STiR coffee and tea magazine

42 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 4, 2017 (August / September) "I By Suzette Hammond don't think tea has even begun to be retailed and presented properly," says Bo Nelson of Kansas City's Thou Mayest Coffee. His point has not been entirely lost on the North American tea industry. Industry leaders have been discussing the modernization of tea retailing for a de- cade. Meanwhile, a seismic shift is underway not in the tearooms ― but in coffeeshops where tea is no longer looking like a sad, stagnant status quo, but rather an inspiring blank canvas of possibility. A short ride away from the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the World Tea Expo is held each year, is the welcoming patio of Makers & Finders in the arts dis- trict. If you Google "best Las Vegas coffee," they top the list. However, their menu holds hidden tea gems, as well. Numerous matcha bar offerings, including a creatively named Matcha Americano (simply, a normal 2oz serving of matcha, but with added hot water to bring it to "tea-like" consistency for the matcha newbies) and cold brew Thyolo black tea from Satemwa Tea Estate in Malawi. Their tea supplier? Tealet, a local Vegas importer specializing in curated, small lot selections ― all directly traded with smallholder producers. This is a scene that the observant coffee and tea enthusiast will see playing out at quality cafes across the US. Indeed it may very well be coffee that will firmly steer the conversation, creativity, and expectation for tea for years to come. "The challenge in coffee environments is that tea is often an afterthought, as coffee takes center stage," explains Jonathan Riethmaier of Mammoth Espresso, in New Orleans. His tea partners are Jojo Tea from Miami and White2Tea based in Yunnan, China. "When this happens, you see a lot of clumsy tea programs, where the space isn't designed to accommodate tea service, or existing coffee equipment is repurposed for tea. "I think often in coffee spaces, we ask our tea suppliers to make things easy for us - to create a turnkey solution," said Riethmaier. "For that reason you see a lot of tea Coffee Excels with Tea: Stories from a Shifting Market A Pu'er cake at Mammoth Espresso Brewing at Greater Goods

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