MONTREAL — Suffering from the winter blahs?
Has your pale and sickly wintry glow been tinged green with envy at hearing of all the wonderful places your friends and colleagues are visiting during spring break?
If you’re looking for an escape, there’s a cozy little tea house tucked in the centre of Montreal’s Latin Quarter that offers just that.
The Camellia Sinensis Tea House is in a rather narrow space, with small tables that generally seat two, wrapping their way around the tea station.
“Only the most experienced staff work at the tea station,” said co-owner and professional tea taster Kevin Gascoyne.
Every cup of tea is brewed with precision and attention to detail bordering on the compulsive, but clearly fuelled by passion.
Each infusion is prepared and served as it would be in its country of origin, offering an authentic experience and bringing out the true and subtle flavours of the teas.
At Camellia Sinensis, patrons are encouraged to take a moment for themselves.
A gong hangs in the corner and it has been used to remind people to speak in hushed tones. Beware loud and rowdy tea drinkers, you have been warned!
Don’t go there with the idea of whipping out your laptop; you’re there to immerse yourself in the experience.
Gascoyne explained why the tea house is a technology-free zone.
“We used to have Wi-Fi, but one day I walked in and there were eleven people sitting alone at their tables staring at their screens,” he said.
“One guy even asked me for the tea of the day and then he didn’t even drink it. There are plenty of internet cafes out there, that’s not what we’re trying to do here. This is our showroom.”
The tea house, where you can sample an array of different teas, from Japanese Matcha to aged Pu-erh, is adjacent to the tea shop.
The boutique sells everything from books, to teapots and kettles, and of course teas and blends.
The shop boasts a list of 250 teas and that list changes weekly. On why the list changes every week Gascoyne said:
“We sell artisanal teas. Artisanal teas come from gardens and factories, where the focus is on quality rather than quantity.”
As tea taster/importers, Gascoyne and his colleagues travel to Asia each year, with each taster specializing in a different region.
Gascoyne has been travelling to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal for over 20 years now.
He admitted to having made some expensive mistakes in the early days.
“I would taste a tea plucked fresh from the garden and thought it was terrific, but the shipment that arrived in Montreal was awful.”
Teas, from white, to green, to black, all come from the same plant — Camellia sinensis.
The level of oxidation during processing is essentially what differentiates the tea families.
The taste of a tea however can change, depending on how the leaves are picked, handled, processed, stored and packaged, with mishandling at any one of these steps affecting quality.
Gascoyne joked that if you combine his expensive mistakes with the amount of time he’s devoted to learning about all aspects of tea — from planting, to pruning, to tasting — then surely by now he must have earned the equivalent of a PhD.
All joking aside, what that experience has truly earned him, is close ties with planters and producers and hence access to some of the world’s finest teas.
Through their carefully maintained network, the tasters from Camellia Sinensis manage to source some very rare teas, available only in minute quantities.
The catalogue in the boutique changes weeklyto reflect that reality.
The business of tea
Tea is a serious business in Canada. Louise Roberge, President of the Tea Association of Canada, cites annual sales of $410 million, with specialty tea sales outpacing regular tea.
Canadians already drink 9.7 billion cups of tea each year and according to a report commissioned by Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, tea consumption is expected to grow by 40 per cent by 2020.
READ MORE: Tea the new coffee?
Not part of that trend yet?
Tea’s health benefits
You may want to consider some of the potential health benefits associated with teas, from weight loss and diabetes prevention, to reducing the rate of coronary heart disease, and even cancer prevention.
Teas are packed with antioxidants, polyphenols, amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
Recent studies have indicated that the theanine found in tea, combined with caffeine, can improve cognitive performance while also producing a calming effect.
Researchers are exploring the potential benefits of theanine in treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.
An article in the journal of Nutritional Neuroscience noted that although a handful of studies do exist, further investigation is warranted.
To tea enthusiasts around the world, this is old news.
Former British Prime Minister William Gladstone wrote in 1865:
“If you are cold, tea will warm you;
If you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you.”
Whether or not you’re part of the tea bandwagon, there’s always an opportunity to learn more.
The tea school at Camellia Sinensis, a few doors away from the boutique, offers a variety of workshops for professionals and members of the general public.
You can learn the rudiments of tea tasting — sniff, sniff, slurp, exhale — or experience the intricacies of a Japanese tea ceremony.
For the epicureans, there are even classes on the gastronomical pairings of tea and scotch, tea and cheese, and of course, tea and chocolate.
So brew yourself a nice cuppa and chase away those winter blues.
Still not convinced? Chin up, spring is just around the corner.
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