Tea Salon Gets Set To Expand
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Tea has become big business in the city, with several retailers recently entering the scene and a boutique store that is a favorite of young mothers and yoga fans, T Salon, planning 15 new stores in Manhattan.
“The tea business has evolved in an enormous way,” the founder of the chain, Miriam Novalle, said. The craze reaches well beyond the city: She is actively scouting locations for new stores in Dubai, and also plans to open outposts in Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. “It’s not just about tea — it’s a lifestyle,” she said. “You aren’t going to go to a yoga class and then drink an espresso. You stay in the moment — you drink a cup of tea.”
T Salon is aiming to use an infusion of new investment and a partnership with the airline Jet Blue to take advantage of the increased interest in its product.
Founded in 1992 as a café beneath the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, T Salon has since expanded to the Chelsea Market and opened a small kiosk inside the couture shoe store té casan in SoHo. Soon, a store will open just north of Columbus Circle at 1800 Broadway, and several more are planned for TriBeCa and the Upper West Side. Ms. Novalle is also in contract with Jet Blue to open a T Salon at its renovated terminal in John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“She’s been doing this longer than everybody else in New York,” a tea sommelier and consultant in the city, James Rabe, said.
Mr. Rabe said that when he and Ms. Novalle got into the business in the early 1990s, green tea “was not much of the conversation.” Now, people are talking about decanting pots and the exact temperature of the water before it hits the leaves. “There is a higher level of sophistication,” he said.
The number of specialty tea stores has ballooned nationwide to 2,400 from 200 in 1997, the president of the Tea Association of the USA, Joseph Simrany, said. There are several local chains growing throughout New York, such as the Brooklyn-based Tea Lounge, which boasts three locations in the borough and plans to open more.
“The combination of the American consumer’s desire for upscale products and health benefits has the most to do with the growth of the tea industry,” Mr. Simrany said.
The richly colored salon at the Chelsea Market, which opened in September, is a combination store and café. Patrons can order tea cappuccinos at the curved bar or buy exotic teas that include furled chrysanthemum flowers that open with hot water and a young green tea called dragon phoenix pearls.
Ms. Novalle recently employed a strategy to make all of her stores environmentally friendly and sustainable, which helped lure investors, she said.
“The timing is right and the investors listened,” she said.
Each salon will include handcrafted bamboo floors and ceilings and will use recycled paper and soy ink, and corn plastic for to-go cups and cutlery. Lighting fixtures will be made from recycled tea bags, and the food options, such as scones and sushi, will be organic, according to company materials.
The “green” commitment drew interest from Jet Blue, Ms. Novalle said, adding that she is in talks with the airline to open additional T Salons at Jet Blue terminals around the world.
“Instead of sitting there eating a chili dog, you should be eating something that is consciously, nutritionally evolved before you take a flight,” she said.
In some of the new T Salons, there will also be “lifestyle centers” to house yoga classes or community meetings, she said.
Ms. Novalle, a native New Yorker who began her career as a perfumer, became interested in tea after a visit to Liverpool 17 years ago. The visit awoke childhood rituals with her parents, who were Holocaust survivors from Russia and Poland.
“For them, sitting back and having a cup of tea was a glorious moment,” she said. “It was relaxation, taking care of yourself.”