13 years ago
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Coffee wins another round
In the perpetual struggle to successfully market teas in America, one Chicago shop has — understandably — caved to the bean (yes, that's a Chicago pun). A shop in the Lincoln Square ’hood called the Loose Leaf Tea Loft has changed its name — to Latte on Lincoln. New owners acquired the place in June and added coffees, salads and flatbread pizzas to the menu.
Says owner Shalini in an email to t2: "We changed the name to Latte because Latte can apply to tea and coffee drinkers alike. Although I am a tea lover and drinker, my husband (and most of the people in this neighborhood, it seems) are coffee afficianados, and so the wider appeal of offering tea and coffee has made good business sense for us so far with the new name and new look. We do still offer all the flavors that Loose Leaf Tea Loft had, and then some ... so I'm hoping tea will become more popular as we go along."
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Interesting. I live in Melbourne, which has a thriving café culture. One of the things I find most perplexing is how poorly most cafés do tea. A café serving exceptional coffee does their tea with Twinings tea bags; for those that use loose leaf, they seem to be clueless about how much leaf to use for a pot. It's rare to find a café that serves their tea well enough to make you not feel like you've just wasted $3.
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ReplyDeleteSeconding Eric's comment (I'm also from Melbourne).
I hope the tea side of things takes off for 'Latte', though!
I can't imagine that Latte really does suggest tea. It implies coffee in my mind and probably for most others too. Perhaps these new owners made a mistake by moving away from specialty tea, considering its double-digit growth of late. --Spirituality of Tea
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