The Art of TEA-Ching
From Patterson’s Beverage Journal – March 2005
By the fourth Century A.D. tea was considered China's most favored drink. By the
eighth Century, tea ceremonies were a part of nobility and were imitated abroad. Tea
already had a history of four thousand years in Asia before Europeans got their first taste, a mere 400 years ago.
Patterson's met up with one of the country's most popular teachers and authorities on all aspects of tea - James Norwood Pratt - at Chado Tea Room in West Hollywood, to discover the Art of Tea-Ching.
The New American Tea Lover
Often called America's tea guru by people in the trade, Norwood wrote a classic book on tea in 1982 that initially set off the spark for today's tea renaissance in the USA.
Completely rewritten in the light of 20 years of additional devotion to the subject, Norwood's NEW "Tea Lover's Treasury" is aimed at America's new tea lovers and is the ultimate educational guide to the world of tea. "The new tea lovers are the people who have forced our sleepy old tea trade to wake up. The new American tea lover is an heir to all tea drinking traditions, from Japanese tea ceremonies to Russian Samovars to English scones in the afternoon. India Chai. China Green. You name it!"
Before 1990, the tea market was under half a billion dollars. Today total tea market exceeds six billion. Over the past decade in the premium tea sector of the business, most companies have been growing at rates between 20 and 40 percent, according to AC Nielsen figures.
Tasting at Chado Tea Room
Devan Shah, with his wife Reena, owner of Chado Tea Room in West Hollywood, has become a leading U.S. importer of fine tea. "Devan and I first tasted teas he imported in his father-in-law's garage, where his first chests of tea were stored, back in '93," recalls Norwood.
Over a decade later, Devan now operates out of a 25,000 square-foot warehouse, four stories tall, where an array of the world's greatest and some of the most expensive -teas are stacked, wall to ceiling.
"Devan created his own market for tea," attests Norwood. "When he arrived from India in
the early '90s, no one here had ever sold a cup of Chai. Now it's a multi-million dollar winner, all based on that first shipment from India, largely thanks to Devan."
He supplied a black Nilgiri tea, from his native region, previously unheard of here. Today, it is the base for all of America's best Chai. Norwood presented us with the high-end Nilgiri Frost Tea, an exotic specialty created for him and for Devan, and available exclusively from their Nilgiri Tea Society.
Tea Trends
"A new Tea Room opens up every day in the U.S.," Norwood points out. "The number of
American tea drinkers is rising by a rate of 10 percent per year. I believe we are approaching a tipping point and are on our way to becoming a tea-drinking society. Remember, a mere 30 years ago we were not the wine drinking society we are today."
When asked if he thought we were growing as a coffee-drinking society, Norwood gently reminded that coffee, unlike tea, cannot claim health benefits. "Coffee certainly does not remain our friend after middle age. We all now know, however, that tea is a healthy drink."
Antioxidants and flavinols in green and white tea have proven especially effective in removing and cleansing cells from free radicals. Clinical evidence shows tea fights everything from sunburn and tooth decay to strokes and cancer. And, what's best, Americans are buying it.