Customer Reviews
What You'll Get
Tea collects the flavors and aromas of exotic places in a single cup, in the same way that a butterfly net can easily collect several foreign dignitaries at the UN. Go on a flavor hunt with today’s Groupon: for $10, you get a $20 reusable gift card at The Tea Smith.
The Tea Smith steeps an array of artisan-quality teas from around the world while accessorizing sipping with teaware, books, and gifts. Teas include organic and fair-trade varieties and run the gamut from white and green to red, black, and prismatic. Usable over multiple visits, the gift card can be applied toward teas, including the smooth Ceylon Star black tea ($7.44/4 oz.) or cherry-blossom sencha, a green tea with bits of pink cherry-tree blossoms that evokes the taste of springtime in Japan or rowdy parties at George Washington’s house ($7.83/4 oz.).
Taste buds that missed the semester abroad in India can travel aromatically with the rooibos masala chai, a sweet and mysterious red rooibos tea infused with cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, lemongrass, and shredded ransom notes ($8.50/4 oz.). Prevent fresh tea droplets from leaping into water pitchers with a Bee House two-cup teapot, a popular Japanese ceramic teapot with a metal mesh infuser ($21.95–$27.95). Or remedy spheroid-vessel loneliness with the smaller teapot siblings of a glass creamer-and-sugar set ($9.95).
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires Nov 16, 2011. Amount paid never expires. Limit 1 per person, may buy 2 additional as gifts. Limit 1 per table. Limit 1 per visit. In-store only. May redeem across visits. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About The Tea Smith
The Tea Smith owner Tim Smith searches out loose-leaf teas from all over the world—and he says he has to consciously limit himself as he fills the shops' stock of about 150 teas. But it wasn't long ago that Tim didn't even like tea. "I thought tea was brown water and a bag," he confesses.
It took a gift for his wife to change that. "I was traveling for business, it was around Valentine's day, and I was married long enough to know that you don't come home empty-handed," he says. So he bought her some loose-leaf tea and the right accessories to brew it. "She made me try it, and it was surprising," he says. "It was not that stuff in a bag. It had some character and some taste to it."
He began researching, and realized that tea—already the world’s most widely consumed beverage after water—was experiencing a resurgence in the United States. While many tea spots have British or Japanese themes, Tim decided to open a tea shops with a "comfortable contemporary" vibe, where people could enjoy hot, iced, and bubble teas with friends. For at-home brewing, visitors can shop for classic teas such as Earl Grey, sample more unusual flavors such as the “Iron Goddess of Mercy” (an oolong), or browse seasonal blends such as pumpkin spice, cranberry cream, and fireside chat. The shops also stocks travel tea mugs, teapots equipped with infuser baskets, and unglazed Chinese YiXing clay pots that enhance the tea’s flavor.
Tim knows that many people who walk into the shop are unfamiliar with loose-leaf tea and may not be sure what they'll like—which is why he only hires tea enthusiasts. "Part of their training is to come in and drink each of the teas, and make notes on the flavor profiles," he says. That way, the staff can recommend blends suited to each customer's palate, rather than having to analyze a Rorschach tea-blot test. In addition to events including an annual blending contest, they also run periodic Tea 101 sessions that introduce attendees to the "history, the myths, the legends, and the lore of tea," says Tim.