The fine-dining faux pas T2 Tea’s boss says is like ‘red wine in a champagne glass’

Champagne, oysters, steak and a fantastic wine list: any reputable restaurant worth its salt should be able to execute on these elements flawlessly.

But once main courses are done and dessert is served, specialty tea brand T2 chief executive Christelle Young finds the meal can far too often end on a bitter note.

“You finish off with a tea, and it’s amazing how many chef-hatted restaurants do it bad, really bad,” she said.

T2 Tea chief executive Christelle Young wants tea to get the same reverence coffee enjoys.Credit: Daniel Pockett

She cites recent experiences at three reputable steakhouses and higher-end establishments that put her tea in a coffee cup, served it in a flimsy battered tea pot, or shoved a tea bag in a cup.

“That’s like serving red wine in a champagne glass,” she said. “They’re just completely oblivious to the tea moment and the ritual of tea.”

Young gives a nod to Vue de Monde, which has a tea sommelier and offers tea pairings. “They do it beautifully. You can tell that’s the difference between a restaurant that appreciates the entire end-to-end meal.”

While Australia’s beloved cafe culture has meant coffee has long been celebrated and treated with care and precision, it is high time that tea, chronically overlooked, should be held in higher regard, Young believes.

To get there, T2 is leaning hard into the popularity of matcha. Young says matcha retail sales have doubled and wholesale sales (sold through cafes, restaurants, hotels and specialty grocers) have increased 344 per cent since the beginning of the year.

Australians seeking an afternoon caffeine hit are increasingly opting for matcha as a healthier, slower-release alternative to coffee. Primarily produced in Japan and distinguished for its antioxidant-rich benefits, the fine green powder is made from leaves that have been steamed, dried then stone-ground, and blends particularly well with milk.

Bloomwood bakery in Melbourne’s CBD has a signature Bloom-tini as its take on the viral matcha trend.

The TikTok-viral strawberry matcha has also induced an explosion of the beverage as cafes expand their repertoire of iced drinks to meet demand.

“Why has matcha taken off but not green tea? It’s got this added element of this social, Instagrammable, beautiful story behind it,” said Young. “We’re massively focusing on matcha, because that’s what our customers are asking for.”

Surging global demand for the powder has led to renowned Japanese tea manufacturers such as Ippodo Tea, Marukyu Koyamaen and Horii Shichimeien restricting supply for the first time. “I was talking to some of the suppliers. They can’t turn their fields fast enough to keep up with the demand of matcha,” said Young.

Melbourne-headquartered tea chain T2 has 61 stores across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore after closing seven stores. Young joined the business in July last year with a background in business transformation – her last role was chief data and analytics officer at L’Oreal across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa – and removed about 40 per cent of T2’s product lines as they weren’t performing strongly.

A display inside the Little Collins Street, Melbourne, store Credit: Daniel Pockett

“We’re just listening to our consumers, and this is what we’ve been hearing: “It’s a beautiful, lovely brand, but it’s overwhelming’,” Young said.

Expenditure has been reallocated from less profitable products and TV advertising into improving store experience, staff training, tea workshops, and AI to better optimise rosters. Stores have been revamped to better show off colourful hand-designed cups, pots and brewing equipment, and tempt customers in to taste and smell samples.

Retailers, landlords and brands with a bricks and mortar presence that want to stay busy are increasingly arriving at the same conclusion: success depends on delivering highly entertaining experiences for the consumer to stay engaged. COVID triggered the removal of many interactive touchpoints that are making a return (Guzman y Gomez recently announced the much-demanded return of its salsa stations).

“[We’ve] just stripped it all back and cleaned it up … we lost that essence of who we truly are. We brought back all the tastings, we brought back all the sensorial elements,” Young said.

The sharpened focus seems to be bearing out in the numbers: T2 has had its most profitable year in over a decade. The company, which had $108.2 million in revenue in 2023, posted a loss of $11.5 million after a $4.9 million loss the year prior. This year, it has swung back to profitability, although the company declined to provide an exact figure.

Young in the Little Collins Street store in Melbourne.Credit: Daniel Pockett

T2 was acquired by Unilever in 2013 for about $60 million, lower than expected. The British multinational giant then sold the majority of its tea business, known as Ekaterra, which included Lipton, Pukka and PG Tips as well as T2, to private equity firm CVC in November 2021. Under its previous managing director, Derek Muirhead, the sustainably sourced and B Corp-certified tea business had plans to expand in the US, UK and Europe.

“T2 has had a bit of an interesting journey, and it needed a real transformation. Now, [the board] very much knew it is not a marketing issue. It’s not a brand issue,” Young said of her appointment.

“The issue was around operationally diving into all of those details across a [profit and loss statement], and how we finesse it.”

There’s one detail on restaurant menus that Young has noticed recently. “Tea is starting to get more real estate. Interestingly, though, it’s in the coffee section normally.”

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