Jonathan Kane toured the world as a professional dancer before sharing his passion for the fine arts through teaching. Now settled in Calgary, he’s brought his love for tea to life by opening his own curated tea shop, The Naked Leaf.
Kane has always been an athletic individual but never really knew how to pursue his interest. Then, in high school, he took a dance class as a required course and enjoyed it enough to start dancing as an extracurricular.
“It just clicked,” says Kane. “I like [the] whole package — the music, working on myself, creating something beautiful.”
After uncovering his new-found love, Kane pursued dance studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Once he graduated, Kane joined different dance theatre companies that saw him touring around the world.
“You name it, I’ve hit it,” says Kane, who’s toured to over 18 different countries throughout Europe, Asia and Scandinavia along with going to China, Japan and Taiwan.
Constantly being on the road meant Kane often needed a boost of caffeine to start his days, but he had an allergy to coffee that made him nauseous. Tea was the alternative. Where coffee is too rough for Kane, tea provides a subtle boost to begin his day.
“It is meditative, very different [from] coffee, which gives you that caffeine spike,” says Kane.
However, while in Italy, he had an encounter with Italian milk coffee that seemed to cure his coffee allergy.
“Now I have one or two cups a month, usually without sugar. Other than that, I drink tea full-time,” says Kane.
Transition to tea speciality
Enjoying tea doesn’t just come from the taste buds for Kane, but also from the process of preparing the tea. The different tea wares and different steeping times all have a positive effect on Kane when it comes to taking the time to enjoy his tea.
“It makes me feel good when I start my day,” says Kane. “What I enjoy most is the process of preparing tea and the feeling it gives me after drinking it.”
While tea always remained a constant for Kane, he didn’t share his affection for it with others until later in his life.
When an injury Kane ended Kane’s professional dance career, he decided to settle in Europe to properly recover. He started a family in Finland, but looked to live in a country where they could speak and communicate in their native language, English. Canada was a main contender.
In addition to his degree in dance at Juilliard, Kane also holds a master’s in education from Columbia University which allowed him to secure a teaching position at the University of Calgary — another reason why he moved to Canada.
Once in Calgary, Kane had difficulty finding the teas and tea wares he wanted. Apart from online shopping, there wasn’t a store in the city that shared his love and interest for tea.
He knew this was the next step in his career: opening a shop customized for genuine tea lovers struggling to fulfill their tea needs.
Knowing nothing about operating a business, Kane looked for more learning opportunities to ensure his success and took an entrepreneurial course at Mount Royal University.
“It was going from a physical activity to a somewhat brainy thing,” says Kane. “It was a different way of thinking and a different way of processing information, [which] I think is the biggest change.”
The Naked Leaf
The name of Kane’s shop, The Naked Leaf, emphasizes the natural state of tea and only offers teas containing no sugar, gluten or artificial colours and flavours.
“We have a lot of our own blends they can’t get anywhere else. So I’m pretty proud of that,” he says.
Some 16 years down the road, Kane’s business is flourishing. Indulging in his love for tea and travel, he organizes tea and culinary tours around the world and recently went to Nepal with fellow tea lovers.
“I think we’re going to expand on that in the future. Take more people to experience how much work goes into producing tea, so you really understand it,” he says.
Nicholas Cramb, an employee at The Naked Leaf since 2018, loves the energy and relationships built within the store, with Kane, his coworkers and the customer base.
“He seems to have cultivated just a really nice group of people that like to enjoy tea together,” says Cramb.
Kane’s affinity and appreciation for tea reflects his business success and plans to continue his hard work at The Naked Leaf.
“I think we’re on the right track. I like where we’re going,” Kane says.