What do people think about Teavanna?

I’m in the exact same boat as you! I’m a huge tea enthusiast, but haven’t really ventured outside of Teavana or bagged teas. I’d really like to learn from the experienced tea crowd :)

Exactly! C’mon guys, I know people are visiting this thread, I need advice!

There are several discussions that have floated around about Teavana. This one is probably one of the most telling:
http://steepster.com/discuss/134-teavana-if-you-dont-want-to-buy-something-too-bad

I hope this helps.

Awesome thank you!

Tea Pet beat me to posting that thread. That probly sums up what alot of people think of Teavana. You can also type ‘Teavana’ in the Discussion Search and find a bunch of topics about them.

In my opinion, Teavana is overhyped, overpriced and waaaay too pushy. Just the thought of going into one of their stores to shop makes me break out into a nervous twitch. If I would order from them, I’d do it online and during a sale because otherwise, their tea just isn’t worth the prices their asking, though the teaware is pretty.

I’m not sure if you’re looking for brick-and-mortar stores to go to, but I can recommend some online places that I like.

Definitely check out DavidsTea. They have lots of different flavored and straight teas that’re reasonably priced and their in-store customer service is excellent (at least at the shop I’ve been to). So is their online customer service though I’ve only asked questions, not actually ordered online from them yet.
Della Terra Teas is also a good place for flavored teas. Lots of good stuff there and they have these make your own try-me-packs so you can sample a handful of their different teas without having to buy larger amounts.
Adagio Tea is another place that I personally like, though I know it’s hit or miss for some people. But they have cheap sample packs of teas, and you can create your own blends of teas through their site, which is awesome. Half the fun of that is perusing the art people use as labels. Lol.
Butiki teas is amazing. I’ve only found a few teas from them that I love, but I keep going back to buy different ones because I love the company and their customer service is over the top.
I’ve also heard good things about Teavivre, though I have yet to order from them. Soon though.
And Verdant is a good place to get higher end teas, though my palate isn’t quite refined enough, so I miss out on alot of what makes their teas awesome. Lol. But that’s me. And it certainly hasn’t stopped me from buying a bunch of their teas to (eventually) try.

I’m not sure if this was what you were looking for, but I figure I’d add my two cents, so to speak. Lol.

I second what Shadowfall said, great suggestions. I think Teavana and DavidsTea are a good intro to loose leaf cause they make it fun and accessible, especially DavidsTea on the fun level.

However, as your tastes evolve and you are willing to try more unflavoured teas, they become useless.

Teavivre is in my opinion the best value for your buck. You get both the excellence in quality and service, and if you’re unsure of your choices, you can buy pretty much anything as a sample before committing to larger quantity.

If you want to stick to flavoured, once you try Butiki’s, it’s hard to go elsewhere, everything tastes funny after that :-)

Della Terra is a good «in between» choice, and a lot cheeper than Butiki, better than David and Teavana, again only in my humble opinion :-)

Keep on trying new stuff, and keep it fun!

Thanks teafairy!

Shadowfall and TeaFairy thank you so much for these suggestions. I’ve been wanting to explore outside the box (teavana) and didn’t quite know where to start. I feel a little less novice now. Looking forward to expanding my tea world.

I like David’s Tea as it’s fun and easy to stock up on their empty teabags with the drawstring (biodegradable) and I do love those ones the most. I also like some of their teas but not many. Butiki is awesome (try Good Morning Sunshine) I also like Verdant Tea as they have some really good teas. I can’t tell you in words what Verdant Tea tea is like as my tastebuds don’t speak english but yummy comes across. Also Red Leaf Tea has some great flavoured Matcha (CARAMEL MATCHA) and you can customize your matcha experience which is awesome. Don’t know how to make matcha? that’s okay there are various threads on here that will tell you just type it in “how to make matcha” and a few will pop up. As for Teavana I only bought filter bags when I was out and happened to be closer to them than Davids Tea at the time. So I really can’t rate them for anything.

The last time I went there, I clearly asked if I could purchase a cup of tea. The counter rep looked directly at me and yelled “we don’t give tea away, you’ll have to buy some”. Mortified, I looked around as everyone stared at me like some sort of beggar before clearing my throat and restating my request. “No, Ma’am, I want to BUY a cup of tea. You sell tea by the cup”.

It took some convincing, but one of her coworkers eventually persuaded her that you can, in fact, buy a cup of tea from Teavana. After waiting in line for what seemed like an enternity, I was handed a boiling hot paper cup of tea and sent on my way. After allowing it to cool for, no lie, half an hour, I found the tea to be acceptable, though not to my tastes.

Most of Teavana’s products are pretty good. Their prices are usually in the stratosphere, but the store is a great way for newbies like myself to get introduced to novel products on an impulse. What offends me about Teavana isn’t their prices, it’s the way their sales staff behaves. I’ve worked in retail, and frankly, most of these people are just downright unethical – upselling to several hundred times a stated amount that someone wants to spend and trying to push the transaction through as if the customer isn’t going to notice, misrepresenting health benefits of tea which are poorly understood as if they’re pharmacists instead of sales people and just acting like general buffoons. I don’t know if the company hires jerks and idiots, or if they’re trained to be that way, but I always struggle with the decision of whether or not to visit a store. I can accept the ridiculous prices in exchange for cool tea stuff on demand, but the behavior of their staff makes me sick.