the sophistication of it, the privacy of it, and the exclusiveness of it,"
she says. "It's about getting them inspired."
Chez Panisse's tea menu has been called eclectic and elegant because,
according to Gustafson, it doesn't follow any traditional form. "My purpose at
Chez Panisse is to educate and to extend the palate," she says. In doing so, she
has developed exclusive signature teas for the restaurant, including a chilled
jasmine tea chaser presented in a tiny decorative Moroccan glass. "It's served
after a long meal-just chilled, no ice-and everyone adores it."
Tea experts like Labe and Gustafson are lucky enough to manage
tea programs at their highest level. But in most restaurants, tea is regarded
as little more than an afterthought. "If you can find tea, it may be good tea,
but it's served at the wrong temperature," Keating says. "Or you find so-so tea
and a beautiful tea set. Or you find a waitperson who speaks in generalities."
What's more, Keating believes that few restaurants today can financially justify
the cost of hiring dedicated tea employees, and the others, he says, don't quite
have the vision or the faith that such an investment will pan out. "It's a gamble
because a restaurant has to invest in that person and their knowledge-and therefore
that payroll and overhead. That restaurant has to have the vision and financial
strength to put forth a program that says, 'We're so serious about tea that we
have a tea sommelier.'" Does Keating believe that high-end restaurants are heading
in that direction? Not until the premium tea market matures a little more, he
says. "You didn't have sommeliers in the United States during the infancy of fine
wine in America. In the '40s, zero; in the '50s, maybe one or two; in the '60s,
three or four; by the early '70s, two or three dozen; and by the late '70s and
'80s, wine sommeliers were no big deal because wine was so popular. It's going
to be much slower with tea. I think it will be quite a few years before we'll
even see dedicated part-time tea employees with the title of sommelier at more
than a handful of establishments."
In a Teahouse
At the Tao Of Tea in Portland, Ore., conversant teahouse employees mingle with
customers, answering questions, discussing the origins and nuances of teas, demonstrating
how to use a variety of teapots, even recommending teas to complement the menu's
edibles. If we take Labe's earlier definition to heart, wouldn't such knowledgeable,
hands-on teahouse tenders qualify as sommeliers? Yes, says Labe, and not only
that, but he thinks the role of sommelier can in some ways be more effective in
a teahouse environment, which is partly why he recently returned full-time to
running his Seattle-based Teahouse Kuan Yin. "The level of service is appropriate
to a restaurant, but the expertise of a tea sommelier can be put to better use
in a teahouse," he says. "In a teahouse, where people really get to sit and learn,
I'm much more valuable. I can spend more time with customers."
But Keating, who operates Seattle's Teacup teahouse, says that
scores of tea retailers don't offer the level of tea service and proficiency that
customers may find at teahouses like the Tao of Tea or Teahouse Kuan Yin. He says
that while many sell good-quality tea, their training is not at the level it should
be, which is when a tea sommelier-assuming the role of staff trainer-could be
helpful. He suggests hiring a part-time sommelier to help educate employees in
proper tea preparation and service, and he says that retailers would also be wise
to hire these experts for special events like consumer tastings. Keating believes
that consumers are hungry for such experiences, and inviting a tea sommelier to
lead the way can be a unique draw. "To have someone come in part-time or as a
consultant can be a nice touch," he says. "It shows that a retailer is very serious
about tea. It's like a restaurant bringing in a wine sommelier for Friday-night
tastings every month."
Take a recent consumer tea-tasting series organized by T, a wholesaler
and retailer in Vancouver, B.C. The company invited customers to share in a "symposium"
of tastings with T's own sommeliers and sample and learn about an assortment of
teas from Asia. Each tasting costs $16, and the company's CEO, Lana Sutherland,
says that the participants can't get enough. "They feel pampered like one does
when dining in a five-star restaurant," she says.
Sutherland chose to use the term "sommelier" in T's promotions
to convey the company's passion for tea and the level of expertise associated
with the tastings. "Our tastings are conducted by tea experts who have years of
experience and who are passionate about the different nuances and overtones found
in even the simplest estate teas and blends," she says. Her advise for tracking
down such experts? First, she suggests looking for someone with a sophisticated
palate, perhaps even with a wine-tasting background. Second, she stresses the
importance of that person embracing the art of tea-"not just tasting and blending,"
she says, "but understanding the cultural context of teas. A sommelier is passionate
about tea in all forms, and as such, provides a wonderful context for the enjoyment
of tea."
Whether in a fine restaurant or a neighborhood teahouse, the presence
of sommeliers could very well become an effective tool in helping the premium
tea market expand and mature. By brewing quality tea to exacting specifications,
serving it with expertise and engaging customers in a way that makes them rethink
their preconceived notions of tea, sommeliers become yet another way to elevate
the status of premium tea. At their best, tea sommeliers can be viewed as guides
of a sort, leading consumers, one by one, through the wonderfully diverse world
of premium tea. And at the very least, these tea experts can be regarded as yet
another unique facet of an ever-evolving industry.
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