Welcome Harvest Health & Coffee!

Greetings!

Just thought I'd take a moment to welcome Harvest Health & Coffee in Fremont and York, NE as our newest customer. If you are interested in shopping locally, visit Greg's stores. He makes an effort to work with Nebraska producers and to promote Nebraska-made products.

Over the course of the summer, several retail customers inquired about where our teas can be purchased. We list the locations on our site: teatrove.com. These customers also made suggestions (very appreciated), but some were very surprised to learn our approach to growth. We take the turtle's view: Slow & steady. We want our custom blends to sell, but we don't want them to be drowned out in an aisle of teas. Those who've sampled our teas know that we are very particular about our blends in terms of taste and quality.

Sometimes, lower quality tea leaves are used to make blends whether they be flavored or straight blends. This is partly due to cost. If I can purchase a lower grade Assam ($5.50/lb wholesale), jazz it up with flavor and sell it for $30/pound, then I will make money hand over fist. But, and this is a huge BUT, I want our teas to have depth. When I add flavoring, I do it to enhance the overall experience, not to simply cover up a poor quality tea leaf. This is our philosophy.

I LOVE really good food. Tea is no exception. I can get just about any tea (expensive or cheap and anything in between.) I carry standards, but if someone is serious about trying something new, and wants to spend the money to get it, then I will find it. What I will not do is carry expensive teas that will not turn over regularly enough to keep them really fresh. Expensive teas must be fresh in my opinion.

My brother paid for me to have personalized license plates many moons ago. My family and I brainstormed various things to put on it. One of their favorites was "picky." This is completely inaccurate. I am not picky. I am, however, selective. Expensive does not always equal better in my mind, but oftentimes in tea, I have found this to be a true statement. There are thousands of teas and plenty of them are moderately priced and are really great for blending or simply enjoying unmodified. I rarely purchase an expensive tea for blending. What is the point in that? The exception is a wonderful, organic silver needle that I found. I use it for Sweet Snowflake during the holiday season. Never say never, right?

Well, this has gotten longer than I intended. Time to get some blending done for an order.

See you at the farmers market tomorrow!

Peace.
Kori