TIME FOR TEA? JUST ASK ME!

Craig is a tea connoisseur without being a tea snob - all he asks is that your brew is made with care and attention

- COLIN HENDRICKS

WHEN he was a little boy playing soccer on the street with his friends and heard his mother calling for him, he always knew exactly what she wanted. "I knew it was to go and make tea, Craig Cupido recalls. "I was always being asked to do it.

But this experience has stood him in good stead - today he's a tea sommelier at Cape Town's luxurious Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel and it's his job to know about 44 different teas and infusions on a daunting eight-page tea menu.

From rooibos and Lapsang Souchong to Earl Grey, oolong and Darjeeling, he can tell you how long each one needs to steep, whether you can drink it with milk and what sort of food it's best paired with, from sweet to savoury.

Dressed in a crisp-white shirt and smart black waistcoat, Craig (47), who is one of only two tea sommeliers in Africa, is on hand each day to advise guests who gather for the hotel's famous high tea. He also leads a traditional tea ceremony and a tea and amuse-bouche tasting.

For Craig, who has worked as a sommelier at the hotel for the past five years, it's a joy to open up a whole new world for his customers.

"The energy of tea is a subtle thing," he says. "It's not the same as coffee where you jump into the day needing to get things done. The conversation with tea is more feminine, more peaceful."

Asked which tea is his favourite, he says it's impossible to choose.

"It depends on what I feel like in the moment. If I feel a certain way, I want a certain tea.