The shop, MonTea, opened in the hip college neighborhood of Chevy Chase features almost exclusively Elmwood Inn teas. Such a close relationship is reportedly very rare, but I think bodes well for the little shop.

Danielle Montague had been thinking of just such a shop for a number of years prior to her layoff from a local public radio organization. She approached Bruce Richardson from Elmwood Inn (located nearby in Perryville, KY), an old contact regarding the idea and the two progressed from there.

Here is a link to the original story over at World Tea News.

It is for this purpose that beginning in August, accessory and product reviews will be swapping with news, culture and history.

You can thus expect to see the following items reviewed on Thursdays moving forward:

• Books
• Software
• Infusers
• Kettles
• Water Warmers
• Cozies
• Tea Houses/Tea Rooms
• Tea Storage containers

Moving forward you can expect the following to appear on Mondays

• News
• Culture
• History
• Event coverage
• Announcements
• Updates
• New feature introductions
• Interviews with tea industry experts and entrepreneurs.

I believe this new schedule will jive better with you as my audience and certainly hope it will help drive traffic in a more predicatable manner.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

What exactly spurred me to sign up for the World Tea Expo is something I can’t reveal much about at the moment, asside from the fact that it does indeed relate to The Project.

I learned something while out in Las Vegas… though it wasn’t related to gambling, adult inhibitions or travelling. Indelibly I learned that my greatest strength and passion is, and likely has always been, with people. What makes us tick individually. It turns out that this year’s World Tea Expo, for me, ended up being all about the people.

While Saturday certainly marked a wonderful close to a beautiful and full day of tea related adventues… it was the people I met that day which truly energized me. The wonderfully high quality teas and the colorful array of accessories were really only icing on the cake.

I ate breakfast Sunday at the Roundtable All-Day Buffet at the Excalibur. The buffet was just $25 to come and go for as many trips as you’d like within a 24 hour period. My dietician would have been aghast at the prospect if she knew… but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas… right? I actually ended up eating rpetty well there. Fruit, eggs and grapefruit juice were what appealed to me and I chose rather appropriate portion sizes. In case you’re wondering… I did go back for lunch and dinner… but I had a middle meal during a Tweetup I’ll mention later.

Sunday and Monday were where it was all at. Two more sessions: “Selling Your Tea Online Successfully” and “Creating A Menu With Cost & Creativity in Mind” bisected my morning and afternoon. Both presentations were steller! I couldn’t have been more pleased with the investment I made in paying for these two sessions.

Michael Cramer of Adagio Teas covered a wealth of great information related to community building… engaging and keeping your customers on your website and helping with conversion of simple visitors into customers who buy your products.

Melinda Decker, owner of LaTeaDa Tea Room in Clinton, IL provided an interesting presentation as well. While her ideas mostly focussed on her more traditional Victorian style tea house… she provided a number of robust and reusable ideas for making the most out of the materials you buy, simply by using the same ingredients to make multiple products… such as a cake, cobbler or pie being turned into a dessert in a glass.

I spent the rest of Saturday, literally networking with people. Hitting booths, talking people up over tea, getting my business cards handed out and really just getting to know people.

I ran into Jack Cheng of Steepster.com, Lindsey Goodwin of VeeTea, The fine guys over at Village Tea, Ty Beddingfield of Gamila… the inventors of the Tea Stick and a plethor of other completely wonderful folks on Sunday. Several of these folks, plus Ilya from Adagio Teas showed up for an evening Tweetup after the expo floor closed and we had some grub and drinks. In particular, Ty and I really talked for a while about ideas and things. A wonderful day.

After dinner Sunday night, I hit up Cherry, a dance club over in the Red Rock Hotel. This club was one hell of an experience! I thoroughly enjoyed the hours spent there dancing and admiring the crowd. I really get energized when a club is as alive as Cherry was that night. Rare I think, for a Sunday night.

Now it’s Monday morning. The sun is up… but I’ve been awake for hours already. To protect myself some from JetLag I have always tried to awaken as close to Eastern time as possible. I worked out in the rather meager (by my standards) health club in the Excalibur… an amazingly expensive $20 a day on top of the room bill.

After breakfast at the buffet again, I made my way over to the expo for some tea and my morning session: “Reaching Beyond Your Front Door For Additional Income” and then on to my afternoon session: “Price it Right & Sell it Smart.”

Ronald Eng of Kopius Teas put on a wonderful presentation. Very well spoken with great diction and clarity. His ideas were understandably expressed and he was very energetic about answering questions. A serial entrepreneur, Ronald had some great ideas and concepts to share.

Robert Hedrick of Holton & Heath also had some great insights on proper pricing, commodity vs exclusive and the power of branding potential. This was a also a very good presentation.

The rest of my “day” on Monday was spent scurrying around making my final connections with brands and companies, procurring more business cards in exchange for mine as an attempt to build more outlets and opportunities for me to grow with the tea industry over the next couple decades.

I did end up linking with Ronald Eng and Emilie Yanagi of Kopius Teas, the people at Zojirushi North America, a couple great folks over at TeasEtc, Maria Warman from Art of Tea and I cannot forget Nora of Golden Star Tea who has an amazing sparkling bottled tea beverage presented in a chapagne bottle!

At the end of the day I ran into May King of the new UK tea brand, MayKing Tea as well as a few other friends including Norman who is starting a tea garden in Hawaii! I ended up going out dancing with these two and we had a wonderful time out at Margaritaville down the strip after throwing back a few drinks at Liquidity, a bar in the Luxor Hotel & Casino.

I don’t want to leave anyone out… but I’m HORRIBLE with names… I ended up meeting several hundred people at the expo and coming away with some great friendships made over the three day event.

I have to recommend this event to anyone starting a new tea business, or anyone already in the industry!

I’ve already made the decision to head back to Las Vegas next year for another round of tea education. Maybe by then I’ll already have a small presence in the tea industry and be ready for some thoughts on expanding to becoming a tea brand. Here’s to the future!

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

This busy little tea room & confectionery combo packs one heckuva punch! Quaint and out of the way, this cute little hole in the wall is a relaxing, if girly enclave of tea.

The first thing to note is that there is plenty of parking for this teahouse located in a Cincinnati neighborhood known as O’Bryonville.

You’ll have to take a side street to find the BonBonerie, but Google’s directions from my iPhone were pretty much correct.

If approaching from Madison Rd, note that it is behind a store called “Hemptations”, and that you cannot reach this tea room by going up the stairs. You’ll need to walk up and around the small hill to the right where there is also plentiful parking.

My best friend and I took the chance to visit this teahouse recently. It is worth it to note that we were two of three men in the establishment. The decor is decidedly feminine. As a bonus, the BonBonerie is also a confectionery offering fresh made cakes, cupcakes and other sweets. These are so good that the BonBonerie supplies the confections served at many of Cincinnati’s finest dining establishments and local favorites.

Despite the decidedly feminine atmosphere I felt right at home drinking a hot cuppa “Bushman’s Brew.” Made from the Honeybush tree from Southern Africa. The staff presented the tea already bewing in a custom tea bag tied off at the end placed in a ceramic mug.

The tea brewed up a beautiful dark amber color, much like a Darjeeling. The aroma was sweet and delicate with just a slight hint of spice. I caught notes of flowers and, it seemed, light sappiness.

The tea came out particularly hot. This was unfortunate, as the tea didn’t need to be brewed at such a high temperature. I estimate a better temperature at around 185(°F) to 195(°F) as opposed to the roughly 230(°F) I was presented with.

The flavor of the Bushman’s Brew was stern. A bit of a bite at the end of each sip. This was contrary to its aroma and may have been contributed to by the high temperature which it was brewed at. After it cooled down a bit, some of the honeyed notes remained in the taste, but this tea’s experience was much stronger than I’d hoped.

Overall, I thought the promise of the BonBonnerie was high. Intricate, artsy and filling the need for a more girly atmosphere, while not being Victorian in style. This tea room certainly has soemthing going for it. They seem to miss the boat when it comes to temperatures for the teas they serve, and a number of the blends don’t match particularly well with the sugary sweets they offer as confections.

There’s certainly room for the BonBonerie to improve, but the experience remained relaxing and comfortable despite the disappointment with the tea itself. I’ve heard great things about this tea business and hope my experience was a rare disappointment rather than the expected norm.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

Essencha, located in Oakley, is considered one of the premier tea houses in the greater Cincinnati area. Part of this is its trendy location. Part of it is the great tea, part is the atmosphere and part is its more contemporary style.

Unlike most of the tea houses in Cincinnati Essencha celebrates tea as an approchable part of life which anyone can enjoy, as opposed to a more British styled High Tea which certainly has its own attraction.

The first thing you’ll notice when you approach Essencha is the dearth of parking and that Google and MapQuest get their directions wrong, though the location is correct. I was taken to a road behind the establishment and had to turn around.

Once I’d parked in the small-ish lot behind Essencha (entrance at the front) shared by other stores in the vicinity I found my way down a small set of stairs to the side door and was immediately greeted by a warm, inviting atmosphere with hearthy colors and quiet conversations.

Japanese and Chinese art is displayed on the walls and in the spacious bathroom, and a mural along the far wall certainly provides an interesting eye piece. The clear centerpiece is a hanging wooden scaffold which is suspended from the ceiling across the middle of the restaurant helping it feel warmer and less industrial.

One of the more unique features at Essencha is the “Passport.” Essencha’s passport allows you to keep track of which teas you have and haven’t tried and what rating you gave each of them (out of 5 tea leaves). Although you have to leave the passport at Essencha, it’s a rather convenient and novel way to make tea bit more adventurous for newbies and experienced drinkers alike!

I’m drawn to Genmaicha as a rule, since it helps me to decide how much attention a blender or teahouse pays to the smaller details of flavor. Essencha offers a robust Genmaicha “Extra Green” blended with Matcha. As I’ve noted before, this pairing doesn’t really get me going since I feel it betrays the more humble roots of Genmaicha’s history. Nontheless, the blend was aromatic and flavorful, if a bit less earthy than I’m used to. I’ll review this specific blend sometime in the future.

Although I was suprised to note a Pu’erh on the menu I decided I would try Essencha’s Kukicha (often called twig tea due to the inclusion of leaf stems). Flavorful, aromatic and with just the slightest hint of bitterness at the end which I’ve come to enjoy from a good green tea. I’ll state for now that I thoroughly enjoyed this blend and will also review it in the future.

The teahouse offers a decent menu of culturally inspired meals to go with their teas. I chose to go with a Japanese Beef Bowl (Beef Donburi), a good match to my Kukicha. The beef wasn’t cooked too long and the rice was nice and light. The option of brown rice would be appreciated, but wasn’t apparent and a selection of veggies to accentuate the beef would have been nice. The meal comes only with grilled onions, beef and rice.

Desserts are offered at Essencha as would be expected of any teahouse or coffee house. Cute little pastries, cookies and confectionery appear very appetizing and tempted me more than once. I resisted the temptation as I was already full from the donburi and two hearty mugs of tea.

Essencha also offers to sell their tea loose in custom labeled bags or tins. They also sell decent mugs, infusers and tea pots. I didn’t notice any tea cozies to keep the pots warm, or any tea scoops/spoons or even any sugar cubes for those who like theirs in proper shapes.

A cup of tea isn’t ‘cheap’ at Essencha. But you’re certainly paying for a little more than you get. Both the Genmaicha and the Kukicha were $4 a cup. Still less than some would spend at Starbucks for a lesser quality tea or coffee, but more than I’d expected. The donburi ran me rougly $8 for what should have been ‘maybe’ $5-$6.

I’m not sure whether to blame the pricing on the location (Oakley is frequented by the trendy young professional crowd), the relativeley young age (Essencha is less than 5 years young) or what the owner’s (Tracy Monson) market research indicated was what the market was willing to pay. Regardless, I feel the prices are just a tad high. I was anticipating $0.50 to $1.00 less than what I got.

All in all I’d give Essencha a 4 on a 5 scale. Essencha is the best place to have tea in Cincinnati if you’re young, trendy or want a place to relax with a friend or two. The decor and setting are stylish but not distractingly so. The teas are of a quality selection, but are priced a just tad high. The foods are tasty and although the flavors are matched well to the teas they’re also slightly pricy for what you get.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org