Category Archives: News

Help Needed for the Holidays

As cooler weather, and the holidays, are coming soon Kateri can use another one or two helpers in the shop. Extensive Details below. Please share, if you know someone who would be a good fit.

Apply by sending a paragraph or two about why you want to work for Traveling Tea along with your resume (including references) to: info@traveling-tea.com

Position: Retail Operations Assistant [High school graduate or GED required]
Hours: Tues, Fri, Sat 9:30/9:45-4:15, Wed 11:30-6:15 [shop hours are 10-4 T/Fr/Sat + Noon-6 on Wed]
Fri 11/27, Sat 11/28, and all Fridays and Saturdays in December (thru 12/19) plus Wed 12/23 will be required work days so please do not apply if you cannot work at least partially on those days.
Other than the stated required days, scheduling can be flexible (allowing work arounds for schooling, personal time, or other part-time work)
You can work as few as 15-18 hours/wk, or as many as 32/wk (starting/leaving times flexible based on employee or shop need).
Wage: $16/hr Minimum (after training period completed at $14/hr), plus tip income

• Excellent customer service and a positive, customer-focused attitude are the most important qualifications for this position
• Retail experience and familiarity with tea is helpful, but not required
• Barista or kitchen/cafe experience preferred, but not required
• Hep A shots required [if you do not have them, we will help you to get them within 60 days of hire]

What you’ll do (including, but not limited to):
• Greet customers and help create a welcoming, comfortable environment
• Ring up purchases and accurately handle cash and make change
• Help customers locate products and answer basic questions
• Prepare and serve drinks, and sometimes food
• Make sure supplies are stocked and accessible (bags, cups, etc)
• Answer shop phone courteously and respond as able, or take a message
• Keep shop tidy, including sweeping and mopping, washing dishes, dusting shelves, keeping displays tidy and attractive, and general cleanup
• Handle and package tea and merchandise
• Learn about our products and basics needed to help customers
• Use good judgement and know when to ask for assistance – there is a lot to learn, so please never misrepresent your knowledge to a customer – ask owner/others for more info as needed

As this position involves a lot of tea packaging in a variety of sizes with several variations among the different teas as well as assisting in keeping track of inventory, the ideal individual will have a strong ability to listen and take direction, learn tasks quickly, and excellent ability to pay attention to detail and achieve accuracy.
The person I am Looking for is or has:
• Friendly, welcoming attitude, and genuinely enjoys helping people
• Dependable and punctual with an excellent work ethic
• Ability to lift at least 50 pounds and spend several hours each day working on your feet
• Able to accurately count money and make change
• Willing and interested in learning
• Detail oriented
• Versatile and adaptable, as job can involve bouncing back and forth between tea packaging to customer service with its variety of tasks and questions
• Ability required to manage working in an open auditory environment with a variety of sounds or interruptions
• Comfortable asking for help or clarification when needed
• Able to work independently, self-motivated, and use good judgement
• High degree of accuracy in accomplishing tasks
• Work or volunteer history with Good references

In this position, in addition to your base wage (including collected tips) you will get:

• Flexible scheduling opportunities, as possible
• To learn about, talk about, and enjoy all kinds of tea
• To serve the Best Customers, as Tea customers are almost always the best and most congenial type of customer.
• Employee discount (20% on tea and 15% on accessories)

This could be a temporary position through mid to late January; or it could become a long-term/permanent job, with a review at end of January with a potential for wage increase or added benefits* in February [*possible benefits if interested: % of sales bonus, some form of health insurance or stipend; paid vacation days; other benefit of value to you]
Days off/Vacation can usually be arranged with a minimum of notice. Note that from week of Thanksgiving through Christmas is extremely busy and more difficult to work around – especially on Fridays and Saturdays.

London 2024 – 4th Installment – Tea Stop #3 – Mei Leaf Tea

As many of you know – sourcing quality post-fermented teas – like puerhs and hei cha (dark tea) has been an ongoing challenge for me. Occasionally I have been able to get some special teas from my friend Eric (Fragrant Cup) who is most knowledgeable in the area of Chinese teas. So, I asked him if he had any suggestions for London shops and he turned me on to two that I got to visit, and intend to source from going forward, and I hope will have finally resolved our post-fermented tea “shortage”.

The first is Mei Leaf tea. They do sell retail online, so some of you may have heard of them before. What I focused on from them this time is more yellow teas and some “puerhs”. Because I was able to sign up for wholesale terms I was able to bring in more from here than most of my other stops. I have not yet had an opportunity to personally try much of what I bought. I did enjoy a glass of iced purple leaf tea during my shopping excursion. It was quite refreshing, but not significantly different than anything we currently offer.


Available now in shop and online: GABA Oolong, 2 of the 3 Yellow teas, a couple of Puerh bings (White Shou and a Sheng), and a really cool glass tea brewer (8oz)

Amber GABA Oolong – organic oolong version that we have not offered for a couple of years. Tea researchers discovered that by exposing tea to nitrogen during the oxidization process brings forth the naturally occurring (gamma-aminobutyric acid) GABA amino acid compounds in tea. GABA is a natural chemical produced in the brain that relaxes the nervous system and reduces anxiety. When we offered this in the past, some customers reported that it did help them with migraines and general relaxation.

Cleveland  Clinic article about GABA https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22857-gamma-aminobutyric-acid-gaba

” GABA is present in some fermented foods, including kimchi, miso and tempeh. It’s also found in green, black and oolong tea. Other foods that contain GABA or boost its production in your body include brown rice, soy and adzuki beans, chestnuts, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, sprouted grains and sweet potatoes. ….. Like supplements, it’s not fully clear if eating GABA-containing foods allows GABA to reach your brain. More studies, with large numbers of people, need to be conducted.”

Yellow tea is very rare. Originally only available in China, it was considered a gift or tribute tea to the Emperor. As you may now know, Great Mississippi Tea Company is successfully producing a yellow tea as well {we are currently sold out on our stock}

We are offering 3 versions of yellow tea – try one, try all three and see what differences you note!

The Mei Leaf website offers a wealth of educational information, and we will be exploring and learning together! 

If you browse and find teas you would like us to offer in the future, please let me know. Here is a link to a great video describing essential info about tea production (about an hour long)

Your comments and questions are welcome here!

Next installment Tea Stop #4 – Postcard Teas

London 2024 – 3rd Installment – Tea Stop #2

Mariage Frère [If you go, time your visit to be there after Noon so you get to try their fancy tea-based drinks and/or food, that I missed out on]

This tea shop has been a Paris institution since 1854 and I know that several of our customers have purchased tea from them – either in person or online. When I discovered they had opened a shop in London’s Covent Garden area I knew I had to add it to my visiting list.

It did not occur to me to take photos inside the shop until too late – this installment documentary was an idea that arose after I started to put my thoughts and tea experience in writing

The shop is huge, and opulent and everything is very accessible. Every tea has a 100gm tin that can be opened and sniffed. They have looseleaf and teabag versions of nearly every tea, though some newer or special flavors seem to only be in teabag format. Where to start? We have a fraction of their volume and new customers can be overwhelmed coming into our shop!

I explained to the gentleman who greeted me that I have a tea shop in America and I wanted to bring back something special for my customers. He steered me directly to Marco Polo as a blend that is popular with Americans. I had certainly heard of it before.

Described on their website as:

Wonderfully fruity & flowery fragrant black tea

And: Our overwhelming success is a mysterious blend that will take you to distant lands and unforeseen territories.

Fragrances evoking Chinese and Tibetan flowers lend it a uniquely velvety taste.

Its extraordinary bouquet makes Marco Polo the most legendary of flavoured teas. 

And that is It.

No ingredient list – I had asked him about ingredients before I left and he assured me I could find them on the website. If you have more experience with this please let me know, but I looked high and low and with every search term I could think of, with no success. Are allergies not a big deal in Paris?

The best I could find, on every tea item I viewed:

For better or worse, this is the only tea I purchased. I did bring back about 20 ounces of both the black and green tea versions of the blend and they are Now available for purchase in shop & on the website in 1oz and 2oz packages only, plus a handful of trial sizes. The only decaf version they had was rooibos based. They had no other decaf blends that were not rooibos based. [To my dedicated decaf customers, I’m sorry, I tried]. I haven’t yet tried the green tea version but both are quite fragrant, and the black version is quite tasty!

Next installment Tea Stop #3