While I was in Cape Town last month, I was lucky enough to spend some time with my new tea friend Hajira Khalfe who owns the city’s first speciality tea room, Tea Emporium.  With a background in health and nutrition, Hajira has cleverly taken the theme of tea, wellbeing and healthy eating to create a tearoom that is attracting a wide variety of new customers.  She really is the city’s tea pioneer and is already having an influence and raising awareness all over town (top right photo - me in Long Street central Cape Town and top left, me and Hajira and a couple of very happy customers at Tea Emporium).

Hajira and I actually met in London about 2 years ago when she was first thinking of opening a tea business in South Africa and her dreams and plans have all come to fruition in a really successful way.  She had come across flavoured and speciality teas by chance during a visit to Brisbane and recognized that tea has a colourful culture and history that appeals to so many people.  She realised that almost anything is possible with tea and so started thinking and planning.

Her decision to launch a tea business back home in Cape Town was a brave step because South Africans are not the world’s biggest speciality tea drinkers but tend to choose everyday teabag tea, rooibos or coffee instead.  However, in much the same way as is happening all around the world at the moment, once Hajira’s consumers become more aware of the different tea options and discover how much more exciting and higher quality loose leaf teas are, they soon set out on the journey of exploration that so many of us have taken over the years.

The design of the store is really beautiful – very calm, light, airy, inviting, modern and appealing to all age groups and all types – and a major feature is the ‘sniffing bar’ where over 50 different tea blends are displayed in glass jars (see left).  Visitors are inevitably drawn to the warmly-lit display area, take off the little lids and breath in the wonderful smells.  They are fascinated and enticed by the variety, the flavours, the unusual mixtures of tea and rooibos with flowers, fruits, herbs and spices and are eager to try them all.  The range includes single origin teas such as Darjeeling 2^nd Flush, Assam 2^nd Flush, Keemun, Ceylon, Gunpowder, China Oolong and Kenya white teas as well as flavoured blends such as Moroccan Mint, Kyoto Cherry Rose, Cape Town Nights (a blend of black tea with flowers and spices) and China Rose (China black tea mingled with rose petals) and there are also fruit and herbal infusions and benefit blends that Hajira calls Tea Tonics.

The food menu is designed to offer something for everyone – even those with food allergies and special dietary requirements.  Customers can sink their teeth into really delicious blueberry and polenta muffins (my choice and absolutely yummy!), or nibble on a vanilla cupcake or a flourless chocolate almond cookie.  At lunchtime there are organic salads with seductive mixtures of quinoa, fruit, butternut squash, smoked salmon; wheat-free pies filled with fresh and tasty vegetables, lentils and chicken; quiches and sandwiches, wheat-free waffles and fish patés.

The store is in the very stylish Cavendish Square mall in Claremont where shoppers browse an attractive selection of houseware, jewellery, fashion and design stores.  On their wanderings they come across Tea Emporium and often pause to gather new energy over a refreshing cup of tea.  As they sit and sip, they can enjoy the carefully chosen artwork on the walls and a very attractive selection of tea accessories – pretty tetsubin and glass teapots, brightly-coloured caddies, timers filled with coloured sand and gift boxes with tea bowls and packs of tea.  Hajira also plans to add a small floristry section so that shoppers can also buy beautiful fresh flowers while in the store.

Interest is growing fast – helped by publicity on the local radio station (we did a live on-air interview together while I was in Cape Town) and local press coverage.  Hajira holds regular talks, tasting events and mini-masterclasses and, as always, journalists love to be invited and then help to spread the word.   If you find yourself in Cape Town, don’t miss this truly lovely shop at Shop 21, Lower Ground, Cavendish Square, Claremont

 7708.  Tel: 021 674 6066

Popularity: 14% [?]