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FEW PEOPLE FOLLOW CAREER PATHS as interesting, or improbable, as Lynette Jee, owner and president of The Pacific Place Inc. Originally a civil rights attorney from San Francisco, Jee went from law to inventing a new kind of chopsticks to starting and running a tea business. These days, Jee is involved in almost every aspect of tea, including blending and selling, both wholesale and retail. Often, she dons an apron and makes cups for customers at her café, The Pacific Place Tea Garden, at Ala Moana Center.

After years of working as an attorney, including a stint as the deputy director for the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Jee found herself weary of the stress. “I wanted to get along with people, and I saw that the legal system didn’t really resolve things,” she says. “In many ways, it was irrational that I was going to sink my life savings into [the tea business].”

It might have seemed irrational when Jee began her business in 1995, but she followed her heart. Since then, having landed high-end accounts such as the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, Halekulani and Princeville Resort – and with her Ala Moana café celebrating two years and counting – the risk appears to be paying off. In its first year, 1995, gross revenue for The Pacific Place was less than $100,000. By 2006, it had grown to the mid-$300,000s.

Jee always had an interest in tea, something she says might have come from her grandfather, who was an herbalist. She never dreamed that the search for a good cup of tea for herself would lead to a career in creating “signature” blends for her company, and custom blends for hotels and resorts.

Jee recently got a boost in financing and business resources after being recognized as one of 10 women entrepreneurs in a national competition sponsored by Count Me In, a nonprofit organization that supports women in business. The competition, called Make Mine a Million$ program aims to help post-startup women-owned businesses reach $1 million in annual revenue within two years. To be considered, the business has to have been in operation at least two years and have at least $250,000 in annual revenue.

From Chopsticks to Tea

In 1994, Jee invented the so-called “Rookie Chopsticks,” practice sticks that are joined together and shaped into a capital “M.” The red chopsticks are still being sold and are packaged with Jelly Belly jellybeans and instructions for playing pickup and sorting games. Marketing the chopsticks put her in touch with people all over the world. While building contacts on her trips to the Mainland, she noticed that she was having difficulty finding good teas. She had a similar problem back home in Hawaii.

At that point, Jee’s tea search was mostly personal. She was still working as an attorney when she began experimenting with tea at home by blending different teas and adding natural fruit nectars. She became so passionate about tea that she decided to start her own business. “I didn’t want to practice law for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something creative,” she says. The change from law to tea might seem drastic, but Jee sees a connection. As a civil rights attorney, she sought to help people she believed – and still believes – her tea business could do the same, though in a very different way.

Looking back, she admits her choice was somewhat impulsive. “It’s not like I did this cost/benefit analysis. I just jumped off,” she says. But it wasn’t simply blind faith. “At that time, the tea market was pretty wide open.”

Within the first year of starting her company, she got her first big break: After hearing that the Sheraton Moana Surfrider was looking to improve its afternoon tea program, Jee landed the account by presenting not only a plan but also a tea blend she had concocted just for the Moana.

The Moana account took Jee’s business to the next level, enabling her to purchase tea by the chest – about 80 pounds at a time – rather than in the 5- to 10-pound increments she had been working with.

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