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Te
e s
Brewing a perfect pot of tea is easier than you think.
BARBARA PASH
Special to The Jewish News
1 1 /
'm the Johnny Ap-
pleseed of tea," says
John Harney. "I go
around trying to get
hotels and restau-
rants to serve tea correctly?'
It's an uphill struggle. "In
England, it's hard to get a bad
pot of tea, but in the United
States it's easy because people
do not follow the rules" of tea
brewing, complains Mr.
Harney, a master tea blender
who is owner of Harney and
Sons, Ltd., importers of fine
tea, located in Salisbury,
Conn.
Mr. Harney's firm sells
mainly to hotels around the
country, fancy names like the
Four Seasons, the Plaza, the
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 1991
Ritz Carlton and the Waldorf-
Astoria, as well as chic
restaurants and clubs. It does
have a few retail outlets, like
Williams-Sonoma and New
York City's Dean and Deluca,
for its teas, which are offered
either under the firm's name
or the store's own label.
Mr. Harney, who has a
degree in hotel administration
from Cornell University, open-
ed his firm in 1983 after
management posts in hotels
around the country. Winner of
two gold medals from the
Chefs in America Association,
Mr. Harney travels to the
hotels he supplies to instruct
the staffs on how to prepare
and serve the tea, and also
gives "tea talks" to the public,
such as one he gave recently
at Harbor Court Hotel to in-
troduce its new custom-
blended teas.
Coffee may be the most
popular drink in America but
tea is no slouch. In fact, tea
consumption is on the rise,
and especially booming is
"afternoon tea" served in
hotels and restaurants. In
1989, retail sales of tea in the
U.S. topped $1 billion, of
which $52.8 million was spent
on specialty teas. By com-
parison, coffee sales reached
$6.5 billion, of which $676
million was spent on gourmet
coffees. In the last two years,
Harney and Sons itself has
tripled its business.
Mr. Harney sees two reasons
for the increase. One is the ef-
fectiveness of anti-alcohol
groups and, in particular,
Mothers Against Drunk Driv-
ing. "People started drinking
wine instead of hard liquor,
and then went from spirits to
the 'spiritless; " he says.
The other reason is the
growing sophistication of the
American public about food in
general. "People are traveling
more," he says. "That is
broadening in itself?'
In Mr. Harney's view, a cer-
tain kind of person becomes a
tea drinker. "Tea consumers,
like wine consumers, love to
know the background of tea,"
he says. "That's why you now
have this flurry of books about
tea and the increase in high
quality tea?'
Certainly, there is tea lore
galore. The history of tea dates
back 4,000 years, according to
the simplified version Mr.
Harney tells. One of the
Chinese emperors wasn't feel-
ing well so he was having his
water boiled. Some tea leaves
fell into the water and the rest
is tea history.
China managed to keep tea
a secret for the next 2,800
years, until the Japanese
found out about it and got
ahold of some tea plant seeds.
Although India's per pound
consumption makes it the top
tea drinking country in the
world, tea growing was in-
troduced there by the British
Raj only about 175 years ago.
Another major tea drinking
area is the Middle East, he
adds.
Mr. Harney has his own uni-
que explanation of why
modern-day Americans favor
coffee over tea. "Came the
American Revolution," he
says, "and tea went out the
door and coffee came in:' The
result of this pique with