But moving out to the West Coast had me falling for a new kind of roast. Having spent my college years in Dallas, I was already all about the local coffee scene. While I didn’t get a starring role or a killer recording contract, I did fall in love with good coffee. He never considered launching his business anywhere but his hometown.I spent January through March this year in the City of Angels. He persisted, trusting his familiarity and instinct: “I’m born and raised in LA. He grew up in Beverly Hills and was determined to open an Alfred there, even though brokers suggested that he was crazy based on previous businesses’ failure to succeed in the neighborhood. Part of Zad’s confidence stems from the fact that he knows his city. “People trust me with Alfred now, so I’m saying I’m making Mexican beer. It may not seem like the perfect trifecta at quick glance, but Zad isn’t concerned. It’s wholesale-only, though there’ll be a tasting room in West Hollywood when it launches this month.įirst there was coffee, then there was tea, and now there’s beer. The pair believes that the IPA craze - super hoppy, bitter beers - will be coming to an end soon, and in its place, they’ll be offering a beer that “tastes like Pacifico,” aka light and refreshing. The word Calidad means simply “quality,” and it’s a Mexican-style beer made in California – which is to say it’s a basic, easy-drinking lager. His response was to develop Calidad Beer. “I’ve had this idea for a while that no one does anything really exciting in the beer space,” Zad explains.

He’s got other plans, and they involve Mexican beer. Each batch, which takes an hour to make, is created with high-end freshly brewed teas and no syrups.īut Zad isn’t satisfied with just fixing tea’s image problem. And neither is convincing new groups of people, especially ones who aren’t sold on tea in the first place, that boba isn’t just a trendy phenomenon.Īlfred Tea Room’s strategy is to create boba tea that’s really special. Hardin says there are a lot of great boba places in LA, and given the city’s strong Asian communities, who’ve been drinking boba tea for decades, standing out as a quality place to get boba among the discerning Asian community is no small feat.

“Milk Tea and Boba typically go hand in hand, but many enjoy Milk Tea without Boba, which is an optional add-on,” he explains. Hardin wants to introduce woul-be tea consumers to the other four pillars of tea as well: Kombucha, Hot & Iced Tea, Chai/Tea lattes, and Milk Tea/Boba. It’s just a good feeling,” says Hardin.īut matcha, Hardin believes, is just the beginning. Mary CostaĪnd it’s a convincing argument: “I can drink matcha all day and be alert, be focused, and never crash. The tea houses are filled with cool décor and trendy sayings. There are no shortage of coffee shops, especially in a city like Los Angeles. In spite of, or maybe because of, coffee’s stronghold in the US - unlike tea, it’s reputation tends to be strong - entering the coffee game was a bit risky, Zad will admit. While you may have seen this catchy phrase before (a coffee shop in this writer’s Brooklyn neighborhood frequently displays it on its chalkboard), it is, in fact, trademarked and belongs to Alfred coffee.Ĭoffee is the first thing many of us want in the morning, and it’s also the first beverage that Zad built a business around. Outfitting it in pink tile, cool décor, trendy sayings and items for purchase, Alfred Tea is memorable. While Hardin is busy perfecting the craft - the tea offerings themselves - Zad’s paying attention to the overall look and feel of the shop. Coffee easily commands respect, but there’s room for tea they say (even if they admit they may be a little ahead of the curve). “I figured if I can get people in here for a cup and for the photo opportunity, Jordan can sell them on the world of tea - that it’s more than what you imagined.” If they can accomplish that, Zad’s pretty confident they’ll come back for more.īoth Zad and Hardin agree that tea deserves its time in the spotlight. (At the time of this writing, Alfred Tea’s Instagram following is a not-too-shabby 66.9K.) The shop is an Instagram story’s dream (even without the pink balloons out front celebrating its debut), and Zad openly embraces the trend of people posting pictures of their pretty little drinks on the visually-driven social media platform. Hardin, the company’s food and beverage director said, pointing out that my iced matcha with coconut milk was approximately “lucky number 30.” “This is probably the thirtieth drink we’ve made all day,” Jordan G. The drinks are colorful and pretty, but Alfred Tea prides itself on using quality ingredients and teas as well.

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