I have always been a big coffee drinker. I also enjoy a good cuppa green tea — even though I’m an infamous bagger and not a loose leaf sort of fellow. That all changed across the last week as I discovered Teavana — the Tea Heaven place now owned by Starbucks. Lately, Starbucks have been making a big tea push. They purchased Tazo tea and now Teavana are deep in the mermaid fold. Starbucks seems to know their future is read in tea leaves and not coffee beans.
The key to making a great cuppa loose leaf tea is in the tea maker and Teavana makes a perfect one. You just steep and let gravity do the rest. Cleaning up tea leaves is a much simpler and crisper job than having to clean up coffee grounds from a French press.
My favorite Teavana tea is their Gyokuro Imperial green tea. It is lightly musky, delicious, shimmering, grassy, and packed with energy. I drink this tea all day long and I have both stamina and staying power.
As the oppressive Summer heat and humidity scales against proper human living, making iced tea is one quick way to cool off — even if for just a little bit.
Teavana has a new “modern” iced tea maker crafted for them in Germany, and while this teapot looks stylish and capable, it is confusing to learn how to use.
I had to take mine apart and experiment with regular cool tap water before I was able to figure out the complicated brewing method. Sure, you could use any ordinary tea steeping device to divine some Summer refreshment, but it won’t look as good on your table as this modern Bavarian beauty.
Our favorite Summer tea is a light Youthberry Orange Blossom blend with lots of dried fruit and white tea. The taste of the tea is refreshing and complex. This tea will cool you down and lift you up.
The only negative part of getting into loose leaf tea with Teavana is their high-pressure, unrelenting, sales staff in the stores. They will pester you and push you around and nag you. They’ll try to add teacups and teapots and teabags and upsell you more tea than you could ever drink in a lifetime.
Teavana does not take “leave me alone” for an answer.
It’s best to order online from the Teavana website if you want a kind and respectful experience. Walking into a Teavana store is diving into a sales abyss from which your wallet will never recover.