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Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/48160
:WTS 7\ BSO continued from page 47 we start this process it might not work right away, but slowly the quality of tea will create some kind of market." 41( What was the U.S. specialty tea industry like then? Did it even exist? 2A( A number of coffee shops would be buying, and some suppliers were doing good work. Upton Tea Company out of Massachusetts was the biggest mail-order company, but they mainly served consumers. Smaller shops needed a place where they could get different teas, and so I started importing single- estate teas from the Nilgiris and then from Darjeeling and Assam. In the early-'90s, tea got a big boost with the opening of the T Salon in New York City. It opened under the Guggenheim, and that was one of the biggest instances of press that tea has ever received in the United States. In the same year, Chado opened on the West Coast, and that store sold 300 different types of tea just from Mariage Frères (a specialty supplier based in Paris). 41( You didn't own Chado at that point, though? 2A( No, Chado eventually became one of my customers. I always thought Chado was a great way to sell teas—it was a massive shop with so many teas. It was a great, great place, but the owner was a little ahead of the game. The tea market just wasn't ready for such a big move, and she was having a lot of issues getting teas from Germany and things like that. She decided to close down, and when she told me, I said, "Well, I'll just buy it." 41( How did the surge in chai develop? 2A( It coincided with the rise of Indian foods of all kinds in the United States. You had Indian spices and Indian ready-made meals that you could just put in the micro- wave. Live Chai, a company out of Colorado, was one of the first people in the market, and then Oregon Chai, opened by Heather Howitt [in 1994]. They were both customers of mine. Oregon Chai went on to become the leader in the market. Live Chai had a milk-carton type package. It was the right product, the right packaging, but they couldn't get it off the ground. 41( Why not? 2A( I always tell people in chai, or in tea as a whole for that mat- ter, that you have to pay attention to your main ingredient. You can negotiate and cut corners on everything else, but never compromise on the quality of tea you're selling. Your entire livelihood depends on this one product. Live Chai did not get that message. They just thought that since they had great packaging, anything would sell, and that didn't happen. Oregon Chai's success happened because they were quality conscious. When it was first established, you could see they were saying, "We're going to aim for quality." And "& TEA ALMANAC 2012 EVOLUTION: Devan Shah started as a tea bro- ker in India and now owns one of America's major specialty importers. then they took it to the next level. Before they sold to Kerry Foods, we were selling them 50,000 to 100,000 pounds of tea a year. 41( Your company now imports hundreds of individual teas from across Asia. How do you keep track of what's out there in terms of great tea? 2A( I probably get 10,000 to 20,000 samples a year, and I prob- ably end up tasting at least 8,000 of them. I'm always curious when the new season starts for every region. This is usually when the best tea is produced, and instead of hundreds of samples, I'll get maybe 30. I get to taste teas that would sell in China for $500 a kilo. It's the prized manufacturer of my supplier, teas that end up being gifted to the premier of China and his advisors. The samples are real small, and they say to me, "We know you're not going to be able to buy this, but this is what we manufactured." Then I can say, "I like this or this, and I would like to get something similar but not as pricy." I'll tell them I like a certain oolong, for example, but I need it to be more toasty and at a certain price point. As long as you're placing an order for 300 or 500 kilos, they'll make it for you. That kind of ongoing understanding is what we have with all our suppliers. 41( Interestingly, though, on its Web site and elsewhere, ITI doesn't heavily promote the farmer-relationship aspect as many other companies do. Why? 2A( Number one, we're a bulk supplier. I'll give you 50 pounds of a great tea, but I don't have a private label. Also, I don't feel comfort- able promoting this farmer or this farmer or this farmer. That sometimes requires some exaggeration and causes you to say things that aren't 100 percent accurate. And the actual grower may not be manufacturing the tea. For example, in China you have farmers who own small pieces of land and they will do the initial manufacturing, but they can't complete the whole process so it goes to a factory. Companies buy teas from dif- ferent places, process it, store it and then sell to us. It's hard to play up one angle all the time. 41( What led to your recent decision to open two Chado retail outlets in Mumbai? 2A( In the last eight years or so, India has been bombarded with all kinds of investments from overseas. The outsourcing of technology companies has really helped the Indian economy, and there's a lot more discretionary income. Also, people are traveling. All of these Indians who traveled overseas for different reasons— they would go to Germany, China and Japan and bring back great teas, but they wouldn't have anywhere to buy more back home. We realized we needed to introduce this to India. Mumbai is the place to do anything you want to do. Like New York, if you do something well in Mumbai, you get a great amount of exposure. AMJAD PATHAN