I’ve been playing around with the steeping time and proportions of this tea in the last three days, to find something to write about, today has the best results, but I think I shall try two minutes as well. This cup started off unexpectedly sweet, followed by some veg, then some rocky acidity (like tasting the soil), finished with nuttiness (though not as chestnut as I remember it being over the summer). Deeper in the cup there is indeed a bit of butterynes which is a lovely surprise, oh the roof of my mouth… I love this feeling. I have not gotten a good second steep from this and have not attempted a third, but will keep working with it, as I have plenty in my Forbidden Kingdom Collection and access as work.
Yesterday I finally put my two weeks notice in at work, though it may be three weeks as my manager asked as she left for evening if it was okay that she had put me on the next schedule, I was just like well… if you need me… she said she may adjust it. I will miss the free tea, the discount and my co-workers. I will not miss trying to push tea by the pound in over priced tins and feeling pressured to stalk my guests, thank you very much! She said I was welcome to come back in the fall, um no thanks, but maybe, just maybe for the holidays.
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Big step! Wishing you the best in your new adventures after Teavana. Despite the pressure to push and stalk, I’m sure you’ve also helped tons of customers fall more in love with tea, even if you just count you and your co-workers. Tea love can’t help but rub off. Happy trails
Thank you! I’ve definitely been able to share my love and enthusiasm, its the most rewarding part of the job, hopefully they will also find that there is a much bigger world of quality loose leaf tea out there, as I have done. I think Teavana can be a great introduction for new tea drinkers or new to loose leaf tea drinker, its just an overly pretentious one. My dream is to open a local tea bar, but that’s several years down the road.
That would be awesome! We definitely need more awesome tea bars. I’m crossing my fingers for one on every other block.. or at least one in my neighborhood that I can walk to.
I’ll travel up to visit, when you open your tea bar Autumn… good luck : )
It was great to have someone ‘on the inside’ there at Teavana. I’m certain, as Spoonvonstup mentioned, your passion for tea helped guide those around you to where they wanted to go in the big Tea world of ours. Good luck!
Thanks Cheryl! SimplicTEA, as far as inside news April 17th there will be lots of mark ups (particularly on cast-iron) and several mark downs on some yixing pots, statues and one type of trays and tea chest. Unfortunately most of the mark down items we don’t have in our store, not that I need to buy anything else ;)
I’m not in the market for any of those things, but thank you for the info.
I came to your profile from reading a post you made where someone said something about Teavana, I worked at the location in Annapolis, Maryland and recently left there after working for about a year. Defiantly agree with the things you’ve said and although I will miss the discounts, free drinks and awesome co workers, I will not miss pushing tea on people that I know won’t enjoy what they’re buying. Especially Gyokuro Imperial, not that its a bad tea but for those people who come in and are like uhhh well I heard green teas are good for you. Also, I was wondering if you’ve tried and Genmaicha from other tea vendors? I wanted to buy some but I’m not sure if its going to be better than Teavana’s.
Thanks for sharing on here and on the thread. I totally feel you on the Gyokuro, personally I like it but its not for everyone. When our regional manager was spending a few days at our store I heard second hand that she took over a sale and pushed this guy into gyo, even though he said he had had a bad experiences with greens before and didn’t want anything too grassy, she said oh no its really smooth trust me you’ll love it. I would have sold him Huang Shan for sure.
Yesterday I had a lady that brought in an empty tin of Yunnan Emerald Buds from the Heavenly Sale. I pulled out Emperor’s Clouds and Mists and my boss actually agreed with me that it was closest, but I also pulled out Huang Shan and Gyokuro and the lady went with the Gyo, not because I pushed it, I told her I had all three at home gave her three descriptors (nutty, smokey/sweet, and vegetal) it was her call.
So yeah I am back at Teavana (as of Tuesday) on an as needed basis until the holidays when she wants me back “as a regular”. It’s hard to say no to boss lady (we called her “Mama” before she was even the manager). I’m telling myself I’m doing it to help them out (store is struggling, new employees aren’t working out) but I am already stressed out at the prospect, but haven’t found anything better, I am good at it and it pays. I plan on taking all of February off and maybe not coming back after that. I thoroughly enjoyed my three months of no tea pushing, sales goals and significantly less migraines :sigh:
Oops sorry forgot to mention the Genmaicha, I’ve only tried one other from Le Place de Thes that I got in a swap. It had a bancha base (roasted green tea) that I found worked better than gyo, but its nothing I would seek out or pay money for, I just don’t think its my thing, but I would never turn down a cup if offered, especially if I found myself in Japan one day ;)
Big step! Wishing you the best in your new adventures after Teavana. Despite the pressure to push and stalk, I’m sure you’ve also helped tons of customers fall more in love with tea, even if you just count you and your co-workers. Tea love can’t help but rub off. Happy trails
Thank you! I’ve definitely been able to share my love and enthusiasm, its the most rewarding part of the job, hopefully they will also find that there is a much bigger world of quality loose leaf tea out there, as I have done. I think Teavana can be a great introduction for new tea drinkers or new to loose leaf tea drinker, its just an overly pretentious one. My dream is to open a local tea bar, but that’s several years down the road.
That would be awesome! We definitely need more awesome tea bars. I’m crossing my fingers for one on every other block.. or at least one in my neighborhood that I can walk to.
I’ll travel up to visit, when you open your tea bar Autumn… good luck : )
It was great to have someone ‘on the inside’ there at Teavana. I’m certain, as Spoonvonstup mentioned, your passion for tea helped guide those around you to where they wanted to go in the big Tea world of ours. Good luck!
Thanks Cheryl! SimplicTEA, as far as inside news April 17th there will be lots of mark ups (particularly on cast-iron) and several mark downs on some yixing pots, statues and one type of trays and tea chest. Unfortunately most of the mark down items we don’t have in our store, not that I need to buy anything else ;)
I’m not in the market for any of those things, but thank you for the info.
I came to your profile from reading a post you made where someone said something about Teavana, I worked at the location in Annapolis, Maryland and recently left there after working for about a year. Defiantly agree with the things you’ve said and although I will miss the discounts, free drinks and awesome co workers, I will not miss pushing tea on people that I know won’t enjoy what they’re buying. Especially Gyokuro Imperial, not that its a bad tea but for those people who come in and are like uhhh well I heard green teas are good for you. Also, I was wondering if you’ve tried and Genmaicha from other tea vendors? I wanted to buy some but I’m not sure if its going to be better than Teavana’s.
Thanks for sharing on here and on the thread. I totally feel you on the Gyokuro, personally I like it but its not for everyone. When our regional manager was spending a few days at our store I heard second hand that she took over a sale and pushed this guy into gyo, even though he said he had had a bad experiences with greens before and didn’t want anything too grassy, she said oh no its really smooth trust me you’ll love it. I would have sold him Huang Shan for sure.
Yesterday I had a lady that brought in an empty tin of Yunnan Emerald Buds from the Heavenly Sale. I pulled out Emperor’s Clouds and Mists and my boss actually agreed with me that it was closest, but I also pulled out Huang Shan and Gyokuro and the lady went with the Gyo, not because I pushed it, I told her I had all three at home gave her three descriptors (nutty, smokey/sweet, and vegetal) it was her call.
So yeah I am back at Teavana (as of Tuesday) on an as needed basis until the holidays when she wants me back “as a regular”. It’s hard to say no to boss lady (we called her “Mama” before she was even the manager). I’m telling myself I’m doing it to help them out (store is struggling, new employees aren’t working out) but I am already stressed out at the prospect, but haven’t found anything better, I am good at it and it pays. I plan on taking all of February off and maybe not coming back after that. I thoroughly enjoyed my three months of no tea pushing, sales goals and significantly less migraines :sigh:
Oops sorry forgot to mention the Genmaicha, I’ve only tried one other from Le Place de Thes that I got in a swap. It had a bancha base (roasted green tea) that I found worked better than gyo, but its nothing I would seek out or pay money for, I just don’t think its my thing, but I would never turn down a cup if offered, especially if I found myself in Japan one day ;)