Melez Tea
Liliana Lopez & Emre Aslanoba
“Wabi-Sabi” means, imperfect beauty. A perfectionism that accepts beauty as it is. You come across this philosophy when you enter the door of the tea laboratories in Reşitpaşa. Cracked marble table. Broken, yet complete. A brand produced by the craftsman; Melez.
Tea sommelier Liliana, combining her strong passion with creativity, received training from Victoria Pognigrew, the most renowned tea expert in London, and Victoria Bisogno; sommelier in Barcelona. Without giving up her curiosity, she improved herself with Ayurvedic and TCM courses in New York and crowned all these experiences with her husband by creating a Melez as a family business.
“The story”, says Liliana. Tea, one of the most important elements of Turkish culture, is actually a commodity kneaded in the hands of many different cultures, offering us many different stories and a journey. On the other hand, Melez is a brand of good life that gives importance to the intersection of east-west cultures, old and modern, and quotes from different cultures. Inspired by the mix of old and new, east and west, we decided to name the brand as Melez.
Melez Tea is a lifestyle brand. An understanding that creates much more than tea and acts as a tea ambassador while respecting its rituals, even if they are inspired by different cultures.
The contents and varieties of teas are very different from each other, but the common goal of each is to make you feel good. It allows you to experience the needs of the day. Each tea has its own character and function. For instance, wake up tea helps to wake up, sleep tea helps to sleep. Balance is a blend of green tea that helps detoxify by creating a balance on your body.
Among the different blends, “Beauty” is one of Liliana's favorites, the floral white tea decorated with jasmine and rose petals. “The story and inspiration of this tea is unique, inspired by an afternoon tea with Marie Antoinette in the gardens of Petit Trianon. Their gardens were covered in roses, her skin smelled like vanilla and jasmine. That day, the contents of our Beauty tea came into being.”
By blending all the tea in Reşitpaşa, Melez offers a space where you can experience different experiences. Liliana and Emre, who thought that Reşitpaşa is very suitable for creative and experimental concepts, created a tea lab here and created a place where you can try tea blends and explore as much as you like.
While presenting all these experiences, Melez reflects its own founding philosophy in the best way. That's exactly what it says, Melez. The experiences are private and personal, each experience makes you feel different feelings, but it is always beautiful.
@meleztea
words: Serra İnce
photography: İbrahim Özbunar