Unlike local shops such as Premium Steap on South 18th Street and House of Tea on Fabric Row, which specialize in loose tea for home use, Wahl doesn't do retail.
And she is more than just a purveyor. Wahl is a tea sommelier - advising clients, such as the Borgata Hotel Casino's new boutique hotel the Water Club, about the varieties of teas that might best suit customers at breakfast, poolside or after dinner.
And she mixes varieties to create proprietary, one-of-a-kind blends. Her "Cynthia's Blend," for example, is a mix of Assam, Darjeeling and Ceylon teas, packaged in tins and sold at None Such Farm in Buckingham and the Ginger Tree in Perkasie.
She also creates personalized tea services for restaurants, hotels, colleges and tea salons - bringing in the right equipment such as new machines made to brew loose tea properly in quantity; specialty and classic teapots; infusers, ladles, cozies to keep the pots warm; and staff training to ensure that the venue's tea service stays top-notch.
Wahl, who was raised in a Lipton-by-the-bag household, started drinking loose tea at home about 15 years ago.
As she became more discriminating about taste, she found herself miffed that so many fine restaurants offer little more than a cup of water and a box of bagged herbal teas. That's when the idea of starting her own business took hold.
Good tea starts with pure water that is boiled and poured into a prepared pot, she says, and the tea leaves should have room to expand in the pot.
Wahl trained with the Specialty Tea Institute and spent time on tea estates in Asia, learning how such teas are grown in bushes, plucked sparingly (just the top two leaves and one bud from each bush go into specialty teas), withered to release the moisture, and rolled to oxidize the leaves.
Wahl buys much of her tea directly from a particular estate in Sri Lanka, as well as from brokers.
