The Mad Hatter and Alice had it right: Tea parties are all the rage. Now there’s a Miami tea company that wants you to have a tea party … but leave the big hats and giant tea cups at home. You don’t want to be late to a tea date at JoJo Tea.
It is always teatime at JoJo Tea in Miami.
Michael Ortiz, JoJo Tea: “JoJo Tea is an importer and distributor of fine teas and an educator on the experience of tea.”
Their teas are from all over the world, and the guys at JoJo are tea aficionados.
Michael Ortiz: “What makes our tea special is, it doesn’t come from a scientist mixing flavors to make something palatable.”
This tea shop is taking tea to a new level.
Michael Ortiz: “For the past five years, we have been selling tea directly to restaurants, and now the tasting room is our first opportunity to interact directly with the people we are trying to educate about tea.”
JoJo’s is devoting some of their space for the creation of a tea tasting room.
Michael Ortiz: “There’s eight seats available, and each person that comes in has a choice: They can either do a flight or a gong fu tasting. The flight, you are going to taste five teas. The gong fu, you are going to taste one.”
Think of it as a wine tasting, but for tea.
Michael Ortiz: “If we do the tasting, we have five different teas.”
Or you can go for a single tea tasting and learn how the leaves change and develop as it steeps.
Michael Ortiz: “Then there is also gong fu cha, which is the Chinese tea ceremony. The tea ceremony is different because, instead of brewing one teaspoon of tea for five minutes, we will steep three or four teaspoons of tea in a tiny little teapot. And we will steep it maybe 10 times.”
Between tastings, guests cleanse their palates on almonds or other natural nuts or fruit.
Michael Ortiz: “The idea is just natural oils, sea salt and natural flavors, just to wake up the taste receptors.”
Since the tasting room is an intimate setting, everyone gets to learn together.
Michael Ortiz: “It’s not purely educational, it’s not purely social, and it’s not purely ceremonial, but it’s a lot of all three of them.”
The one-hour tastings are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The price depends on the teas you’re tasting. And if you find a favorite, of course JoJo can supply it.
FOR MORE INFO:
JoJo Tea
(305) 322-9521
sipjojo.com
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