What makes a good tea store? T2 store review
Visited a new branch here of T2, second time at a T2 not counting when I was in Aussie and not yet a tea fanatic. A shop full of brightly labelled boxes lined up along the walls, a long bench with 3 or 4 sample jugs of tea and a table of little open boxes of tea leaves to sniff. Brightly coloured tea pots and accessories around the store. Call me a tea snob maybe but I was not very impressed and left after about 10 min without buying anything.Although it is a newly opened branch, I found the little sniffer boxes dull to the senses, unlike the bright stronger scent you get when opening a sealed tea sample packet at home. The lidded glass jars at my little local book-cum-tea store/cafe are much preferable and at least keep in the scent.
Maybe I got a shopkeeper newbie but when I asked about their oolongs I was expecting an opportunity to sample but no. What sort of customers are these shops aimed at? If you want to sell hugely overpriced oolongs at close to $40 per 100g inside a generic little cardboard box, I want to at least sample what I’m getting or know a bit more about its origin.
The only teas they had brewed to sample were overpowering fruit flavoured something or other with names like “Spring”.
Conclusion, and I feel a bit mean saying this but this tea store is marketed for attracting the general public / passers-by who are maybe new to tea, or looking for a gift for someone. Not for serious tea drinkers. Also why don’t they sell samples (in-store or online) to try at home?
Wish we had more options here in New Zealand. Getting tea past Customs when buying online from overseas is apparently a hit & miss situation (due to the strict quarantine laws here). Anyway I digress.
What makes for a good tea store?
In stores, welcoming appearance, since I’m finnish and pretty shy it’s important for me that the shop looks ‘comfortable’ and like you just need to visit there, because it just looks inviting. I don’t want to visit in dark shabby place.
Also huge part is selection and salesmen that know their stuff. If I come in and ask a fruity green tea they can point me one. Usually unflavoured ones don’t get so much attention (at least here) some shops don’t really have any repertory, and they cost pretty much. I could point out some more, but my brains froze. Maybe tommorow.
They just opened a location in NYC and I had the same impression. The tea was very expensive for the quality of what was offered. Why pay out the nose for mediocre tea when I can have a tasting for $10 at a traditional tea shop a few blocks away?
I agree with @Riimu, I don’t like it when a tea shop doesn’t really know their stuff. I especially dislike it when I walk into a Teavana store where I probably know more about tea than the person who is approaching me and they have such an air of arrogance about them like I don’t know tea, and it turns out that they’re really tea incompetent.
Other things that I dislike when I walk into a tea shop: I really dislike it when I walk into a shop and I see that the teas are not properly stored. Yeah, teas can be very beautiful and would be nicely displayed in jars, but jars are not the best thing to store a tea in because the light can be harmful. I’d be much happier to walk in and see the teas in airtight tins.
I like it when the tea shop is willing to not only sell me samples of the teas that I want to try but they’ll also brew up a cup for me on the spot. I like that. I get that kind of attention at Tea Chai Te in Portland.
I like going to Smith Teamakers and seeing that they’re doing their blending right on premises. Plus, I get the bonus of sometimes seeing Steven Smith who is like a rock star to me.
Dear Cherry Jam,
I have followed you but am unable to message you, so I hope that you don’t mind that I am writing to you here… Please follow me and I’ll move this to a pm…
I am going to be in New Zealand from March to November 2015. I’ll be in Curio Bay (the south tip of South Island) for most of the time, but I’ll travel to parts north and west during April and August. I am so excited!
Since you are in NZ, I have a couple of questions for you, if you don’t mind. First, may I bring tea into the country? I naturally want to pack a huge suitcase of oolongs, Chinese and Japanese greens, Darjeelings and Assams, etc., but I am worried that tea, being a plant product, might be confiscated. Do you know what the story on getting tea through customs is? Which leads to my second question: are there high-end companies which ship free to NZ?
Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
sherapop
sherapop – you will find you must declare it on arrival at the airport, and I’m assuming if it’s factory sealed packets they should let it go through (they may want to inspect it). I am imagining that anything opened will be taken away and disposed of (?). Either way, just declare it (there is an instant fine of $400 if they find undeclared food etc items).
As for high end companies that ship free to NZ, I don’t know sorry. I haven’t been down that track yet (mostly because of the NZ Customs issue). I am thinking of doing a test purchase of buying some tea cheaply from aliexpress and seeing what happens. But there is a Harney’s distributor here where you can buy online (they don’t stock everything tho).
I think what I desire in a shop now is pretty different than what I would have been looking for a while back as a tea drinker. I drank a lot of tea back then, but I wasn’t too concerned about developing my palate, just enjoying the tea, and I didn’t have a huge interest in knowing a lot about my tea.
I think the things that stay the same for me are:
- knowledgeable staff
- good selection
- in store samples or sample sizes for sale
- reasonable amount of info available without having to ask (a price list, tasting notes, ingredients, description)
- warm, inviting atmosphere
- fresh samples to smell
What’s changed is that now I want a shop that:
- has a good selection of straight, single origin teas
- has detailed information about these teas – when they were picked, where they’re from, how this harvest might be different from previous harvests
- can justify and explain why similar looking teas are different prices
- provides steeping instructions that are specific to each tea
- provides both Western and gongfu steeping directions
- staff who know more than me
Where as in the past, I would have been looking for:
- lots of flavoured blends
- access to my favourite blends
- year to year consistency from all teas
I think for me:
- a comprehensive website with detailed information about each tea, including origin and tasting notes (I will always do my research before I buy)
- ability to purchase samples cheaply online
- proper brewing instructions specific for each tea, including volume of cup (ie a Chinese teacup is smaller than a western teacup).
- samples for inspection in store (in closed jars)
- competitive pricing (eg T2’s $70 matcha bowl and $48 chasen whisk is just ridiculous pricing)
- knowledgeable staff who know more than me (ain’t gonna happen)
- reasonably large selection
- details, details, details – eg when looking at flavoured black teas I want to know what the base tea is, is it an Assam, Ceylon, Yunnan etc not just “black tea”
Oh, yes on the details! In the past I never would have cared what kind of black or green or whatever base a tea was because I just didn’t know enough about different teas for that info to be meaningful for me. Now, it’s really nice to know, because I have a pretty good sense of which straight teas I like and don’t like. I also feel that companies that give this level of attention to detail are more likely to take into account the qualities of the specific base when doing brewing instructions. Something with a black Assam base should probably not be treated the same as a Darjeeling black base.
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