Aug. 01, 1999 RIMAG
By Janice Matsumoto, Associate Editor
Here’s a mixed-drink order that would confound even the best mixologist: "Make that half chai, half yerba matte, extra black pearls and easy on the sugar."
But a Zen Zoo Tea barkeep would be mixing it in a martini shaker before you could say "ZenFusion."
Zen Zoo Tea, in Brentwood, Calif., has carved out a niche in the cold-beverage market, selling fruit-infused tea prepared martini-style.
Co-owners Linda Yu and Alfred Ritter take their tea inspiration from Taiwan, where "bubble tea" has been a popular year-round refresher for more than 10 years. The most popular Taiwanese bubble tea is a frothy blend of black or green tea, milk and tapioca pearls, shaken with ice. Zen Zoo Tea takes that to the next level by icing down hot, fresh-brewed teas with various combinations of syrups made from fruit purées and concentrates, chai [spiced tea], herbal blends and milk in the shaker.
"You get a hint of the fruit taste, finished with the flavor of the tea," Yu says. "It makes the drink really refreshing."
"There’s a huge taste difference between our teas and those prepared from premixed concentrate in a blender," Yu says. "And the cocktail shaker attracts a lot of attention."
So much attention, in fact, that making 400 "mar-tea-nis" at an afternoon catered event is not uncommon.
Drink presentation is just as important as ingredient blend: Black Pearl ZenFusions are served in 20-ounce brandy snifters with extra-wide straws; other tea drinks come frothed in tall Pilsner glasses. Prices average $3 per drink. The 30-seat tea bar sells 150 to 200 mixed-tea drinks a day, in addition to rice bowls, dim sum and salads.
CATCHING THE EYE
Eye-appeal helps upsell fruity iced tea blends in other parts of the country as well. At New York’s Café Centro, in the busy MetLife building behind Grand Central Station, iced tea arrives tableside in 24-ounce, fishbowl-shaped stem glasses modeled after those used at the Brasserie Lipp in Paris.
The tea’s signature flavor comes from orange zest and cassis syrup. Even sweetening is upscaled; instead of sugar packets, small bottles of simple syrup [equal parts water and sugar boiled to a syrup] are offered.
"Syrup mixes faster with tea," says Renaud Ammon, assistant director at Café Centro. "You get the sugar flavor right away."
Café Centro iced tea—at $3.75 a glass—has become the top-selling cold beverage, Ammon says, "with some customers coming especially for the tea."
At nearby Naples 45 Restaurant, unlimited glasses of mango-infused iced tea ($2.50) are served in sassy highball glasses.
BOTTLE ROCKETS
Expect to see more and more creative iced teas come onto the market, says Wendy Rasmussen, executive director of the American Premium Tea Institute in Long Beach, Calif. "I’m seeing a lot of iced chai beverages, more green teas and a number of places using add-ins like ginger, Echinacea and ginseng."
Quality bottled teas are brewing up added sales, too. "Bottled teas give restaurateurs a way to add name-brand teas to their beverage lineup, give customers more flavors to choose from and, from a food-safety standpoint, they don’t have to deal with an additional machine to clean and sanitize every night," Rasmussen adds.
Simplicity equals practical at Moosewood Restaurant, Ithaca, N.Y., where iced tea stays on the menu year-round. The restaurant goes through 3 gallons a day during warm weather, though consumption drops to 1 gallon when the snow flies.
After experimenting with several flavors, the restaurant picked a tea flavored with hibiscus and garnished with fresh lemon or lime, as the house drink. "When we offered several flavors, we ended up throwing the leftover out. Iced tea, when old, oxidizes,’’ says Neil Minnis, a manager/partner.
A 12-ounce serving sells for $1. Refills, gratis, really attract customers, adds Minnis.
By Janice Matsumoto, Associate Editor
Here’s a mixed-drink order that would confound even the best mixologist: "Make that half chai, half yerba matte, extra black pearls and easy on the sugar."
But a Zen Zoo Tea barkeep would be mixing it in a martini shaker before you could say "ZenFusion."
Zen Zoo Tea, in Brentwood, Calif., has carved out a niche in the cold-beverage market, selling fruit-infused tea prepared martini-style.
Co-owners Linda Yu and Alfred Ritter take their tea inspiration from Taiwan, where "bubble tea" has been a popular year-round refresher for more than 10 years. The most popular Taiwanese bubble tea is a frothy blend of black or green tea, milk and tapioca pearls, shaken with ice. Zen Zoo Tea takes that to the next level by icing down hot, fresh-brewed teas with various combinations of syrups made from fruit purées and concentrates, chai [spiced tea], herbal blends and milk in the shaker.
"You get a hint of the fruit taste, finished with the flavor of the tea," Yu says. "It makes the drink really refreshing."
"There’s a huge taste difference between our teas and those prepared from premixed concentrate in a blender," Yu says. "And the cocktail shaker attracts a lot of attention."
So much attention, in fact, that making 400 "mar-tea-nis" at an afternoon catered event is not uncommon.
Drink presentation is just as important as ingredient blend: Black Pearl ZenFusions are served in 20-ounce brandy snifters with extra-wide straws; other tea drinks come frothed in tall Pilsner glasses. Prices average $3 per drink. The 30-seat tea bar sells 150 to 200 mixed-tea drinks a day, in addition to rice bowls, dim sum and salads.
CATCHING THE EYE
Eye-appeal helps upsell fruity iced tea blends in other parts of the country as well. At New York’s Café Centro, in the busy MetLife building behind Grand Central Station, iced tea arrives tableside in 24-ounce, fishbowl-shaped stem glasses modeled after those used at the Brasserie Lipp in Paris.
The tea’s signature flavor comes from orange zest and cassis syrup. Even sweetening is upscaled; instead of sugar packets, small bottles of simple syrup [equal parts water and sugar boiled to a syrup] are offered.
"Syrup mixes faster with tea," says Renaud Ammon, assistant director at Café Centro. "You get the sugar flavor right away."
Café Centro iced tea—at $3.75 a glass—has become the top-selling cold beverage, Ammon says, "with some customers coming especially for the tea."
At nearby Naples 45 Restaurant, unlimited glasses of mango-infused iced tea ($2.50) are served in sassy highball glasses.
BOTTLE ROCKETS
Expect to see more and more creative iced teas come onto the market, says Wendy Rasmussen, executive director of the American Premium Tea Institute in Long Beach, Calif. "I’m seeing a lot of iced chai beverages, more green teas and a number of places using add-ins like ginger, Echinacea and ginseng."
Quality bottled teas are brewing up added sales, too. "Bottled teas give restaurateurs a way to add name-brand teas to their beverage lineup, give customers more flavors to choose from and, from a food-safety standpoint, they don’t have to deal with an additional machine to clean and sanitize every night," Rasmussen adds.
Simplicity equals practical at Moosewood Restaurant, Ithaca, N.Y., where iced tea stays on the menu year-round. The restaurant goes through 3 gallons a day during warm weather, though consumption drops to 1 gallon when the snow flies.
After experimenting with several flavors, the restaurant picked a tea flavored with hibiscus and garnished with fresh lemon or lime, as the house drink. "When we offered several flavors, we ended up throwing the leftover out. Iced tea, when old, oxidizes,’’ says Neil Minnis, a manager/partner.
A 12-ounce serving sells for $1. Refills, gratis, really attract customers, adds Minnis.
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