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Samovar Tea Lounge Morning Tea Blog
An excerpt from an interview with bouillon! Magazine
Submitted by Jesse Jacobs on Tue, 09/05/2006 - 8:50am.
What does world renowned restaurant Nobu and
Samovar Tea Lounge both have in common? We were both recently
featured in Dutch foodie magazine bouillon! Bouillon interviewed
us about the tea boom in America, and, specifically what we are
doing about it. Below is a transcript of the interview that provides
some insight into Samovar.
Enjoy!
Question: Who are your customers? Tea aficionados
or food lovers ? Young, old, women, men, tourists, business people?
Answer: All types--literally. Business men and women,
grandmothers, children, housewives and house-husbands, single,
married, liberal, conservative, football players and yoginis,
tea-novices and chado-gurus alike. There is no single demographic.
I would say our customers are people who crave something good
for them, and want to know they are contributing to something
good for the world. We get very few hard-core aficionados, but,
we create very, very many! People come here for power lunches,
afternoon tea, late night dates, personal reflection. Especially
because our new location is right in the middle of energetic downtown
SF, but, pulled back a bit because we are also in the middle of
the Gardens--it’s an amazing place to just sit back, watch
the flowers grow, listen to some mellow tunes in the background,
enjoy a new freshcrop oolong and listen to your breath, taste
the teas...appreciate life.
Q: Does your extensive tea menu inspire customers
to try and learn to love more special types of tea? Even the more
subtle and expensive green teas?
A: Absolutely. Our philosophy is to offer something
for everyone, making tea very approachable. We do our best to
pay respect to the tea traditions of the world, and not change
classic recipes. Approachability with education is key. If customers
want milk and sugar w/ a Chinese black tea like Keemun, we give
it, but, we also educate them that it’s not really necessary.
The tea is delicious and fresh and they shoujld TRY it black,
but we are happy to oblige with milk also. We have the basics
like Early Grey, and Indian Masala chai, but, we also have very
esoteric teas like hand picked Wild-crafted Aged tea (pu-erh)
from a small cooperative in SouthWestern China--amazingly rich,
dark, complex, chocolaty and earthy, but low in caffeine. We want
to bring people to the world of tea without adulterating this
brew: we aren’t into making bubble tea, tea-pucinos, or blended
drinks, because, if the tea is fresh, it has it’s own natural
great taste. Just like garden fresh veggies are delicious and
do not need rich cream sauces to enjoy the flavors!
Q: On combining tea and food. Your menu contains
a lot of classic sweet ‘English’ tea food like cakes,
and scones, but also pairings like fish dishes, salads and oriental
food. Are these all as popular? You also serve a lot of tofu dishes.
Why?
A: Tea is international--so, we touch on the cultures
of tea. That is an important part of our business: offer the teas,
and the foods from the tea cultures of the world. Because we offer
tea service that pairs a tea with the meal, it takes some of the
daunting work out of picking which tea to pick. We offer a classic
black tea house blended Breakfast Blend with English sandwiches
and sweets for the English Tea, a Japanese green tea paired with
the bento box and miso soup, a Moorish Mint tea paired with our
Middle Eastern salad and veggie kabobs. It makes it more enjoyable
to have us match the tea w/ the food, especially for beginners.
Again, we are about education and approachability. One of the
most frustrating things for me is when I encounter tea snobs who
are very arrogant. We are about being nice, and informative!
Why do we serve tofu dishes? Because tofu is an
incredibly popular Asian dish and very present in the many of
the tea cultures of the world. It’s very delicious and is
very flexible in that is can be made to taste many different ways,
for many different dishes. Also, we have a lot of vegan and vegetarian
customers and tofu is a great option for them (and for anyone
else interested in a high protein, low fat, flavorful alternative
to meat).
Q: Do you instruct your customers regarding the
brewing time and/or perfect brewing temperature or do you brew
the tea before serving it?
A: Depending on the kind of tea, either we brew
it first--using 4x filtered water (water is the most important
element to making delicious tea), and brewing it on a timer to
extract the best possible flavor, and, steeping it in our custom-designed
teaware. Because oolongs and puerhs are intended to be infuesed
many times, we let the customers brew the tea using yixing teaware.
Q: Any final comments for our Dutch readers?
A: Watch out--ever since the Boston Tea Party, America
has lagged behind Europe and Asia in tea consumption. Things are
really changing, because Americans are finally getting to the
root of why everybody else enjoying this simple leaf. Since we
opened up nearly four years ago, ten other places have opened
in San Francisco, and even more throughout California. Who knows,
before you know it, you may have a Samovar Tea Lounge in Amsterdam!
Mission - Castro
498 Sanchez St.
at 18th. St.
San Francisco
tel: 415.626.4700
Yerba Buena Gardens
Upper Terrace
730 Howard Street
San Francisco
tel: 415.227.9400
www.samovartea.com
You'll find the article here
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