Each time ghostly tendrils of steam flee from a plump teapot, the tea-drinker shares in a tradition that generations around the world have enjoyed for more than five millennia. January is National Hot Tea Month and the perfect time to celebrate the tea renaissance currently taking place in America. Across the country, teahouses, restaurants and hotels are fully recognizing tea as a major boon to business, not only because of the significant rise in check totals from tea, but also because the beverage provides a way for even the simplest of establishments to achieve a refined, exotic ambience and to add character to a menu.

Falling leaves and climbing sales

Legend has it that tea first was drunk in 2737 B.C., when leaves from the camellia sinensis tree fell into Chinese emperor Shen Nung's cup of boiling-hot water. This chance event spawned a passion for tea that has crossed time and cultural divides, resulting in tea's exalted spot as the second-most-consumed drink in the world. Only the delicate buds and young leaves of camellia sinensis are hand-plucked for the very finest teas, which range widely in character and price. Typical conditions for growing tea are in climates with "high temperatures and high humidity" and with well-drained soil, according to Bill Hall, co-owner of Charleston Tea Plantation — makers of American Classic Tea — located on Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina.

Since its humble beginnings, tea has brewed up quite a following. According to Joe Simrany, president of the New York City-based Tea Council of the USA, overall tea sales have grown from $2 billion to more than $4.5 billion in the last decade, and green-tea sales in America have leapt from $2 million to $90 million during the past four years. Simrany and others attribute this phenomenal growth to extensive media coverge and growing public knowledge about the varied health benefits of tea, the expanding market of ready-to-drink bottled teas, and the basic consumer awareness and widened availability of gourmet coffees, bottled water and specialty hot teas in restaurants and retail outlets.

The profitability of tea is seemingly unmatched by other after-dinner drinks, Simrany says, "especially [for] upscale teas" that often cost only pennies per serving and for which restaurateurs can charge anywhere from $3 to $10 dollars on their menus. "The profit goes up exponentially with tea," says Simrany. In addition, serving a unique specialty tea or offering top-notch tea service can make the difference when a diner considers patronizing or revisiting a restaurant. Loose and flavored teas are a huge success and are taking over tea menus nationwide.

The demographics of tea-drinkers have broadened dramatically, too. Business meetings are conducted over tea now, according to Tomislav Podreka, president of the Ridgefield, Connecticut-based Serendipitea. "People are not drinking alcohol with lunch, but they are drinking tea," he says. In fact, it is not uncommon for Bruce Fernie, chairman and founder of Tealuxe, a teahouse in Boston, to see seniors sipping tea next to college students at his operation.

Training to a T

As consumers become more interested in tea, now is the ideal time for savvy restaurateurs to add tea to their menus or to upgrade their current tea offerings. A low-quality tea plunked into lukewarm water can be supremely disappointing to a diner who has invested in a luxurious meal and is looking for a soothing alternative to coffee.

The key to expanding or improving tea offerings in restaurants is employee training. Make sure that staff members know the fundamentals of serving good tea. Tea should be brewed with good, pure water; steeping times vary widely depending on the type of tea and personal taste, so get recommendations from a tea supplier for brewing the perfect cup of tea based on your restaurant's tea selections. Tea traditionally has been a complicated and somewhat tedious duty for a busy waiter to handle, and as a result has been a hard sell, but tea purveyors say that proper tea service can boost servers' checks significantly.

James Labe, tea sommelier at the Heartbeat restaurant in the W Hotel in New York City, understands the important role tea can play in a restaurant. Labe has meticulously chosen all of the loose-leaf teas he serves and "presents them like they're fine wines."

Labe worked seven days a week and personally served every pot of tea when Heartbeat first opened, but because of the massive success of the restaurant's tea service, he now trains apprentices to keep up with demand. In the tea-prep section of the Heartbeat kitchen, Labe posts a chart with the brewing times, water temperatures and amount of leaf needed for each tea — recipes he has thoroughly tested and continues to test as he chooses new teas.

Heartbeat provides a separate tea menu to its diners, which Labe claims helps to boost the operation's tea sales. Rare teas with intriguing names like "Bao Jong" and "Chrysanthemum" are described in detail on the menu along with suggestions for food pairings. Labe and his assistants visit tables to show and describe the varied loose teas. "Fine teas are very different in appearance, aroma and flavor . . . each [tea] needs to fill a role" for different customers' unique tastes, says Labe.

Restaurants often can turn to tea companies for assistance with training. Many companies offer varied levels of training, from pamphlets given at the time of sale, to Web-site information, to set-up and intensive training sessions in which a tea expert from the company visits restaurants to teach staff members proper tea service. The Novato, California-based Republic of Tea Company offers a full training service to its clients, which explains the basics of tea and tea service; a refresher course is given twice a year.

Harney and Sons Fine Teas of Salisbury, Connecticut, provides a "total tea program," complete with timers, and John Chaffey of Metropolitan Tea Company, headquartered in Toronto, believes that the French press (a fine mesh-screen plunger) that Metropolitan and other companies are now offering is "coming to define upscale tea service." Most suppliers also can provide teapots and other tea accessories to start or to improve a restaurant's tea service.

Some restaurants are even delving into wholesaling tea and training. Teaism in Washington DC wholesales teas to other local restaurants, and owners Linda Orr and Michelle Brown conduct tea-service training for fellow operators.

In a cooperative effort with the National Restaurant Association, the Tea Council of the USA has published a pamphlet, Recommendations for the Preparation of Iced and Hot Tea, which gives information about tea service and food safety, tea's history and health benefits, and equipment-cleaning instructions for a variety of machines. The pamphlet is available free to foodservice operators upon request.

Making tea your bag

Adding tea to the menu and training staff sets the groundwork for increasing beverage sales, but operators also must promote their tea service in order to fully benefit from this trend.

In restaurants like Heartbeat, loose and bagged teas are presented in elaborate fashions — on beautiful trays, in wooden tea chests or on elegant carts. Other possibilities for impressive tea service include presenting it in a ready-to-drink bottled form, in hand-filled tea bags or as a specialty iced tea. Some restaurants also use tea as an ingredient in main dishes. For example, at Chai of Larkspur, in Larkspur, California, many enticing items are prepared with tea, such as the "Tea-Marinated Roast Tenderloin Pork Sandwich With English Cucumber and Cilantro/Cumin Butter," and the "Ceylon-Spiced Plum Butter and Black Forest Ham on Toasted Crumpet," served for breakfast.

A distinctive teapot also can spice up a restaurant's look and lead to increased sales of tea. Cardew Designs in Flemington, New Jersey, has created a host of interesting designs, from pots decorated with animal prints to one adorned with the likeness of cartoon character Betty Boop. Seattle's Yixing.com sells classic Yixing clay teapots from China, in both traditional shapes and newer designs.

Another way to introduce customers to your tea service is to hold special tea-related events. Teaism hosts special tea events in its serene Asian setting; one recent event was a demonstration of the traditional ways of wearing a kimono followed by a special dinner served with tea.

Each Saturday afternoon at the Radnor Hotel in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, owner and General Manager Lou Prevost hosts teas for children. A book reader spins yarns for the children, and after the tea, each child chooses a book to take home. The standard cost is $19.95, and includes tea with sandwiches and scones for an adult and a child and the children's book. Prevost sets aside two spots each week for disadvantaged children, who attend for free. The children's tea and reading program has had the added benefit of earning the Radnor Hotel and Prevost tremendous goodwill in the community.

Turning over a new leaf

In this hectic, cell-phone-dominated, espresso-powered world, more diners are seeking the quiet comfort of a cup of tea and will treasure those restaurateurs who provide the respite a pot of tea symbolizes.

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