Designers of traditional tea services have responded to the increased interest in tea, with more use of color and more innovative shapes. Photos by John Locher. The traditional gongfu tea service, as pictured here, is a particularly effective way of preparing oolong tea.

In case you haven't noticed, tea is taking off.

Last year -- the most recent for which figures are available -- was the 14th consecutive year that Americans' tea purchases increased, according to The Tea Association of the USA, and the growth is expected to continue, particularly because of the burgeoning popularity of new specialty teas. In 2005, we consumed more than 50 billion servings of tea and about half of all Americans drank tea on a given day.

This year's World Tea Expo in Las Vegas was the biggest, which the expo's founder and president reported as "evidence of the exponential growth the industry is experiencing."

Pamela Schaefer, owner of the Special Tea Shoppe in Las Vegas, thinks there are several reasons for that growth.

"A lot of it's the health benefits" that have been associated with drinking tea -- especially green tea -- Schaefer said.

Additionally, she said, "a lot of people are trying to get away from coffee" because of the caffeine; depending on the type of tea and how long it's steeped, it tends to be 20 percent to 50 percent lower in caffeine than coffee.

Not to be discounted, she said, are "the social aspects of tea. It's just a nice, genteel way to enjoy someone else's company. The kinship you acquire with other people at the table is very appealing."

"I think there's so much noise coming at us. There just seems to be an increase in aggression. It's nice to escape that."

Annie Meadows, a contemporary Christian recording artist, this year formed the Las Vegas Ladies Tea Society, which meets at the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas, four times a year, with the next tea scheduled for Dec. 7. Thirteen people participated in the spring tea, she said, and 48 to 50 are expected for the December one (call 438-5377).

"Nine years ago, in my home, I started doing Victorian teas when they were pretty much foreign to Las Vegas women," Meadows said. "They'd become such a success that I've had this desire to do it out in the public where I can meet new people."

"I think women have lost the art of being women," she said. "Women used to lean on each other. That was therapy for them. Today, women have become so separate. And they're going to therapy and spending $100 an hour. It was my idea to get them together to spend $40 for a nice tea. They leave going, 'Annie, this is the best thing. I needed this so badly.' I see them making relationships and actually healing."

Patty Roberts, who with her sister, Carol Bufala, owns Two Sisters Tea Cafe & Gifts at 1720 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway in Henderson, also has seen an uptick in tea interest.

"More people are becoming aware because of all the articles that are written on tea -- like green tea helping to prevent cancer," she said. "And Rooibos," a South African red tea that contains no caffeine but has beneficial vitamin C, potassium and antioxidants.

Two Sisters carries more than 80 varieties of tea -- "teas in cans, teas in bags, loose tea," Roberts said. The sisters also offer afternoon tea with quiches, soups and salads from 9 to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

Schaefer's business currently exists as a Web site -- www.specialteashoppe.com -- and as a catering service that will organize teas anywhere, but often at Desert Shores, where Schaefer hopes to have a shop as soon as space becomes available. Many of the tea parties she handles, she said, are bridal and baby showers, most of them Victorian in theme -- complete with hats and costumes, if the partiers desire.

"The Victorian period appeals to a lot of women," she said.

While other cities have long had dedicated tearooms -- or acquired them as the trend grew -- it has been more rare in Las Vegas, although the Ritz-Carlton offers afternoon tea Thursdays through Sundays and the Four Seasons offers it Mondays through Thursdays. (And yes, it's "afternoon tea"; in England, "high tea" is a light supper.)

"I think there's a lot of competition for things to do in Las Vegas and we're at a faster pace" than a lot of other cities, Schaefer said. "You really have to think about slowing down. It's definitely a relaxation activity."

And, increasingly, it seems to be a somewhat healthful one, aside from the salubrious aspects of relaxation. Most of the tea consumed in the United States -- about 87 percent -- is black tea, which makes sense since 85 percent of it is iced tea, which generally is black. Most of the health studies have involved green tea, but Schaefer said there's a practical reason for that.

"Green tea has been studied more because of the longevity of the Chinese," she said. "The English didn't have a long life, so there haven't been a lot of studies of black tea."

Plus, green tea isn't oxidized, Schaefer said, "so it retains all of that chlorophyll without converting any of those enzymes."

According to the tea association, researchers at Tohoku University in Japan recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that "those who drank the most green tea had a significantly reduced risk of dying from all causes and cardiovascular disease."

Tea also has been linked to lower "bad" cholesterol and a reduction in risk of rectal, colon and skin cancers.

Teas technically come from the Camellia sinensis plant; rooibos and fruit teas are technically infusions or tisanes.

White tea is normally just the bud of the plant, which is plucked and then baked or sun-dried. Only somewhat recently found in the United States, it has been consumed in China for 1,000 years and once was reserved for the imperial court.

"It's more expensive, because there is less of it," Schaefer said. "It's a nice, mild tea."

For green tea, the bud and top two leaves are picked. The Japanese steam and dry the tea, while the Chinese pan-roast and then dry the tea.

"The Chinese (green tea) will have a nice roasted, earthy flavor," Schaefer said. "Japanese is more grassy -- fresher, sweeter."

Black tea is generally the top two leaves and bud, but it's processed differently. In the oxidation process (Schaefer said descriptions that say the tea is fermented are not quite accurate) it's withered and turns brown, "but the sugars don't break down," and then dried.

The bud and top two leaves, she said, are considered the premium, which is usually the tea we get in this country because it's exported. In India, she said, some of the lower leaves are processed for domestic consumption.

"The bottom leaves are just kind of left alone," Schaefer said. "As you get farther down, those leaves have been there a while and you're not going to get that lovely flavor."

Almost all of the tea is hand-harvested from the waist-high plants.

Oolong tea -- which constitutes a small amount of the tea consumed in this country, according to the tea association -- falls between green and black and is semi-fermented, then rolled into balls or rolls.

"It's an acquired taste," Schaefer said, and best with the traditional Chinese Gongfu ceremony, which involves repeated steepings that reveal differing complexities of the tea's flavor.

An emerging market, she said, are flowering teas, which involve white and green tea, plucked in the early morning while they're still damp, then sewn into floral buds, which gradually unfurl into flowers when they're immersed in warm water.

"It has an earthy flavor, kind of foreign to the Western palate," Schaefer said, and with more of an affinity for Western food than Asian.

Schaefer came to the world of tea at a young age, with tea parties thrown by her mother. She was in banking for 17 years and had decided to start her own business when her husband, Jack, suggested she do something she liked.

Her stepson, a doctor of Oriental medicine in Boulder, Colo., studied tea and blended his own. Schaefer found that she liked the tea ceremony, with its fellowship and discussion of tea.

Soon she started blending her own teas, "and found that other people liked them."

She also teaches a tea class through the Community College of Southern Nevada, and will be teaching a class on tea etiquette in the spring at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Schaefer smiles, wrinkles her nose and shrugs.

"I love tea."