Montreal food tour explores the city's tea scene

As millennials’ value of experience influences travel trends, food tours are becoming more common. Melissa Simard, owner of ‘Round Table Tours, recently tapped a second millennial trend — tea — with Tea Tours of Montreal in Canada’s Quebec province.
It’s best to start the tour “uncaffeinated” and with your appetite in check. You’ll get a caffeine fix — and more — by sampling teas at various stops and enjoy hearty bites at the final two destinations.
The tour starts at My Cup of Tea, a narrow tea shop in Montreal’s Chinatown. Owned by Kenny Hui, Carina Vong and Leo Leung, the company sells traditional Chinese teas grown specifically for the company. There visitors sample two teas and are tempted by a four-cup glass teapot set, designed to display the unfurling “flowers” of the Zodiac Blooming Tea collection. The Libra blooming tea, for example, is a hand-tied ball of jasmine and chrysanthemum flowers wrapped in young green tea leaves. It “blooms” in hot water and steeps for a tea purported to nourish the liver and alleviate tired eyes. Blooming teas are available by zodiac sign or in a collection. The shop also sells loose teas and tea sachets.

The next stop is Camellia Sinensis, named after the shrub and famous in the tea world for one of just a few tea sommelier-training programs on the continent. The salon is small and cozy, with only about 10 tables. Free from the glare of electronic devices, you’ll risk be gonged for disrupting the aura of calming energy if you take out your cellphone or laptop.
Teas served here or sold in the adjacent boutique are sourced by one of four owners who travel to the great tea-growing regions of the world. Leaves may be single estate oolong or vintage Pu-erh or any of their other 250 teas. Those on the tour sample three varieties — a white, oolong and pu-erh. A server teaches guests to “wake up” the tea leaves with a quick rinse of hot water before steeping them. A “tea wheel” similar to a wine flavor chart helps tasters find words to describe subtleties. For example, a white tea could taste a bit vegetal; perhaps a hint of spinach describes the faintly amber liquid.
The most expensive tea in this boutique is Bai Hao. It costs $125 Canadian (about $94 U.S.) for 1.75 ounces. The tea is light, and that quantity would make 20 to 25 6- to 8-ounce cups of tea.
The third stop, Kusmi, has romantic charm. It began in 1867 when a young Russian tea blender received a tea shop as a wedding present. The business remained in his family for 80 years. After nearly disappearing in the second part of the 20th century, the Kusmi brand was reborn in the early 2000s. A purist may snub the idea of flavored teas but would be wise to put aside prejudice and taste the masterful blends, perfumed only with natural essences.
Tea tour participants get a private tasting of eight blends. Among them are the more traditional Anastasia, a combination of black tea, bergamot, lemon and orange blossom, and the more innovative BB Detox, a combination of green tea, maté, rooibos, guarana and dandelion — and flavored with a hint of grapefruit.
The fourth stop, The Mayfair Cocktail Bar, comes about three hours into the tour, but time is barely significant as information and tea keep the mind and mouth entertained. Inspired by late-19th-century Victorian high society, it offers a late-afternoon pause to sit and regroup with a tea-based cocktail.
The Green Velvet cocktail, for example, combines gin, absinthe, lime and cucumber with Kusmi’s gyokuro tea. Other cocktails are touched with Earl Grey, chai or kombucha. Reinvented and swankier tea sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres are served high-tea style.
A short taxi ride carries visitors to the last stop: The Cardinal Tea Room, behind a red door and up a set of 22 stairs above a small independent restaurant. It’s French café-meets-tea room and differs from each of its predecessors.. It’s eclectic. It’s as if your sisters started a tea club but ran out of money after the grand piano and chandelier so they added mismatched cups and red ceramic tea pots.
And it’s wonderful. The menu offers simple scones, sandwiches and pastries that are delightful with pots of white, green, black, oolong and other tea selections.
At this point, it seems like the night and the tea should go on and on. But all good things must end.
And, after all, you are certainly “caffeinated” at this point.

TRAVELERS’ CHECKS

Stopping at five tea spots, the tour takes about five hours and covers 1.6 miles of comfortable walking plus a taxi ride.
Tourists visit Chinatown, the Latin Quarter, The Plateau and Mile End. The tour is available year-round, although it’s busier in summer. With cupsful of warm tea, it’s comforting on a drizzly afternoon. Simard or her guides come prepared with umbrellas and bottled water. Guests are advised to wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.
I registered for the tour during my visit to 2017 MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE, one of the largest winter festivals in the world. Held late February through early March, the festival combines performing arts, gastronomy, outdoor family activities and more. A fine-dining program throughout the event offers tastings and fixed-price gourmet dinners in restaurants around the city. In 2017, the food was inspired by the French city of Lyon and prepared by many of the city’s visiting chefs.
The tea tour is just one of many food events regularly available in a city of many cultural flavors. Simard and her 11 guides offer a variety of additional guided walking and cycling tours that explore Montreal’s diverse neighborhoods, cultures and a wide-range of food tastes.
Adapted transportation is available for private tours. Among others the tour list includes chocolate, Jewish food, Chinatown, wine and food pairings and more.
For more information, visit roundtablefoodtours.com or contact the company at 514-812-2003 or via email to melissa@roundtablefoodtours.com. “Glutton Guide Montreal: The Hungry Traveler’s Guidebook,” a 130-page e-guide to Montreal’s food scene by Simard and Amie Watson, is available at Amazon.com.