ABOUT DR. TEA
MEDIA BUZZ
"Teach Me, Dr. Tea"
By DR. REBECCA EPSTEIN
Originally published in Los Angeles City Beat
The word "cameliasinensis" to the average person might provoke thoughts of sadistic Latin tongue twisters, but to Mark Ukra, co-owner of the Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium in West Hollywood, it's possibly the sweetest sound in any language. That's because cameliasinensis is the origin of all teas (or most), and Ukra is the ambassador of tea (or close).
"Dr. Tea, that's what they call me," Ukra says. He explains he was dubbed "doctor" by a group of tea-tasting toddlers who once visited the Emporium, where he and wife Julie are dedicated to "bestowing knowledge" about tea's health benefits each day.
On Thursday, Dr. Tea will bestow knowledge in larger numbers at his monthly "Tea Tasting Day." He'll offer sips of white, green, oolong, and black teas – the colors that make up the tea rainbow. All of them come from the leafy wonder bush cameliasinensis. So does April's "tea of the month": French lemon ginger.
In addition to providing samples, Dr. Tea and his staff will lead a discussion focusing on the four tea groups. He mentions that, although he originally intended his tea-tasting events to include lessons about Chinese herbs and related healing methods, increasing interest in the steaming brew has found him "mostly focusing on the tea."
And there is certainly no shortage of that at the Emporium: The menu offers varieties from around the world, many of which are exceptionally rare. Among them is "pu-erh," which allegedly gets better with age (uncommon for the beverage). You can test this yourself by ordering some leaves from the 1950s.
The Ukras bought the Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium, founded in 1988, approximately a year ago. The doc, who comes from a family of Middle Eastern tea merchants dating back 400 years, still travels the globe to different tea houses and farms, bringing back specimens to share at his store.
Dr. Tea calls the Emporium "similar to the Cheers bar but with tea," as health-minded barflies come for conversation, some slightly less caffeinated inner peace, or just a spot of tea-and-quiet. One-on-one or in the dozens, Dr. Tea hopes to provide this coffee-crazed city with just a little bit of Zen.
--Laila Kearney
