An Interview with Zum Zum Tea
I talked to Anthony Chavez of Zum Zum Tea about life as a tea monger, selling in the markets, and his inspiration behind it all.
Tea is the second-most consumed beverage in the world, behind only water. It’s a warm wake-up, a mid-day iced refreshment, and a soothing night-cap. Perhaps it’s because of how common it is that we don’t even think twice about the work that was put into those little leaves.
This week, I interviewed the creative mind behind Zum Zum Tea. Anthony Chavez is a farmers’ market regular and a mastermind of teas. Whether you’re after a familiar taste, such as Omura Bay Matcha or Masala Chai, or craving something more challenging and unique, like Moonlight Snow Chrysanthemum Dragon Balls, there’s sure to be an option for you.
Anthony is one of the nicest people I’ve met at the markets and he is always happy to talk tea. This interview offered some insight into the daily life of a tea-monger and the events that led to Zum Zum’s creation.
Good morning, Anthony. Thank you for this exclusive look into your world. Why don’t we start at the beginning? How did you get started in the tea business?
In high school and college, I was really turned off by how many drinks were packed with sugar and syrup. They're literally everywhere, even in the so-called tea and coffee drinks!
I've always enjoyed tea. Throughout college, I had accrued over a hundred teas in my personal pantry. I thought, “maybe I can turn this passion into a business.”
After graduating locally from CSUMB, I went to the World Tea Expo with hundreds of tea businesses from all over the world. I got to take classes and hear talks by CEOs of many big tea companies. It was really inspiring. But I didn't know the business side of things and it took COVID and being at home for me to really hunker down and begin to develop Zum Zum Tea and research the things I would need to start a business.
I feel like this is something that seems simple on the surface, but really has a lot going on. How do you even decide what ingredients you like and dislike? Or which ones are good enough to include in a blend?
It is A LOT of taste testing and brewing on our end. We get teas and herb samples from all over the world and it takes tasting it to see what we like.
After so much tea sampling, I feel like I can become "taste-blind".
We have a small close group of friends we like to give samples to to get outside opinions. It's good to get feedback from multiple sources.
“Taste-blind”, that’s funny. It sounds like a problem wine sommeliers would run into as well. Is there a similarity there? Are there foods that could be paired with teas?
I find that tea, with its tannins, can often be like wine tasting. A delicate food, like a fish or roasted veggie dish, would pair nicely with a lighter white or green tea. A meal with bolder flavors would pair well with a more robust black or herbal blend that won't get lost in the mix. I love puerh/dark teas with dark chocolate, but I also like green teas with a salad. You could also get real traditional “high tea” with it and have some simple tea sandwiches with an Earl Grey.
That actually makes a lot of sense when you break it down like that. I’ve never considered what the differences between types of tea are. Could you go into details about the different teas? What benefits do they have over each other?
Sure. All legitimate tea (not herbals) such as white, green, oolong, black, come from the Camellia Sinensis plant. The difference between each tea type is the amount of oxygen in each tea leaf. Black tea is fully oxidized (turned black) on one end of the spectrum and white is the closest to the raw plant, on the other end
Drinking any Camellia Sinensis tea daily will generally have the same benefits, which may include speeding up the metabolism, a decreased risk of Alzheimer's, diabetes, and cancer, a boost in immunity, better breath and stronger teeth… the list goes on.
And herbal/fruit teas, well, that's a whole other league. Different herbs and spices and fruits are all beneficial for different things.
And those benefits only become compounded in blends, right? How do you come up with new ideas? What ideas influence your creations?
When I first started, it was finding my own takes on classic tea standards, like Earl Grey, Jasmine Green Tea, our sleepy blend called Zum Zzz's, etc. But after being in the farmers’ markets and getting direct feedback from customers, I started to take their suggestions and recommendations to heart and have made blends based on them as well.
Oh, that’s really cool. Are there any customer-suggested blends that surprised you by how out-of-the-box they were?
Definitely. Our new moringa blend (Superfruit Moringa) and an herbal chai (Market Bazaar Chai) were both ones that had been suggested by customers for some time. They ended up taking a long while and became passion projects of mine. Both ended up surprising me at how popular they have become since they were released. I am really happy with the flavor and reviews I've received on them.
You collaborate with a lot of other local businesses. Can you tell us about how those relationships came to be?
I love collaborating with local businesses to promote tea to the community. Being in markets you're always working alongside many other innovative people. Why not try to work together to promote and boost each other up?
Just a few examples: Nitrocycle uses a few of our teas for his nitro drinks. Mac City Macaroons has made a couple of our teas into tasty macaroons. Koahware has used our teas in mochi donuts. Eclipse Creations has made a matcha soap. Randy Seamoss has used some of our teas in his fresh pressed seamoss juices. Even Ad Astra has made a pastry filling with our tea.
We used to have a paleta/popsicle line with 8 flavors of popsicles made from our teas. For the Sunset Sangria one, we would freeze a slice of orange dipped in Chamoy Bros. chamoy inside (if anyone knows a paleta/popsicle maker, I'd love to talk to them and see if I could bring this line of paletas back!).
Sometimes these collaborations work, and sometimes they don't, but I think it's always worth a shot.
I would love a tea-based paleta. That sounds like a no-brainer now that you said it. It sounds like your teas are everywhere! How has the community responded to your business?
It has been overwhelmingly amazing. I have loved the feedback and support we have received from our customers and the local community at large. And we always try to give back when we can, by donating to local non-profit organizations and fundraisers.
That’s great. I know my readers love it when our local businesses give back to the community. Do you have any products that contribute to local organizations?
While we don't have a specific tea or blend that donates to a non-profit, we are always open to donating to amazing local organizations. We’ve already worked with the Animal Friends Rescue Project, Salinas Police Activities League, Birth Network of Monterey County, and Set-Free Monterey Bay.
Those are all great organizations. What else makes your teas unique compared to others on the market?
Our teas are always bagged fresh. You can pick up a bag and see the date it was bagged on the back. More often than not, it'll be a day in the past month, if not the week or two before. You can also see the countries the ingredients were sourced from, right on the front of every tea or blend.
Are there any sustainability or ethical practices that you follow in your tea production or business operations?
I often tell customers to beware of mass market teabags. The boxes of teabags we sell are made with compostable and disposable paper, whereas many mass-market tea bags or pre-bagged teas contain, and are sealed with, plastics. When brewed, those teabags can leach microplastics and nanoplastics with carcinogens into your cup.
Buyer beware: do your homework and make sure you know what is going into your cup of tea.
That’s really good to know. I never even considered what toxins could be in those bags. Are there any challenges that you’ve faced in running your tea business?
Some of the biggest are supply chain issues and delays at customs. There have been times where companies have shipped things from overseas to the States that have gotten sent back and forth and back and so on...
It can, at times, be quite difficult to restock some teas. So, it's a balance of making sure I reorder and try to get things well in advance of what I need for our blends and our customers.
I’ve heard horror stories from other small-business owners who have filled their living rooms or apartments with backstock. Have you had to come up with creative ways to store all your teas and ingredients?
In the first 2.5 years of being in business, I have not needed to come up with creative ways yet. We have many ingredients in our home, and many stored in our garage, however, we are planning on moving to a bigger place soon and storage is up there on my list of things to make more efficient.
You are always busy. I see you at every major market. What’s your go-to tea after a long day of work?
After a long day, I really enjoy puerh and dark teas. Caramel Almond Toffee is a flavored puerh that I enjoy.
I can get lazy after a busy day and I like that with those teas you don't need to worry about it going bitter. They can be steeped more than one or two times so I'll just leave the tea in there while I'm drinking and keep adding more water, similar to yerba mate.
I usually drink tea at night, as a sort of warm treat to finish off the day. There’s something relaxing about watching the water become stained with the color of the tea. Do you have any routines you follow when enjoying your cup?
I love the simplicity that is the ritual of tea. Tea time is a reflective time for me, a quiet time, sometimes to think, sometimes to read and study. And with tea I love a good handleless mug; to feel the warmth in my hands.
Yeah, that sounds really peaceful. Can you share any memorable experiences that stand out in your journey as a tea seller?
One that stands out above all was when the business became so big, I had to quit my old 9 to 5 job and make my side hustle my main hustle, which truly was the goal all along. But that was an amazing feeling: when I knew I could really make a living doing this full time.
We have the best customers and I love being there for them full-time to give them the best customer service I can.
That’s the dream, right? To have your hobby start making enough money that you can quit your normal job. How has this changed your day-to-day life? Are you thinking about tea from the time you wake up to the time you lay down to sleep?
It definitely has made me learn time management. I'm not always thinking about tea, but I am usually thinking about the business as a whole, and it is hard to turn that switch off because I literally do every aspect of it.
There is so much people don't think about behind the scenes. It's not just restocking and importing tea, or just blending and bagging teas. There are also the farmer's markets, designing labels, updating the website, writing and responding to emails, social media, printing and labeling bags, fulfilling online orders, invoicing, coordinating, fulfilling, and delivering orders to the businesses we work with, etc.
Whew...
Yeah, that’s a lot. But while we’re on the subject of keeping busy, do you have any future plans or exciting developments in store?
We are always on the hunt and looking out for local businesses that would be open to carrying our teas. We currently work with coffee shops, coffee trucks, cafes, and bed and breakfast spots, but we are currently working on landing our first hotel. We’re very excited at the possibilities and future for that partnership.
That’s big news! I hope it happens for you! Have you ever toyed with the idea of opening a permanent store-front?
In the future, I think I'd love to have one. However, with the current overhead costs of having a brick-and-mortar, I don't think it's feasible. That’s what drives the costs up, which, in turn, get passed on to the customer.
Maybe if we got an investor, it would be a possibility. Now though, in this day and age, even when you have a brick-and-mortar shop, I think you still need to be out at the farmers’ markets. You need to be out there in the community weekly to stay relevant. You need to go to your customers and not expect them to come to you. I love being out there talking to the Zum Fam weekly!
You’re always a fun presence at the markets! Is there anything else you’d like to tell Peninsula Report readers? I already know there will be quite a few who are anxious to try your tea.
Feel free to try different teas and herbs to find what you like. Experiment with the teas and mix them yourself. If you like sweeter stuff don't feel bad to add cream, local honey, stevia, or raw sugar. Drink it how you like it. I can give guidance and recommendations for brewing tea but that's all they are. You do you and make your brew your own.
And, as always, sip slowly and reverently.
Thank you so much for your time, Anthony! I learned so much about the tea business. I’ll definitely be thinking about all that effort that goes into each bag when I sip my cup tonight.
You can catch Zum Zum Tea at the markets a few times a week:
Old Monterey Farmers Market on Tuesdays
Carmel-by-the-Sea Farmers Market on Thursdays
Oldtown Salinas Farmers Market on Saturdays
And they ship anywhere in the U.S. for $5 flat from the Zum Zum Tea website.
Follow @zumzumtea on Instagram for new product announcements.