9 Ways Tea Is the Hot New Flavor at Events

Park Hyatt Washington recently launched several interactive culinary breaks in its meeting space, the Gallery, including a tutorial on fine tea from tea sommelier Robert Rex-Waller. Event planners choose three varieties for guests to sample while they also learn about the art and principles of each tea and why they were chosen. The hotel's tea cellar includes more than 50 rare and vintage teas.

The Optimist, a seafood restaurant and oyster bar in Atlanta, serves a rum punch with black tea. Created by mixologist Eduardo Guzman, the summer-friendly "Fish House Punch" also includes cognac, peach brandy, and lemon juice.

Tea house Teaism paired with Sticky Fingers Bakery chef Doron Petersan to host a five-course vegan meal in April at its Alexandria, Virginia, location with tea and sake pairings. The menu by Petersan and Teaism executive chef Alison Swope included a Matcha, or green tea, cake with cherry port and almond.

Cafe Serai, the restaurant operated by Stephen Starr Events in the Rubin Museum of Art, serves a tea cocktail during its Friday night K2 parties. The Rejuvenation includes herbal tea, vodka, mint, and lemon.

Josh Berner, the bar manager at Zentan restaurant at Washington's Donovan House hotel, created three “Tea Lights” cocktails using freshly brewed teas. Served in glass jars, the Tea Lights come in creative combinations. The Livin' Is Easy cocktail comprises Beefeater gin infused with citrus-chamomile tea; others mix Basil Hayden bourbon, house-made lemon bitters, and black tea syrup; and strawberry-infused Tequila Real combined with lemon juice and verbena-mint tea.

Baked, a bakery in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, makes a tea bark confection using a mixture of chocolates—dark, milk, and sometimes white—along with dried fruit. The tea, sourced from SerendipiTea, changes, but two favorites are Burroughs Brew (black tea with coconut) and Ruby Sipper (blood orange and pear).

King & Duke, a newly opened restaurant in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, serves a cocktail made from a rhubarb tea liquor. The Yearling, mixologist Lara Creasy's tribute to the book of the same name by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, mixes an ounce of Art in the Age Rhubarb Tea with one ounce Bulleit Bourbon, a half ounce of lemon juice, three-quarters of an ounce of simple syrup, and one muddled Florida strawberry.

At the James Beard Awards this month, Grant Achatz and his team from the Aviary in Chicago used infusion vessels to serve a cocktail flavored with oolong tea, lemon peel, three kinds of seaweed, and lychees. The drink was inspired by the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Also at the James Beard Awards, David Myers of Hinoki & the Bird in Los Angeles served his "Candy Bar With Magic"—a green-tea-filled chunk of candy inspired by the Harry Potter films.