Tea Zaanti
“I like to be behind the scenes and let the shop be our voice.” Meeting Scott Lyttle, one understands immediately that Tea Zaanti is an extension of who he is: calm, thoughtful, and quietly joyful. Scott's story begins far from Salt Lake City, in a Canadian household where food and conversation were the heartbeat of family life. He was born in Kingston, Ontario, while his father was earning a PhD, and grew up in Philadelphia after a series of moves that eventually settled the family there.
Scott was influenced by his grandparents in Montreal, who always ended the day the same way - with a cup of black tea and a biscuit before bed. “They’d sit there with a full cup of tea at ten o’clock at night. No decaf, nothing fancy. Just tea and each other. I always thought that was special.” The ritual never left him.
Scott started working in restaurants as a teenager. He first delivered pizza, then grilled and waited tables. “At a very young age, I caught the bug,” he said, “the energy, the excitement, the connection.” Even as he went on to earn a business degree and later a graduate degree from St. Joseph’s University, he never really left restaurant life behind. He kept waiting tables while working full time in nonprofit management. Whether his title was fundraising, marketing, or finance, he still loved the rhythm of hospitality and the community that formed around food and drink.
Becky, Scott's wife, grew up in Missoula, Montana, and moved to Utah in 1999. She and Scott met while both were working in Park City in the years leading up to the 2002 Winter Olympics. They married and made Utah their home, eventually moving down the mountain to Salt Lake City. Today, Becky serves as Vice President at ExpertVoice, which provides product discounts for certain qualified experts. Her steady career has allowed Tea Zaanti to stay true to its mission - people over profit.
Over the years, Scott kept watching for the right business to come along. He attended trade shows, read obsessively about the coffee and tea industries, and listened to a speaker at a Las Vegas conference who described the future of a “tea-forward café.” The idea resonated deeply. “It could start as a small tea shop,” the speaker said, “but to grow, it has to use the coffee shop model.” That thought stayed with him.
When a tea shop in Sugar House came up for sale in 2017, Scott walked in, had a cup, and suddenly everything aligned. Tea had been quietly waiting in the background all along. It made sense to him, this connection to his grandparents, the calmness, the invitation to slow down. He and Becky bought the business, keeping its original name: Tea Zaanti, Sanskrit for “calmness of the mind.” “We thought about changing it,” he said. “Nobody knew how to pronounce it. But the meaning fit so perfectly we couldn’t.”
The space was small, but it taught them everything. They added a few food items, offered Wi-Fi, encouraged people to linger, and watched momentum build. “It was the kind of place one person could run without breaking a sweat,” Scott laughed. “But it was starting to take on a life of its own.” When their lease ended, the couple knew they wanted to grow. Serving wine alongside tea felt essential. It was part of a larger dream to create the kind of European café they both loved, where people could slow down, enjoy something simple and delicious, and feel at home.
Scott and Becky found the perfect spot up the street: a house from 1896, originally built by a church woodworker. “It was a wreck,” Scott admitted, “but I could see the café in my head.” They bought the building in September 2019 and spent six months renovating. Nights after work were filled with sanding, painting, and debating with inspectors while friends and family pitched in. “It was about creating a living room for the neighborhood,” he said. Tea Zaanti opened on March 13, 2020, and three days later, the world shut down.
“It was terrifying,” Scott admitted. “We’d put our life savings into it.” But in hindsight, he calls it strange good luck. Because they were not yet dependent on a large payroll, and had already upgraded their website, they pivoted quickly to online tea sales. Loyal customers from the old shop ordered regularly, often adding words of encouragement in the comments that made him tear up. A landscaper finished their patio just in time to allow outdoor seating, and that simple act helped them survive.
The menu, like the space, is simple on purpose. “If you use good ingredients, it doesn’t need to be complicated." The Grateful Dead Grilled Cheese, made with white bread and cheddar, and perfected in parking lots while he followed the band across the country in the early 1990s, is a bestseller. So is the Milton Brie and Fig Jam baguette, borrowed from a favorite Philadelphia café. The menu rounds out with comforting favorites including an avocado toast, a hummus toast, a tinned fish platter, and bagel sandwiches that make weekends feel a little more special.
And then there is the tea, Scott’s true language now. “All tea comes from the same plant,” he explained. “What makes it different is oxidation. Think of a banana turning brown.” He spoke of the five steps to making a perfect cup: the right water, temperature, amount of leaves, steeping time, and vessel. “Most bitterness comes from improper brewing.” Every canister at Tea Zaanti lists precise details - the water temperature, grams of leaves, and steeping time. “We use reverse-osmosis water for purity, good loose-leaf tea from small producers, and real mugs,” he said. “Tea just tastes better out of a proper cup.”
Scott has attended countless tea expos, completed education courses, and earned several certificates. Matcha has become their marvel. Between wholesale and café sales, they go through fifty to sixty pounds a week. Grinning, Scott revealed that the blueberry matcha “pays the rent.” He once held weekly Tea 101 classes and still partners with the Jordan Library and Westminster College to teach. “You can’t learn tea by watching a video,” he said. “You need to see it, smell it, taste it, side by side.”
Once Scott and Becky felt they had mastered the tea, wine came next, extending the same philosophy. They work with small producers, natural processes, and minimal interference. “Tea and wine are kind of the same to me,” Scott said. “The two represent slowing down and catching up with a friend.” He gravitates toward natural wines, low in additives and filtered without animal products. Thanks to Utah’s small-producer program, he can offer them at fair prices. Guests can enjoy a glass, share a bottle, or take a corked one home. “We don’t need to double or triple the price,” he said. “I’m happy making five dollars on a bottle if it means people can enjoy it.”
Owning the building has made all the difference. “If we didn’t, I’m not sure we could run it the way we want to.” Tea Zaanti now partners regularly with local nonprofits, hosts art nights, LGBTQ+ events, and has become a gathering place for the neighborhood. When protests once arrived outside during the difficult construction period in Sugar House, Scott stayed calm. “I didn’t open this place to make a statement,” he said quietly. “I just wanted to create a space where everyone feels comfortable being themselves. Turns out this can be political sometimes.” That desire to build understanding, he added, does not stop at Tea Zaanti’s doors. Scott now chairs Salt Lake City’s Business Advisory Board, working to strengthen the relationship between small businesses and the city.
Five years after opening, in 2025, Tea Zaanti feels exactly as Scott and Becky hoped it would. “That murmur, that sound of people laughing and talking and using the space the way we dreamed they would, that’s what keeps me going.” Scott particularly loves being behind the counter. “I’m a super introverted guy,” he said with a quiet laugh. “I love being social here, but what makes me happiest is standing back and watching it all happen, knowing we helped create the space where people can just be. Scott then pauses, and adds, “Wars have been fought over tea." It connects people in the most extraordinary ways.”
