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!

To download the original article, click here.