TeaChat

mmmm...mushroom tea

woozl wrote:mmmm...mushroom tea

マッシュルーム-cha

auggy wrote:

Chip wrote:Anyway, as your friendly neighborhood moderator ...

I picture you wearing a Mr. Rodger's style sweater while saying this. Is that wrong?

I have been called a lot of things, but never Mr. Rodger's.

woozl wrote:mmmm...mushroom tea

Somehow I'm not brave enough to try this stuff.

I like kombucha when it's mixed with fruit juice. It's not really mushroom.

GeekgirlUnveiled wrote:I like kombucha when it's mixed with fruit juice. It's not really mushroom.

Yeah, I know, it just looks so weird and "mushroom-like."

ErikaM wrote: The top 5% of the world's tea crop, selected and imported straight into Teavana. (I kid you not; I'm quoting that last sentence verbatim.)

Man, they actually said that??

I think I read somewhere (probably here), that some of Teavana's teas came from suppliers like Specialteas. Then, today, I was browsing The Tea Table, and their Rooibos Chai looks an awful lot like the Teavana Chai I have. Do we know if any of Teavana's premium teas can be bought elsewhere, and if so, where can I get some Matevana that isn't Teavana?

That was an amazing story. I can say that it is nice to know the story of stores from a behind the scenes perspective. I can also say that money is a powerful motivator. I choose which stores to spend my almighty dollar in, and choose not to spend my dollar in stores that do not treat our world, our people, and our futures with respect. I will be putting this chain on my no-no list, right next to the evil empire(you know who I'm referring to)

ErikaM wrote:
The top 5% of the world's tea crop, selected and imported straight into Teavana.

I currently work at a Teavana and months ago I found a spent Chinese cigarette butt in our "To Life" Tea. When you buy from Teavana, you're also getting EXTRA ingredients you're not even aware of! They're amazing!

cedricjennings wrote:
I currently work at a Teavana and months ago I found a spent Chinese cigarette butt in our "To Life" Tea. When you buy from Teavana, you're also getting EXTRA ingredients you're not even aware of! They're amazing!

Actually, that's probably not terribly uncommon for an importer who deals with such volumes, and while it IS gross, I actually wouldn't totally hold that against Teavana.

Nah, for me it's totally the hard sell and condescending customer treatment.

While a cigarette butt was by far the grossest thing I ever found in a bulk bag of tea, it was certainly not the only foreign object I found in two years working at a tea shop. Other delightful inclusions were bird feathers, chunks of cement, sunflower seed hulls and various bits of plastic and paper.
I figure the boiling water takes care of everything, germwise.

Anything negative that anyone has said about being a Teavana employee is pretty much entirely true. No one is exaggerating their experiences. Their bad experiences also didn't happen because they weren't a good employee, or because they didn't care about the product or how they performed as an employee. That is the farthest thing from the truth if anything. That's just some corporate or higher up nonsense that is pointing the blame where it doesn't need to be directed! I am so sick of hearing blame like, "Oh if you cared", "Oh if you followed the sales process", or "Oh if you fullly believed in the product", as excuses as to why an employee is having bad experiences at work!

You bust your rear as a Teavana employee, but your all and your best isn't good enough if you aren't making those sales goals! It doesn't matter how great your work ethic is, or how above and beyond you go. It's never good enough. Is it right that your employees go to work everyday feeling like they are never good enough even though they did everything they could to make their sales goals? Please tell me...is it their fault if there is no mall traffic, or if there are too many people working in your store at one given time...making it impossible to reach your sales goal?? Also, please tell me if it is their fault that people are cutting back spending on luxuries and don't WANT to buy more than 2 oz of tea at one time, no matter how much you worked the sales process? These factors are never accounted for, only the $$$ you see on the weekly report matter. I would think if anything, you would be grateful to your employees for any sales you can get right now.

So this is the life of a Teavana employee. Your dedication and hard work are nothing if you don't have the numbers they want. You often times leave work feeling like you didn't do your job good enough, even when you gave it your all.

Nobody is slandering the company when they share their experience, only stating the facts. The truth is not always so nice is it?

andy825 wrote:While a cigarette butt was by far the grossest thing I ever found in a bulk bag of tea, it was certainly not the only foreign object I found in two years working at a tea shop. Other delightful inclusions were bird feathers, chunks of cement, sunflower seed hulls and various bits of plastic and paper.
I figure the boiling water takes care of everything, germwise.

Sadly things like cigarette butt may get more common nowadays with the mass production. Traditionally tea professionals (no matter tea processing masters or clerk boys or gate men) would be the most sanitary people in the world. Besides their sanitary rules, they wouldn't eat any strong spices (such as garlic or scallion) or pickled fish during the tea handling seasons. Let it alone cigarette! Nowadays many tea professionals still practice these rules. But meantime, gross things happen

Anything found in puerh would be normal though. Puerh used to be the kind of tea that is made in wild places and carried on horseback for months, receiving all the sun bath, rain bath and whatever organic bath

speaking of foreign objects in tea...i recently purchased a 4oz bag of yunnan black tea from mighty leaf and when I opened it and had a nice glass found a wad of hair...now even the smell kind of makes me gag. Ends up there was a lot more hair when I looked so I just threw it away, thank god it was cheap.

Ebtoulson wrote:speaking of foreign objects in tea...i recently purchased a 4oz bag of yunnan black tea from mighty leaf and when I opened it and had a nice glass found a wad of hair...now even the smell kind of makes me gag. Ends up there was a lot more hair when I looked so I just threw it away, thank god it was cheap.

Ewwwwww!

Thank god I use boiling water for tea. I hope it cooks whatever germs may be lurking...