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BY ERIN STEELE
Daily Arts Writer
Published February 6, 2011
Correction appended: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Momo Tea manager Angie Tsai.
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As many college students will attest, coffee has become the number one way to power through long weeks of homework and studying. But what happens when they’ve grown tired of the daily latte? Perhaps it's time for coffee addicts to embrace their adventurous sides and explore the endless varieties of a less commonly consumed drink: tea.
Steeped in tradition
When visiting TeaHaus on N. Fourth Ave., it’s impossible to ignore a sign near the door that reads, “Only the best .5% of the annual world tea harvest is of high enough quality to be considered for our collection at TeaHaus.”
Opening the door and walking inside, customers are greeted by the sound of classical music and the aroma of the store’s 180 varieties of black, green, white, oolong, rooibos, fruit, herbal and ayurvedic teas. Neatly stacked silver tea tins cover one wall, while the other side displays teacups, pots, strainers and other tea paraphernalia that only experts would recognize. In the adjacent tea room, there is a wall covered in books accompanied by a sign: “Learn further about tea!”
There is certainly a lot to learn.
“Tea is just as complex — if not more complex — than wine. The topography of where it’s grown, the seasonal and climatic changes — everything plays a big part in what your end cup will taste like,” explained TeaHaus owner Lisa McDonald.
“We’re not fancy,” was McDonald’s first reply when asked what she would say to the average University student who might be mystified or intimidated by tea culture.
“We’re actually just really casual people,” she said. “Two of the people who work here are students at U of M. We’re not gonna diss you because all you’ve ever had is Teavana.”
For McDonald, the most important characteristic of the tea house is its emphasis on taking things slow. She feels that because Americans are always in such a hurry, the closest people will come to taking a minute to slow down is when enjoying tea.
“I think there’s something about tea that kind of makes you sit down for a minute," she said. "We sell a lot of tea to go, but there is something to be said about (having) to wait two minutes for a cup of tea to brew, so there’s two minutes of your life you have to be willing to give up to enjoy a cup of tea."
When TeaHaus first opened, McDonald refused to put in Wi-Fi Internet access. After a while, she gave in to popular demand, but she still turns off the Wi-Fi on Saturdays.
McDonald’s fascination with tea began on a backpacking trip through Europe, which turned into a 14-year stay, during which she worked as a business consultant.
“I did a lot of traveling for business,” McDonald said. “Every village that I went to had an apothecary-style tea store with up to 300 types of tea, and so it just became what I would do — I would go into these towns and look for the tea store.”
McDonald began taking courses to become a tea sommelier — someone with training and extensive knowledge of tea as a hobby. In the process, she became somewhat of a tea expert.
“One of the things that is a surprise to most people is that Germany is the world’s largest tea purchasing country and also has the strictest quality control,” McDonald said. “They have a zero tolerance for pesticides and heavy metals.”
After moving to Ann Arbor, McDonald began looking for a career that would allow her to raise her two young sons. She opened TeaHaus in December 2007 with about 200 different loose teas, all imported from Germany.
McDonald is quick to point out that what most Americans think of as the typical tea house is much more refined than the vast majority of the traditional ones throughout Europe.
“In the U.S., most of the tea rooms have a lot of doilies, flowers, a lot of pink, a lot of mauve,” she explained.
