Amidst the Pacific Northwest's gourmet coffee craze, restaurant professional Gretchen Twill brewed up an alternative beverage business.

"Coffee doesn't sit well with me, and I really got into tea," Twill said.

Tea, Twill said, not only poses more complexities than coffee, it rivals the wine industry's trend toward connoisseurship.

"Like wine, there are very subtle flavor nuances."

An avowed tea drinker, Twill, 38, steeped herself in the beverage's culture and history in a locale known more for its coffee. While living and managing restaurants in Costa Rica for several years, Twill frequented the country's numerous Chinese apothecary shops, unearthing a vast variety of traditional teas and herbs.

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Her passion stirred, Twill eagerly took a job managing Seattle's Queen Mary Tea Room in 2002 where she created a new tea menu.

"It was just serendipitous in a way," she said. "And all of a sudden, I was immersed in tea."

Recognizing tea, not restaurant management, as her true calling, Twill struck out on her own, importing, blending and packaging tea under the name Devi, a Sanskrit word referring to the "feminine divine."

Two years ago, Devi Tea relocated to Southern Oregon, a region after which Twill's husband hankered. The company's 2,000-square-foot warehouse shares property with the family's East Medford home. Previously specializing in wholesale, Devi Tea launched an online store after moving to Medford.

Twill established a retail niche for local customers with December's debut of a small display counter in Risen, a vintage clothing store in downtown Medford. There, Twill brews tea for customers to sip from china cups while they browse the shop.

Perched on Risen's gold-embroidered couch, Twill extolled the virtues of pairing teas with food. Black teas, she said, contain tannins very similar is those in red wine and pair well with milk and cheese.

The greatest versatility belongs to oolongs, Twill said. She recently served her Four Seasons oolong with a dish of butterscotch-sauced sea scallops and pureed parsnips.

Tea as culinary complement is becoming a recognized alternative to wine, Twill said. Devi recently supplied the famed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., for a special non-alcoholic pairing menu.

"There's a lot of people who don't want to drink alcohol," Twill said.

And for those who don't want even caffeine, Devi has a wide range of tisanes, many containing domestically grown herbs like lavender and mint. Devi's tea leaves are exclusively imported but often are from small farms and cooperatives, some organic.

All Devi's packages display precise brewing instructions, as over-brewing loose-leaf tea is common, Twill said. To that end, Devi also sells teapots, cups, strainers and other brewing supplies.

Devi teas can be tasted at several local restaurants, including Medford's Kaleidoscope Pizza, Jacksonville's McCully House Inn and Ashland's Mix Sweet Shop. Fairy Godmother's Traditional Tea Room, in Medford, uses two exclusive Devi blends and retails the tea, along with Jacksonville Mercantile and Siskiyou Artisans Gallery and Gifts in the Rogue Valley Mall.

Most teas range in price from $2.50 per ounce to $15 per ounce.

For more information on Devi Tea, visit www.devitea.com. The Devi Tea counter in Risen, 322 E. Main St., is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday or by appointment. Call 734-3890.