My, how time flies

Time is a funny thing. Sometimes it seems like it moves extremely slowly, like the past three months where everyone has been stuck at home quarantining themselves. And sometimes it flies by, like the three years since Dani followed her passion for tea and started Uptown Tea Shop.

It seems like only yesterday and yet, after three years, she's developed a widespread and loyal clientele, both online and in our physical space in the little town of Waxhaw, North Carolina. This is simply because she carries the best loose leaf teas available and is extremely knowledgeable about the subject. She helps her customers understand what they're buying so that they have a wonderful experience.

In order to sell a great tea, you have to understand all the components that make up a great tea. So, we went to tea school. Under the watchful eye of Guy, the "tea master," Dani is inhaling the wet tea leaves after infusion to determine its "nose."

Educating our customers

Now, being the dutiful and supportive husband that I am (wink, wink), I often fill in at the store and I have been known to do some heavy lifting, but I wanted to help out in a more significant way. Since I have a journalism degree and I happen to be a teacher, we decided to play to each other's strengths and teach our customers about tea by using Dani's expertise on the subject, doing some additional research, and having me write about it. After all, a teacher's gotta teach!

That's what this blog will be about: educating our customers and future customers about tea. At least, that will be the primary focus. An occasional story or anecdote sprinkled in is not beyond the realm of possibility as well as telling you about new teas and products that you will enjoy. 

Many of you are very knowledgeable about tea already. You've been loose leaf drinkers for years, so I hope you'll find something valuable and interesting in some of the lesser known areas of tea as well as in the new product uses and demos we'll show here.

However, we've found the majority of our visitors love drinking tea but don't really know much about it. Tea is a mystery compared with, say coffee. And loose leaf tea seems so ceremonial to them when in fact it's quite simple and a better overall tea drinking experience than bagged tea. We hope to demystify tea with this series of articles. Let's just say at Uptown Tea Shop, we want to make tea approachable and fun.

Dani and tea master "Guy" prepare for a green tea tasting in June 2017.

So what's in store on Tea Talk?

We'll tell you what tea is and where it comes from, what different types of tea there are and how to brew a perfect cup. You'll learn the difference between loose leaf and bag tea and about the health benefits of drinking tea. We'll talk about tea that really isn't tea, answer common tea questions, uncover the truth about caffeine and, of course, we have to address the tea vs. coffee battle.

We encourage your comments and interaction with this blog. We hope you'll tell your friends about it. We hope you'll learn something along the way, because after all, a teacher's gotta teach.

All the best!