10,000 hrs

Neil Diamond is singing away  in the back...
....song, sung blue,
weeping like a willow..
internet 70's radio - you gotta love it

So on to my post and the reason why I am here tonight - a saturday night by the way.
My friend Azita is have her birthday party in Yaletown tonight.  I plan on joining them later as I can only handle YT in teensy doses.

 I am currently working on a plan to open a blending facility.  While delving into the R&D and the feasibility of such an operation I realized that I was well into what Mr. Gladwell calls "expert" territory on my chosen niche.  I have indeed been heavily involved in loose tea for the necessary 10,000 hrs Gladwell says it takes to know ones vocation to the point where you are reaping its rewards ($$)  because you've figured it out.

I really must be a late bloomer then.
I am in the 11-12k territory in tea since I first sat down in November of 1998 to write my first business plan related to tea.  It was for the creation of Steeps-the urban teahouse located at 12411 Stony Plain Rd in Edmonton.

and here I am moving into another aspect of the loose leaf industry, that is,

Can we blend tea as well as the Germans here in Canada?  Most tea people I speak to about this seem to think that it will never happen.  They (the Germans) just have too many years experience head start on us and any attempt to compete would be futile at best.

I challenge this notion, and now that the line has been drawn in the sand so to speak , I am up for the challenge.
I have a innate sense that because of where we are geographically we can match and surpass the tea blending know-how of the Europeans in short order.

Maybe I'll have it all figured out before just before I reach my 12,000th hour....better late then never i guess.
Maybe Malcolm will hear about it and make a notation in his book that in  the tea trade, it may very well take a lifetime, especially for those dedicated to a quality offering.

Stay tuned for my new Western Black Maple.  I am bringing it all back home friends, just wait and see.

off I go then

searching for Steeps notebooks

~
When I opened Steeps in 1999, I made a point of putting a rustic notebook with a pen in an end table drawer that used to sit between the two comfy chairs in the front of the teahouse.
I left it there for a few months, and simply had forgotten about it when one day while cleaning the area, I opened the drawer to see if anyone had discovered the book and was kind enough to scratch down a few thoughts.  I was surprised and delighted to see that the book was filling up with, comments, musings, notes back and forth between unknown customers, improv poetry and even a bit of haiku.  It was great stuff.  So, as the books filled, I replaced them with new ones, and they too filled with customers musings.


Now over a decade later, I have almost the entire collection - 7 books filled with the scribblings and drawings from those early days at Steeps. But the collection is missing a few of the early editions.
The first 2 were taken from the drawer by someone and a later edition (maybe the 5th one) was also removed and taken by someone.


I would like to ask (plead, implore) for the person(s) to, out of the kindness of their heart to consider returning the missing notebooks to the current owner at Steeps  -  and that would be Sarah right now,  so that I can compile a memoir of all the writings and thoughts of the thousands of customers who have frequented the Old Glenora location over the past 12 years.


So if you are reading this and were a customer of Steeps Old Glenora in Edmonton in the early 2000's and you may know where a few of the notebooks ended up, I would love to find out.  There will be no hard feelings, no questions asked.  In fact, if you do return them, or can convince someone who has one to return them, then I will give you enough free tea for your personal consumption for a whole year.


There is a lot of history in those books and I would like to compile the best of them and publish it in a Steeps memoir.


Any help you can provide would be more appreciated.


with gratitude,


Brendan

latte art & tipus chai

I just needed to show you how easy it is to make a chai that is - 

 simply out of this world

now go chill,

BJW

Tipus chai and Almond Breeze

It was just this past Sept, when I discovered almond breeze as a viable alternative to organic dairy.  I had seen it at Queensdale Market a few times, but had taken a pass on it because it was in a tetra pack - I try to never buy anything in those containers, as they are incredible costly to make and and very difficult to dispose of.  In food service, we have moved to a throw away tetra everything.  It is shameful and abhorrently wasteful.

What is a tetra pack you ask?   - 6-7 layers of foil and plastic laminated together.  There is nothing you can do with this other than incinerate it or stuff it into the ground.

Recently, because of my diminishing need for dairy,  Almond Breeze has found a way into my fridge door.  I am addicted to the way it tastes with the Tipus micro-ground.  So I buy the biggest box I can, which is a 2 litre size.  I figure this is half as bad as buying the 1's, which means that every week in my recycling, there is 1 - 2 litre Breeze box in the blue box.

I do plan to implore the company to switch to better, less ridiculous & wasteful packaging.

That being said, I have fallen deeply in love with almond breeze.  Moving away from dairy for my chai and morning cereal routine seems to have made me less sluggish in the mornings. I also have discovered it's amazing ability to hold perfect micro-foam for latte art, and as well the taste with the spices requires no added sugar.

I have stated in past posts that some of the pizzaz Barista's have introduced to an art form we see so successfully occurring in specialty coffee needs to cross over into specialty tea shops.  Our tea lattes should be works of finesse and skill - wowing the customer with style, quality and flavour.

With this in mind, I set out on a mission to become much better at tea latte art, so I can explain to you how to do it as well.  In this progression, you'll see how my rosetta's become more refined over the weeks. The final one is from this morning and I think it is the most refined of them all.  Keep in mind, I drink a chai latte about 4 times a week, so in a month I will pour 16 lattes.  This is essentially what that progression looks like after roughly 20 lattes with Tipus micro-ground and Almond Breeze original.

This was not the first attempt creating art, but it was the first with almond breeze.  

Its flavour profile with Bipin's chai is out of this freakin world folks!

Here was my first maccha latte with the breeze  - it was fantastic.  

-sooo much better then dairy

Last week, after reviewing a few more video's on youtube about pouring latte art, I had a breakthrough. As you can see, the last three are starting to look much more professional 

And this was this morning - Oct 19, 2011 at 10:30 am.I am pretty happy with the evenness, and this is about 20 lattes later since the first picture.

Each time I sip one of these, I marvel in the exquisite lingering profile, which for a long time chai lover like myself is totally transcendent. 

Go grab a litre of breeze (or a 2l), get some chai from Tipus and go make complete bliss in a cup. 

I challenge you NOT to levitate.

yum yum and yum again people.

Apres Midi & the Chaiwallah

It was just about a year ago when I met Pio & Kim and they shared with me their goal of opening a teahouse somewhere in Vancouver.  It was a project that I gladly welcomed and just a few weeks ago, the hip newly refurbished Gastown become the lucky recipient of our collaboration.

Apres Midi in Goelers Mews is doing to tea what Cafe Artigiano did for coffee more then a decade ago.  Bring it to the masses in the most superior way possible.

The building that Apres Midi calls home just happens to be one of the 2 or 3 oldest structures in Vancouver - built as a jail in the late 1800's.  A drunken sailor or two has spent many a night in the confines of the historic brick structure.  If you listen carefully at night you may still hear wailing emanating from the red brick walls.

The outcome of extensive interior renovation is a warm and inviting space, resonant with depth and history and an evocative ambiance, rich in texture and aroma. It is as it proposes to be - a premium tea experience.

Ordering a cup of tea and watching it prepared to perfection on the chaiwallah is a conversation stopper - then a starter, as people excitedly inquire as to how the system works and where did it come from.  Where is that magic button that opens up the bottom and dispenses the tea into the cup or pot?  and.. how do I get one of these for myself?

This is my second-generation model - a slimmed down, 3 station version of the initial prototype.  I listened to suggestions from coffee experts in the field and incorporated what was feasible. With beefy, clear-plexi bookends and 8 stainless sex-bolts (yes, that is what they are called) the unit can accommodate the entire Hario line of drippers as well as ALL the bottom dispensing tea infusers on the market today.

It's short history in 2 other cafes and from the response in the opening weeks at Apres Midi, the Chaiwallah is doing pretty much what I thought it would do - that being, driving your tea sales way beyond anything you have yet to experience. I would surmise that is a good thing, considering the margin with loose tea.

How does it achieve such a feat?  - Telling you would not be sufficient.

What I suggest is you go put on your raincoat and make your way down to Apres Midi and try a pot of tea for yourself.  

Then let me know if it is not the best, or at least one of the best cups of tea you have ever had.

Keep me posted

meet your new friend - the chaiwallah

You stare at it and go - what is that thing?  - it's kind of interesting looking.  I wonder what it does?

In it's simplicity I would describe it as tea servery. A crafted piece of stainless that helps you make tea quicker, better and in one consolidated location. 

This is essentially the first 'pour-over' tea bar that I know of.  It's a bit of a wild idea of mine, and I don't see myself as much of an inventor, but this seems just so darn practical in a busy loose tea environment - especially when the bulk of your loose tea service is to-go. 

I have watched diligently how so many local great cafes sell their loose leaf.  At best it is mediocre and at it's worse, it's pitiful. Cafes & Coffee Houses that serve a good loose tea in a overstuffed t-sac are simply wasting tea and serving a terrible cup to boot.

So, because there is a successful, widespread and trendy coffee brewing system called a 'pour-over', I thought that applying this same system to tea would help improve how these shops sell their loose leaf to us - the discerning (but not snobbish) tea enthusiast.  

With a Chaiwallah, they can do it with ease & form in front of our eyes, delivering an absolutely astounding cup of tea. 

I thought that the cafes who are now not serving coffee in a pour-over system, would like to have the option to do tea and coffee.  With this in mind I designed the chaiwallah to also accommodate the popular Hario V60 filter cones.  You can see one on the far right up there, and this one below is the glass version:

The other two devices are bottom dispensing tea steepers. I have found them to be the absolute best way for cafes to serve loose leaf. Reduce your tea costs and serve an altogether remarkable cup of tea. How great is that?

Rooibos Vanilla Latte

She took a first sip and went dead quiet.  I looked on....she said nothing.  Her eyes had rolled back in her head slightly.
So, I inquired again - how is the latte?
"Unbelievable" she said..... then - "excuse me while I go have a cold shower"

I took that as a positive endorsement for my new rooibos vanilla latte blend. This is the ultimate desert replacement - the low cal, after dinner, wind me down, settle your stomach, latte that will have you salivating when you think about it after you consume your first.

The recipe is confidential - nonetheless it does contain fine cut organic rooibos and madagascar vanilla bean extract.  I will tell you one thing though, it is real and contains no preservatives, no chemicals and is the reason why there is so much body to this blend and why your latte actually tastes like something other then steamed milk and sugar.
What a novel idea eh?   - a tea latte that you can actually taste tea in?  How could I be so darn intuitive?
(yes...if only)
Once my new site is up I encourage you to order some and give it a whirl yourself.

It's pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

be well and happy sipping,