The Tea on Ceremony

by Ellie Karniadakis

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND--The premium loose-leaf tea industry is niche but on the rise in the United States. One local Providence business delivers high-quality teas and unique Asian-inspired products with a mission to rewrite the exploitative history of the tea industry in a modern, aesthetically pleasing cafe off Thayer St. 

“It goes really well, right?” owner Michelle Cheng says to a gentleman sitting at the bar before her. They're sampling an artisanal dark chocolate bar, a new product carried by Ceremony. Beside them, each has tea in a small china cup. Cheng has paired the chocolate with an Oolong tea, specifically the “Bug Bitten” variety, which has a honey fragrance and is directly sourced from Lugu, Taiwan. According to the tea's info card, the "mouthfeel" is "thicker," with a refined honey sweetness. The tea is unique because its farmers must put the tea through an extended withering and bruising process to increase the tea’s oxidation rate. 

This tea is one of many special teas offered at Ceremony; each comes with its own story, displayed on an information card in the cafe. 

Located in the heart of College Hill, Ceremony is more than a cozy cafe in which to grab a matcha latte. A local, immigrant-run business, its mission is to change the tea industry one cup at a time. Cheng says she is committed to transparency, sustainability, and the ethical treatment of tea farmers, and that Ceremony works to change the frequently immoral practices of the tea industry, while delivering high-quality products to Ceremony customers. Cheng has set a high standard for cafes in Providence, from carefully curating single-farm teas to the creating harmony between traditional and modern offerings on the menu. 

The cafe seems always to be bustling with people, no matter the time of day.

The tea industry has a long history of exploitation, with workers across the globe subjected to poor working conditions, low wages, and forced labor. Rooted in colonization, tea and how its sourcing remains a political subject. Some of the largest brands, like Lipton and PG Tips, have received scrutiny for their farmers' working conditions. Cheng demonstrates that cafe-goers can enjoy tea while supporting sustainability and ethical practices. She says she brings her passion for tea and commitment to transparency to all aspects of Ceremony’s operations. Cheng remains committed to these principles, she says, even as she meets the challenges of expanding her business. Along the way, she works to educate others about direct sourcing in the tea industry.

“I really wanted to start a company not just selling a product, but really focused on education and connecting the product to our farmers, who are the ones working extremely hard to provide us with a delicious cup of tea,” she says.

The history of tea, one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, dates back thousands of years. The drink carries strong significance across a range of cultures. The history begins in China, with a legend in which Emperor Shen Nung had the fortunate accident of drinking boiled water into which tea leaves had fallen. From there the beverage’s popularity spread across China and other East Asian countries. It grew as a commodity and was adopted into cultural and spiritual practices. Toward the end of the 16th century, tea was introduced in European countries, predominantly as a luxury drink in Holland. By the 17th century, the tea trade between Europe and Asia was well-established. In 1600 came the birth of the British East India Company, which soon held a monopoly over European imports. 

The British East India Company’s success was bolstered by exploitative practices, specifically in India, where the company engaged in the forced cultivation of tea, often utilizing indentured servitude. Indian farmers were also mistreated, facing large taxes imposed by the company. The onerous taxes often pushed them into poverty. The company engaged in many other exploitative practices rooted in colonialism and racism, driven by a desire for domination and profit. 

Tea has long been a political beverage, from its symbolic value in the Boston Tea Party to its political symbolism among women’s suffrage groups in the 19th century, to the tea ceremonies in diplomatic protocols in Asian countries. The meaning of tea goes beyond leaves steeped in water. 

While the tea industry, like the coffee industry, has a history of being exploitative of the farmers that cultivate the crops, in recent years more companies have been claiming to be “fair-trade” or committed to “responsible sourcing.” 

It is still rare however to see large companies paying workers adequate wages, and they still face criticism in regard to their labor and sustainability practices. In 2014, Traidecraft Exchange, a UK-based nonprofit organization, launched the “Who Picked My Tea?” campaign aimed at raising awareness about the exploitation of workers in the tea industry and encouraging fair labor practices. Traidcraft Exchange called out Unilever, the parent company of Lipton, PG Tips, and Tazo, which are some of the largest tea brands globally. It was revealed that in the tea plantations of Assam, India, where much of the tea is sourced from, many workers are paid as little as $1.50 per day with limited access to basic amenities on the plantations. These tea plantations have been identified as a source and destination of human trafficking, where victims are sentenced to a lifetime of forced labor. Many of these victims are children, who must live on these plantations in terrible conditions, being more susceptible to fatal diseases like tuberculosis or meningitis. 

In response to movements like “Who Picked My Tea,” many large tea companies have become more transparent about which plantations they source their products from, but the fight for justice for tea farmers is far from over. The new norm of transparency has started within small businesses like Ceremony, bringing ethically sourced premium loose-leaf teas to the Rhode Island community and beyond. 

Owner Michelle Cheng started her relationship with tea long before the opening of Ceremony’s first brick-and-mortar location in 2019. Growing up in the Anhui province of China, Cheng recalls drinking tea routinely as a young girl, and all of her family drinking it as well. At age eleven, after her father got a job at a research lab at Brown University, the Cheng family immigrated first to East Providence, where Cheng had to learn English for the first time. After Cheng completed high school in Barrington she faced the dilemma of what to pursue in her early adulthood.

“I really did not like school. As a first-generation immigrant, it was very important for my parents to make sure that I could find a job that supported me financially,” she said. 

Cheng attended college for a couple of years to study accounting, but a semester before she received her diploma, she decided to follow her passion. Cheng and her then-boyfriend (now husband) made the move to New York City where she says she “interned her way up” in the fashion industry, focusing on product coordination, and working with Chinese factories to import textiles. She attributes her importing knowledge to this time in her life. A few years later, Cheng returned to Rhode Island where she met Rik Kleinfeldt from New Harvest Coffee, a café in Rhode Island committed to sustainability and its ethically sourced products from a single origin. Kleinfeldt served as Cheng’s business mentor, helping her realize the potential of a premium loose-leaf tea bar.

“I always drank tea, but I never really looked at it as a business,” Cheng said. 

Cheng had spent some time researching and visiting tea farms in China, Taiwan, and Japan, and had created Leafy Green, a wholesale business importing premium teas to the United States. She initially worked out of Hope and Main, a culinary incubator aimed at empowering food entrepreneurs in Rhode Island. From 2016-2019, Cheng sold her matcha and tea beverages at farmer's markets before opening the first Ceremony location on Thayer Street in December 2019. 

Opening a small business on Thayer Street, a location with a historically high turnover rate, is extremely difficult. The food industry is cutthroat with about 50% of restaurants failing within their first year. Cheng was going into a niche market too, making this investment an even larger risk.

“Everyone thought I was nuts,” Cheng said in describing the initial reactions of her family. It wasn’t easy to get the funding to open the first location, and after getting denied numerous times for small business loans, Cheng invested her own savings into Ceremony. She and her husband even put their house on collateral.

“No one wanted to take a risk on us. At the time nobody even knew what matcha was,” Cheng said. 

After its opening in December 2019, the business's early success in bringing traditional tea ceremonies and high-quality tea beverages to the community was abruptly put on hold as the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors of thousands of businesses across the country. When the pandemic hit, students were the first to leave, and the cafe had to halt all tea ceremonies.

“It was a pretty dark time, especially for the food service industry,” Cheng said. 

But despite the difficulties in navigating the pandemic, Cheng adapted to the situation by expanding Ceremony’s menu options to accommodate a larger audience. Cultural authenticity is highly important in Ceremony’s delivery of their products and Cheng aims to highlight how tradition can be incorporated into modern settings. Cheng manages over fifteen employees, but she has maintained the role of menu curator. The majority of the beverage components are made in-house, like the strawberry puree for the best-selling strawberry matcha. Cheng has developed a passion for the menu, which now contains coffee beverages, ube lattes, and unique seasonal items in addition to the matcha and tea selections. 

“I was so starved of creativity growing up in China that now that I spread my wings, I have gone a bit overboard,” Cheng chuckled. 

Once students came back to campus and in-door dining opened back up in 2021, Ceremony’s success grew, and soon after, Cheng was able to move the location to a larger space with a private team room on Brook Street. 

The new location is the epitome of an aesthetically pleasing cafe, with pieces of Chinese art, pottery, and teaware lining the walls and a central view of the bar where customers can watch the baristas at work. Next to the communal seating areas are large fridges stocked with Asian food products ranging from onigiri to grilled salt mackerel. Ceremony also sells teaware, specialty sake, and Bonsai trees, making it a useful gifting location as well. 

While Ceremony’s business model and products have changed, one thing has remained the same– its commitment to ethical practices, sustainability, and transparency. All of the loose-leaf teas are sourced from small farms in China, Taiwan, and Japan. Cheng has spent years visiting every single one and has personally met with the farmers who cultivate the product. Ceremony utilizes single-estate farms to promote the livelihood of its tea growers and their respective communities. 

“We use small lots of leaves that can be directly traced to their source,” Cheng says. For every tea, Cheng can tell you the exact location of the leaves, their quality, and the conditions that they are grown under. While prices may seem high to the average consumer, Cheng knows that the price reflects the laborious process, the expertise of the tea growers, and Ceremony’s thoughtful curation of products.

“It’s a lot more labor and a lot less profit,” Cheng says. Every cup of matcha is hand-whisked and the baristas are thoroughly trained in their craft. Many components go into every single beverage. Even the temperature of the water must be perfect. The careful attention to detail put in by Cheng culminates in a very pleasant working environment in the Ceremony cafe. In their new space, you can find students clicking away on their laptops, professionals having coffee (or tea) chats, and people on first dates.

Today, Cheng is aiming to focus on the education of the tea industry. While she is possibly looking to expand to a second location, she is also developing a summer course for the Rhode Island School of Design where students will have the opportunity to travel to Ceremony’s farms in Asia to learn about the tea farming process.

Ellie Karnaidakis is a junior at Brown University concentrating in Public Health. She is not an avid tea drinker but her favorite Ceremony menu item is the strawberry matcha latte. 

Commentary: I had a lot of fun writing this piece, mostly because it gave me an excuse to sit in Ceremony all day for inspiration as I wrote. Initially I had included a lot of history about tea and how it originated, just because I found it interesting, but in revision had to try to include only the parts relevant to the focus of this piece. It's incredible to see how people's dreams can impact others in such a positive way, from the tea farmers to the students; it seems as though many are benefiting from Michelle Cheng's passion. Sometimes it was hard to write about Ceremony like a journalist and not just a fan, so in my revisions I aimed to remove language that was too praiseful. But overall the piece is pretty positive. I am looking forward to seeing the developments of the RISD course Cheng is creating and would like to follow up with her in regard to that.