Teavana: a Review

WARNING: These people are like the used car salesmen of tea!

I was walking through the mall the other day, and passed by Teavana. Remembering that I was out of my hibiscus tea, I wandered inside thinking that their variety would be fun to try.

I tell the girl at the counter that I'd like to purchase a very small amount of an herbal (because I am caffeine sensitive) Hibiscus tea. That's where things went downhill.

She pulls out two large tins and begins fanning them with their lids in my direction. Sheesh...that's super-cheesy! So she tells me that they mix these two varieties together, and how much do I want. There is a two ounce minimum purchase, by the way. I tell her again that I am caffeine sensitive and the tea on the left has tea leaves in it and I can't have that one, so I'd like just two ounces of the tea on the right.

She then insists that the tea on the left has ONLY 1-15 mg of caffeine per serving and mixing them won't cause me any problems. This is like saying to a person with a peanut allergy "there is only one peanut in you cookie, so I'm sure you won't die of anaphylactic shock".

I finally convince her that I really do only want the damned tea on the right and she begrudgingly puts away the caffeinated one. Sheesh!

Then she starts trying to UPSELL me an airtight metal tin, that will keep my tea fresh for a full year (she tells me). But I then remind her that I only want two ounces of tea, just to try it out, which will not last me a full weekend. Then it's on to selling me some ugly-assed giant brown sugar crystals. I prefer, and have an organic honey for my tea, so I decline.

She then puts two big scoops of tea into a little bag and weighs it, it's four ounces, and she starts closing the bag...ugh!!!...I insist that I still only want two ounces ( am I speaking Japanese? ) just to try it out. She again begrudgingly removes a scoop of tea from the bag.

So $7, some medium aggravation, and a baggie in hand. I FINALLY have a pitcher's worth of iced tea to make. This type of salesmanship always makes me very uncomfortable, and quite upset.

Next time I'll just buy Celestial Seasonings.