Thursday, March 27, 2008

New Store Hours!


Greetings, fellow tea snoots!

GOOD NEWS! Our downtown retail location will have NEW, LONGER hours starting April 1, 2008 for the Farmer's Market. Our new hours will be as follows:

Monday - Friday: 7 AM - 7 PM
Saturday: 8 AM - 7 PM
Sunday: Noon - 6 PM


Come visit us at 1801 13th Street, Suite 170. We are located on 13th Street in the One Boulder Plaza, between Canyon and Walnut. We have a huge wall of tea, premium espresso drinks, fresh salads and sandwiches, biscotti, pastries, cookies, gourmet chocolates, free wireless and of course, our entire line of Steepware and Loose Leaves. There is cozy seating inside, and outdoor seating for when the sun is shining. We've got it all! Why wouldn't you come check us out?!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Arizona TV Tea Segment

It's a thrill to turn new customers on to loose leaf tea every week! Each thank you note and compliment that comes through our website gets circulated around the warehouse and pumps each of us up... We've also been fortunate with the interest our mission and products have generated in the press. Several weeks ago I was a guest on a Phoenix-area morning lifestyle show, Sonoran Living, hosted by the charming Stephanie Sandoval. She made it impossible to mess up in front of the cameras, and great fun to tell the story about loose leaf teas on TV!

Not your grandma’s teapot…


After three years of working to bring this project to fruition, I’m beginning to understand why it’s the first of its kind – integrating a miniature mechanical timer with a tea infuser proved to be far more complex than we ever could have imagined. After engaging some engineer friends, old classmates, my brother (yes, they’re all mechanical engineers) we went through several design approaches, and chose a rotating tea infuser design that lifts the tealeaves out of the water at the end of the timing sequence. We applied for a technology patent, and our US patent was awarded a few months ago. Early prototypes of this piece were not pretty… but after engaging a hip bay-area design group, we were able to finalize a stylish and functional automatic teapot design. Shown here is the evolution of the Automatic Teapot (aka “tea Maestro”), currently on display at the San Francisco Airport.

Not your grandma’s teapot…


After three years of working to bring this project to fruition, I’m beginning to understand why it’s the first of its kind – integrating a miniature mechanical timer with a tea infuser proved to be far more complex than we ever could have imagined. After engaging some engineer friends, old classmates, my brother (yes, they’re all mechanical engineers) we went through several design approaches, and chose a rotating tea infuser design that lifts the tealeaves out of the water at the end of the timing sequence. We applied for a technology patent, and our US patent was awarded a few months ago. Early prototypes of this piece were not pretty… but after engaging a hip bay-area design group, we were able to finalize a stylish and functional automatic teapot design. Shown here is the evolution of the Automatic Teapot (aka “tea Maestro”), currently on display at the San Francisco Airport.

Not your grandma’s teapot…


After three years of working to bring this project to fruition, I’m beginning to understand why it’s the first of its kind – integrating a miniature mechanical timer with a tea infuser proved to be far more complex than we ever could have imagined. After engaging some engineer friends, old classmates, my brother (yes, they’re all mechanical engineers) we went through several design approaches, and chose a rotating tea infuser design that lifts the tealeaves out of the water at the end of the timing sequence. We applied for a technology patent, and our US patent was awarded a few months ago. Early prototypes of this piece were not pretty… but after engaging a hip bay-area design group, we were able to finalize a stylish and functional automatic teapot design. Shown here is the evolution of the Automatic Teapot (aka “tea Maestro”), currently on display at the San Francisco Airport.