After 5,000 Years, Tea Is Making a Comeback

Tea is 5,000 or so years old, dating back to about 2700 BC, China. But ask for the drink at an espresso bar or coffeehouse and the response is often a confused or quizzical look.

Tea? Huh?

It’s true that coffee guzzlers far outnumber tea sippers in these parts, but a few local tea lovers are doing their best to promote their beverage of choice.

Among them are Jacqulien Golden, Jean Gilliard and Katherine Zessin, three Ventura businesswomen who, sometime next week, will open the Cat in the Garden Tea & Coffee House on East Main Street in downtown Ventura.

The Cat in the Garden will join the English Tearoom that opened in mid-April inside the Thousand Oaks Antique Centre, the similarly British Tottenham Court Ltd. in Ojai, the Holiday House in Oxnard’s Heritage Square and a few other tea spots dotted around the county.

Proprietors of each of these establishments all share a common belief--that Ventura County residents want a place where they can go to sit, chat with friends and generally relax, with a hot drink and some snacks as accompaniment.

But if it is to be a leisurely, un-rushed haven in this all-too-hectic world, tea makes more sense than coffee.

“I’m in a very stressful profession and I only see people when they are in crisis. I decided it would be lovely to have a nice surrounding where I would be able to visit with people, in a very stress-free environment,” said Zessin, a family and bankruptcy lawyer who has her office in the same courtyard as her new teahouse.

“Tea really is more relaxing than coffee,” she said. “You do a pot of tea, sweets, finger sandwiches. It’s therapeutic.”

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Which is not to say that Zessin won’t talk shop at the tearoom. She and her partners plan to hold periodic law clinics at the Cat in the Garden, as well as other special events, including a children’s tea and etiquette class.

The Cat in the Garden will stock several varieties of black tea, some flavored teas, Thai tea, green tea and whatever other teas customers fancy, said its owners.

There will be a morning tea (served all day, actually) with scones, Devonshire cream, preserves and lemon curd; an afternoon tea served with assorted finger sandwiches and the scone with its accouterments; and a high tea accompanied by a cup of soup, finger sandwiches and the all-purpose scone.

That the beverage in these menus will be outnumbered by the accessories is as it should be, said Golden, since the tea itself is just a small portion of the teahouse experience.

“Not only is it the tea, but it is the sandwiches and the sweets and there is the service that goes with it,” Golden said. “It’s a luxury thing that people do for themselves.”

Linda Wexler, author of “A Spot of Tea,” a guide to California tea establishments, said it is people’s desire to dote on themselves every once in awhile that has created an increase in the number of teahouses in the country.

“There’s a Starbucks on every corner, but tea sales are still up. People are getting away from the in-and-out coffee lifestyle,” said Wexler, an Altadena resident. “Tea is an event: You take your friends, you have a party. It’s not just what’s in your cup, it’s the whole attentive attitude. It’s not just a 15-minute stay and goodbye. It’s more like 1 1/2 hours.”

Wexler’s book of 243 tea-serving locations, published earlier this year, covers parts of Nevada, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, as well as California. In it she includes the Victoria Restaurant & Pub and Nona’s Courtyard Cafe in Ventura, the Fillmore Western & Railway Co. train ride and tea service and the Plaza Pantry in Ojai, in addition to Tottenham, the Thousand Oaks Antique Centre and the Holiday House.

“There’s not a lot of teahouses in Ventura County,” Wexler said, “but it’s growing, and that has to reflect that people are turning to tea more.”

John Morris, owner of the English Tea Room at the Thousand Oaks Antique Centre, said it is the people who realize that going for tea doesn’t have to be a stuffy experience that are giving it a try.

Morris said he has gone out of his way to make his tearoom as homey and unpretentious as possible.

“It’s like walking into somebody’s sitting room and getting ready for a cup of tea,” said Morris, a native of Liverpool, England. “I think it’s probably a matter of educating the public on what a traditional tearoom is.”

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Morris, who opened the tearoom in mid-April, said the shop is a re-creation, of sorts, of one he frequented in Kew Gardens, a London suburb.

“It was a Tudor cottage run by three little old ladies who used to do their own baking,” he said. “We have the low lighting, the flocky wallpaper, everything is busy, but it’s all pulled together. It’s old-fashioned chintz. Victorian over-exuberance.”

Guests to Morris’ tearoom have a choice of teas: Yorkshire Gold or nothing.

“It’s such a smooth tea, no bitterness, no aftertaste,” Morris said of the English tea. “I prefer it to anything. I don’t want to try a lot of different teas. It’s cumbersome.”

Morris serves a morning tea all day, with a homemade scone, preserves, lemon curd and double Devonshire cream. For the afternoon tea he adds a choice of Cornish pastry or hot spinach puff. And for high tea there is an assortment of tea sandwiches added to a couple of scones and toppings. Last week he added egg salad and salmon spread sandwiches to his regularly changing menu.

“In this country you get up with a morning coffee and drink it all day long,” he said. “What probably is going to happen here is tea is going to happen after lunchtime and in the late afternoon.”

Like Morris’ tearoom, Tottenham Court in Ojai inspires thoughts of twin sweater sets and pearls. The 6-year-old tearoom is attached to a British-themed gift shop.

“I really have had tea at every hotel in London several times,” said Andrea Bloom, owner of Tottenham Court, “and I like to think ours is like the Dorchester Hotel, a favorite of everybody’s.”

The extensive Tottenham menu includes regular lunches and a sizable selection of desserts, including bread pudding, apricot crumble, currant scones and boysenberry cobbler. The tea offerings include a Princess Tea for children and the Queen’s Own Tea for adults. The latter includes finger sandwiches, scones and the ever-popular Devonshire cream and lemon curd.

“Tea enhances the idea of a special occasion,” said Bloom, an admitted coffee drinker. “People who drink coffee are going in to get a fix, sit and schmooze for a few minutes and then go to see what is happening elsewhere. With tea, this is the happening.”

Rosemary Pace, who runs Oxnard’s Holiday House, agreed.

“Tea is something to warm the heart, to bring back a happy time,” said Pace, who presents personalized tea parties at her Holiday House gift and art store on a reservation-only basis. “I find, more often than not, people end up reminiscing and sharing stories.”

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Even those who aren’t going out for formal teas are drinking more of the beverage, according to the New York-based Tea Assn. of the U.S.A. Inc. According to the association, sales of teas in grocery stores and other retail outlets reached $4.28 billion in 1995, up from $1.84 billion in 1990.

Anne-Marie Hyman, chief executive of the Camarillo-based International Coffee & Tea Inc., better known as the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, said tea sales at her 30 Southern California outlets have been on the rise. This is a result, she said, of the public becoming more educated about tea.

“Tea is complicated,” she said. “Black teas and green teas are extremely different. Teas from different countries taste extremely different.”

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf imports teas from such tea-producing regions as China, India and Sri Lanka. The company flavors and packages about 35 different teas at its Camarillo plant and serves them at its outlets.

“Ventura County is becoming a tea area,” Hyman said. “People in Ventura County are definitely willing to experiment.”

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Spots of Tea

* Cat in the Garden, 451 E. Main St., Suite 8, Ventura. Hours: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Sunday hours to be determined. Call 641-9477.

* English Tea Room at the Thousand Oaks Antique Centre, 3681 to 3691 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. (in the Evergreens shopping center). Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Call 494-1450.

* Tottenham Court Ltd., 242 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 646-2339.

* Holiday House, 750 S. B St., Oxnard. Tea service by appointment only, with five days advance reservation. Call 483-4542.

* Nona’s Courtyard Cafe, 67 S. California St., Ventura. Tea parties by reservation only, with at least a week advance notice. Call 641-2783.

* Plaza Pantry, 221 E. Matilija St., Ojai. Hours: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Call 646-6325.

* The Victoria Restaurant & Pub, 1413 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura. Hours: Tea services on weekends, only, 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 650-0060.

* Fillmore & Western Railway Co., with tea held at the Glen Tavern Inn in Santa Paula. Sundays, train departs from Fillmore’s Central Park at 10:30 a.m., returning at 2:40 p.m. By reservation only. Call the Inn at 933-3777.