Small Business Spotlight: My Tea Places

One of the best parts about social media is the constant uncovering of people and businesses that you feel connected to you! I’m excited to share about another tea shop that I found through instagram, My Tea Places! I purchased some tea from this lovely shop and now want to share more about them with you! Please check out the interview below and to check out their shop, head over here.

Can you introduce yourself and My Tea Places?

I am Luz Boys, the founder of My Tea Places. I live in Northern California with my husband Garrett and our Chief Feline Officer, Geneva. We are passionate about traveling, exploring, and enjoying great teas. Our mission at My Tea Places is to offer premium teas from different tea-producing places around the world, highlighting the unique story of each tea and place.

When was your first experience with tea?

My love for tea first started during my childhood, while drinking herbal tisanes such as lemon leaves, chamomile, and cinnamon with my family. In college, my passion for tea blossomed. I often stayed up late writing research papers accompanied by a fresh cup of tea. Around the same time, I also found an interest in Chinese culture, which only fueled my curiosity for tea and the culture that surrounds it.

What is your daily tea ritual like?

My tea ritual varies from day to day depending on how much time I can devote to it. First, I like to choose a tea set for preparing the tea. I have quite the collection and some are only reserved for certain types of teas, like oolongs. If I have enough time, then I will usually select a gongfu-style tea set. If my time is more limited, then I prefer an easy gaiwan with a sharing teapot. I like to maximize the enjoyment of tea, so I do like having multiple infusions and sharing some with my husband. My cat likes to tag along as well. If the day is nice, I’ll usually sit outside to take it all in. My tea routine keeps me balanced, so I try to prioritize it every day.

What was the inspiration to start My Tea Places?

The inspiration to start My Tea Places was a culmination of many moments, experiences, and passions. Some of the most meaningful moments and conversations in my life have happened around a cup of tea. When I reflect on these moments, I’m warmed by the memories of the people that I shared them with. Because of this, tea holds a special place close to my heart. This led me to start collecting and learning more about tea, growing my passion for it! Some of my other interests have been in learning about people, places, languages, and cultures across the globe. It is one of the reasons why I completed my master’s degree in International Relations. I speak several languages and have traveled to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ultimately, My Tea Places represents the overflow of my combined passions. I always thought I’d start a Tea Company at some point later in my life, but in 2018 I felt compelled to start realizing that dream, following a Mandarin course I was taking at the time. This led me to the Pacific Northwest Tea Festival in Seattle, then completing the Tea Specialist certification from the World Tea Academy, and participating in a tea business incubator program at the World Tea Expo in 2019. And with much perseverance, I was able to launch My Tea Places in August of 2020. I’ve met so many great people along the way. The tea community is amazing!

What is your curation process like when selecting teas for the shop?

When I first started My Tea Places, I told my husband, “If I don’t sell the tea, then I’ll drink it all myself”. We laugh about this regularly, because it is true, I would drink them all, but it also speaks to my ultimate qualifier of what teas make it into our store or not. The tea has to consistently win me over before I’m convinced to offer it. When evaluating a tea, I have a detailed cupping process where I examine everything from the quality of the tea leaves to the aroma and flavor. I take notes because I will do this process many times and refer back to other tastings. I also do extensive research on the place the tea is sourced from and make sure I’m building a friendship with a reputable supplier that is invested in both sustainable cultivation practices and the well-being of the tea community in the region. I look to my supplier to provide me with detailed information related to the cultivar, crop, and process as well as some of the relevant cultural history or practices. This helps me be able to tell the story of the tea to my clients, particularly during our fun and informative Virtual Tea Experiences.

What do you have currently in the shop that you're most excited about?

I am excited about every tea in our shop. I really could drink them every day. Most recently, we launched our Himalayan Tea Collection with teas from Nepal and India this month. They are amazing! We also have a Tea For Ukraine campaign going on to help World Central Kitchen provide meals to people and pets affected by the war in Ukraine and in neighboring countries. Our Chief Feline Officer, Geneva will match the percentage we will be donating from each tea we sell. We are also encouraging people to donate directly to World Central Kitchen and help in any way they can. This is a crucial time in the world and we want to use our platform to help.

Do you have any upcoming products or projects that you want to share?

I’m looking forward to a few new creative projects that are coming in the future. While they are still in the works, I have to keep them a secret, but if anyone would like to be the first to know, I recommend they subscribe to our mailing list at myteaplaces.com. We typically release certain limited edition teas only to subscribers, since they sell out quickly and we may have a limited amount.

Tea Thoughts Turns 6!

Where did it all start?

It’s hard to believe but I started Tea Thoughts almost 6 years ago! It was May 2016 and I took the leap to finally start an etsy shop. It’s something that I had wanted to do all throughout college but was scared and intimidated by what came with starting a shop. By this point, I had been writing a little on my blog for a few months and decided to have both the blog and the shop.

My shop was called Tea Thoughts Shop, but at the start it didn’t really involve too many tea related items. I was doing a whole range of things that helped satisfy my creative itch. I created custom paintings, calligraphy pieces and even did some wedding items like place cards. I also started making cards by hand, mostly using tombow pens. These cards had tea puns on them and eventually I decided to do more tea themed items to match my blog.

You can see some of the designs I created, I’ve always loved a good pun! I love looking at these photos to show myself how far I’ve come in my designing and lettering skills but am still super proud of what I created back then too.

Running a business of any type is a lesson in research. I was looking up so many different things and teaching myself whatever I thought would help me be more successful. I would watch every free webinar about social media and blogging. Eventually, I taught myself how to use illustrator and started doing more digital designs. Going down this path helped me create designs that I could print on items at a larger scale. One of my first projects was pins! I always enjoyed collecting pins and since they had seemed to come back in popularity, I gave it a try.

Below are a few more shots of my earlier products and first attempts at digital designs!

As time passed I continued exploring new ways to create things for tea lovers and have grown my product offering significantly. Over these last few years, I’ve accomplished many of my goals but because I am still not quite where I want to be I haven’t really celebrated my Shop Birthday all these years. I think a few times, I might have done a sale but seeing how other shops recognize their Shop Birthdays as a big deal made me realize something. It IS a big deal. I SHOULD celebrate another year where I’m still running Tea Thoughts. You know when you’re younger and teachers ask you what you want to be when you grow up? I didn’t know it then but this is that path. I want to be running Tea Thoughts and I AM! So I want to take more time to recognize this!

Lessons Learned

I’ve learned many lessons throughout running Tea Thoughts and I’m honestly still learning all the time but here are some really important things I want to share especially to those who may want to start their own business.

• You’ll be surprised what you can google : Pretty much everything I’ve learned from illustrator to setting up an LLC was found through google searches. If you have other resources, great! But if not, there are so many resources free and available.

• Stay True to yourself : In the world of social media and trends, this is really difficult but I think there is always a way to keep parts of yourself when following a trend. The most important thing to remember is that there are no other yous and that is your greatest asset in all aspects of life! It’s also personally easier to relate to someone who I find to be genuine.

• Be Kind : Everyone you interact with is going through their own struggles and you may not know it so I find it best to approach everything gently and with kindness when possible. Put good into the world. Help others when you are able. One thing I realized is that there aren’t many people out there who are willing to take a chance on you which is why I try to support other businesses whenever I can because it’s what I would have loved when I started out and even now!

• Under Promise, Over Deliver : In terms of my business, this is probably one of the best pieces of advice I can give. When you say you’re going to send one product but maybe you’re able to include something for free or customize it in some way, do it. It’s a small effort that will go a long way and it always feels good to have a customer who is happy with their order!

How am I celebrating?

To celebrate, I will be releasing one product on May 5th. This is a special product that I think truly encompasses my progress and my roots in terms of tea. In Persian households, you’ll likely see tea being brewed from morning until evening. You will find the brewing vessel to be a modern version of the samovar in most cases, two tea pots on top of each other. The bottom teapot is a larger metal kettle and the top teapot is a smaller ceramic teapot. Sometimes both teapots are metal but growing up, the top was usually ceramic. These teapots all have a similar shape, short and round with the sides jutting out a bit. They often are lighter glazed or white and more often than not will have some floral designs. You can also read more about my tea roots here.

What will be in the shop birthday release?

In honor of this teapot, I created my own floral version and had totebags printed with them! Besides the design being fitting to my tea roots, this totebag is something I would have only dreamed of having in my shop when I first started! Products like these often have a larger minimum order and cost per piece and it just wasn’t a reality for me when I started. This totebag signifies to me the progress I’ve made and it’s also really cool! The totebag has two types of straps, an outide and inside pocket and a zipper! Due to the complicated nature of the design, these are digitally printed. Digital printing is more eco friendly but the toss up is that if you wash the bag often, the design will fade over time.
Birthday Special!
-As part of the special release, if you purchase a totebag, you will also get a free matching pin with the same teapot design.
-I will also be including a tea gift in the first 15 orders of the totebag! So far I have tea from white2tea, teawala, bitterleaf teas and the qi for these prizes! My Tea Places has also kindly offered to sponsor some tea !

How can you celebrate with me?

1. If you read this post, let me know what you thought ! Leave a comment or just say hi!

2. Share with any fellow tea lovers, this post or any information about the Shop Birthday

3. If you’d like to support the shop directly, you can purchase a tote bag on May 5th

April Shop Update Preview!

How is it almost April already?! In many ways I felt like the start of 2022 was steadily moving on and I was grateful for the time but now it feels like it’s moving at lightspeed! I’m in a difficult spot shop update wise because April won’t have as much of a pulled together theme as some of the other months.

I have so many projects in the works that will be releasing later this summer/fall that April will be a shop update of a few items that have surprised me and came in early! But just so you have a look ahead, here are some of the things that are in the works to be released for the rest of the year:

• 4 new pairs of socks

• 2 zipper pouches

• Tiger Gaiwan Pin

• Tea tins

• Wood Coasters

• Countdown to Summer & Coutndown to Fall & Countdown to Winter /Advent

• 2 new wax stamps

There are several other items I want to design but they haven’t been started yet (ex. 2 more rings), all items listed have been started or already on their way to me!

Ok, now back to April. While these items don’t have an overarching theme to connect them, I am so excited about them anyway! So far, this shop update will include enamel mugs, tea leaf ring and a metal moon gaiwan bookmark!

ENAMEL MUGS
These enamel mugs or “camper” mugs as you may have seen them be called are an item I wanted to bring to the shop for a while. Way back when, I had glass mugs and then I brought the highball glasses last year. I wanted to bring a mug that was able to take a colorful print and that isn’t as breakable as glass! I also wanted to bring something everyone can enjoy regardless of where you are on your tea journey.

These mugs will have two designs but 3 versions.
Designs 1- Tea leaves with tiny, yellow osmanthus flowers. The body of the mug is white with yellow on the rim and handle
Design2- The terrarium design. Version one is on a mug with a white body and silver rim. Version 2 is on a white mug with blue on the rim and handle.

TEA LEAF RING
This is a ring that features an open body, green stone and leaf all designed by me! My thinking was to have something simple and elegant with a small pop of color with the green. The difficulty with rings is that everyone wears different sizes and as I am still a very small shop it would be difficult to purchase tons of different sizes at this time. I opted for a ring that is resizable. Just as it is, the ring is a size 6 but it can be pinched closed slightly to be a size 5 or opened slightly to be a size 7. It seemed like 6 was one of the most common ring sizes which is why I chose it and the resizable nature allowed it to encompass 2 other sizes as well.
The ring is made of stainless steel. I chose this because after doing a little research it seemed that stainless steel can be very durable as well as cost effective. I wanted this ring to be accessible for everyone as well as having it look it’s best for as long as possible!

MOON GAIWAN BOOKMARK
I was reading a book one day and thought about how many of you I have interacted with that are avid readers and I decided to give a bookmark a try. I have had paper bookmarks in the shop but wanted to try out something else. These bookmarks aren’t unwieldy at the small size of 2 in X 2 in and are made of copper so they have a really nice color. They all come with a white tassel and they are modeled after the moon gaiwan!

Teaism - A set of Tea Houses in Washington, DC

Hi Tea Friends!
I hope you’re enjoying these posts about different businesses! I’ve been writing these posts in hopes of helping spread the word about their shops. Before all the social distancing mandates, I wanted to head back to Teaism and do a full post with photos but since I can’t, I placed an order and now I will share.

I first discovered Teaism by chance. It was early in my tea journey and I was taking myself on a little DC adventure. I like to go to explore new places on my own every so often. I saw a place called Teaism and I was SO excited, I hadn’t really found any tea places in DC. I was so excited because I could go into their shop and get pu’er AND a delicious meal! There is also a gift shop with all sorts of goodies from teaware to treats to my pins! Teaism is one of the first places that placed a wholesale order for my pins and I am forever grateful for their support.

When I chose what to get, I decided to get the essentials for quarantine. They had this granola which was perfect because we are thinking of creative breakfasts that we don’t normally eat.

I then saw that they had both bai mudan and bai hao and had to get those as well! As you can see below, their teas are beautiful! On the right is the bai hao and on the right is the bai mudan! I tried both and they were very fresh and flavorful!

One thing that I really liked about their packaging is that there is a clasp that comes with the tea bags so you can easily close it and keep it clsoed.

This is a shop that is a staple in DC and closing down their locations was a difficult decision I’m sure. If you’re not in the area, you can’t try their delicious food for pick up but take a look at their teas and other offerings.

https://www.teaism.com/

I wanted to share a little more about their story so here is information from their About Us page:

We founded Teaism in 1996 with the goal of making exquisite loose leaf tea accessible to all. In a time and place where tea was conceived as either a dark powder in a bag with a string – to be sweetened heavily and discarded – or a stuffy afternoon affair with china and linens, we wanted to highlight the beautiful diversity of the camellia sinensis plant itself. We wanted our guests to be enrolled in their choice to drink tea and have a relationship to the leaf.

To accompany the teas, and to highlight the cuisines of countries where teas are grown, we served curries, bento boxes, and other healthy Asian-inspired meals. Teaism’s offerings were prepared in a rustic, fast-casual setting, many years before “fast casual” became a dining term.

Our first location opened in Dupont Circle and is still there today. Teaism now has three unique restaurant-teahouse locations throughout Washington, D.C., as well as a small retail shop and a space in Union Market.

Twenty-plus years later, we’re still active in Teaism’s daily operations. We have evolved and learned so much, while also working to stay true to our values of serving tea and food with integrity. We have an amazing team, and we feel so lucky to be able to interact with our incredibly kind and thoughtful customers every day. Stop by and say hi!

– Linda Neumann and Michelle Brown

Here are links to the items I purchased:

Bai Hao

Bai Mudan

Granola

I will report back with additional information I learn, but if you want to help please support them by sharing about Teaism and place an order if you are able and want some delicious tea!