The Rendezvous With Tea

This quaint tea shop opened around the beginning of December, and I was fortunate to visit it when I was in the area over Christmas. My boyfriend’s mother chatted with her as I browsed at all the teas she had in her shop. The owner is a lovely lady who was born in Sri Lanka but moved to Michigan by way of Malaysia. She has two children who attend university in the U.S. and she fell in love with Grosse Pointe. She has also experienced her first snow around that time, though I suspect she is very tired of snow now!
When you enter, in the «foyer» you’ll notice an array of tea pots and even a gongfu tea set, all of which are reasonably priced. (I have been looking for a gongfu tea set for a while and they can be quite pricey, depending on what the tea ware is made of.) Once in the shop, there were a lot of teas, mostly individual sachets and boxed, as well as bulk loose leaf tea for the tea purist. I didn’t recognize the brands, but many of them are in wooden boxes and have a vintage feel to them.
I purchased a few tisanes: Madagascar Almond Spice (25g/​$ 3.50), Ipanema Clementine (25g/​$ 3.50), and Organic Rose Petals (25g/​$ 5.50). The prices are not inexpensive, but I am a tea lover and am happy to support small businesses, especially when I am in the Detroit area. I really enjoy the Ipanema Clementine – it makes such a bright and cheery cup, especially with all the wintery mess we’ve had this year. I also infuse the organic rose petals with my black teas or earl grey.
A few things I would suggest to the owner (and maybe she has done so already) is invest in a label maker or perhaps pre-​print the names of the tea on an Avery address label and that way she doesn’t have to spend a lot of time hand writing the label. I imagine it would be very time consuming if a customer bought a lot of loose leaf tea. I was at another tea shop in New York and I noticed they kept their labels in a clear pouch that was attached to the back of the bulk tea tin for easy access. Another thing I would suggest is that she purchase twist ties for the tea bags, so that the tea would keep fresh longer. My purchases were sealed with scotch tape, so when I got home, I used binder clips instead. Lastly, if she has the resources – I hope she gets a website up and running and signs up for a Steepster account. That’s where a lot of hard core and net-​savvy tea drinkers hang out.
I will definitely pop in here the next time I’m in the area!