A group of women filled the back parlor of Kathleen Hippeli’s Victorianera home for the first of a four-part tea sampling on a chilly evening in February.
Hippeli is the owner of One Steep at a Thyme, a tea room and shop on Gatzmer Avenue in Jamesburg. The Feb. 11 sampling was the first in the tea room after nearly a year of Hippeli travels to various locations throughout New Jersey to talk about the art of brewing the perfect cup of tea.
“Our customers have been outstanding and we are really attracting tea roomgoers,” Hippeli said. “There is certainly a following of tea room guests.”
During the tea sampling, Hippeli brewed eight teas, ranging from white tea to fullbodied pots of deep Pu’erh tea.
Many of the guests wore red in honor of the American Heart Association’s “Go Red For Women” heart disease awareness campaign, complementing the place settings of deep-red napkins and white doilies set out for Valentine’s Day.
“We are going through a series of teas so that people can try all the different types, from white and green to black and Oolong,” Hippeli said. “There are a host of them, and we go through the whole perspective of teas.”
According to Hippeli, upcoming classes will explore the range of teas and delve in detail into the characteristics of each.
Hippeli left a career in the pharmaceutical industry several years ago to formally study the nuances of selecting, brewing and serving tea. She studied teas for four years through the World Tea Academy before opening her shop in April 2013.
Hippeli said her main inspirations for the refined tea room were her experiences at bed-and-breakfasts in Cape May.
“I always admired having a bed-andbreakfast, so this was the portion of the experience in which I could carve out a niche, as something I could really enjoy doing,” she said. “It’s the next phase of my career.”
Hippeli and her husband purchased the Victorian-era home four years ago and preserved all of its turn-of-the-century features. From intricate moulding on the ceiling to fine china place settings, Hippeli recreated an atmosphere of a 1900s tea parlor for her customers.
“The house adds to the ambiance and the character of participating in something popular in the Victorian era,” she said. “It is a well-maintained and well-preserved structure. It’s like sitting in someone’s parlor and being entertained for the afternoon. That adds to the character and the feel of teatime.”
Hippeli said her business caters to an increasing interest in tea — as a hobby and a pastime.
“It’s a growing market right now in the United States,” she said.
In addition to tea-sampling classes, One Steep at a Thyme offers four afternoon teas every weekend. Seatings at noon and 3 p.m. are by reservation only, and seats are limited.
“Over the course of two hours, we serve seven courses — soup, salad, quiches, scones, tea sandwiches, and savories and sorbet,” Hippeli said. “All of that is inclusive as part of the seven-course tea, and all the guests get a selection of loose-leaf tea to choose from.”
One Steep at a Thyme also hosts private parties for groups of 10 to 20 people on evenings and weekends. For information, visit www.onesteepatathyme.com.