Fun Harassing Tea Shop Employees

There's a store at our local mall called Teavana. I was excited when I first saw it was coming; I mean, I was all trying to peek behind the plastic they put over the gate. My expectations, I think, were a bit too high.

Now, I don't know if it's just the one they have here, but it seems that all the samples they ever have out, and a good amount of what they have available in-store, is blended with either Yerba Maté or Rooibos. Now that's fine, I know there are plenty of people that like them, but I don't particularly care for either one. Rooibos reminds me of coffee for some reason; I only like coffee when it doesn't taste like coffee, what I have heard referred to as "candy coffee." What teas they do have without Yerba Maté or Rooibos mostly seem to have large chunks of fruit in them. Good on occasion, but in general not my cup of tea. (Now is that a horrible pun, or far too literal use of a cliché?)

I was in there today to get a tea pot - because even if the vast majority of their selection of teas I have not found to be to my taste so far (or my price range), they do have a lot of nice pots. I was sidetracked by the associate holding a tray of samples, eager for something to do. I tried one of the samples (both of which had Rooibos, like most the times I have visited. Why?) and then made the mistake of chit-chatting. Or she was a good salesperson. Either way, I found myself smelling several different gallon-sized tins of tea, while the salesperson scoured the wall for spiced teas without Yerba Maté or Rooibos. Her efforts met with limited success, so I ended up asking to see the one Pu-Erh I saw on the shelf (with strawberry chunks? Again, why?). To be fair, it did smell good, and out of curiosity I asked how long it had been aged.

It was not on the canister.

Not in the training manual.

Not online.

Now the staff were nice and quite helpful, and checked all those places. Customer service was excellent, but somehow I get the feeling I'm not the target market. Of course, American tea snobs are probably a pretty small target market, compared to the larger category of people who just like tea. Especially when it's fruity.