When I walked into Cha Le Tea Merchants, the first thing I noticed was the tray of muffins.
That not to say that the Yaletown tea shop isn’t a stunning display of high-technology and minimalist design. I also don't mean to downplay the aesthetic appeal of the 14 bloggers and social media influencers crowded into the shop. But it was the muffins that made me realize this sponsored day of tourism was going to be full of ethical dilemmas.
While studying the ethics of journalism in the program I recently graduated from, my instructor Peg Fong suggested that as reporters we should always make sure to have the following items with us:
- our recorders
- a camera
- our phones
- a note pad
- a pencil, because pens will run if we take notes in the rain
- a compass card, so we never have to rely on any one to give us a ride
- a couple of blocks of fancy dark chocolate for the nibbling.
Why the chocolate?
“So that you never, ever, are tempted to eat the muffins at press conferences,” Fong told us repeatedly. She subscribes to the belief that journalists should never accept freebies as it may bring their objectivity into question.
While playing tourist in my own city as part of Lexus Master Class—"a sensory adventure with the 2018 Lexus RX Series" —far more than muffins were consumed.
“Omotenashi” refers to the Japanese spirit of hospitality, a core value of Lexus that they demonstrated throughout the day, which started at Cha Le Tea Merchants at 10:30 a.m.
We were given our welcome package, which included what social media handles to tag throughout the day, the channels of our fellow media members, waivers to sign and Lexus swag.
Cha Le Tea Merchants:
On top of plates of muffins and cookies from Urban Fare, the staff at Cha Le Tea Merchants also prepared some insanely fancy toast for us—half of the slice with the obvious topping of smashed avocado, the other half topped with truffled ricotta, hazelnuts, sundried tangerine and pu’er honey.
After one bite of the latter half, I was in a state of euphoria that Sue Wang’s demonstration of brewing technology was somehow able to coax me out of.
Innovative technology — that’s why Lexus began the tour at this narrow shop made all the more crowded by several DSLR cameras and iPhones fighting for space to get Instagram worthy images.
Cha Le means “happy tea” in Mandarin, and Wang says she and her husband started this shop in hopes that Vancouverites would be able to get consistent cups of high quality tea in the same time it takes for their latte to be made. One barista is able to brew four teas at a time using the computer-controlled glass vacuums at the tea bar. After the water is brought to a boil, perfectly measured tea leaves are added and then steeped to perfection for 90 to 130 seconds. After we enjoyed samples of their “Mountain Mist” green tea and “Tranquil” herbal tea, we were served sassy tea-mocktails in mason jars with grapefruit slices, and gift baskets to go.
On the road
From there, we were introduced to our fleet of Lexus RX vehicles, all five having been flown from Ontario with the rest of Lexus Canada’s Toronto based PR team. In contrast, the front and back of every vehicle we were shown were made from aluminum rather than steel to maximize fuel efficiency. Because aluminum is more difficult to stamp out than steel, Lexus spent more than $30 million to upgrade their technology, which falls in line with another pilar often cited throughout our master class experience: “Takumi” meaning ultimate craftsmanship.
Stop: Takumi time
Directly translated from Japanese, takumi means artisan, which is why our next stops happened throughout Granville Island’s public market. Vehicle wise, I was paired with Dennis Pang, founder and managing director of the PR firm Popcorn and half of the blogging team behind Pangcouver. He was the first to get behind the wheel and follow the GPS route pre-programmed in the Lexus fleet.
Our first stop was at A Bread Affair, B.C.’s first certified organic bakery that Tanya Belanger started because she couldn’t find a good loaf of bread. Belanger moved her family to Vancouver from Ontario after 12 years of trying to get fired from her IT job. She was the last person who trained with master baker Keith Giusto in San Francisco — the same man responsible for training the U.S. Olympic Baking Team.
“To me, making bread is the perfect blend of art and science,” Belanger told the bakery full of bloggers sampling croissants that took three days to make. She emphasized the sustainable priorities of her company as well — the farming fleets all run on natural gas and her business was one of the first in B.C. to offer compostable straws and lids. We were offered a loaf of "Cheeky" sourdough or "Birds and the Bees" honey wholegrain before being shuttled off to our next stop. Because I am saturated in cheekiness, I brought home the latter. Because every fact needs multiple sources, my roommates helped me confirm that the loaf's grainy texture and subtle sweetness make for delicious times.
Jokes about wine missing from the Benton Brothers Cheese portion of our tour were a plenty, but once the fanciest of casein from three different samples hit our brains, we were dopamine drunk.
We started with a generous sample of Le Riopelle, a triple creme from Quebec’s Fromagerie Ile-Aux Grues. It was buttery smooth, unlike the chunky blockade our group had formed in the public market. We also tried a Challerhocker, a cow cheese from Switzerland and a very nutty raw organic Alpindon from the same mammal.
Jonah Benton told us the story of how he and his brother Andrew studied engineering at Queen's Universtiy, and only started working in a cheese shop when their father encouraged easy access to discounted dairy. When they moved to Vancouver, they recognized a void in the specialty high-end cheese market and now own two small production artisanal cheese stores — the Kerrisdale location has been around for a decade while Granville Island’s location is running six years strong.
“We could have worked for Lexus, except they wouldn’t have hired my brother. He had low marks,” Jonah jokes of their mechanical engineering back ground. Because cheese wouldn’t keep well unrefrigerated for the rest of the day, we were given $15 gift cards to the shop, which will buy roughly two ounces of cheese.
Another unlikely artisan, Armando Bacani of his namesake fine quality meats shop, was a medical technician in the Philippines before immigrating to Canada 37 years ago. He worked at a cancer agency for about eight years prior to starting his butcher business in 1983, as his family had a long history of butchering.
“I figured a cow is a cow is a cow,” Bacani said, though I still don't understand the career change. Bacani has been labelled as a “master butcher” and introduced a new Japanese word and Lexus pillar to us: "Kaizan" or “continuous improvement.”
“Being a master is a continuous process -- we don’t believe this is the end of our improvement,” Bacani said of the family run business. We sampled some sausage, lamb and chicken before collecting our gift cards on the way to Liberty Distillery — Vancouver’s first distillery to produce hand-crafted, premium spirits made from 100 per cent B.C. ingredients.
I know what you’re thinking — drinking and driving, Lexus? But we only sniffed the samples poured out. After learning how much work goes into distilling the alcohol, I hope that they were able to somehow pour the samples back for resale, but I worry that they joined our groups wake of waste. We were given a box set containing small bottles of their Truth vodka, Endeavor gin and Railspur triple-distilled whiskey after listening to an incredibly thorough and rather incomprehensible run down of how the Wonka-like machinery functioned.
Lisa Simpson (don’t worry, she’s heard it before) led the tour of she and her husband’s distillery. A former international trade consultant, culinary/pastry chef turned corporate financier, Simpson is currently studying to get her Masters of Science in brewing and distilling.
We rushed through a large portioned lunch at Edible Canada, which was fine because at that point we’d been generously snacking all morning. Not many lessons were gleaned from this stop other than everyone enjoyed their respective squid, salad or clam chowder appetizers followed by fish and chips, fried chicken burgers, or hummus bowls—despite many plates looking untouched as we left for the parking lot.
On the road, again
The drive out to Pitt Meadows was a little over 45 minutes, as the Lexus Canada GPS programmers hadn’t taken the construction on First Avenue in East Vancouver into consideration. We left the city around 2:30 p.m., but I wasn't in a helicopter until 5:15 p.m. This afternoon lull was a little boring for those of us who weren’t on the same level as the car enthusiasts or Instagram story makers, all of whom who benefitted from hours of staged photo-shoot opportunities. Many of us sat in the well maintained hanger of SKY Helicopters, witnessing the slow melt of Earnest Ice Cream sandwiches the size of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson's neck.
Once we got into one of SKY's signature black helicopters, the “exhilarating performance” part of the masterclasses’ agenda began. Between myself and two other passengers — blogger Viranlly and a woman from Lexus Canada’s PR team who had planned this entire day — I claimed shot-gun for the first segment of our flight. We flew over the golf course where Happy Gilmore was filmed, and our young pilot — you can get your helicopter licenses when you're 14 years old in B.C. — pointed out the beach volleyball courts set up on some of the sand dunes along the rivers below.
We landed on the beach at Widgeon Lake and spent 20 minutes in near silence, absorbing nature’s mastery. We enjoyed making poor attempts at skipping stones before switching up the seating and flying to downtown Vancouver.
It had been an overcast day, but as we flew into Coal Harbour, the horizon still mustered up a beautiful display for sunset. The adrenalin of the helicopter ride paired with my disbelief that I was awake gave me the confidence to drive a Lexus up to a modern house in West Point Grey, where the “brave design” portion of the day was stationed.
All of us were giggly as we came up the stairs to see a perfectly placed table, a kitchen filled with chefs, a bar offering whiskey sours made with Liberty Distillery spirits and a hand masseuse awaiting our phone-free hands.
Lexus representatives explained that brave design is about having the courage to stand out and do things differently with confidence. Chef Mark Singson certainly demonstrated bravery, thoughtfulness and mastery in the four courses he designed for us.
Amuse: An oyster a top a bed of dried ice, as if the smoked creme fraiche, caviar, dill oil and pickled shallots decorating the mollusc wasn’t enough of a spectacle.
1st Course: B.C.’s finest market tomatoes and strawberries, chilled gazpacho, herb oil, almonds and soft tofu. While serving me my plate, the waiter spilled sauce all over Lexus product specialist Glenn Alkema’s shirt. Alkema seemed like he couldn’t care less, adding to the surprisingly relaxed atmosphere of an insanely high production value dinner.
2nd Course: A deconstructed burger made from Armondo’s Finest Quality Meats lightly cured beef, charcoal mayo, truffle relish and torn burger bun from A Bread Affair
3rd Course: BBQ duck served medium, seared scallop, roasted cabbage, puffed rice, Chinatown BBQ jus.
Dessert: Variations of coconut, rhubarb, crushed ice and olive oil.
Dinner talk
The last stop marked the first time people truly let go and bonded. I had anxiously prepared myself for an awkward dining experience, but it turned into a three-and-a-half-hour dinner party with unlikely new friends. At the long table, somehow four of us had gone to the same high school at different times, leading to an obnoxious moment where we cheersed to the Sentinel Spartans. Because I was sitting next to Alkema all night (as well as hilarious, unfiltered and passionate photographer Take Kayo) I was able to learn about how the Toyota/ Lexus team partnered with Canadian Blood Services in 2016 to improve the technology and efficiency of the blood supply chain.
We were wined as much as we were dined, so we were driven home by the mafia like professional drivers who had been following us around all day. Walking into my east Vancouver apartment at 11 p.m., oddly star struck by the fact that Adrian of Food Gays lives nearby, my cat eyed my overflowing goody bag suspiciously.
Forgive me Peg, for I have sinned. I crossed myself before entering an indulgence induced sleep coma, knowing I could figure out how to ethically write about a once-in-a-lifetime-if-you’re-lucky-and-the-resident-travel-writer-doesn’t-want-to-do-it experience in the morning.
My main takeaway was a rather millenial one, as I am from a generation that grew up with the belief that we could be whatever we wanted to be, if we just tried hard enough. As someone who has been enrolled in several post-secondary programs and worked an impressive smorgasbord of jobs, it was reassuring to meet so many successful people — be they masters of their craft or masters of finding a job that combined passion with paycheques — who tried several paths before reaching their destination. It occured to me that not one of the people we met on our tour was Vancouver-born, even though they contribute so much to the innovation and vibrancy of the city. I am in love with Vancouver, but not ignorant to just how much "kaizen" is needed here. For most of the population, being able to afford a SKY helicopter trip or Mark Singson's catering is unfathomable.
