Browsing through the aisles of the Summer Fancy Food Show on Sunday, June 27th, I happened upon the Kusmi Tea stand.
Being and old school (or just kinda old) French born guy, to me France is more coffee than tea.
I wondered what a French company was doing preaching the benefits of green tea.
When I found out that Kusmi Tea was about to open its first New York store in a few days, I wanted to know more.
I sat down for a quick chat with Sylvain Orebi, its president.
I found out that the company was founded in 1867 in St Petersburg, Russia.
It had its ups and downs from Revolution to Exile yet still kept a core buzz to it over the years.
Sylvain Orebi felt that Kusmi Tea had enough muscle left to plunge and purchased the company in 2003.
Like a good surfer he caught the wave when green tea's health benefits were going mainstream.
After getting its feet wet in France with a number of stores in Paris including at Galeries Lafayette, Kusmi Tea has proved popular in Scandinavia and Germany.
Their first North American store was in Montreal.
After being available in the US through a number of outlets, Kusmi Tea is putting the finishing touches to its first very own shop in New York.
Kusmi Tea's NY store is opening July 1st and they are ready to sprinkle green tea magic not pixie dust over the big apple.
Seems like they have a Lady Gaga endorsement of sorts.
I will update this story on Thursday with fresh paint shots of the New York outpost.