A gem in the world of tea

EMC News - You can't clone a Cha Cha, although it's been suggested.

Kaoru Miller opened Cha Cha Tea in the LaSalle Plaza at Bath and Days Road in October 2006.

She came to Canada in 1996. She'd planned to stay for six months to learn English and experience life outside of Japan.

"I loved Canada when I visited," said Miller. "The lifestyle and the people are so comfortable."

Kaoru obtained landed Immigrant status, got married and had two children.

"My husband is my second love," she says, a playful twinkle in her eyes. "Canada was my first love."

She spent her first 10 years in Toronto where she discovered it wasn't easy to obtain good tea. She found some in Chinatown, but when she moved to Kingston, she wondered if perhaps people here didn't drink tea at all.

"There was no tea store," she said.

She decided to open one. People asked her how she knew it would work.

"I didn't," she said. "I took a chance. People have been really supportive."

She knows many customers on a first name basis. Some she knows on a hug basis. During my visit, there was a steady stream of customers. Although they shopped, they seemed more like visitors.

One asked Kaoru how she was doing and wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

"It was difficult for several days," said Kaoru, in reference to her family in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. She said she'd cried every day after the earthquake, until she knew they were safe.

"At first I could not reach anyone. But I've spoken with my sister and other family members and several good friends. They are all in the southwest and are safe."

She talked about how grateful she is for the Canadian and world support for her country during this difficult time.

She exudes hope.

"After Hiroshima, in some areas there were no trees for 50 years but now they grow again," she said.

"When people feel despair they are on the bottom and there is only one way to look: up."

A hopeful gentleness fills Kaoru. That mood permeates her shop.

Kaoru Miller has good news for her faithful customers. She's staying put. She's had many forms of advice ranging from expanding her shop to moving to another location. The greatest unintentional compliment was probably paid when she was approached by someone who wanted to franchise her store.

"He said he wanted to make Cha Cha Tea franchises," said Kaoru. She told him she wanted to stick with what she knows: running her own shop.

The entrepreneur told Kaoru she wouldn't have to do anything. He just wanted to copy what she'd done, creating lots of Cha Cha Tea shops

"You can't make a cookie-cutter of the relationship I have with my customers," said Kaoru. "People tell me they don't come here because of the colour of my walls. They say, 'we come here because we love you.'"

In addition to the positive relationship she cultivates with customers, Kaoru has a solid knowledge of tea and carries about 100 varieties, some quite exotic.

You'll find the shop stocked with Sencha Japanese green tea, oolong, white tea, chai tea, Irish breakfast tea as well as tisanes, commonly known as herbal teas, those infusions made from anything other than leaves of the tea bush. There are non-caffeinated kid's teas made from fruit and herbs.

Kaoru offers honey from Shane's Apiaries, tea infusers, glass teapots, pottery by Yuko Body and exquisite tea sets, including the famous Japanese Arita porcelain.

One of my favourite teas at Cha Cha is Monkey-Picked Golden. It's got a taste and aftertaste that makes my mouth and body feel like it's been visited by a tea angel. I've never experienced anything quite like it.

In Cha Cha Tea's recent newsletter, Kaoru offered a warning about this tea:

"Prepare to experience the best tea you've ever tasted."

I can't disagree with that. The tea is both delicate and powerful.

Kaoru explained that the tea is grown in the Hunan province of China.

"Ancient local custom held that the first picking of the tea bushes were to be picked by monkeys trained for the role."

The dexterity of the monkey's tiny fingers enables them to safely pick the highly delicate leaves. Also, the monkey's work is believed to bring good luck.

The most unusual thing you'll notice is the golden colour of the tiny leaves. That's the colour of the top new buds of the tea bushes.

Cha Cha Tea's newsletter says the Monkey Picked Golden tea is what the finest Bordeaux is to wine."

When you buy commercial tea, it could be a harvest from this year, or last year, or who knows what year. Some people only drink green tea, which contains antioxidants, because of the health benefits.

"Some people tell me they don't like green tea," said Koura. "I tell them if they don't like it from a grocery store, they might want to try mine. Most people say they like my green tea when they've never liked it before."

At Cha Cha Tea, you only get recently harvested tea.

This Saturday, Cha Cha Tea will be celebrating the arrival of the year's first Sencha tea harvest.

Sencha tea is the shop's best seller. There's a reason for that.

To honour the event, the shop is hosting Haiku readings all day long.