Birth of a Tearoom - Part 6

It's all starting to come together now...

We moved over our massive stock of tea--over 150 types mostly in 2 kilo bags!  These shelves are actually quite bare compared to when we are fully supplied.  We sold so much tea before we moved, that we have to put in another order as soon as time permits, which has to be soon since we are totally out of some of our most popular teas.

 

So, the tea cottage is now full of tea, and the lettering overhead finally came in and was mounted on the wall. 

 

And we've now got a good start on packaging tea for the shop shelves.

Merchandise is in the un-packing and slowly re-appearing on the shelves.

The outside sign got mounted on the front of the building.  Got our name and hours posted on the front door.  It looks great when lit at night, and this street gets so much traffic that we've even gotten several calls from new customers in the area who want to know when we are opening. 

My favorite Priscilla tea set is back at home on its charming old tea cart.  It's rickety and wobbly, but the old tea set somehow looks right sitting on the glass tea tray, just waiting to serve a lovely tea to some eager tea lover.

The health department came today and granted my license without much ado, and it looks like we will actually be ready to open this Saturday!

And Einstein rests again above my desk, inspiring me on so many levels.  His quote, "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds..." somehow helps me to deal with all the challenges of running a small business. 

Almost there...whew!

 

Birth of a Tea Room - Prologue

I thought I would chronicle the move from our wonderful shop on Monroe St. to our new location on W. Sylvania Ave.  It's not quite as simple as moving from point A to point B. There's so much to be done in order to prepare the space.  I thought it might be interesting for others to see what all happens to bring a new shop into existence.

 

So, here's a shot of what our beautiful shop looked like right before we had to start tearing it down.  Within a matter of days, we went from this...

 

to this!!!

 

We sold all but about a dozen bags of tea (we usually have over 1000 bags on the shelves)!  It was cold, nasty and the end of February when we had to move.  And, since our planned new location fell through at the last minute, everything--merchandise, supplies, appliances, shelving and fixtures, sinks, tables and chairs, plants, signs, my desk, files and office equipment, over 150 teas in kilo sized bags, my extensive teapot collection, and everything else--had to be stored until we found a suitable new home.  Nightmare is the word that comes to mind!

 

But, we were determined to rise from the ashes again, and the search was on to find our new home.  The first place was quite nice--we met with the owner, agreed on all the details, and shook hands on the deal.  Later, he backed out, leaving us in a spot.  A hand shake used to mean something--so much for integrity. One perfect spot 4 doors down from where we were wouldn't rent because the building owner didn't want to put the money into it to replace the broken furnace.  I even offered to do that in lieu of rent the first year, but they just dragged their feet so we moved on.

 

One by one another dozen or more potential places fell through.  One was a medical suite broken up into lots of small rooms.  The owner thought he would "sit on it" until another medical business came along.  Another great location had the space broken up between main floor and downstairs, where the bathroom was.  Too many steps for my (and others') arthritic knees!  Others spaces were too large or too small or too expensive. 

 

And then, one day, my wonderful brother (a retired carpenter who has helped me immensely with each shop incarnation) and I checked out the W. Sylvania spot.  The square footage was listed as almost exactly what we had on Monroe St.  A beverage type business had just moved out, so the plumbing for all the required sinks and ice machine was already in place--a major plus.  Upon measuring it out, we found it was actually over 100 sq. ft. smaller!  But, with lots of floor plan revisions, we decided we could make it fit. 

 

And, so, it begins... 

 

A Sweet and Peaceful Tea

Sunday, yesterday, was a Sweet and Peaceful day. I had the great pleasure of taking tea with a friend at Sweet Shalom Tea Room in Sylvania, Ohio.  As always, Chris, the sweet proprietor, and her partners-in-peace had prepared a lovely themed tea on the 1950's.  Chris served as "Aunt Bea" for the day, from the Andy Griffith show.  It took us all back to a saner, more peaceful time. 

The menu was right out of the simple food of the 50's.  Plain cream scones with butter and apricot jam--warm and melt-in-your-mouth good.  Second course of quiche followed by third course of tea sandwiches: ribbon, chicken salad, and cucumber cream cheese.  Plus banana nut muffin with cream cheese frosting and peanut butter cholocate chip cookie.  
The place settings were so lovely, as usual; perhaps a bit simpler, as they would have been in the 50's.  The tea menu allows for a different tea with each course, so my friend Karen and I chose our favorites for each.  Never too much tea, and the variety offered in one setting was heavenly!  Karen had never been to a formal "tea", so it was a real treat for her.  It's always a treat for me, too, as this is where I get to relax and enjoy being served instead of serving customers myself.  That magic, rejuvenating power of tea in a warm inviting setting--one can hardly ask for more!
One of the touches I particularly enjoyed was the mantle in our room, decorated with Hats and Hankies from the era.  For those of you not old enough to remember days pre-Kleenex, a lady always had her hankies.  I remember ironing them with my grandmother, and always enjoyed the variety of prints and patterns they came in.

And then it came time to bid farewell to this retreat to the serenity of the 50's.  It was a most lovely day filled with good food, good tea and good company.  As we left, Aunt Bea stood at the front door, wishing us a "Sweet Shalom." 

 I could swear I heard Andy whistling his tune as we sauntered back to our 21st century lives, sated and filled with marvelous memories of sweeter days gone by.

A Day in the Life...of a Tea Room Owner

A Day in the Life…(warning...lengthy)

10:10am  Racing to the shop, and thank God it’s only 2 minutes from home.  My dear, sweet Siberian got her heart set on a squirrel again this morning and it is just too hot to leave her outside for the day. So, after several other bribes, “Frosty Paws” doggy ice cream finally coaxes her safely into her crate for the day. 

10:12am  Pull in the parking lot—thankfully no customers are waiting for me to open.  I just hate disappointing customers or making them wait.  Check the mail, park and unload my car: computer bag with my new computer which has not yet made my life easier, since I still have to tote my old computer too, as my new one has windows 7 that won’t run most of my old programs and it will take me months and months to convert over and run the learning curve on new ones.  So much for efficiency.  By that time, my computer will probably be outdated and I’ll need a new one which won’t run any of the “old” programs I just learned…. Well, you see where I’m going…  At any rate, my computer bag is heavy and a pain which is why I finally got one on wheels. 

I also have a batch of fresh scones that I made last night. Thank God for my KitchenAid mixer! I make them at home and sell them under “cottage industry” for two reasons. First is that when I moved to this new location, downsizing so that I could stay alive in this insane economy, I really didn’t have comfortable space for my convection oven and baking ingredients and paraphernalia.  Also, my food license cost would have doubled each year if I baked them on site as opposed to “cottage industry” in my home.  So, it was an easy financial decision.  The only problem is, my husband is getting fat as he can never resist a piping hot scone fresh from the oven!  (Just kidding, dear!) 

10:15am  Unlock doors, take the signs out to the road.  When I moved to this location, I got my own road-side sign on the large sign for our small plaza.  It is worth, well, almost all the tea in China to me.  It brings me so much business to have people driving by be able to see the name of the shop right out there.  I didn’t have that at my last location.   

But, in this economy, seems like enough is never enough anymore, so I put more push-in-the-ground changeable signs to put out teasers like an enticing “Lavender Lemonade” sign on a hot summer day, or one that says, quite honestly, that we have the “Best Teas in Town”, since there are not one, but two other tea shops practically within a stone’s throw from me.  When many towns don’t even have specialty tea shops, we have 3 within a mile of each other.  Sometimes the retail gods are just unkind, I think.  But then, other times, I realize that when tea drinkers try my tea—as they always make the rounds to all the tea shops, they never go back to the other ones, having discovered that my teas really are the “Best Teas in Town”.  So, in the end, it’s all good. 

Lights on, music on, plug in the hot water urns. Start to put dishes away from yesterday and an early customer comes in.  Yea!  Sample tea’s not made yet, but I guess that’ll have to wait.  Of course she needs the larger bag of Very Berry White tea, of which there are none on the shelf, so I have to bag some for her on the spot.  No problem, I love bagging up whatever the customer needs, but I am frustrated that I just can’t seem to keep up on bagging.  It’s a never ending task, of course.  I stock my shop with a few bags of each tea, so that the customer doesn’t have to wait to have their tea bagged every time they come in.  I use triple lined bags specially made for tea storage, so the tea stays fresh, and the customers appreciate not having to wait.  But with over 150 teas in stock, that’s a lot of bagging! 
That’s another consequence of this horrible economy.  I can no longer afford employees.  So I do it all myself.  ALL.  I used to have 2 employees, back in the good ol’ days when I first opened the shop—before the economy began to tank in 2001 and now we’re left with this daily struggle for survival—at least in our town.  I’ll spare you what I really think of the whole thing. It’s such an awesome and overwhelming responsibility to run a business like this by oneself, I can’t even allow myself to think about it for long or I crumble into mush.  I’m just like the bunny that just keeps going and going…  I don’t have any choice--other than close the shop.  And that’s just not a choice I want to make right now.  Or can.  But, that’s another discussion for another time.

Back to the brighter side of things, I help the customer find a new tea to add to her repertoire—perhaps my most favorite shop thing to do—and check her out.  Back to set-up:  make sample tea for the day.  What to have today…?  Definitely iced, as it was over 100 degrees yesterday and going to be in the 90’s today.  I glance through the “Tea Cottage” of tea tins I have on the wall and Peach Apricot pops out at me.  Ooh…that’s a good one iced! I’ll make that. 

Get the ice container out of the refrigerator to fill from the ice machine in the back room.  Another fallout from the downsizing.  The service area in this new shop isn’t big enough for the ice machine to be up front, so every day I have to fill a plastic container of ice and keep it in the fridge for ice for the day’s use.  I had to sell my old full size fridge and downsize to an under-counter model to fit the space as well.  Everything is in miniature here, but there are some positive trade-offs to these changes.  The compressors on the old fridge and ice machine were/are so loud, I wouldn’t want them up front in the service area, where my desk and work space is, too.  Being a bit hard-of-hearing, I would have trouble hearing customers over the loud hums every time they kick on, as I did in the old shop.  And with a smaller fridge, which seems to work fine for me here since we no longer do the lunch food service, the electric bill is smaller too.

So, I make the sample tea—juicy Peach Apricot, Iced—and while I’m at it, my first cup of tea for the day.  That’s the biggest plus for me in owning a tea shop.  Hot water on tap all day long, and over 150 premium teas at my fingertips.  I don’t wade through all of those every day; I do have my favorites.  I love green and white teas.  Our Monk’s Green is one of my all-time favorites.  It’s an Osmanthus scented tea, with tiny white flowers that smell softly of peaches.  And today I’ll blend it with a white pu-erh since I’m trying to heed Dr. Oz’s advice to drink pu-erh in the morning to shrink fat cells.  What the heck, it’s worth a try!  And, I’m a firm believer in the myriad health benefits of drinking tea regularly.  More than a believer.  I’ve experienced results and so have many of my customers.  Anecdotal evidence, I know, which holds almost no credibility in the medical community, but just google the research studies on tea, and you’ll see that there are plenty of bona fide double-blind studies done on tea which show astoundingly positive health benefits. 

Finish putting away dishes—the French presses from yesterday, plus mugs and iced tea glasses, silverware, and dishes from scones served.  And there was such a rush for the last two hours of the day yesterday, that the whole counter is a mess!  Tea tins and bags from refills that I didn’t have time to put away yesterday, ones I left out to remind me to bag for the shelves today, and some that need to be blended.  I love to make my own tea blends.  All but the chamomile ones—I’m allergic to chamomile.  If I blend it, which involves lots of stirring, my nose, face, neck, and arms itch for the rest of the day.  I have to beg a friend to help or enlist my husband, who’s virtually become the TeaMan around here, counterpart to my TeaLady role, whenever I need a chamomile blend tea made-up. 

11:15am  Set my computer up.  Sort through mail; throw out most of it. No bills today—yea!  Better check e-mail.   A task I used to love but have come to dread.  So much spam.  So much desperation advertising.  Even from companies that I like—they just send too much that checking e-mail has become a dreaded, arduous task.  It’s virtually ruined as a method of communication—and it was a great one.  But people are so inundated with unwanted e-mails that many don’t even read their mail anymore. 

Case in point:  I have been trying to keep in communication with customers through a dedicated e-mail newsletter list.  I send it only once a month.  It is colorful, not too wordy, has lots of pictures, and cuts to the chase of what’s important happening at the shop: new teas, classes, etc.  When I moved the shop 2 ½ years ago, I sent out e-mails letting the list know what was happening.  I was closed for about 2 months setting up the new shop, and I sent out numerous  e-mails letting customers know our projected opening date, then the real opening date, and then made a huge announcement of our Grand Re-Opening. 

About a year after I’d moved a woman came into the shop and said, “So this is where you moved to.  I’ve been looking for you for the longest time.”  I told her what I’d told everyone else who’d had trouble finding me after the move: “You need to get on our monthly e-mail newsletter list so you can keep up on what’s happening at the shop.”  And she quickly retorted, “Oh, I'm on it, but I don’t read my e-mail.  I get too many of them, and I just gave up on it!”  Now, I sent out at least a half-dozen e-mails telling of the shop move, and she hadn’t even read the subject line of one of them.  Sometimes it makes you just want to give up!  I gently suggested she just watch for them since I don’t bombard anyone with excessive mail, and check each month to see what’s happening at the shop.  I’ve actually started a monthly tea sale for newsletter readers only, just to bribe people to actually read their mail.  It’s all I can think to do. 

11:20am  Another customer comes in.  She asks if she can sit and have some tea and scones—do we still do that?  “Of course!”, I tell her. She explains what a hectic day it’s been for her already and how she desperately needs to just sit and re-group.  Besides, it is just beginning to rain outside, and as I look up I also hear a loud grumble of thunder.  “That’s what we’re here for,” I add.  We only have 3 small tables now but that keeps it quiet and intimate, serene and always relaxing in the tea shop.  So, once the ladies, and some gents discover this about us, they usually come back for more.  There’s nowhere else in town you can go to find this kind of peace and quiet, not to mention the exceptional tea and made-from-scratch scones.

I explain that I just made a fresh batch of cranberry scones last night which she said sounded great to her, and did she need to look at the tea menu or already know which tea she wanted?  She asked for a nice strong tea like Irish Breakfast, which, of course, we have, so I set about making her tea and warming her scones.  I also serve real clotted cream from England.  A pain to get in stock and maintain, but really the best thing to serve with scones, along with a nice strawberry jam.  I pull the glass plate, add a doily, and two new bird spreaders criss-crossed between little cups of clotted cream and jam while the scones are warming.  Tea first, though, always.  It amazes me how many employees over the years would want to serve the food first and the tea later.  I could never understand that.  What restaurant have you ever been to where you didn’t get your beverage first?  And I want their first taste to be the tea.  To me that’s primary-that first sip of tea starts the whole relaxation response.

4:50pm…Well, after that, it’s all a blur, and that’s as far as I got blogging today.  Where the rest of the day went would take 20 or so pages to elaborate.  So, it’s time to close up shop for the day and head home.  Grab dinner and do books on my laptop while my hubby and I watch a little TV.  Maybe I can put together that teapot order I’ve been wanting to do, and just don’t seem to find the time during the day.  And I need more infusers—almost out of those, plus the honey stock is getting low, and I would really like to find some more colorful teakettles to carry.  Oh, if only I could clone myself or figure out how to add another 24 more hours to each day!  But, I’ll think about that tomorrow.  Like Scarlet said, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”

WOW New TeaShirt!

Front of Shirt

                                                                    

We're excited to premier our brand new TeaShirt design with our favorite tea quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.  Tell the world what a WOW (Wild Orchid Woman) lady you are with this great design.  Every woman understands this quote to the core--we often shoulder burdens that would send most men into blind panic.  And we do it with grace and ease.  Like the woman on this shirt, calmly relaxing in hot springs in some lovely surrounding. 

Supplies are limited, but if interested, just call Elaine's Wild Orchid Teas @ 419-885-1515.  We have sizes: S, M, L, XL, $19.95, and XXL, $21.95. +S/H

So, the next time you find yourself in hot water, just tell yourself how WOW you are, remember your inner strength, and of course, have a nice cup of tea! 

Back side

"I Break for Tea!"

There has been a lot of chatting lately on Afternoon Tea Across America (an on-line tea chat group) about an "I Break for Tea!" bumber sticker, and we now have one available!  Due to a very limited initial supply, we haven't posted these on the Wild Orchid Teas web site yet, and they are only available here.  To order just call Elaine at 866-TEA-LADY (832-5239) during our posted hours: Tues/Weds/Thur 10am-5pm, Fri/Sat 10am-4pm EST.  Cost is $7.95 + $2.95 S/H. 

AND...for a limited time, and only for the first 20 orders, we will include a *FREE* coordinated magnet with Eleanor Roosevelt's famous (and our favorite) quote: "A woman is like a teabag...you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." 



Sri Lanka - A Tea Paradise

Whew!  It's been a long time since I've blogged!  We've been to Sri Lanka and back and what a tour that was!  We visited 4 different tea estates and saw many of the island's wonders, like all the animals on safari--water buffalo, elephants, leopards, beautiful birds, peacocks, wild boar and monkeys.  We visited a spice garden and batik factory, and stayed at many wonderful hotels along the Indian Ocean. 

The people are so lovely there.  Warm, gentle, friendly, and as un-stressed a population as I've ever seen.  It was in the balmy 80's every day.  We had a light afternoon rain on only one day, when we saw a rainbow end-to-end while driving up into the mountains to visit one of the high-grown estates. 

The food was interesting---hot spicy curry in everything!  Because of the British influence of the island's history, there were some bland, more western selections too.  And of course, tea!  Lots and lots of fresh Ceylon tea.  Every meal, every meeting, every gathering whatever the reason was punctuated with tea.  That suited us just fine, of course. 

I promise to write more later, and post more photos as time permits.  We are moving our shop soon to a new location.  Like many small businesses, downsizing and belt tightening is essential for our long term survival, and so, we'll be very busy over the next few months preparing our new digs for a grand opening.  We'll keep you posted.

Photos Copyright January 2010 by Phil and Elaine Terman

Tea & Chocolate

Last Saturday we held another favorite shop event: Tea and Chocolate Pairing.  What could be better than that?!
We tasted 6 different teas along side 6 scrumptious chocolates.  I had paired tea and chocolates which I thought would coordinate best, and from previous experience expected to find how each chocolate enhanced each tea.  We were delightfully surprised to find the tea enhanced the chocolate as much as the reverse! 
One of the pairings, an intense orange infused dark was mated with our orange blossom oolong.  The oolong is not exactly a flavored tea, but has subtle hints of orange from orange peel.  When we sipped and nipped these side by side--WOW!  The orange in the tea was so beautifully enhanced that we were all amazed.  And then, upon tasting the chocolate again, the orange flavors positively resonated with each other.  What an eye opener!
I'd experienced a similar reaction at the previous tasting where an intense dark was paired with a Keemun. I tasted the Keemun--yes, the familiar hint of ripe red grape with backrgound hints of cocao.  But after the chocolate, with my next sip of Keemun, it was as if a whole bunch of grapes burst in my mouth!  Simply put: scrumptious. 
If you have never realized what wonderful mates tea and chocolate can be, you simply must try this enlightening experience for yourself.  General rule of thumb: pair lighter chocolates with lighter teas, such as white chocolate with white tea, light milk chocolates with light greens, and darker chocolates with heavier black teas.  You are sure to be pleasantly surprised.
I have to admit, we were all sporting a bit of caffeine buzz after all that chocolate and tea, supporting the idea that it was an eye opening experience in more ways than one!

The Cheers of Tea

I walked into the shop today and almost every table was filled with old familiar faces.  I was struck by the moment, and couldn't help saying, "Well!  I see the gang's all here!", which brought a chuckle from the crowd.  Carolyn was there, as she is every day or quite nearly so. And as a testament to her addiction to having lunch with us, she'd broken her finger the night before, and had yet to go to the emergency room to have it looked at!  When we said she should get there right away, she looked at us like we were crazy and said, "Well, I have to have lunch first, don't I?!"  And there was Suzanne who comes about twice a week to escape the dull assisted living lunch menu and swap stories about what's happened lately.  Then there's Barb, who lost her husband recently.  She comes in for relaxation, the camaraderie, and of course, good tea and food.   And last but not least were our favorite mother/daughter duo enjoying one of their frequent summer lunches together since mom's a snow bird and heads south for the winter. 

It really does feel like Cheers sometimes.  We know many customers by name and they each have their own distinct personalities.  They come in and share what's going on in their lives.  On occasion, one of our young college student regulars won't have much money on her, and we let her run a tab.  Another will bring in the new dress to show us that she's just bought for the class reunion.  Where else can you go and be regularly surrounded by supportive friends?  We really are like the Cheers of Tea!  And we love it!

A New Tea Snob is Born

We held the first class of our Fall Tea Tasting Series today. I always look forward to teaching the series which we hold in the spring and fall, as it's an opportunity for me to get folks really turned on to tea.

This class was all about black teas. We tasted 8 teas in all. Gingia Estate Assam, Mim Estate Darjeeling, Estate Courtlodge Ceylon, Keemun Panda Gr. 1, Organic Royal Golden Yunnan, Temi Estate Sikkim, Woodlands Estate Nilgiri, and Smoky Lapsang Souchong. Even though participants may have tasted other examples of some of these teas in the past, it is always an eye opening experience to taste these straight basic black teas side-by-side. The subtle character of each stands out and by the end of class, palates are hightened and more educated.

24 teas in all compose the course, and when completed, the participant becomes a certified 'Tea Snob'--our tongue-in-cheek way of saying that they now know lots about tea. One of the participants had already completed the other two classes in the series last spring, Green Teas and Whites & Oolongs. So, today, she became our latest Tea Snob with certificate to prove it! It was a fun and relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The Honorable Aaron Fisher

I recently stumbled upon a new tea magazine--The Leaf--which is the first on-line magazine on tea (and perhaps anything else). It is free, environmentally friendly, and reader interactive. Wow! It doesn't get any better than that!

The Honorable Aaron Fisher is the editor-in-chief of this beautiful magazine. He lives in Taiwan now, after travelling the globe for 10 years, and has made it his life's work to "live" tea. That is abundantly apparent in his writing, and it was unmistakably clear to me when I met him.

He and his father wandered into the shop one sunny day last summer when he was visiting his parents. He happens to have grown up in Sylvania where we are located. He was thrilled to find real tea as a focus served in a real tea shop in his home town, not just the afterthought it usually is in most restaurants and coffee shops. I was pleased to have him join me for tea that afternoon.

Actually, it was I who joined him and his father, at least in the beginning. As any true tea man, he travels with his paraphernalia, and readily went to his car to bring in his well used Gong Fu tea so that he could share some of the fine pu-ehr and oolong teas he had in his stash. The reverence with which he prepared his tea (the essence of the true Gong Fu tea method) was a joy to behold. We sipped and talked, talked and sipped. So many wonderful cups of tea! I have no idea how much time passed. It was like a meditation, where one is fully present in the moment, and oblivious to all else. It reminded me of the flow one reaches when doing Tai Chi, where you are somehow not bound by, nor concerned with time and all of the stress and "stuff" of daily life just falls away.

We'd had quite a lot of tea, but I proceeded to pull out some of my better teas to share with them. I was so grateful for this moment of perfection, and I wanted to give something back, although I could tell he was one of those souls who gives in the true spirit of passion for this amazing leaf, neither expecting nor needing anything in return. But, I needed to give back. So we drank and talked some more. It was a truly memorable afternoon. I was honored to meet and take tea with this truly honorable man.

If you would like to learn more about the reverence of tea, the history of tea, the wonder of this ancient elixir, please visit his new magazine, The Leaf. You can find it at the following link.
http://www.the-leaf.org/index.htm