“New York Parties” author Jamee Gregory (above, center) raises a teacup at the book’s bash, while Brooklynite Vanessa Barrantes enjoys a cup at Harney & Sons in SoHo. (Tamara Beckwith)
“New York Parties” author Jamee Gregory raises a teacup at the book’s bash, while Brooklynite Vanessa Barrantes (above) enjoys a cup at Harney & Sons in SoHo. (Zandy Mangold)
Lady Gaga caused a tempest with a teacup when she carried it out of her London hotel last year. (GF/bauergriffinonline.com)
Lady Gaga caused a tempest with a teacup when she carried it out of her London hotel last year. (GF/bauergriffinonline.com)
Designer Vivienne Tam, whose tea habit comes from her Hong Kong childhood, has imported an authentic teahouse from China to her downtown store. (Tamara Beckwith)
Fine tea is music to the ears of Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who’s collected more than 100 varieties. (JIMI CELESTE /PatrickMcMullan.co)
Harney & Sons is one of the new breed of tea shops around town. (Zandy Mangold)
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Spencer Greenberg doesn’t seem like your average tea enthusiast. The 27-year-old hedge-funder (he’s co-founder of NYC-based Rebellion Research) is a math guru who can often be found sporting a scruffy, Jake Gyllenhaal-esque beard. He also stores 40 kinds of tea at his Union Square apartment.
“I serve tea virtually every time I have friends over,” says Greenberg, who has also created a detailed “tea menu” for guests to peruse when they visit his place. He counts jasmine green and rose black among his favorite varieties.
“Sometimes you’ll smell a flower and you’ll wish you could have something taste like the flower smells,” he says.
While New York has always been a coffee town, it’s suddenly facing serious competition from a more delicate, ladylike drink. But helmet-headed blondes aren’t the only tea fans — jet-setting Internet gurus, pop stars and financiers are increasingly buzzing over the leafy brew. Lady Gaga regularly totes a teacup like it’s a Birkin bag, while Facebook and Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who’s more famous for chasing venture capital than cups of oolong, boasts a collection of more than 100 exotic teas (and his new $20 million West Village carriage house has the room to store it).
New York’s fashion flock, of course, is way ahead of the trend. Two weeks ago, Christian Dior hosted a celebratory tea reception for socialite and author Jamee Gregory’s latest book, “New York Parties,” at the label’s Midtown boutique. Shai Tertner, owner of Shiraz Events, which catered the bash, says he’s seen a surge in clients asking for exclusive tea parties in the past year and a half.
“It seems like suddenly there’s something in the air about it,” says Gregory of New York’s storm in a teacup. “Maybe because it’s cold, or maybe because of this economy, people think [that] instead of throwing a fancy lunch or cocktail reception, they’ll throw a tea. I’m seeing it happen more and more this past year.”
Meanwhile, tea shops are popping up all over the city. The Tea Set, a cozy nook that seats 25, opened three months ago in the West Village. Harney & Sons, a tea store and cafe steeped in the heart of SoHo (complete with a 24-foot tasting bar), launched about the same time. Around the corner from Harney & Sons, wholesale tea provider In Pursuit of Tea added a rustic retail shop in August. Even William Poll, a tea-sandwich shop on the Upper East Side since 1921, has seen a “phenomenal increase in tea sandwich” sales in the past two years, according to Stanley Poll, 71, son of the late namesake proprietor.
“I think tea’s having a moment in the entire world . . . especially in Europe and all of America,” says Tea Set owner Jacques Doassans, 38. “It’s not a question of fashion — it’s going to become something huge. Some people compare it to the wine trend 20 years ago.”
Tea partiers are actively courting a young, cool clientele — either through boho-chic décor (the Tea Set is festooned with comfy, jewel-hued Moroccan pillows) or hip staff (all employees at Harney & Sons are under 30). So it’s no surprise that Harney & Sons’ biggest regulars are realtors, hairstylists and graphic designers.
“I think it helps to draw in a youthful crowd because it’s not these older people trying to educate you,” says Harney’s general manager, Emeric Harney, who is 23. The store recently hosted a private tea tasting for a group of Columbia grad students organized by one academic as a belated holiday present for his fiancée.
Adding Champagne to the mix probably doesn’t dent the devotion of the young and thirsty, either. The Tea Set has created a tea-rrific $15 cocktail by mixing bubbly with a syrup made from the store’s best seller, Red Peach Vanilla tea. “[The cocktail] is very new, only 2 weeks old, but they all ask for it,” says Doassans.
Designer Vivienne Tam doesn’t need any fashionable fixings for her tea habit, which started when she was growing up in Hong Kong. Tam recently added an authentic tea house, shipped all the way from southern China, to her Mercer Street store. For now, it “adds an air of Chinese culture,” and one day she hopes to “serve drinks to my customers out of the teahouse.”
Tea, after all, is the perfect drink for frenzied New Yorkers with a big caffeine habit — but very little peace of mind. “Tea promotes harmony and balance of life,” Tam says. “The experience is not rushed. It’s refined and grounding. Drinking tea is an art of living.”
dschuster@nypost.com