Welcome to the first installment of "Food With Stories," a quasi-journalism series I hope to continue on this blog. First stop: Queen's Pantry, Leavenworth, Kansas.
It had been three years since I’d
talked to Zach Gentzler. We’d met working a three-week-long shift on a
political campaign in quiet Newnan, Georgia and, since he’s a Kansas kid and
I’m from Virginia, hadn’t seen each other since. Still, I clearly remembered his
level-headed positivity, old-world manners, and the fact that he liked books
(hurray), running (meh), and tea (yip-yip!). When Zach contacted me a few weeks
ago about reviewing tea from his family’s shop, I quickly accepted. Tea and a
chat with an old friend? Is there even a choice?
///
On a Wednesday,
inside a crowded Starbucks, I dial the store and wait through the phone
ringing. When he answers, I jump. In three years, his vocal register has taken
a plunge.
“Hey, this is Queen’s Pantry, Zach speaking.”
It takes me a moment to realize that the intelligent, energetic kid who’d run
beside me through a Georgia summer is now full grown, pursuing one of his
several passions as a career.
“Is now a good time to talk?” I
ask, hoping it is but not wanting to intrude.
He laughs. “I’m sitting here
stalking another tea store on Instagram. Now is a great time.” Zach’s tone is
slow, drawling. The words almost steep in his voice and you can see why this
guy chose the tea field for his first love.
“I really, really love tea,” he
tells me with a laugh. “There aren’t many teas I don’t like. We sell around a
hundred and seventy different blends in our store, and I’m always looking for
new teas, learning new intricacies. What makes it taste that way? What is this
blend’s history?’
‘A well-grown tea has a…well this
probably isn’t going to mean a thing to you, but it’s a wine term: a good tea
has a
terroir, which is French for ‘a
sense of place.’ You can almost taste the location of a well-grown tea. I love learning
things like this.”
Zach has traveled here and there
in his quest for further tea-knowledge and grew to love rooibos (not
technically a tea, due to the absence of tea leaves in the blend) while on a
trip in South Africa. “Every evening we had this space of time and you’d either
drink terrible instant coffee or a cup of rooibos, so I fell in love with it.
Partially for the tea, partially for the memories and friendships surrounding
it.”
To listen to him, you’d think he
was an art professor lecturing on a beloved Degas. And that’s what I love about
Zach: he’s out to show the world that tea, far from being the fussy beverage of
frilly parties, is simultaneously an ancient art-form and everyman’s drink.
With so many varieties of tea becoming available the US—both new varieties and
high-quality examples of the classics—, come more opportunities for Zach to
help his customers find the perfect tea for their life. He lovingly describes
the possibilities of the newer teas:
“It’s pretty cool.” He
laughs. “At least for Americans. I want
to show people what tea can be. I
mean, there are huge varieties of flavor profiles, like teas with jasmine and
orchid tones, or a smoky flavor.”
I ask Zach if he has a pet peeve, one thing he
would correct about peoples’ way of thinking about tea. Again, the well-known chuckle:
“Oh
gosh. So many. So many I want to
correct. But the main one I should correct: brewing times. The wrong
brewing time really negatively effects tea. So many people have a mental taste
profile for tea as being really, really bitter and if a tea is properly brewed,
it’s almost never bitter.”
I can tell it’s a major issue for
him because the back of his Queen’s Pantry business card includes a brewing time-chart
for the varieties of tea they sell. In my package he also includes a second
magnet-backed chart for the fridge. It won’t be Zach’s fault if you brew your
tea bitter. You can come crying to him—he loves talking tea over the phone—but
you can’t blame the staff of Queen’s Pantry.
But Zach didn’t always know he was
destined for a drinkable career. Queen’s Pantry was originally operated by an
American couple and managed by the wife’s elderly British mother. Over time,
the Gentzler family formed a relationship with the store and Zach’s sister,
Sarah (Gentzler) Kirby, became an employee.
“She got home one night and told
us they were going to sell the store and, totally joking, said we should buy
it. Over dinner that night we jokingly chatted about what it would be like to
run a tea-store: the changes we’d have to make, the logistics involved.” I can
hear his easily-provoked smile through the phone. “Actually, it was really,
really terrible timing,” he tells me. “Dad had just been diagnosed with
multiple myeloma and the family was dealing with that on top of normal life.”
But good ideas often pester one
till they get a hearing. After much prayer, talking, and consulting wise
friends, on the essentially British Guy Fawkes Day (November 5), the Gentzler
family became the owners of one little tea shop. They moved the store across
town and on November 11th of the same year, re-opened Queen’s
Pantry.
“We tease and say Leavenworth held
a parade for us,” Zach laughs referencing Leavenworth’s annual Veteran’s Day
Parade. For the Gentzlers, ownership of the store has come with many perks,
such as relationships with other Leavenworth merchants who will often drop in
to “talk shop” and discuss local news. There have also been challenges:
“Advertisement is a big one. It’s kind of hard
to get the word out.” After all, not many people move to a new town and Google
“tea shops near me.” I ask Zach about that.
“Tea shops can take a little
digging to find,” he says. “Because, like us, most of them don’t have a huge
advertising budget. But if you dig, you’ll find ‘em.”
Victories and challenges aside, Zach, who has
been both Queen’s Pantry’s retail and office manager for the past four years,
is in it for the pure joy of tea.
“There’s this wrong idea that tea
is a feminine thing and coffee’s masculine. One reaction I often get is, ‘Oh,
tea is a girl job. Why’s he doing
that?’” I can sense his brief frustration and picture the old Zach with his
brow furrowed, blue eyes snapping. But Zach shrugs it off with his signature
good humor. “Actually, second to water, tea is the most-consumed beverage in
the world. In some cultures tea-making is strictly the man’s job.” He pauses,
then continues with a wry grin in his voice.
“There have been a lot of great men who’ve drunk tea…”
A lot of great men, as customer-favorite
blend, “Churchill’s Toddy” attests. Zach
sent a couple ounces of “Churchill’s Toddy” along with a selection of other
teas in a package from Queen’s Pantry which I have no shame calling the best thing
to show up on my doorstep this year.
Sampling the tea was like
Christmas morning…over and over again. I greatly enjoyed all the teas, but for
the purposes of this post, I’m going to highlight my favorites. First is a
fragrant brew more Earl Grey-ish than any Earl Grey you’ve ever sipped. “Earl
Grey Cream Tea” not only tastes beautiful, but is a pretty, blue-flecked blend.
“Carrot Cake Rooibos,” the second tea, is perfect for an early morning treat. Like Zach, I’d never before been a fan of
rooibos but my first cup left me simultaneously delighted and fighting
disappointment that I didn’t actually have a slice of carrot cake to eat.
Queen’s Pantry mixes six to nine tea blends in-store and, serendipitously, one
called “Rachel’s Evening Blend” is among them. “My blend” as I have taken to
calling it, is a decaffeinated green tea with spearmint and lavender. The
latter flavor softens the identity of spearmint, turning it into an almost
floral flavor ideal for relaxation at the end of a tense day. For a perfect
black tea (cream, no sugar), you’ll love “Glenburne Autumn Crescendo” which
Zach orders from the American-based branch of an Indian family that farms at Glenburne
in Darjeeling, India. And last but not least is the “Organic Long Island
Strawberry” green tea. Though I loved it hot, I can’t stop thinking how
excellent it would be iced. The slight sweetness of dried strawberries
compliments the brightness of the green tea, leaving one with a drink perfect
for summer, or for conjuring summer in the chilly off-season.
///
Since receiving the sample
teas from Queen’s Pantry, I’ve become a ministering angel of “the brew which
cheers without inebriating,” pressing on all my friends and family a sip from
whatever cup I’m drinking. They’re
probably sick to death of me, but I can’t help it. I want the rest of the world
to be able to experience real tea. Not the massacred versions from the grocery
stores but tea carefully sourced and learned by someone who, above all, wants
to educate the world about an intricately simple drink. That’s the mission of
Queen’s Pantry, and I’m a fan.
To help spread the love, Queen’s
Pantry is giving away a tea-lovers package including an tea infuser, and 2-ounce
packages of three teas: “Glenburne Autumn Crescendo," “Carrot Cake Rooibos,”
and “Organic Long Island Strawberry Green Tea.” To enter, use the Rafflecopter
form below. And while you wait to see if you will be the (very luck) winner, pop over to the
Queen’sPantry website and browse their beautiful selection of teas/imported foods. In
an age when we routinely plunk down five dollars for an insipidly-made latte,
spending the five dollars on several ounces of long-lasting tea-leaves is so
much a better deal, it’s nearly laughable. I know one thing: as soon as I run out of
sample teas, I’ll be restocking my own pantry to bring it back to a queen’s
level of classiness.
Enter the giveaway below, then head
off to goggle at some teas!
This was not a paid promotion. I was not under any obligation to give a
positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.