by: Hannah Koh
David’s Tea
336 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario
416-506-0653
The first thing you notice when you walk into David’s Tea is that this definitely isn’t your grandmother’s tea shop: gone are the dusty shelves stacked with tins with names like “Imperial English Breakfast” and “Hibiscus Herbal Blend” in a dimly lit room. Instead, the bright light-filled space on Queen West is lined on one side with round tins with bright green, black, yellow and red labels, and on the right with cheerful ceramic mugs and funky glassware that best displays the gorgeous colours of the steeped teas as you drink them.
- Black Celebration Tea
When the store opened last fall, it initially attracted little attention, but since then, David’s has attracted a loyal following of both old and new tea drinkers. Although there are over 100 types of teas that are offered both in the store and online, even the newest of tea-drinkers have nothing to worry about when it comes to choosing the tea that is right for them: with staff that are both incredibly knowledgeable about each tea, and genuinely enthusiastic about the product, it’s easy to spend well over an hour in the store smelling, tasting, and learning about the gorgeous, aromatic blends.
David Segal, the man who started it all, is just as young, hip and enthusiastic as the staff that he hires, and on the Thursday when we met, he was brimming over with excitement about all the new things that are underway for the still fairly-new company. During the hour that we spent chatting, he gave me the lowdown on how David’s Tea was started, how they choose the amazing blends that they carry, where they’re going to be expanding, and what fun things are on the horizon.
What David had to say about:
Loving tea:
Even when he was younger and growing up in Ottawa, David remembered liking tea, limited as his selection was back then to Earl Grey, Orange Pekoe, Chamomile, and Peppermint. Then his friend’s mother opened a blended tea store, and he realized there was a world of tea to be discovered outside of the straightforward teas he had grown up drinking.
How David’s Tea was conceived:
David describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur”, and after graduating McGill University in Montreal, he ended up in private equity with his current partner, who is the founder of Le Chateau, as well as being his cousin. He decided to take his love of tea to the next level and looked into the tea business, only to find that there was no real field leader.
“There was no Starbucks of tea, and no one was doing tea in a young, fun way on the main streets of the country. It’s always in a back alley, tucked away, and it’s always a secondary business. Tea is just so many flavours and tastes, and you engage the senses so much more than coffee.”
catch and release divx movie online
So in 2007, David decided to take the plunge and enter the world of retail tea.
- Organic Japanese Cherry Tea
How teas are chosen:
When it comes to choosing which blends of tea make it to the silver canisters in-store, only one word can be used to describe the care that David takes: fanaticism. Each of the over 100 teas is picked by David, and meets the number one standard set by him and his team, described as the “nose-to-cup-transfer”, where what one smells is what is actually tasted in the tea as well. At David’s, you’ll never drink a tea that smells amazingly fruity, only to be disappointed by the mild or non-existent taste that so often plagues many flavoured teas.
To make sure that the teas remain true to their roots and have the best possible flavours, David even has a “tea guru”, Richard, who lives in California and whose sole purpose is to find the perfect tea blends. Also, unlike most tea stores that usually only have 2-3 suppliers, David’s Tea has a deep supply chain with about 15 suppliers, and between David and Richard, the two of them travel to each of their distributors in California, Germany and Canada constantly throughout the year to check on both old and new blends and teas, as well as going to Asia four times a year to connect with their suppliers there.
The batches of tea, whether they are commodity teas or small hand-blended batches, all remain true to the nose-to-cup-transfer, and despite the work that goes into finding and choosing each tea, if customers are not responsive to the teas, David culls them from the line-up. He tells me during our time together that they are actually in the process of stripping down the permanent collection from 120-130 different kinds of tea to 85-100, based on whether or not they are selling, and that he plans on bringing in a rotational line-up of seasonal teas, such as Green Coconut and Lychee Black Tea for the spring, with new “collections” released each season, much like the fashion world.
The future:
Even though the Queen Street location has been open less than a year, the popularity and success that it experienced already was enough to convince David and his partner that it would be worth opening other locations. At the time of this article, there are tentative plans to open at least two other Toronto locations, as well as more concrete plans to open a couple of locations in Montreal, where their head office is located. David also mentioned the possibility of stores in Vancouver and Ottawa in the near future, with all locations being retail spaces, and not predominantly one-cup experiences like other beverage purveyors.
He has big plans for patios, iced teas, amazing flavours like Coconut-Pineapple and Toasted Almond, as well as higher-end reserve teas that are straight greens and whites, and as I listen to David talk about all the big plans that he has, it’s impossible to not get just as excited as him about the bright future of teas. After all, with their seemingly endless possibilities for flavour and the health benefits they tout (lower blood pressure, speed up metabolisms, and the ever popular “a” word: antioxidant), tea already seems to be tailor-made to become a staple in our ever-more health-conscious society’s diet, and not just for stuffy old British ladies anymore.
Don’t know anything about tea? Don’t worry. Take it from me, a former Starbucks-junkie: David’s Tea is the place you want to start if you’re looking for something to replace your daily cup of joe that won’t give you the jitters two hours later. The staff there will explain anything you need to know, and make great recommendations based on what you choose to tell them about your lifestyle:
Need something to help you function through the day? Try Jumpy Monkey, a yerba maté tea with whole coffee beans, pieces of white chocolate, and almond slices.
Have a hangover from one too many martinis on cheap martini Wednesday at Hey Lucy’s? No problem: try any of the rooibos teas, which are proven hangover cures. Caramel Pear happens to be David’s favourite, if you want to give it a try.
Whatever your tastes, all I can say is, give David’s a try. I can guarantee that somewhere in the 100+ teas is at least one that will make you realize just what you’ve been missing out on, and how far tea has come from the Earl Greys and herbal peppermint teas of your mother’s tea cupboard.
Enter our giveaway this month for a chance to win an amazing David’s Tea package!
Kudos for posting such a useful blog. Your weblog is not only informative and also very artistic too. There normally are very few individuals who can write not so easy articles that creatively. Keep up the great work !!
I first tried out hibiscus tea at a health club in Cancun Mexico and dearly loved the flavour. Once I discovered about the health benefits, I became really determined to buy some. Couldn’t locate it at all in any local shops until this. I have been drinking about 3 cups each and every day (cold) for around 23 days currently and latest hypertension reading was the very best it’s been in Numerous years! I highly recommend.