Wild for Tea

There’s something brewing on State Street. Surrounded by window-shopping amblers, tessellated sidewalks and faint pop music piped in from seemingly every direction, it might be easy to miss at first glance. But for all the excitement on the block, this place stands out as one to take a load off with a refreshing drink and a bite to eat.

Sounds like another taproom, right? Not exactly. Welcome to Wild Tea Leaf, the South Coast’s first high-end teahouse. The libations offered here are almost as ancient as our 6,000 years of beer, and those pouring them at Wild Tea Leaf are well-steeped in the history, ready to share it with guests over a cup of oolong or matcha.

“Back in the day, a lot of people thought tea was snobby or pretentious. [But] at our shop, we just love the different tea cultures, and we want to make it feel welcoming,” says owner Michael Sanchez, who opened in mid-December.

Running the show with Sanchez is Savannah Hughes, his partner and fellow native Santa Barbaran. The couple discovered a passion for tea years ago while studying Chinese tonic herbalism. Drawing from traditional Chinese medicine, tonic herbalism is a progenitor of the current plant-powered zeitgeist, long pushing ginseng and goji berry and bridging the gap between East and West through figures like L.A.-based herbalist Ron Teeguarden. (That his name sounds like “tea garden” is a happy coincidence.)

Under Teeguarden’s guidance, Sanchez and Hughes discovered not only the applications of body-boosting mushrooms from chaga to turkey tail — with which they’ll be infusing smoothies, soups, and salads at Wild Tea Leaf — but their path to tea. That path has brought them to Japan to source organic, premium tea leaves, which, for Sanchez, are a must-have, declaring, “You can be studying how to pour and serve tea, but in our eyes, the people growing the tea are the true masters. You want to honor what they’re doing in the field.”

To that aim, Sanchez and Hughes have the pouring and service down pat. They present Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese teas in the traditional Chinese style of gongfu, translating to “skill through mastery,” with porcelain and earthenware teacups, clay teapots, and bamboo trays called tea boats that warm the room and the palate. Choose from a host of teas — salty sencha, smoky hōjicha, earthy matcha, and floral oolong are just the start — and be guided through the process, or go at your own pace with a classic single pot.

“Our teahouse is designed to be a haven for tea enthusiasts and novices alike,” Sanchez said. “There’s no one way to brew tea, because you’re always learning.”

Various hot teas and matcha lattes will be available to those looking for a quick to-go fix, as will gluten-free matcha and cacao-infused pastries. Sanchez and Hughes see both as gateways; toe dips for the casual tea drinker to enter their shop and explore the leafy waters, which have plenty of depth if you want it. Boasting only organic teas — which make up just 2 percent of global production — and sought-after, aged examples rarer still, there’s as much to learn here as joining your wine-obsessed friend at a local tasting room. Sanchez, who’s presented at the Botanic Garden’s ShinKanAn Teahouse — “after studying the Chinese style for years, we really felt like we needed to know Japanese culture,” he says — will also bring gongfu sessions to area yoga studios to get the word out and customers in.

Back inside their cozy Paseo Nuevo nook, which will soon include a sizable patio out front, Sanchez mentions how Wild Tea Leaf is taking their commitment to organics further with foraged native herbs like white sage and manzanita berries. Everything will be GMO-free and all teas are without added flavors to highlight their purity.

“I feel like I’m now ready to share this with the community,” Sanchez says of a plan to offer a cha-xi tea space on the patio, open to all. He could be just as easily referring to this whole endeavor, 10 years in the making and finally coming to fruition. Hopped up as I am on craft tea after the visit, maybe it’s the caffeine talking, but from the first sip of hōjicha, a Japanese roasted green tea, to aged Chinese black pu-erh tea from the 1980s, this space for community, conviviality, and qi will be a welcome one.

Wild Tea Leaf is located in Paseo Nuevo. See wildtealeaf.com.

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