Tea times are coming

Move over coffee. Tea is making a comeback.

Here are a few signs I've noticed over the last few days of the new cafe competition.

From The New York Times earlier this week:

According to Kimberly Orlic, 44, the owner of A New Leaf tea emporium in Garden City, which opened in September 2012, tea awareness is on the rise.
“I think the bubble of tea growth has yet to hit us,” she said. “Even in the supermarkets, the tea selections are growing. You don’t just see Red Rose and Lipton anymore.”

From today's Chicago Tribune

And from the BBC this month:

Hard to believe for a country supposedly devoted to the cult of coffee, but today French blends are the toast of tea cognoscenti from Nanjing to New York.
Backed by multi-million-euro advertising, the Paris-based Kusmi tea is a staple of airport duty-frees, and with its new flagship store on the Champs-Elysees has seen turnover multiply by six in the last few years.
Other historic brands like Mariage Freres and Dammann are also fast expanding, selling online and opening stores across the globe.
And inside France a sudden fashion for tea has swept the middle classes. Specialist tea salons are spreading, in Paris and beyond. People take classes to learn how to taste and to serve. Literally hundreds of varieties and blends are now available for sale.