Aug. 03, 2011 - Issue #824: Folk Fest

Quick escape

Whyte Avenue tea house offers tropical bliss

Jake and Mia Raynard
Cha Island Tea Co
10332 - 81 Ave, 780.757.2482

Edmontonians know about living through long and cold winters: for many, part of that feeling includes a desire to escape, even for a short while. And that escape can be a vacation, or it can simply involve visiting a tropical-themed café.
Mia and Jake Raynard opened Cha Island Tea Co last summer after returning to Canada. Now married, the two first met in Taiwan, where they lived for about six years: going to school, teaching English, travelling and eventually learning the tea trade.
The idea to open a café specializing in iced teas came after drinking many such beverages back in Taiwan.
"Teas like this are on every street corner in Taiwan," Jake Raynard explains. "I didn't go a day without having three of them, and just got hooked on them.
"There are chains that are as big as Tim Hortons here that do them," he adds. Indeed, these beverages are as popular there as bubble tea, he remarks.
The country's hot and humid climate also contributed to Raynard's culinary choices.
"I lived on liquids, as it was too hot to eat," he laughs. "I had almost no solids for six years."
Raynard is not the only Canadian abroad who enjoys these iced teas, which differ from the kinds that we usually see in Canada in that they actually contain real tea, either green or black.
"All the other foreigners that I met there, especially Canadians, we all talked about, 'How come back home we never had iced tea like this?'" he recounts. "So everyone always says, 'Well, if I ever move back home, I'm going to open up a tea shop.'"

Cha Island Tea Co allows Edmontonians a chance to experience a tropical getaway—with the bright yellow walls, bamboo plants as centerpieces on the tables and greenery everywhere, the café's atmosphere is bright and airy. A toy parrot perched on a ring suspended from the ceiling adds to this, too. Copies of National Geographic sit under the top glass of the tables, in case someone wants to read.
"It makes everyone think of travelling," Raynard says. No stranger to travelling, he visited all around South-East Asia while living abroad, going to India, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Cha Island also offers iced drinks that are popular outside of Asia. I sample a strawberry iced roobois, a tea popular in South Africa. I can see why—it's delicious.
Travelling also underlies the café itself. If places that offer a tropical theme are popular in Edmonton, it's likely because of our long winters. where they offer a break fromt he weather. But even in the summer, Raynard also feels that this café allows people a chance to leave Edmonton, even briefly.
"It's a quick trip somewhere warm." vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus