Our ambassador and tea sommelier Steffi Vertriest plays a central role here at Thee.be. She selects all our teas, writes many interesting blogs, and creates fun videos for our social media. This week, Steffi has specially made time to answer some questions for her loyal tea fans.

Where does your passion for tea come from?

“My mom has always been a tea drinker, and she used to always drink black tea with lemon, from a teabag. At one point, she read an article saying green tea would have many positive effects on the body, including that it might work preventively against cancer. She wanted to try that, so she went to a tea shop to buy loose green tea for the first time. We then brewed it with a strainer, but much too hot, at 100°C. The result was a bad, bitter cup, but it became our fixed evening ritual. Green tea contains caffeine, so I was actually too young, I was 9 years old, to drink tea with caffeine. But, that ritual did spark my interest in tea.”

How many cups of tea do you drink each day?

“I think about 8 to 10 cups a day, so quite a lot.”

What is your favorite type of tea and why?

“Oolong without a doubt. I think oolong is the most interesting tea because the tea producers can play with the degree of oxidation. So, there are many possibilities in terms of production and therefore you also have many differences in the final result.”

How did you come up with the idea to create your own tea collection, AMBAR tea?

“I felt that there was a lack of quality teas and blends with good pricing on the (Belgian) market. I wanted people who are fans of tea and want to drink the better tea, not to have to buy the very expensive teas immediately. I also found that within the blends, the quality sometimes fell short. Of course, I was also very excited to experiment with my own blends and try to create things that really weren’t there yet. The Re-vitalizer is a good example of this, which is a blend based on green rooibos.”

What is your favorite tea from the AMBAR collection and why?

“That’s a very difficult question, they are all my babies, but if I really had to choose then I think Shangri-la. This is not only really a very good tea, the best white tea I’ve ever drunk, but I was especially very happy that the price was just interesting enough to still get it into the collection. My favorite of the AMBAR blends is re-vitalizer, because I’m very happy that I could make a blend without caffeine at that level. The re-vitalizer is also a blend that I worked on for a long time to perfect it.”

How did you come up with the name AMBAR for your tea line?

“Ambar is the Spanish word for amber. Amber is the color of a traditional black tea, so the tea my mom used to drink. I also have a link with Spain because I lived there for a while. Another personal link is that I was born in Antwerp and the Spanish word for Antwerp is ‘Amberes’, but it goes further than that. Amber is also a gemstone, made from a kind of resin from a tree that hardens very quickly, so it often happens that there are little insects inside. The meaning of that gemstone is a snapshot and tea is for me a moment of zen.”

What is your favorite tea country?

“Taiwan because I think they have the best teas there. The quality of Taiwanese tea is very high and it is the country that does the most research on tea. I’ve been there myself. It is a very beautiful tea country with just super delicious tea. Taiwan is also the country of oolong tea.”

Do you have a tea dream? Something you want to do or achieve regarding tea?

“Lots! I would like to write a book about tea. I would like to, if I may dream crazy, make a kind of lecture/theater show about tea. I also have a lot of ideas for my own tea lines. And if I can dream really loud, I might also want to have my own tea field. If that’s not for now, I would like to support a tea project. This as a charity to give the people on the tea fields a better life.”

What is the most expensive, special, or craziest tea you’ve ever drunk?

“A Gyokuro Kagoshima, which is a Japanese tea that I bought in a shop in Paris. That tea cost 180 euros for 100 grams.”

What is your favorite tea pairing combination?

“My favorite tea pairing is the combination of lightly oxidized oolong with sweet potato. I learned this surprising tea pairing on my tea journey to Taiwan.”