Recently I had the pleasure to meet Pedro Villalon, the President of Dao Tea who was going to brew me some of his tea to try. This was quite the experience, one that Pedro was so passionate about, he came with a Chinese hand carved wooden basket, complete with kettle, glass tea pots and four types of tea to sample. He set-up the pots and prepared to steep the tea, in a very relaxed manner with much patience he then showed while preparing the tea. The glasses were warmed with hot water as well as the teapots. When the water was added to the tea he gently circulated the water while he continued to give us an idea how he, a Mexican ended up starting his tea company in Canada to sell Chinese and Korean tea.

Pedro explained his background, it was when working for Proctor & Gamble in China that he stumbled across tea in the mountains one day while hiking. He became friends with small farmers who produced great teas, many of which had never been exported from China. He was invited in to some of the Tea farmers homes in the mountains and got to know them well, he formed relationships and these relationships have helped him start is tea company.

I sampled a few of his teas and my favourite was the ‘Sejak’ green tea. It was unique and had a delicate flavour. Pedro told me that tea leaves are so fresh that after brewing the tea three or four times you can then eat the leaves on top of vanilla ice cream. Something different and something learned, it was a wonderful experience to see Pedro’s passion shine and Dao Tea is now available www.DaoTea.com

By: Richard Wolak

POSTED: Saturday, December 26, 2009