Tea is made to turn over a new leaf

Martin Papp (above, center), an American who has been in China for seven years, owns the tea brand Papp's Tea in the Sanlitun area of Beijing. He opened the outlet because he loves tea with a passion and wants more young people to share it, as China produces great tea. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

The perfect sip is given the cafe touch, a l'americaine

A man from Colorado showing Chinese how to drink tea is akin to a man from Chongqing showing Americans how to eat apple pie, but that does not seem to be putting off Martin Papp. The 30-year-old from the Centennial State, who has lived in China for seven years, has given himself the mission of reinventing tea, and cultivating a new culture of tea drinking.

He runs Papp's Tea Lab and Papp's Tea Lounge in Beijing, which both eschew the genteel decor of most teahouses and instead emphasize the modern and the fashionable in venues whose target audience is young adults.

"Tea does not have to be something that's old, traditional, and your parents' drink," Papp says. His philosophy is to make tea drinking fun and trendy.

Papp says that one problem with teahouses in China is that their prices are anything but transparent. There is a lack of standardization in the industry and a lot of teas are over-priced, he says.

"When I go to a teahouse in China I don't know how much money I am going to spend. What I do know is that if I walk into any cafe and order a cup of coffee, it will be anywhere around 30 or 40 yuan ($4.6 or $6.1).

"In a teahouse, it's sometimes 80 yuan for a pot and it's sometimes 800 yuan for a pot, and even if you spend a lot of money, you don't know whether the tea warrants it or not.

"Young people are not going to teahouses any more. That's what I want to change, to create a quality, international, modern tea brand in China."

Papp's Tea Lab is a versatile space where Papp and his team research and develop tea products, do training and host events, and Papp's Tea Lounge is more of a relaxed place for customers.