T2 Edit

Stumbled upon this during a walk around Nolita/Soho, and just had to stop in. The aesthetics and general design and branding are very colorful, fun, and stylish without being juvenile. I think the branding is critical for a product like this because: 1. I’m a graphic designer and I dig that kind of stuff, and 2. it enhances your experience buying and trying the product. The staff was friendly and engaging, with zero pressure to buy, which I really appreciated. I love it when the people selling the tea are truly into it and love to talk about it, not just “sell.” They’re happy to brew whatever you’d like to try, and also had a bunch of brews to sample along the counter. We had an impromptu tea tasting since I wanted to try a few teas, and it was lots of fun. They also have lovely teaware on offer with beautiful, modern, colorful designs – very tempting! I ended up buying some flavored oolong and an infuser, which has been in almost constant use since I got it home.

The only criticism I have is that the teas are prepackaged, so you have to commit to at least 3.5 oz. of tea should you find something you’d like to buy. That’s quite a bit of tea for someone who likes to buy lots of small sample amounts, and then purchase larger quantities of favorites later. It would be great if you could buy whatever amount you wish – even if they had a minimum, like 1 oz. or so. Other than that, I really enjoyed the visit, and will definitely be back!

I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, since my first visit was a mere week after they opened, and a lot of their stock hadn’t come in yet. The staff seemed understandably frazzled, but kind and as helpful as possible. My initial impression is that unfortunately, the emphasis is on fitting into the neighborhood and creating a specific aesthetic.

I was disappointed to find that the brightly packaged boxes serve no real purpose, as they are not on any sort of color-coded system by tea-type as you would find at similar stores (for example at David’s tea, all black teas have navy labels, herbal have yellow and Rooibos, surprisingly enough have red labels). Beyond that the packaging seems unnecessary, and the various buying options for each tea are severely limited and skewed towards either end of the spectrum (i.e. very little- they call them “selfies” – or much too much). With no Goldilocks solutions it’s off-putting to take a gamble.

After looking at and smelling most of the teas on the wall, I found that very few appealed to me. Against my better judgment, I decided to give it a fair shot and purchased their version of a sampler of flavored black teas, since I like most in this category. So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’m curious to see how the shop fairs once it gets acclimated.