🎉 🍃 Happy New Year! 🍃🎉

It's almost time to ring in 2023 and celebrate the start of the New Year. I thought it would be appropriate to brew a cup of Shangrila Iced Oolong, one of my favorite Oolong Teas, look back on 2022, and reflect on some of the good things that have happened.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you for all the support, good wishes, and shopping small with us during 2022. Y'all never cease to amaze me, and we couldn't have done it without you!

The biggest accomplishment this year was the start of our High Teas. We launched in January, so our first anniversary is coming up! Woohoo!!!! A huge thank you to everyone who has joined us so far and made our High Tea experience a success!!!

This venture has been in the making for a long time. The timing wasn't right to do anything with it — until this year. There's so much involved in hosting High Tea that even though people have been asking me to start High Tea since I opened, I knew I would have to wait until I could organize everything properly.

At the end of 2021, the pieces started falling into place. I found an outstanding chef to work with, and her food is fantastic. For those of you who've joined us and sampled her food, you know I'm not exaggerating. Chef Kristen from Simply Bougie Luxury Picnics changes the menu each month. I can tell you I look forward to and enjoy sampling her creations. I try to convince myself it's just for quality control and to be able to talk about the food, but who am I kidding? It's just because I enjoy eating her food.

For every High Tea we host, we work hard to transform the room into an elegant but casual atmosphere. Since we are inside an art gallery, we have the most amazing art on our walls, and our patrons can enjoy this unique backdrop while they dine with us. People ask what's the dress code and my response is, "come casual or dress up. Whatever you're comfortable wearing is fine with us." That being said, we’ve had some beautiful hats and outfits grace our tables.

High Tea is not just for women, though. I'm happy to say that we've had many couples join us. In fact, our first guests this year were some wonderful couples who enjoyed themselves so much they've become regular monthly guests.

If you haven't experienced one of our High Teas yet, please consider doing so in 2023. The current dates are on the website through the end of February, and we'll add new dates each month, all year long.

Some other things we've done this year...

• Our ever-popular house chai was joined by 2 new chai creations - Earl Grey de la Creme Chai and the seasonal Aunt Patty's Pumpkin Pie Chai. All of them are warm, creamy deliciousness in a cup.
• Brought in 4 new teas, Organic Immunity Boosting Tea, Apple Spice Green Tea, Shangrila Iced Oolong, and Milk Oolong, to add to our already great assortment.
• Was featured in Our State Magazine twice, once for my House Blended Chai and once for my Sweet Tea Floats.
• Phoebe, the Uptown Tea Shop dog, has continued to join us in the shop on non-High Tea days. She'd love to join everyone for High Tea and share in the food, but I keep telling her she has to watch her waistline. She has her own clients now too. They don't want to see me. They just come to pet the dog! What a great life she has.
• Added fun new designs to our handmade, custom ceramic Waxhaw mugs.
• Expanded our Cold Brew Accessories Lineup.

The list could've gone on and on. But these were a few things that really stood out for me.

I'm excited to see where 2023 takes us. It's not the destination but the journey, and I'm so happy to share it with all of you!

Our holiday hours for the week leading up to New Year's are as follows:
Tuesday through Friday, open 11-5, closed on Saturday, New Year's Eve. I will resume regular hours on Tuesday, January 3rd.

With much love in my heart,
Dani