Tea and Coffee Week Combats 'Corporate Coffee Culture'

It kicked off in 2015 as just Tea Week, rebranded itself to Tea and Kombucha week and now, in its third iteration, its founder Eli Majid thinks it's finally where it should be as Michigan Tea and Coffee Week from Feb. 11 to 18.
"But it has Kombucha as well," Said Majid. "I think the main focus was really to combat corporate coffee culture, that's what I'm calling it. We're an independent tea shop and supply coffee shops, we work with kombucha brewers and we're all pretty much on the same wavelength. So, this was kind of our pushback to show Michigan what else there is besides Starbucks and Tim Horton's and Biggby."
Majid is the owner of Eli Tea Bar, located in Birmingham. The shop will host many of the events that the week will bring, and he said he hopes to flip the perception of what most Michigander's view as "normal" on its head
"We have a Kombucha 101, and we have a Thirs-Tea Wednesday that we're launching. It's kind of a 12-tea tasting of all the weird and funky stuff. We're half sold out for that right now, but we still have a few days until the coffee week," Majid said. "Drifter Coffee will be doing a takeover here. She has a coffee caboose that she normally travels around Michigan with, but she's taking over our shop for four hours and bringing coffee, pour-overs, different flights and all that."
The week will also allow Eli Tea Bar to debut some of its newest creations.
"We're also launching a bunch of stuff, some of our new spring teas, plus we're launching cheese tea, which I think is going to be a very big deal," Majid said. "It's essentially an iced tea, like iced black tea with whipped up, liquid cheesecake floating on top. It's very big in Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. and we'll probably be the first ones here. The only other places that offer it — there's one shop in New York and one in LA — so we're keeping that under tight wraps until we throw it out there. I think it'll have a big following."
But Eli Tea Bar will only be hosting a fraction of the week's events. All over Metro Detroit, Tea and Coffee Week attendees can register for a variety of tea, coffee or kombucha-related events — and interest is high.
"The events are modeled after a restaurant week, which means all the independent shops are hosting their own events. The Aphro-Tea-Siac, that's an interesting one," Majid said. "It's hosted by intu tea, she has been selling at Eastern Market and Saturday markets for over 20 years, and now every single Valentine's Day event which is completely sold out. They even had a second seating and the second seating sold out as well."
Still, even though some events are sold out, the week has over 20 to choose from.
To find more information about different Tea and Coffee Week events, go online to miteacoffee.com/events/.