KTeas Specialty Teas and Gifts

January 10, 2011 Comments Off

KTeas Logo

Business Name: KTeas Specialty Teas & Gifts

Type of Business: Tea Retailer, Tea Educator, and Tea Crafter-to-be.

Year Founded: 2008

Location: Fort Mill, South Carolina

Phone: (866) 917-6446

What is Unique About Your Business?: Where should we start? We are tea purveyors who can be found At the Intersection of Life and Tea, which means:

We do not have a brick-&-mortar establishment, but we have our “Virtual American Tea House” via our website and our Facebook Page (just search KTeas on Facebook), as well as other online presences such as Twitter (@KTeasOnline) and our blog Of Life and Tea. “Virtual” as in online, electronic only, not a physical location. “American” denotes (1) we are proud to be American, and (2) the “melting pot” of cultures that America is, we are not limited to any one culture’s tea traditions, we embrace all cultures’ tea traditions: England’s, Japan’s, France’s, Southern USA’s, South Africa’s, China’s, . . . any and all.
We seek to foster in our Virtual Tea House a cozy, comfortable, welcoming ambiance of community, fellowship, and camaraderie – all of which we associate with tea. We envision the same Interaction (Intersection!) in our Virtual Tea House as we would strive for in a brick-and-mortar tea house.
We also Intersect Life and Tea via our Local Presence: our products can be found in some local businesses, where folks can browse and purchase our products.
Another Intersection where you can find KTeas: Tea Tastings & Samplings, Tea & Food Pairings, Tea Education. We have conducted some of these at Celebration Cottage and The Shoppes at River’s Edge already, and we wish to expand to presenting throughout the Community to clubs and groups and communities. We are talking to the author of The Traveling Tea Ladies: Death In Dallas to arrange an author visit in our corner of the world for book signings and Tastings of some of the Teas she refers to in her mystery story. The possibilities are endless.
We offer Tea Gift Baskets for all occasions via our partnership with Southern Charm Gift Baskets. You can give the gift of tea with a basket devoted to tea products or simply by including a tea product in a basket of varied contents. Some ready-made baskets appear at Celebration Cottage and at The Shoppes @ River’s Edge, or you can contact KTeas or Southern Charm Gift Baskets to request a custom gift basket.

What Are Your Best-Selling Teas?: Bolivian Whole Leaf black tea, Golden Monkey black tea, Darjeeling 1st Flush black tea, Jasmine Leaf green tea, Dragon Well green tea, Orange Oolong, Shui Xian oolong, Pu’erh Leaf and Pu’erh Tuo Cha, Rooibos Choc Mint, Rooibos Rising Sun (w/strawberry pieces), Caribbean Dream herbal, Sunny Disposition herbal, and Spirit Balm herbal.

Do You Carry Organic Teas?: Yes. Your readers may find of interest our lessons learned so far on the road to organic as related in our blog entry: Organic or Not Organic, That is the Question…well, Not Entirely .

Do You Carry Fair-Trade Teas?: Yes. One of the criteria by which we’ve chosen our suppliers is that they engage in ethical sourcing: Fair Trade, Ethical Tea Partnership, Direct Trade – in some way working with the growers and processors to insure that a fair price is paid and proper working conditions are provided to those who are ultimately responsible for the tea in our cup.

What Brands of Tea Do You Offer?:

KTeas: our private label: we let our palate be our guide through the offerings of several trusted suppliers, choosing which teas on which we will put our name. In time we plan to create our own blends, as well.
Tea Hawaii & Company: A tea farmer partnership towards a World Tea Farm Alliance has begun in Hawaii. Some of the plants at various tea gardens throughout the Hawaiian islands have reached maturity and the gardens are starting to produce tea, and we are bringing those teas to the mainland directly from this co-op. We spoke with some of the tea farmers at the World Tea Expo, and they intend to get Certified Organic if they have not already done so.
Morawaka Tea Estates, Ltd: We struck up a relationship with these folks at the World Tea Expo. They have put together a program to sell tea directly to small retailers, and soon we will be bringing in single-estate Ceylon tea directly from their plantation in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon–the name has stuck with the tea).
Glenburn Tea: We began our relationship with Glenburn Tea Estate, based in Kolkata, India, at the World Tea Expo, where we learned that Glenburn has devised its own service to sell its tea from each of its two estates: Khongea in the Assam region and Glenburn in the Darjeeling region, directly to small retailers like KTeas. We will soon be offering Glenburn’s teas that they have in stock as well as other products such as cozies, place mats, silk scarves, etc. Most exciting, however, will be Drinking Tea in Harmony with the Seasons: throughout the year, KTeas will pre-order teas from upcoming harvests, so that tea from each harvest will be delivered to us within 3 weeks of the tea being on the bush!

Where Are Your Teas Grown?: All around the globe: China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Taiwan (Formosa), Africa, Bolivia, and Hawaii cover most of the origins of our camellia sinensis teas. Our herbal and fruit tisanes also come from all over the world.

Why Do Your Loyal Customers Keep Coming Back?: We offer not only “old favorites”, traditional teas like Assams and China Blacks and Earl Greys and Breakfast Teas (such as English and Irish), but also new and different teas for the tea connoisseur or to broaden horizons for the tea newcomer, like Rooibos, Oolongs, Whites, teas grown in not-so-common places like Hawaii and Bolivia. They also come back because we try to build relationships with our customers across the far flung distances between us and them, because we feel that’s an integral part of what Tea is all about.

Where Can Your Teas be Purchased?: Online at www.KTeasOnline.com, and at the following businesses: The Shoppes @ River’s Edge, 951 Cel-River Road, Rock Hill, SC 29730; and Celebration Cottage, 1639 Ebenezer Road, Rock Hill, SC 29732.

Is There Anything Else You’d Like to Tell Us About Your Business or Teas?: KTeas is woman-owned: Kathryn is the K in KTeas. We are a family-run business: Ed works with Kathryn in our operation. Kathryn and Ed are taking the Certification Seminars offered by the Specialty Tea Institute (so far we have completed Levels 1 and 2), to better share our Passion for Tea with others, so that we may bring you the tea experience of the 21st century not only by selling fine teas from around the world, but also by conducting Tea Tastings, Tea & Food Pairings, giving Educational Presentations about Tea, its history, its production, its preparation, Cooking with Tea . . .
As indicated when talking about the American Melting Pot, it’s not only about Afternoon Tea and Taking Tea in Tea Rooms, anymore. We adore those traditions and others such as the Japanese Tea Ceremony: they are and always will be an integral part of Tea’s Heritage. Our wish is to embrace them all—and beyond: we want to share with you the Whole Experience, so we invite you to join us At the Intersection of Life and Tea.

KTeas Darjeeling 1st Flush Tea