tea for a few

[glenn]

As I mentioned elsewhere, my small 20 seat cafe should be opening within the next month or two. Its focus is not on teas and I don't expect much tea business nor have I given it much if any thought. Frankly, I don't drink it and never made it. Now that you hate my guts, could I get some advice? :)

What would be recommended for a low volume business? Bags? Loose tea? Equipment? thanks!

[memesuze]

You may think you'll be low-volume, but if you do a good tea service, you might be surprised at the patrons you bring in.

To start with, I'd order some of the restaurant-quality Steelite Chatsford 2 & 4 cup [really 12 and 24 ounces] infuser pots from Upton Teas. They'll permit you to use loose tea or bags. If you go with bags, order the ones from Harney & Sons -definitely not just fannings - used by many ritzy hotels and restaurants. Other vendors if you decide to go the loose tea route might be SpecialTeas [i think they do quite a lot of business with restaurants, and could give you further advice on tea service], Uptons, Capital Tea, In Pursuit of Tea, Rishi Tea....

Then instruct your staff on how to prepare a decent pot of tea - by warming the pot with boiling or near-boiling water, using the proper temperature water for brewing - for blacks and black-based blends, use water that comes out of the espresso machine [i'm assuming one will be in your kitchen] - or water that has been brought to a boil and let to sit for a minute or less to drop to 205 degrees. Black tea responds to this temperature, just as your fine coffee should be brewed at 205 degrees. Oolongs are done with 180-195 degree water, and greens generally can handle 150-165.

Then get the brewing times down, generally, 1-2 minutes for greens [no longer or they'll taste too astringent or cigarette ashy], oolongs for 4-5, most blacks for 3.5 -5, and Darjeelings for 2-3.

Give your patrons a small timer if your staff doesn't take the time to complete the brewing before serving.

I'm sure I and others will think of more to add to this - but thanks for thinking of giving us tea lovers a decent option to the generic tea bag steeped in lukewarm water that makes us want to go Bleeehhhh.

[glenn]

thanks memesuze, great info to get me started.

[jpr54_]

As I mentioned elsewhere, my small 20 seat cafe should be opening within the next month or two.  Its focus is not on teas and I don't expect much tea business nor have I given it much if any thought.  Frankly, I don't drink it and never made it.  Now that you hate my guts, could I get some advice?  :) 

What would be recommended for a low volume business?  Bags?  Loose tea?  Equipment?  thanks!

←

where is cafe located?

memesuze gave some good advice-jenaer teapots are also nice for brewing tea including display teas-available from www.rishi-tea.com and www.adagiotea.com

you may be surprised about your tea business if you present, and prepare teas well-

including limited but good teas-

joanne

i am ready to stop by to try your cafe now-

[glenn]

Joanne, thanks for the links. And you're ready to stop by knowing tea is not up there among the priorities? -)) It's in Jersey City, or rather, will be - if you're in the area, I'd love for someone to help me set up the tea end of the business. If the truth be told, I was only looking to offer it as an accomodation to the few weirdos that drink that stuff. However, after looking around the net, it seems this may be a more lucrative area than I thought if done right. And I'm firmly in favor of lucrative.

[jpr54_]

I work for Hudson County Department of Health and Human Resources in Secaucus-

as Juvenile Justice Youth Services Funding Coordinator -

live in Teaneck

Joanne