To a Tea.

In the first of a two part story Cheers looks at a neglected beverage category.

Tea for two. Tea and Sympathy. Boston Tea Party. Afternoon Tea Dances. Teatime.

Tea. It's a part of our history, going back to the inception of our country, in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. The British, now synonymous with all things tea, jumped on the bandwagon slightly later. Even further back into our human history, the Oriental cultures made actual ceremonies out of what is, after all, a leaf.

But a very special leaf, precursor of wars and controversy, available in many redolent varieties, beloved by more humans than any other beverage, yet one that, sadly, has not made the transition to modern America all that well. This noble leaf has been ill served here. A beverage with such an ancient lineage deserves better treatment.

Can operators right this terrible wrong? And, more importantly, can we convince customers that there's something worth trying here?

Tea, as some of our up-scale hotels can tell you, is a highly profitable commodity. Huge international tea companies sell teas, tisanes and herbals in hip, socially conscious packages. The American Medical Association tells us that green tea can save our very lives. We have the Cult of Chai, tea's answer to the latte. But, mostly, we have just …