Retailer Profile: El Magnifico: a magnificent approach to tea & coffee: while tea and coffee can be considered market competitors, Salvador Sans, owner of El Magnifico and Sans & Sans Fine Tea Merchants, has found a harmonious balance. His beautiful specialty shops have opened the eyes and expanded the palates of Spanish tea and coffee drinkers.

Staff Report

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T&C: How long have you been in business?

Salvador Sans: My Grandfather and Father were coffee roasters and I remember playing soccer with my father's employees when I was a kid and jumping on the coffee bags and helping during Christmas time in the shop. I started selling tea in our coffee shop in 1986. In 1996 I opened the first brand shop, Sans & Sans Fine Tea Merchants, located in Barcelona, Spain, which is exclusively dedicated to selling tea.

T&C: How did you begin?

SS: I was studying at the university and working part-time in the company for four years until I went into military service; it was then when I was away from the smell of coffee, when I realized how much I miss it. Before I left, a coffee importer gave me a book by Philippe Jobin, which was a big revolution in my mind because at that time the coffee industry was beginning to recover from the Franco's days (dictator/head of state of Spain from 1936 until his death in 1975). After my military service I went to meet Jobin, as he has been one of the biggest influences in my career.

I am the third generation of coffee roasters but my mother always has been a devoted tea drinker. In the 1980s basically nobody was selling tea in Spain so I thought "why not me"? And that's how it all begun.

T&C: Why did you decide to open a shop? How many shops do you have?

SS: I only have one coffee shop, where I also roast my own coffee. It opened in January 1989. I started with just a few coffees that I bought from Jobin with the idea of selling origin coffees, which at that time was completely a new thing in the Spanish market; today we sell a lot of origin coffees and I am proud to say that after all this time, man, I was right!

By 1994-95 tea sales were high enough, my knowledge of tea was good and I wanted to present additional varieties of tea to the Spanish consumers. The opportunity came when one of the stores located near my coffee shop closed and I decided to give tea its own space and environment. Now we have our second shop on a very prestigious and fashioned street of Barcelona.

T&C: Why did you choose your particular location?

SS: Choosing a location for my coffee shop was a natural thing. It is the neighborhood where my family has been since 1919.

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The location of the first tea shop was also easy to choose because it was just in front of the coffee shop where we have been selling tea for several years so it has been easy to manage and very convenient for our loyal clients. For the second tea shop--as the shop is situated close to Armani, Hugo Boss, etc- I was looking for positioning our trademark together with these luxury fashion companies, trying to add prestige to our brand.

T&C: What product lines do you feature in your stores?

SS: We sell around 40 different origin coffees from well-known coffee producing regions.

We keep our range at about 300 loose teas and we also have 21 teas and herbals in pyramid bags. We carry teas from China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Taiwan; yellow, white, green, black, oolongs, pu-erh, blooming teas from very specific areas, plantations and crops. We also sell some herbals teas and Rooibos.

T&C: What is your most popular type of coffee and tea?

SS: Origin coffees from places such as Sumatra and Colombia are our most popular. Among the loose teas: top green from China (Pi Lo Chun, Lung Ching); white (Pal Mu Tan, Paklum lips); black (Darjeeling Automnals, Tippy Yunnan and Ceylon Kenilworth OP1). In pyramid bags our best seller is Infusion Equilibrio--a blend of Rooibos, chamomile, honey and some other "secret" ingredients.

T&C: What type of roaster do you use at your shop?

SS: I roast in the 15-kg Vittoria full-perforated drum machine. We also use a 30-kg machine for horeca in a little warehouse that is situated close to our shop.

T&C: What is your preferred method of brewing tea? Are there any special instruments that you use?

SS: I prefer traditional methods of brewing--with a teapot. I have several ones for the different kinds of teas and that's what I recommend to our clients.

T&C: Do you have your own brand of tea and coffee? If so, who does your packing?

SS: My tea brand is called Sans & Sans Fine Tea Merchants. Since 1998 we have worked with a well-known local packing designer, where we work hand-in-hand. The most important thing is that this person has understood our philosophy perfectly and has translated it to our images. Packaging is very important for us-it creates the perception of our brand in our clients' minds. We use dark blue bags with white logo on them. We also have tea collections in silver tins: Chocolate Collection, Silver Collection (white teas), Limited Edition (top teas of the year), Fantasia Collection (flavored teas) and some others.

Or coffee brand is called Cafes El Magnifico. The same person who packages our tea brand does the packaging.

T&C: Please describe your store's layout

SS: The tea store has an enormous wooden "wardrobe" where our teas are displayed. The atmosphere is very quiet and relaxed with some jazz, classical and "chill-out" music. We also have a special place for accessories and pre-packed teas.

T&C: How do you recruit employees?

SS: When recruiting my employees I listen to what my intuition tells me--if the person can be a good tea/coffee advisor, if he or she has good manners to treat the clients, etc. I look for happy people. As we have a lot of tourists passing through our stores, I also need people who speak different languages. In fact we are like a small United Nations, composed of Spanish, Argentineans, French, Japanese, Cubans, Austrians and Polish employees, who are part of our little world.

T&C: What training do your employees go through?

SS: We give a general introduction to the "world of tea" and every day my employees do a cupping with me. If we have visitors from producing countries or our tea suppliers, we always ask them to give us a little speech about the specific topic along with the cupping.

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T&C: What problems do you experience with your training?

SS: Answering this question, I would like to mention that many times, the tea world seems too "dark," meaning origin tea growers don't explain very much-or sometimes anything at all-about their work, the environmental situation during the year, which affects the quality of the tea, when the tea has been plucked, etc. They should give us the necessary information (not only legends) so that we can understand why a particular lot of tea is so amazing and what makes it different from less "exciting" teas that come from the same garden. Top products need to be explained, just like wine makers do it with their wine. We are so far away from the tea gardens and we sell many teas: it is impossible to go everywhere and experience everything ourselves. The more professional information we have, more added value and better knowledge of the tea, the more satisfaction when enjoying the tea for the final clients. We all win in the long run.

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For our coffees, there is a lot of daily work with little time to explain the vast world of coffee.

T&C: Do you ever offer tastings/ events for the customers to familiarize themselves with your products?

SS: Every single day we propose different origin coffees to sample free of charge. We also offer a different kind of tea daily for our customers to taste.

T&C: Is there any additional information you would like our readers to know about your shop?

SS: There are many kinds of coffee shops and coffee roasters, just like there are many kinds of restaurants. We are orthodox, classic coffee roasters. Priding ourselves on excellent coffee quality, a daily roast, attention to good customer service and packaging. I don't know if potential clients are aware of the different possibilities they have, when they want to purchase coffee for their homes and how to choose the correct retail shop to get exactly what they want. If you want a great coffee, there are only a handful of top coffee roasters. It is as hard for consumers to find these superior coffee roasters as it is for the coffee roasters to find the top coffee growers.

We also have an electronic newsletter that we send to our clients every two to three months. In it we inform them about new teas that we offer in our stores, some interesting stories about tea, (for example, chocolate or ice cream producers that use tea as an ingredient to manufacture their products). Visit our website to see the newsletters, (www.sansisans-finetea.com).