There’s a new lifestyle a-brewing

Something’s brewing in the coffee industry and we saw it recently in Los Angeles. No, we didn’t just see it.We tasted it, smelled it, and savored it ourselves in this starry, starry city. Cup after hot cup after iced cup.

In between sips, we had but one regret. We missed brushing elbows–rather, clinking cups–with Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. And where was Brad Pitt, who usually stands in line for the best cup of coffee in America?

Sightings of these stars kept percolating in our starstruck minds as our group of lifestyle editors went on a tour of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, the favorite coffee chain of celebrities in America.

Britney Spears is so addicted to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) that when shooting outside Los Angeles, she has had to fly in her favorite Mocha Ice Blended and Chai Latte on a private jet.

Paris Hilton says her favorite drink is the Pure Chocolate Ice Blended. "And when I’m at The Coffee Bean in La Cienega, I like looking at my Guess? billboard next door," Paris said in a magazine interview last year on "My Top 10 Hot Spots." Yes, we saw the billboard, and it was hot!

Madonna was asked on Dateline NBC: "Are you able to walk into Starbucks like any normal person?" Madonna responded by asking: "Can we go to The Coffee Bean instead?"

Other stars who have made CBTL a cult favorite in Hollywood are Matthew Perry (he gets a Vanilla Latte at least twice a week), Ben Stiller (he always orders an Ultimate Mocha Ice Blended, usually at the CBTL on Sunset Boulevard), Bruce Willis, Jim Carrey, David Schwimmer, Hilary Duff, Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey Jr., Christina Applegate, Tobey Maguire, Leonardo di Caprio, the Olsen twins, Jennifer Aniston and Kelly Osbourne.

And let’s not forget Paula Abdul of American Idol fame who is perhaps responsible for bringing the brand to Asia. When she went to Singapore for a concert, Paula was craving for her favoritre Mocha Ice Blended, and told her manager: "Someone has to bring The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to Asia!" Sooner than soon, CBTL opened franchise outlets in Singapore and Malaysia.

Well, someone did bring CBTL to Brunei real fast. The daughter of the Sultan of Brunei, being so fixated on CBTL, opened an outlet in Brunei. It certainly was cheaper than regularly flying in her favorite drinks by royal jet from Singapore.

Not only movie stars and celebrities are going on CBTL. A bigger bulk of its faithful patrons are the modern generation of coffee and tea drinkers worldwide.They are figure- and health-conscious, yes. And they are a harder-to-please clientele.

It is this increasingly sophisticated market that realizes that the best cups of coffee and tea come not necessarily from coffee shops that are omnipresent in every nook and corner. They walk an extra mile for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, the brand that is becoming hotter by the minute, making its competitors, both big and small, quite sleepless now.

"CBTL’s Original Ice Blended drinks are really the most delicious…lowest in calories…more varied. The food is tasty… their Caesar’s Salad is the best in town. The ambience is really comfortable and nice." These are the most common remarks gathered about CBTL.

How did CBTL cook up such a delicious, winning concept? It started as a mom-and-pop store opened by Herbert and Mona Hyman in l963 in Brentwood, California selling – what else – but coffee beans and tea leaves. Customers came in but wanted to have a taste of what they were buying. So the store started serving coffee and tea in cups.

It was in the mid-1980s when CBTL invented the Ice Blended beverage, the mother of all cool drinks. Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz humbly admitted in his autobiography that his company drew inspiration for the Frappuccino from "an ice-blended beverage" in Southern California. He called it "the best mistake I didn’t make."

It was CBTL barista Diane Martell, who joined CBTL in l986, who concocted the Ice Blended drink. "We needed to go on a diet, so we mixed, experimented with coffee, chocolate and milk. Lo and behold, we got an excellent drink! We baristas would drink this behind the counter, and customers would ask what we were drinking, and demanded to order the same," recalls Martell.

Now, CBTL’s Original Ice Blended drinks come in Mocha, Vanilla, Caramel, Black Forest, White Chocolate Dream and the Ultimate.

Cooking up the recipe for CBTL’s global growth were Victor and Sunny Sassoon who acquired the company in the late l990s and have opened a total of 320 stores worldwide. CBTL logged some 9,000 requests a year ago for domestic franchises, and thousands more are requesting for international franchises.

Melvin Elias, senior VP and COO of the company, declares: "Right now, it’s not about how big we can get. It’s about how good we can get." Aside from Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, CBTL is now in Korea, China, Australia, Israel, Egypt and the Middle East. More outlets will be opening next in Europe and Japan.

In the Philippines, CBTL has seven stores located in Greenbelt 3, Eastwood City Walk 2, Bellagio Square in Tomas Morato, Town Plaza in Alabang Town Center, Gateway Mall in Araneta Center, Salcedo Village in Makati and the Greenhills Promenade. The Philippine outlets are managed by a group of young, dynamic entrepreneurs headed by Walden Chu, Paolo del Rosario, Winward Chu and Wilson Chu Jr.

CBTL is the oldest specialty coffee and tea retailer in the US. However, Elias declares: "We’re in the infancy of something which is revolutionary."

Over hearty lunch and cups of coffee and tea at the CBTL headquarters in California, Elias explains: "Coffee used to be an old man’s drink. Then it became in vogue to hang out in coffee houses."

It was Generation Y – those born in l980 or later – who were raised on a wider, more flavorful variety of drinks. They enjoyed gourmet sodas, energy drinks, fruit juice blends, flavored iced teas and coffees. No, this Generation Y didn’t learn to drink coffee at home. They wanted to drink coffee to seem grown-up, but the coffee had to be interesting. Today’s discerning drinkers are thirsty for good-tasting brews, a demand that CBTL aims to satisfy.

"We buy the top one percent coffee in the world. We get them from 14 countries," proudly says Elias.

To see and taste is to believe, so we drove off to the International Coffee & Tea LLC in Camarillo, which can perhaps claim to be the repository of the finest coffee beans and tea leaves in the world. Here, we saw sacks of the best 2l brand varieties from places like Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil, Jamaica and Kenya. Here, we were treated to coffee and tea cupping sessions by the experts.

The scent of good coffee wafted in the air as we were welcomed by master roaster Jesse Martinez-Beltran. He gave us a crash course in Coffee 101 after we saw films of the coffee plantation in Costa Rica where he recently spent time learning and bonding with farmers, taking note of ideal climes and soils favorable for growing the best coffee. "There’s a big difference a few minutes makes when preparing a light or dark roast. It is important to look, smell and taste the beans." He showed us by roasting samples at different times, and letting us imbibe the difference.

Then we spent tea time with tea connoisseur David de Candia, who knows 32 of the best varieties of tea by heart and taste. "Two leaves and a bud," he stresses, defining the essence of the prime tea pickings. CBTL likewise sources the best varieties of tea from plantations all over the world, even if they do cost more.

From the classic black and oolong teas (such as Estate Darjeeling, Formosa Oolong and Estate Ceylon, to green (such as Genmaicha, Moroccan Mint, Strawberry Cream and Japanese Cherry), to herbal infusions (such as Caramel Rooitea, Carnival Mate, Ginseng Peppermint and Lemon Chamomile) to fruit mélange teas (such as Pina Colada and Swedish Berries), CBTL’s tea offerings give so many choices. Unbeatable is its Chai Latte, a topseller anywhere.

"It’s a cliché to say you scour the world to look for the best, but not everyone’s doing that," asserts Elias."We do this for our customers from ages 8 to 80."

The delicious taste of its coffees and teas made from prime sources spells the big difference between CBTL and other coffee shops that have mushroomed in every nook and corner of the world.

But beyond the barista counters, what makes CBTL a brewing phenomenon is the passion, sincerity and energy of the people behind it. "Corporate America has lost the value of relationships," notes Elias. In California, we saw the camaraderie, the fun and sense of humor that empower the people behind CBTL.

"We are a team," says Elias."We are here for the long-term.We want our workers as well as customers to be happy."CBTL participates in sports events, community events, campaigns that benefit AIDS victims and various advocacies such as education centers for children with autism. In coffee- or tea-producing countries such as Colombia, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, CBTL even maintains schools for children of the plantation farmers.

A lot of taste, a lot of passion, a lot of heart. That is what makes each cup of coffee and tea from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf so special. Having seen all the painstaking efforts taken by these masters , we don’t mind standing in line for the best cup of brew, just like Brad Pitt.