Text by James Norwood Pratt • Photography Courtesy of Camellia Sinensis
Re-creating a tea lover’s community in Montreal
Let the word go forth: Montreal’s Camellia Sinensis has just opened North America’s premier tea emporium, a Canadian Mariage Frères or Fortnum & Mason. Such recognition is sure to follow, but the company’s reputation is already securely established. For quality and fair pricing, few tea concerns can equal this 25-year- young partnership, a bilingual “band of brothers,” each specializing in a single tea area. Each one procures the year’s top teas from producers they’ve known and worked with for over two decades. Their business model is based on that ancient code of the tea trade, respect— respect for the tea plant itself but also for the growers and producers, and ultimately, the customer, to guarantee each receives a fair price for a fantastic product. Altogether, they maintain a collection of approximately 200 different teas, which are available either wholesale or retail online or in one of their stores, including at their newly reconstructed tea shop at 351 Emery Street in Montreal’s Latin Quarter, which is just a short walk from Notre-Dame Basilica. This Camellia Sinensis flagship emporium remains as much a community as a business.
Before joining forces with his business partners (Jasmin Desharnais, François Marchand, and Kevin Gascoyne), Hugo Americi had already taken inspiration from the tea scene that flourished in Prague during the Czech “Velvet Revolution.” Teahouses came to resemble “party houses,” where people felt free to discuss all and everything over excellent tea, a sure trigger for spirited conversation. Transplanting this spirit later to Montreal, Hugo started by hosting clients in a Bohemian salon de thé, a welcoming teahouse, in 1998. Here, he could introduce new tea discoveries to his Canadian tea friends, adding Jasmin and François as partners in 2000 and Kevin in 2004. As the only source of fine teas in the province of Quebec, they steadily won accounts with leading hotels and restaurants.
Montreal’s citizens are famous for their epicurean tastes and are always ready to pay for excellence. As the tea service morphed into focused tastings and workshops, more and more of the locals came to realize that exquisite tea is actually the most affordable of life’s luxuries.
Having hosted thousands of varied tea workshops in their Tea Schools over the years and creating a tea community of steady customers, the partners took a COVID- forced “time-out” and looked to the future. It was clearly time to demolish the wall separating the tearoom from the adjacent retail shop in their hundred-year-old building. With Hugo’s flair for creating a warm and peaceful atmosphere, table service was replaced by a sit-down tea bar where customers are invited to explore and experience the wide world of tea.
Camellia Sinensis spokesman Kevin is a witty and charismatic Yorkshireman I’ve enjoyed knowing for many years who is responsible for the Indian subcontinent and its neighbors. He is fluent in French, of course, it being the lingua franca of Quebec and his business partners all being native-born Quebecois. The quartet have recently pioneered their first Tea Studio, a bought-leaf facility in the beautiful Nilgiri mountains of South India. Growers who meet the exacting standards for perfectly plucked leaf are paid a premium. Tea Studio artisans, recruited from the local womenfolk, are well paid and highly trained experts who produce hand-crafted teas. As an alternative to the old traditional plantation model of tea production, the Tea Studio is nothing short of visionary— and what tea! It is innovative vision like this that’s behind the Camellia Sinensis success: 57 employees between the shops and warehouse facility, online customers all over the planet, the 2018 “Best Tea Shop Award” at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, and more.
“We just want people to incorporate this magic plant into daily life,” Kevin says, speaking for his partners. Their joint creation, Camellia Sinensis, has made Montreal a serious tea lover’s destination.
TeaTime Contributing Editor James Norwood Pratt, also known as America’s Tea Sage, is an award-winning tea educator and author. For more about him, go to jamesnorwoodpratt.com.
Discover more seasonal recipes, table settings, and teatime inspiration by ordering your TeaTime subscription today!
