The Huffington Post has a new interview with Rex Walters, a tea sommelier at the Park Hyatt Washington. As high-end hotels seek to suit high-end tastes, a customizable experience for all kinds of services is becoming more and more important. Just like a fine glass of wine at the right time (or with the right meal), guests are looking for someone to bring a unique kind of expertise to make their tea-drinking experience one-of-a kind.
If the Park Hyatt in Washington sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve mentioned it before! Remember, it’s the hotel that houses one of the most incredible tea collections in the United States. Their tea cellar is home to some fantastic vintage teas from some of the most remote areas in Asia. A few of these brews might run you a couple hundreds bucks (or more) per pot!
In the interview, Rex describes his work as mostly a front-of-house guy, interacting with guests and trying to coax answers out of them so he can prescribe the best tea. Some of his other duties include working with up-and-coming hospitality interns at the hotel and abroad.
It’s interesting to note that through Rex’s travels, experience and familiarity with a tremendous variety of teas, the right tea selection ultimately comes down to individual preferences. For instance, he mentions how about green teas can become bitter at high temperatures, but many guests still prefer their cup boiling hot. It can be an interesting balancing act between producing the best brew and giving customers exactly what they ask for.
That’s a sentiment that strongly echoes the Tea Smith’s approach, where learning about different kinds of teas is really about becoming exposed to the best variety of choices possible. A tea selection shouldn’t be a decree handed down from above, but rather a marriage between an exciting new possibility and your own interests and likes. That kind of personalized treatment doesn’t have to be reserved for guests of the Park Hyatt, or any other hotel for that matter!