At the Tea Table with Hoda Paripoush of Sloane Tea

“Tea as it should be” is what Sloane Fine Tea Merchants strives to provide tea drinkers across North America. Hoda Paripoush is the founder and creative director of this Toronto-based online tea shop. Born in India to Persian parents, Hoda recalls tea being a big part of her life from an early age. With a tea sommelier certification and a background in fragrance, she launched her tea company. She proudly sources teas directly from gardens and handcrafts premium blends in small batches. In addition to selling through her website, Sloane Tea provides tea for restaurants, hotels, airlines and trains. At the tea table Hoda chatted about how the pandemic has shifted her business, her tea travel memories from Darjeeling and Kolkata and her greatest tea mentor.

The kettle is on and I can hear it about to sing. What tea are you going to steep for us today?

Earl Grey Classic. I grew up drinking almost exclusively black tea – often with rose and cardamom, but the beauty of bergamot is beyond comforting for me. Our Earl Grey Classic is cloaked in a double dose of Sicilian bergamot. 

That is one of my favourite earl grey teas! How did your love for tea begin and eventually evolve into Sloane Tea?

Tea was always the first beverage of the day and the last beverage of the night. I have been drinking tea since before I can actually remember drinking tea.

My family came to Canada as religious refugees. Day to day life was sometimes uncertain, always hectic, but tea-time provided for a moment of pause and peace. Words were not always exchanged. Sometimes it was really quiet and everyone sipped their tea in solitude, and other times it was more social.

It was a moment of connection and warmth, either with oneself or others. I wanted to find a way of being able to connect with that part of me for more hours of the day, which meant doing what I do with the world of tea. 

Sloane Tea is home to many exquisite tea blends! Where do you find inspiration when creating with tea?

I love cooking and eating. I like the explosion of flavours on my palate. So, when something heightens my senses I pay attention to it.

Often I am inspired by the power of scent as I find it a very powerful tool to evoke memory. If I smell something and I remember it days, months and sometimes even years later, it’s something that certainly intrigues me.

Inspiration is everywhere, the key is to find what translates while into tea. I recall very distinctly the time I was trying to incorporate the calming and refreshing feeling of cucumber water into a tea. I really didn’t work out.

Also, I love Aztec chocolate. So, I kept trying to incorporate the element of heat by use of specific spices into a blend. But, it certainly wasn’t a crowd pleaser. 

As a certified tea sommelier and tea business owner, what does a typical week day look like for you — starting from your first cup of tea of the day to your last?

Well, the pandemic has certainly changed what a typical day looks like for me.

Pre-pandemic, I would have been on the road most of the day for half of the week. During that time I would be visiting clients, checking in on a client tea program roll-out for their venue (i.e. a hotel) as well as conducting tea trainings for a venue’s staff.

The rest of my time would have been spent in the office with my team working on projects, quality control cuppings, and following up with clients.

However, my day looks quite a bit different from that right now. With all of the closures in the food and beverage world especially, in-person interaction has been extremely limited. Many of my meetings are conducted via Zoom. My team and I meet via this platform as well.

I also gave birth to my third child last August. So, my day is spent juggling school closures and online learning for my 12-year-old, tending to my seven-month-old, and making sure my very active four-year-old is burning his energy. Thankfully his daycare is still in operation.

In between these times, I am very active on Zoom for meetings. I conduct my cuppings from home. I spend more time in front of a screen then I would like, but for many of my clients it’s the only way to communicate with them effectively.

My day certainly does not end at 5 PM. In fact, due to familial responsibilities, I am most productive from 9:30PM to 1:00AM or so in the morning when I can operate without distraction. I’ve always been quite a night owl, so the system seems to work for me.

I cannot wait until the day when I can see my clients in person again and share a pot of tea with them.

You’ve had the wonderful opportunity to experience tea in India, Taiwan, Japan and more! What are some of your favourite memories from your tea travels?

I have so many in all honesty, but I will say that the memory of waking up in Darjeeling to the intoxicating aroma of freshly made tea wafting over me from the factory, is one that was DNA changing, so to speak. If I could bottle up the sweetness of that scent, I would.

Darjeeling is located at a higher altitude, approximately 3700 feet above sea level and so it has a slightly cooler temperature than other parts of India that I have travelled to.

Waking up and seeing the dew-covered tea bushes, combined with that incredible scent and sharing an exquisite cup of tea that was made the evening before, overlooking the Himalayan mountains with my friend and mentor, Harsh, is one that I will forever cherish.

Sometimes, it’s not as serene and quiet of a memory, but one that was so vivid and alive with sensory stimulation that it became ingrained in my mind, like the time we enjoyed a streetside cup of chai in Kolkata.

One vendor in particular was known for making the most incredible chai and to this day his smile is so vivid in my mind. He was frothing the tea by pouring it from a far distance from one vessel into another with complete accuracy, and then poured the chai into handmade clay that he topped with handful of saffron.

It was nothing short of exquisite. When you finished the tea, you were to break the clay cup on the side of the street so that it would go back down to the sewers, but naturally, being the collector I am, I kept mine. 

Speed Round:

Black, Green, Yellow, White, Oolong or Puerh?
Black.

Hot, Iced or Cold?
Hot.

Teapot, Infuser or Gaiwan?
Teapot.

Straight, Sweetened or Latte?
Straight.

Cheese or Chocolate pairing?
Chocolate.

Who has been your greatest teacher in tea?

Harsh Kejriwal. He was the first to welcome me to India to visit his tea estate. His entire family took me in as one of their own. He is one of the sweetest and purest souls that I have had the blessing to get to know.

To this day, I cherish my late night (his early morning) chats. I am beyond thankful to have him share so many pearls of wisdom with me.

Find Hoda Paripoush & Sloane Tea:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

ABOUT THIS SERIES: Tea tells stories and when connected with humans, more are created. That’s where the idea for this blog series, At the Tea Table, originated. With this series, The Cup of Life asks tea lovers around the world to take us inside their tea lives to share their favourite steeps, spaces, routines and more. Meet some of your fellow tea drinkers here.