My experience at Teavana.

[Tea4Todd]

Teavana has turned over a new leaf!!! Truth in advertising, they have changed some of their tea names.

Unscrupulous
Not Really Good For You
Overpriced
Not So RariTea
Not the Best Tea
This One is a Rip-Off
Bababad to the Bone
Ooops Forgot to Tare
Low Qualitea
Cheaper by the Pound

... to name a few!

Feel free to add some of your newly named Teavana teas to the list.

LOLOL Did you come up with those names yourself? That was pretty good!

[TubbyCow]

I went to a Canadian corporate tea chain called David´s Tea last week with my Mom...

It's one of the few decent Canadian stores in general, and from what I've seen of their business practices, I like 'em.

Unfortunately, the ONLY tea store in my city is now having its closing-out sale. I never bought any tea there, but it still makes me a bit sad

[entropyembrace]

I went to a Canadian corporate tea chain called David´s Tea last week with my Mom...

It's one of the few decent Canadian stores in general, and from what I've seen of their business practices, I like 'em.

Unfortunately, the ONLY tea store in my city is now having its closing-out sale. I never bought any tea there, but it still makes me a bit sad

I think I´ll be back to DavidsTea...one just opened near where I live and so far I like it. The other local shop I like is Steeps. There´s a few others in Edmonton but either their selection is not very good, they´re far away or they´re in not very nice parts of town.

[TubbyCow]

There´s a few others in Edmonton but either their selection is not very good, they´re far away or they´re in not very nice parts of town.

You're in Edmonton?! I lived there for a few years and moved before most of the good tea stores came in. In my young tea days I went to Acquired Tastes down near Jasper Ave a lot, but then I figured out that all their teas are from Republic of Tea and Metropolitan Tea Company.

Why must most Canadian tea shops just stock MTC? It's terrible stuff.

[kymidwife]

My cat-tail diarrhea hardening tea tastes wonderful!

[Christopher]

Amazing story. To add to it, I am newer to the tea world, and was shopping around to start my teaware collection, I stopped into the teavana in the mall of America where I work. Right away they led me to the cast iron pots informing me that that was the best way to brew any type of tea. When I informed them that I wasn't will to spend an upwards of $80 they brought me to the other side of the store, showed me the cheaper pots, and basically walked away.

[tomasini]

That sounds pretty correct...my manager kept trying to correct when I said that "Dragonwell" was my favorite green when it was supposed to be Gyokuro...why? Cause she's corporate grade A Moron.

And just to get it out there, Ive drank PLENTY of Ti Guan Yin (Ti Kwan Yin) and their monkey picked is without a doubt no wear NEAR the price of 25 bucks per 2 ounce.

[Tea4Todd]

That sounds pretty correct...my manager kept trying to correct when I said that "Dragonwell" was my favorite green when it was supposed to be Gyokuro...why? Cause she's corporate grade A Moron.

And just to get it out there, Ive drank PLENTY of Ti Guan Yin (Ti Kwan Yin) and their monkey picked is without a doubt no wear NEAR the price of 25 bucks per 2 ounce.

I agree, their monkey picked is pretty boring in my opinion and I don't really think it's very high quality either. They have no idea how to brew the teas correctly either when you purchase a tea to go. They are horrible at it.

[tropicanahana]

AHH! I was going to try to get a job at the local teavanna because it is sadly the only tea store in my pathetic city (besides a couple of family-owned), and I want experience in tea selling (want to own a business of my own one day). I've known teavanna was a corporation, which I've really frowned upon and when I buy teas I stay away from them. Your story has made me decided to stay away from them PERIOD. What's also very saddening to me, a family owned cafe here, one of the only other places to get tea, sells teavanna tea!! This city really needs MY tea shop, or something genuine for a change.

Thank you for the eye opening story. A company that has such low value and mistreatment in it's employees should have a red flag no matter how small the company, and your story should be heard!

[tomasini]

Yes, it used to be my "dream" job tropican...but alas...they ruined me.

[xhado123]

Alright, so it's been a few more weeks with Teavana.

No, I am not a troll looking to stir you up. I am honestly trying to give a different perspective on things. One of the reasons I joined was to see things from your perspective, so that I can improve my customer service further, and hopefully, the view of teavana. A lot of your preconceptions about teavana are made before you enter a shop, so you're almost provocative with your questions and mindset.

We Should be trained to be informative, helpful, and friendly to every customer, but operate with a sense of urgency. $80 an hour is our sales goal, averaged out over the period of a month. We try to make the transition into the tea world easy by offering any sort of infuser imaginable, from six dollars to two hundred and thirty. Sometimes... our manager is listening to us, and we have to talk about cast iron, even if we don't feel like it's necessary...

from a weight standpoint, two ounces can only make five pots of tea. I run out before I feel like I can appreciate the tea in the full range of its flavours, being that there are a bazillion different ways to brew tea and finding your personal taste for each one can be an exhilarating process. I find six ounces to be the best, as it also allows you to drink tea long enough to find the health benefits substantiated.

What happens is... well... the aforementioned downsides. Managers telling people to be dicks to their customers if it makes a sale, etc. etc. For the record, my manager is really by the book, and that means that we get yelled at for lying to customers, even if we honestly think it's true.

My cattail tea quote was taken out of context... Cattail has a dry taste, due to the starchiness, and I was discussing Teavana's sweetners...

I want to move up through the ladder of Teavana. I like the tea community, and I want it to flourish. I want to be the change that makes Teavana the catalyst that can wean americans off the bean, and feel good about drinking tea. I want the Tea community to be the community.

[Mr. Usaji]

I like the tea community, and I want it to flourish. I want to be the change that makes Teavana the catalyst that can wean americans off the bean, and feel good about drinking tea. I want the Tea community to be the community.

Oh no! If the "tea community" is populated by Teavana's target audience, I hope to stay far away from it as possible.

[rabbit]

Let's not forget that "tea" is not a counter-culture, it's a very popular drink worldwide, and many of us had our humble beginings with not-so-great liptop and other bagged teas... to hope that tea doesn't "go mainstream" is basically insuring that it will be hard for many of us in the USA to obtain high quality product at a decent price.

I do not like teavana... *but* I think that if it gets people THINKING about tea it's probably a good thing, because even though some will just follow the crowd and think teavana is amazing and cast iron is the only/best way to steep their tea... others may just do their own research and come to find the joys of the leaf as many of us have.

[debunix]

from a weight standpoint, two ounces can only make five pots of tea

I rarely use more than 5 grams of tea at a time, and when drinking tea by myself, I usually start with as little as 2 grams of very high quality tea for my little 2 ounce teapots or gaiwans, and reinfuse that up to a dozen times, so I get a *lot* of tea out of 2 ounces.

Most of the suppliers I deal with online will offer their best teas in a minimum lot size of 1 to 4 ounces, and I generally buy 2 ounces at a time or less, because I keep a wide variety of teas on hand, and many teas do not keep well once opened. My most repeated piece of advice for newcomers to tea on this forum is buy tiny quantities of a lot of different teas rather than looking for bulk bargains. So six ounces or a pound, for the average american tea drinker (who is not going to be sharing with a group of 4-6 people several times a day), is way too much of any one tea.

[laura99]

from a weight standpoint, two ounces can only make five pots of tea. I run out before I feel like I can appreciate the tea in the full range of its flavours, being that there are a bazillion different ways to brew tea and finding your personal taste for each one can be an exhilarating process. I find six ounces to be the best, as it also allows you to drink tea long enough to find the health benefits substantiated.

This seemed off to me as well debunix. Yikes! $25 for just 5 pots of Monkey Picked Oolong!

Suggesting six ounces for trying a new tea is just too much. Every time I read this thread I hold back on posting anything. My experience there was not horrible, but the last time I went there was when I decided to never go again.

As I was waiting for them to brew up a cup of tea for me a gentlemen came in to the store and asked about caffeine free teas. The associate that was assisting recommended Rooibos (yes, a good choice). After showing him a couple, he asked how much it would cost to get some to try. They tried to get him to buy an entire pound!