Seattle now has a concept Teavana store, located in the University Village Shopping Center. The all-new Teavana opened on Tuesday the 19th, and is the second of its kind. Earlier this year, Starbucks unveiled a Teavana concept store in New York City. Unlike a typical Teavana store, these new concept stores offer a larger beverage menu, offer an assortment of foods, and have larger spaces with seating.
The evening of the 19th, I had the chance to drop by the new Seattle Teavana bar. It was fairly late to be dropping by, but still had a steady stream of customers. I was pretty lucky that I got to meet Naoko Tsunoda, Teavana’s director of tea development, before she left. She has been with Teavana for eight years. We had a chance to talk, and she described the new Seattle store to me as “warm and inviting” (so true!). I asked about her favorite tea, and it turns out she is a pretty big Matcha tea fan. Teavana produces an extremely high grade Matcha, which is slowly ground into a powder from green tea.
One of the first things that I did when I got to the store was to order a sparkling tea. Starbucks has experimented with sparkling beverages on a number of occasions, and had previously offered sparkling tea in the now-closed Tazo tea store. I had loved the sparkling iced tea, so had been crossing my fingers that that beverage offering would be carried forward to the Teavana concept store.
I ordered a Sparkling Dragonfruit Devotion tea, which is a lightly carboated herbal infusion of mango, hibiscus, dragonfruit, strawberry and guava. It was so refreshing!
If nothing else, I hope that when you visit this store, you get to try a sparkling tea. The area has a pretty extensive food and tea beverage bar, where you can order things like a Maharaja Chai Latte, Earl Grey Creme Latte, and more. This is a glimpse of the food and beverage area:
The merchandise along the walls includes a variety of tea kettles, cups, and tea-related fun things. The tea is loose leaf tea in bins, weighed out when you buy it. I have bought the Pineapple Kona Pop tea a number of times and made it iced – delicious. Also, I recommend the Jade Citrus Mint which a very refreshing lightly minty green tea. That also makes an amazing iced tea.
There was just so much food to try. I tried two salads a Raspberry Apricot Cream Scone, and some Poached Pears with Blue Cheese. The Poached Pear Blue Cheese Triangles were the perfect combination of sweet and savory – a must try item as well. One could really have quite a lunch at Teavana now!
I arrived late (as I mentioned) and it was dark out, so my apologies that my photos are a little dark. Enjoy the rest of the pictures!
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That place looks fantastic – It will be great when they start rolling out nationwide!
I started going to Teavana back in 2006. My frustration was always that they did a disappointing by-the-cup business. Their focus was on merchandise and loose-leaf tea, but sometimes I just want one beverage, right? (Historically, between Thanksgiving and Christmas they won’t even make single cups of tea!) This certainly changes that paradigm.
If Starbucks can do for tea what they did for coffee, more power to ’em!
I am so excited for these concept bars!!! I hope Starbucks can do for tea what they have done for coffee and expand Teavana to just selling loose-leaf tea and tea merchandise and make it a true tea house 🙂
This should be interesting if they expand all over the country. I know there is one in NYC, haven’t been yet. But would prefer this over the stores in the mall…unless of course they could turn one into something like this!
@Michael ; @GalInTheGreyHat: I think the whole idea is to close down all the current Teavana stores, replacing them with these type with Tea-Bar.
Really the Tazo store Concept of the Tea Bar is living on.
@Tim – I think one of the things that Starbucks saw value in Teavana was that they had an existing base of stores. I’m not under the impression that they’ll shut down existing ones, but I am under the impression that all new stores will move away from the “mall-based” model that Teavana built their store base on, to more street-level store fronts like this. It’s hard to tell, but that is my educated guess.
I never did like the mall based teavana stores so I am hoping Melody you are correct that about the move that SB will make. This store looks terrific. I cannot remember but does the NYC store serve the same food?
@Melody, @purple1-Speaking of ”Teavana”………I received a ”Teavana Coming Soon To Starbucks” email! Did you all as well?
Great suggestion to visit. Pear/blue triangles were so good, needed more than 4 though. Need one on on the eastside too. U village was too crowded.
I love this idea. I’m getting more and more interested in teas, but I like trying before buying loose leaf. I think this would give me the opportunity to try teas in different forms before I buy some to bring home.
I was in a Teavana tonight for the first time in a while and noticed something was missing and wondered if it has disappeared from the Teavana stores post-starbucks acquisition.
What seems to be missing are the Buddha statuary, which have always been a part of the Teavana brand.
Have you seen them in these new stores?
@Cd: was this in the Woodfield store? I’ll have to look…was just there a few days ago. (passed the store, not so interested in their tea, altho I realize it’s good…..and costs an arm and a leg, imo)
Hi @denise – it was deer park. Went in there for a teacher gift and after a horrendous hard sell (aggressively pushed a $250 tea maker) we left empty handed – despite being told how many parents in our school district would be familiar with the tea maker… Wtf?!?
I don’t expect to be returning any time soon. And here’s hoping starbucks keeps the Tazo line in their stores.
@Cd: what a bad experience! (and yes, really sounds crazy!) Now that you’re saying this, I have been in the Woodfield Teavana (kind of just looking, once to buy a gift I knew a friend would want), and I do remember feeling they were a bit too ? aggressive in pushing a couple teas and the accessories or ‘teaware’ I suppose. Overall I just think they are way over-priced or at least out of my price range. But, then I think maybe I see it that way because I am basically a coffee person (altho drinking a cup of tea right now) ? and would I be looking at Sbux in this same way if I were not such a coffee-required person? No, I don’t think so. I just think Teavana is way pricey, for me at least.
As an avid tea drinker, I have to totally agree that walking into a Teavana store is very stressful and uncomfortable. Their teas are quite nice for sure but very expensive and I too have felt pressured to buy or at the same time turned off by the partners. A shame because their teas are very good.
Sorry to hear all your negative experiences at Teavana. I have had a completely different experience. Southcenter, Bellevue and University Village have always been great customer service. Sometimes, I just stop by for a sample. Several times, the sample tea blends win me over.
Their products are top notch, I have a full teapot set and love it, and I had to ask someone to help me, they didn’t Hoover while I looked around the store.
hope you can give another Teavana store a chance, if not you would be missing out on great tea blends and products. No I don’t work there, just though someone should speak up with some positive.
@Laci, I am glad you have received great service at Teavana. What I experienced wasn’t a new or unique experience. In fact, the manager actually said “good job” to the employee when she returned to the counter. It seems like a cultural thing and one that really needs to be addressed by the new corporate parent, as that isn’t the “Starbucks Experience.”
High end tea stores, like TeaGschwendner, are not novel to me. But aggressive tactics are a complete turn off and will keep me from spending money at any place that tolerates that sales approach.
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