As I think I mentioned on Sunday Bran and I were just down to the beach for a long weekend. When we make this particular trek (its a 4 hour drive each way) we've found it works well if we swing by the (ginormous) King of Prussia Mall on the way home.
I have seen Teavana on many of our previous trips and always walked by. But recently as I go deeper and deeper into the tea rabbit hole I've been hearing good things about their quality.
The first two times we walked by I resisted. I hate spending money. But then, after walking across the entire mall to find the Lego store where Bran found nothing he wanted, there was another Teavana right across the way. I walked over and tried a sample. It was delicious. I grabbed the little booklet that lists all their flavors and proceeded to read while traversing back across the mall. After determining that some of the prices weren't too bad I steeled my nerves to give the store a try.
A large part of my hesitation is surely the fact that I really hate sales experiences and dealing with strangers in unfamiliar situations. I had no idea how this whole tea buying thing was supposed to go. When questioned I mumbled something about being interested in flavored white or black teas and the staff person started pulling out big tins of tea. He would open each one and more or less blow the scent of it over in my direction. It was actually quite awesome, albeit still intimidating.
In an ideal world I could probably spend quite a lot of time standing there smelling and comparing the myriad of flavors. And of course working out how to get the best bang for my buck. But instead I went with 2 great smelling choices he offered up early in the experience. They were reasonably priced although rather higher than I would normally go. I added in some basic black English Breakfast to help me hit a $25 total which would grant me a "free" ounce.
Now suddenly presented with the need to choose a free ounce I fumbled around and asked about the tea that I had initially sampled. Well turns out that was actually a blend and so not available.... Except, well his boss stepped away so if I wanted he could do it....Umm...yes please?
So in the end I walked out with a delicious smelling bag and around 6 ounces of tea. My wallet was lighter than I'd prefer but as of now I'm thinking as an occasional indulgence it might be worth it. It is a quite good sign that as I struggled to get my head back into the regular work day I fixed upon the idea that I would be able to make myself a cup of that wonderful stuff when I got home. And it was indeed a very good idea and a delightful treat this evening.
I actually intended to review my first cup of tea from this purchase made at home. But I've already rambled on quite a bit so I think I'll just go with the description of my experience. I have another long weekend coming up methinks it calls for many good cups of tea, and perhaps some reviewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment