We all love our brew, but this aficionado is reinventing the common cuppa, sip by sip.

Many Maritimers, when asked what they’d like to drink with their meal, will reply: “Tea, please.” It’s almost blasphemy to ask for coffee in some Atlantic Canadian homes. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the reigning national champion of all things tea-related lives in this region.

Margot Bureaux of Hantsport, NS, is a tea specialist with taste buds so sensitive she can identify any variety or blend of tea that crosses her lips.

> “I love tea and have almost 40 years worth of experience in developing and honing my understanding and talents associated with it,” says the mixologist, who has two national tea championships to her name.

At the Great Canadian Tea Steep-Off, held in Toronto in 2007, she won first place in both the “steeped tea” and the “tea latte” categories, making her the overall national champion, a title she still holds. Working with Rooibos (a red bush tea from South Africa), she created a Pumpkin Spiced Latte, using the Windsor Pumpkin Festival as her inspiration.

“It was reminiscent of pumpkin pie, and I was overwhelmed to win both first places in the two categories,” she says.

Margot was back in Toronto last year to compete in the Tea Cocktail Championship. She won again, thus earning her designation as a mixologist.

“This time I created what I called my Safari Latte, using an Assam-based tea [a black tea named for the region in India where it’s produced] with fresh ground cardamom, mango, banana liqueur and steamed milk. The tall glass was sugared with cardamom sugar and a slice of mango hung on the sides. Delicious!”

Margot was immediately hooked on the taste of tea when she took her first sip as an 11-year old girl. At the time, she was living in Kampala, Uganda, where her father had taken an engineering job with the government. The family lived at the Grand Hotel, and high tea was served daily at four o’clock. Later, at her boarding school in Kenya, she also experienced the afternoon ritual of taking tea. The students, probably none as enthusiastic as she, would dip their mugs into a steaming plastic barrel filled with loose tea leaves, water, sugar and milk. There were usually seconds and thirds for the young connoisseur.

By the time she was 20, Margot had learned more about tea and its various flavours than most people will learn in a lifetime. Having travelled the world, discovering nuanced tea flavours that her sensitive taste buds could easily recognize and identify, she is delighted to see how the tea industry has grown in the last 15 years or so.

Recognizing the popularity of tea, coffee companies are turning to quality teas to capture a bit of the business. Margot spent some time recently working as a consultant to Just Us! Coffee Roasters, a fair trade company with head offices in Grand Pré, NS. The company sent her to India in 2009, where she spent time creating the new Maritime Breakfast blend of bagged tea.

“This is a strong black tea that stands up well with the addition of milk and sugar, and one that I believe captures the bold strength of Maritime history, says Margot.

She hopes to obtain her “Tea Sommelier” certification just before the 2011 Vancouver Coffee & Tea Show in October. Her taste buds and talents are currently busy at work as she looks for the magic formula that will help her retain her national title at the show.

She’ll know when she’s found it, and we’ll know when the competition results are revealed on October 3. Go get ‘em girl!

6 tips to make a perfect brew

“Knowing that your tea is fresh, knowing how to brew the specific tea you have, and knowing how to store the tea, all make a big difference,” says Margot Bureaux. It will come, with practice, if you follow her tips.

1. Water: “Start with the best,” says Margot, who uses reverse osmosis water, a seven-step water purification process. It’s not something that can be purchased easily without major installation, but is available at some hardware stores. The bottom line: “The purer the water, the purer the flavour of the tea that comes through,” she says.
2. Temperature: Some experts say that the ideal water temperature varies with the type of tea leaves used (i.e. not quite boiling for green, white and Oolong teas), and our champion with the finely tuned taste buds acknowledges that temperature can create a slight difference in flavour. But in India, she notes, full boiling water is used for all teas—which seems to work fine. (Milk is also warmed for tea in India, which helps to keep the beverage hot.)
3. Loose or bagged: “Loose tea leaves is the way tea should be, and I like ‘naked in the pot.’ No baskets, no tea balls, just leaves that can dance and play and do their thing without restrictions,” Margot says. She advises to not squeeze the leaves, which bruises them and brings out unpleasant elements of the tea, but to swirl them to even the brewing. She says this can be done by swishing the pot, by simply stirring the leaves, or using a French press, as seen top right (plunge down and up and down again).
4. Quantity: As a basic starting point for using loose tea leaves, Margot recommends 2.5 grams, which works out to about one teaspoon per cup, depending on the leaf; you can then work out the balance to suit your own preferences.
5. Steeping time: It can range from two to six minutes, depending on the type of tea and your preference. Start with four or five minutes, adjusting the time to suit your taste.
6. Vessel: “You really don’t want to use the same teapot for different teas,” says Canada’s champion tea maker. “A Brown Betty that has served pots of Earl Grey won’t let you brew any other tea without tasting of Earl Grey.’’