17 April 2008
Innovative Business Sees the Future in a Cup of Tea
Two young entrepreneurs give a new look to an ancient trade
Washington -- In Britain, China, India and Japan, residents look forward to a nice cup of tea. Africans enjoy rooibos; South Americans prize yerba mate. Tea is a social beverage everywhere but the United States, where authoritative coffees, fizzy drinks and beer have long dominated the available teas. John-Paul Lee and Sonny Caberwal resolved to change that when they started Tavalon Tea in New York City.
An American tea awakening was under way around the time the young entrepreneurs began planning their escape from corporate shackles. Caberwal was studying law at Georgetown University and working summers at a law firm. Lee, with a finance background, worked at Accenture, an international business performance consultant. They looked beyond a corporate career path.
“We both wanted to break out of the rat race of the system and do something for ourselves,” Lee told America.gov. Caberwal adds: “For some people, the lure of starting something and creating a vision is what’s important. And that was something that we found that we both shared.”
That was in 2001. A few years of careful planning later, they found “a product and business that we could really put on the map,” Lee said -- tea.
They quit their jobs and found a perfect showcase location in a busy, hip Manhattan neighborhood. They called it Tavalon Tea Bar. For pizzazz, they installed a disc jockey on the mezzanine and a tea sommelier to answer questions, offer whiffs of loose tea and pour samples at the tea bar.
“I’m the tea guy,” tea sommelier Chris Cason told America.gov, explaining that he grew up next door to a tea plantation in South Carolina, “the only tea plantation in America.” He has been in tea for a decade, and his book A Guide to Tea brought him to Tavalon. “I met Sonny and John-Paul on my book tour … and they wanted to do the tea shop but needed someone who knew about teas.” Cason’s enthusiasm for educating America about tea matches that of Caberwal and Lee.
Both Lee and Caberwal were born into immigrant tea-drinking families: Lee’s parents are from South Korea and Caberwal’s from India. Both families started businesses from scratch.
Caberwal, an observant Sikh who wears a turban, said pride in ethnic heritage “gives you a little bit of confidence to believe and work outside the norms of traditional and overwhelming American experience. You can take part in a unique culture” while still being mainstream. “Tea is an example of this. We drink tea as a normal part of our lives growing up, but the average 16-year-old guy in the United States is not drinking tea.”
Caberwal said, “It was from that kind of cultural awareness and understanding that Tavalon as a concept grew up … because we had that crossover ability.”
CHANGING TEA’S IMAGE IN AMERICA
To Americans, tea is an ancient product mostly consumed by Europeans, Asians or the elite, Lee said. “It’s actually the second most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water.”
Tavalon endeavors to “show that tea can be a really enjoyable beverage, not in the traditional sense that people know it in the States, but really as a mass-marketed product with a much more fun, young, vibrant image,” said Lee, who revels in tea’s social aspect.
Tavalon’s shop gave the partners branding and exposure, boosting their wholesale and online retail business. “We work with a lot of hotels, restaurants, lounges and clubs,” Lee said. They are discussing a deal to build 35 tea bars in Bloomingdale’s department stores throughout the United States. Bloomingdale’s SoHo store will feature a Tavalon tea bar by fall 2008. Tavalon also has something brewing in Brazil: a shop is planned in São Paolo.
Tea has unexpected applications in Tavalon’s business plan. Tavalon partners with Absolute 100 Vodka to market tea-based cocktails. It is a preferred vendor for WTS International, which manages upscale spas worldwide, where a new trend is white tea pedicures and green tea facial masks.
“Medical studies on why tea is good for you … that’s the best kind of PR you could ask for,” Lee said.
Business is good. On the wholesale side, “we can’t give them enough,” Cason said, “It’s a good problem to have.” They have outgrown the original tea bar and are hunting for a larger space.
Their youth -- Caberwal and Lee are both 29 -- sometimes gets in the way. “Most people we are talking to are twice our age,” Lee said. “And when we started we were much younger, so when we went out to sign a lease on the store or try to get an investment opportunity, they look at you and say, ‘I’ve been in business longer than you’ve been alive -- what could you possibly offer to us?’”
It doesn’t faze them. They are encouraged by how “the big guys” like Starbucks are chasing tea. “That really shows how much potential there is … and how much room for growth,” said Lee.
