Teavana
Category: Coffee & Tea [Edit]
2855 Stevens Creek Boulevard #1037Westfield Valley Fair Mall
Santa Clara, CA 95050 (408) 244-0455
- Price Range: $$$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Garage
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Wi-Fi: None
56 reviews
San Jose, CA
"best gelato I've had outside of Monza everyone has said the rest, great staff, good atmosphere, interested in the customer, not the…" read more »
35 Reviews for Teavana
Oh godddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd. you are my weakness teavana. I got hooked on this good stuff by my friend and now I can't stop. To be honest I haven't been on this 'hard stuff' for that long, but I'll never stop. after being turned onto loose leaf teas, I can rarely drink bagged stuff. I used to go to to the tea place upstairs in the mall, but have actually found teavana's teas to be much better, they seem to be stronger and I like that you can order drinks from the bar to try them out (and free samples thats whats up!). The only downside is that they are always hiring, therefore understaffed. It's often crowded but if you can find an off hour it's sooo worth it.
I'd actually been here once before to order a hot green tea from the bar. That experience was pleasant, but it was well over a year ago. My most recent visit gave a completely different experience.
Over the weekend I stopped in and got to work tasting the many teas they have out for sampling. You'd be amazed to know I didn't try all of them- I actually quit after just two. The overwhelming taste of each drink was not tea at all, but sugary sweetness.
I questioned an employee and she said that yes, their teas are lightly sweetened. Lightly? No. For a second I thought I was drinking a Snapple or something similar. Urggh, am I a tea snob? Maybe.
While I appreciate the encouragement to sample their wares, I really do like my teas plain and simple. Back to Lupicia I go.
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I love this place!
I first found out about it from a friend. We were doing our group study session late a night and she busted out little tin jars and said "who wants tea?!"
I've been drinking loose leaf for a while (ever since my dad sneaked a peek in the kitchen of one of the chinese restaurants we go to and found out what brand of jasmine tea they use) so I really like the idea of other varieties of loose leaf.
Whats nice about this place (even tho its at the mall) is that they have samples everyday. You just go get your little 2 oz cup and pick which jug to get sample from.
They also sell tea drinks there so you if you are debating wether you want to buy 4 oz of loose leaf tea that just sounds good; you can just ask them to make you a cup first (ice or cold for about 2-4$) and then if you like it then you can buy.
They also let you smell the jars--part of the tea experience is smelling the tea so I like that everytime I ask "how is that tea", they get the jar, open it up and let me get a wift of the aroma.
You can also mix and match 2-3 different teas to make your own combination. My favs are:
1. Matevana + rooibos toffee: if you like coffee this is a good tea for you. enjoy hot. good for studying
2. green tea mojo: floral, fruity green tea. nice and refreshing
3. honey dew white + carribean breeze: really fruity but light coz of the white tea
I still have a few on my list a want to try and they keep adding new flavors (I've been working on the 3 different ones I bought for a while).
It is a little pricey and dont get sucked in by all the "perfect" tools they have like the perfect tea pot or the perfect cup or perfect whisk or spoon. You can buy those things cheaper elsewhere (example is cheaper french press Target). Also, you can buy cheaper tin cans or jars at other stores too so dont feel like you have to get their tin cans coz it does add to the cost.
Most of the employees are really nice and helpful. Some of them really know their stuff and give good tea recommendations or new ways to brew tea.
Teavana's teas are pretty expensive, and you can find very similar (if not the same) teas on-line for much cheaper. I have only bought loose tea from them once or twice.
Their teaware is much the same. They have a wonderful selection, but it's expensive. None of it is unique to the store; I have found most of their yixing teapots on other websites, again cheaper. But for simple exposure, and to see what everything looks like "in real life," Teavana is a great store to visit and browse.
The experience at Valley Fair really depends on which staff members are working. Some of them are really pushy for sales; others are quite laid back. Several members of the staff are quite chatty and fun to talk to, but the store's usually too busy on weekends. All of the tea is behind the counter in large bins, so it's impossible to just browse the tea on your own. It must be done with a sales associate, which has benefits (they can tell you why that tea is so great and suggest other teas that are similar) and negatives (you can't browse on your own, so if you're feeling anti-social it can be difficult, and you have to suffer through the upsell process.) Personally, I feel like I know enough about tea that I would prefer the ability to just pick teas on my own.
When at Teavana, I usually purchase tea drinks. I work in the mall, and don't have a chance to brew tea at my store so this is the best way for me to get tea. The staff do a great job of steeping the tea just the right amount of time, removing the leaves before tea gets bitter. Unfortunately, since there are rarely more than one or two staff at any given time you usually have to wait for the staff to finish with any other customers looking at tea, so wait times are too long much of the time to justify getting a drink. In fact, during the holiday season the drink service isn't even offered, which stinks if you're a thirsty mall employee craving some oolong.
When I first started working at the mall, I was intimidated by the staff at Teavana and avoided the store. It wasn't until one of my friends started working at Teavana that I started to get to know the staff and feel comfortable going in. Unfortunately, Valley Fair's Teavana goes through a lot of employee turnover, and once again I'm not as comfortable with the current team.
There are so many other places to get drinks in the mall, and there are less pricey loose tea alternatives, so it is hard to justify a trip to Teavana anymore.
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Delicious teas, made better by the free samples located around the store. Though it can get expensive, the sampling makes up for it since this store is a requisite stop anytime I'm shopping at Valley Fair and they do not pressure me to buy. The employees are friendly and helpful. Teavana makes great gift boxes as well, and I especially like the rock sugar they add to the teas. Mmm. They are much, much better than Lupicia. I've converted people to tea with Teavana. Minus a star for being so busy and shortstaffed on weekends, the store can get as cramped as Mac.
Teavana has really nice, high quality tea & products, I'll give them that. But when they discontinued some of their really popular teas last year, they discouraged the staff from letting customers know that the same blends were still available elsewhere.
Most of the flavored teas are still available on Specialteas web-site: www.specialteas.com (Holiday Blend, Black Currant, Casablanca Spice, Mango Ceylon, and Vanilla Bean are all there, as well as all the discont'd. flavored greens) and they are A LOT less expensive without Teavana's mark-ups. Specialteas also seems to have most of the flavors that Teavana carries, like I'm pretty sure the "Vienna Winter Green" listed on the site is the same as the Chocolate green tea Teavana started carrying last Christmas...
Boo Teavana for not putting your customers before your cash flow :(
I love going in here when I'm feelin' all wore out from Valley Fair shopping. They always have the tastiest samples available (both hot and cold), usually some custom blend that puts a smile on my face. The people behind the counter are friendly and knowledgeable, and they make my tea just how I like it (sometimes with honey, sometimes with Splenda, depending on my mood). And while you're waiting for your tea to steep, you can look at the books and cute tea sets for sale. I can never resist this place.
I brought my friend here once and he left the place with over three hundred dollars worth of product. I swear he was about to buy the water maker behind the counter. I have to admit that since then I have grown fond of tea. The sales guy that helped my friend introduced us to the wide world of tea and all it has to offer. It's quite amazing, I never knew that green tea had so much anti oxidants. Not to mention that anti oxidants were good for you. lmao I like the apple tea......not quite as good as the one in Turkey but good enough.
And for some reason when I think of this place, I think of Moby....and Moby is a nice guy...kind of funny looking actually because he reminds me of a guy I work with...and that amuses me. Oddly enough I hear the real Moby has a tea shop of his own. Sounds like another road trip....
;D
This place is great--some blends are overpriced, and they blend some combos that are...confusing (they don't have the same brewing requirements so you either get too much or too little of one flavor), but it is the best place I've found in the south bay (other than the internet) to find a variety of high quality loose leaf teas.
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I love, love, love, LOVE this store!!! Yes, it is expensive, yes, the people that work there are a bit pushy with their sales, but if you set those two things aside this place rocks! They have all kinds of cool tea pots, cups and miscellaneous tea products from all over the world, as well as an impressive variety of super-quality tea- and the tea is SO good. It does seem expensive, but it actually goes a long way and every cup is amazing.... I think I'm going to have some right now, actually. Hmmm... spice nut mate or rose marzipan black tea?... I can't decide..
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I love going here - the only place I know that sells my favorite Mate tea - Mate Vana. Put two things i love, tea and chocolate (in the form of cocoa nibs) and I'm sold. They smell fantastic and tastes just as good. Expensive, yes, but worth it if you like this tea like I do.
Finally stopped to try a tea sample from here, and it was very flavorful. Mybad for not having stopped here sooner in all the times I've shopped at this mall. A little on the pricey side, but the teas are yummy!
OoO.. tea samples!! Let's go try some!!
I instantly fell in love with Teavana after trying their sample teas. The teas are very flavorful and so delicious!! I wish the tea wasn't $5 to $12 per 2 oz. I really like the green tea with jasmine leaves. Yum yum.
Time to get more samples :)
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I already wrote that I'm a tea fanatic, and I've got three tea places that I want to review. I'll start with what I know best: Teavana.
I have this bad habit of responding to other reviews... so here we go:
Yes, this business does run on a sort-of commission. Meaning that they have a goal of what to sell and if they go over the goal, they get some tiny percentage of commission at the end of the month. So no, they're not ALL ABOUT commission... but they do have goals to meet. If they don't meet them, but they're well liked, people tend to stay on. It's more about how much ass you kiss than how much tea you sell.
Expensive tea? Most tea costs about this much, unless it's really shitty quality grocery store tea. If you think about how much tea goes into your precious Stash tea bag, you'll realize you're paying way more for that box than you are for 2 oz of fresh loose tea, with all the added benefits of loose tea. Also, brewing your own cup of tea has a 500 more health benefit to price ratio as compared to an iced grandissimo low fat caramel chocolate strawberry macchiatissichhino you get from Starfucks, Conglomerated (all titles, percents and ratios are made up on the spot). .. . whew! *steps down off of soap box*
Now! What I like about this place: they have immense selection. They have every kind of tea, processed to any kind of preference: white, green, oolong, chinese black, indian black, green rooibos, red rooibos, herbal, green mate, toasted mate, and all that with fruit and herb flavoring to boot.
I'm a tea lover, but I'm not a tea traditionalist. If it's delicious, then it's delicious. I don't care if you think fruity teas are for people who've never had tea before. If it helps to get them started, then I'm all for it. And I enjoy it too. I also enjoy the traditional teas they have, such as gyokuro or assam black. And if you think that traditional tea isn't supposed to be flavored, then think again. Traditionally, the chinese have flavored their teas for centuries with things like jasmine and crysthansamum, so give it a rest, you snobs!
The beauty of Teavana is that you have someone to help you (who is friendly, usually, and also loves tea) to get to know the different variaties of tea, their health benefits, and will give suggestions of how to match tea flavors. The corporate hanchos let the Teavana workers drink as much of the tea as they want, while they are working, so they get to know the flavors well and are well suited to recommend stuff to you.
In the end (if anyone is still reading), I would say this is a good place to go to learn about tea and stock up on good, fresh tea! Hope to see you there!
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This is a great place to get gifts for tea-lovers. I love the jasmine-green tea!
Okay time to Edit my review ~ If I could give this place NO STARS I would.
To Liz ~ There OWNER is the same out of ATLANTA the Manager is new.
The ETHICS are still crappy for lack of a better word. This company doesnt care who who crap on from the elderly to the broke ~ SO LONG as you MAKE THOSE SALES
Hell they will even get over on thier own employees.. I have no comment on the new Manager all I know is she has been with the company for a while now and has transfered from different stores.
So if you've been to the Palo Alto store and liked it you that is where she is from and if you didnt like it well then welcome to Valley Fair.
TEAVANA is a rip off ~ Hell go to China Town and get your teas fior half the price... They also false advertise Teas delivered monthly fresh from the farms
NO they get thier tea from a website ~ Dont be gullible consumers
Know what you're paying for know where it comes from and do it right.
The tea pots by the way you can get soooooo much cheaper almost anywhere..
There is another review on here from Eden somebody or other that even tells you where to go on line to get the exact tea that Teavan sells for less the price.
Oh by the way here is there gig
They mix the teas so that you will buy more then one to get the mixture
Then they show you these wonderful hahahaha tins fopr $6.00 and up and then try to get you to fill it up so now you're buying a half pound and then oh let me do you a favor they say get another tin and fill it up you will have a pound and a 10% discount comes with it...
hoo Hoo Cachoo my friend we just made a deal.
The only way these employees get ANY comission is if they sell over a certain amount first then they get a commission...
Dont be suckered check out your options
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I also Love, Love, Love this store! However I have had great experience with the staff. The tea is worth the price, for that slice of heaven when you take it home. If you are new to this store I would reocommend coming in when it's not busy so you can spend some time smelling the teas. However if it is busy, it is very strategic to come in with a plan: What teas do you want, how much and what container you want them in.
This company will make you a cup of tea if you are interested in trying before buying, and they often have something brewing that you can sample for free. This tea is awesome, and worth every penny!
Exquisite tea with every frill possible to add to your "at home" collection. When you walk in, you will notice the bucket-sized tins of tea variety to chose from. Also, in response to the guy below, they have a new owner. So no worry for pushy/bitchy/racist woman. The new girl is Grade A.
Thumbs up.
My only gripe? I really don't have extra cash for the tea pots and other options available. So, I guess my gripe is self-hatred. (?)
If you love tea, this place sells the top of the line stuff.
Don't waste your time nor money. Teavana is a scam. You can get the same exact teas (By this I mean EXACT, not an imitation of or similar tea. Though the names are a little different, the tea number is the same) from specialteas.com. To illustrate this, take Teavana's strawberry white tea, "Scarlet Cloud." It sells for $15 for a measly 2 oz. Do a search on specialteas.com for strawberry white tea, and one will come up. It's the exact same tea. But... oh, what's this? $13 for 4oz....? That's twice as much for less money!
I know what you're thinking. It must be a wholesale website. But that's the thing--- it isn't. Buy to your heart's content.
So, like I said, don't waste your money.
...And don't waste your time. Teavana employees are trained to get huge sales versus customer retention. They're trained not to explain tea pricing (minimum amount 2oz, tin not required) but just grab the largest tin and fill it. Customers think, "Hey it's just tea, it can't cost that much..."
Au contraire: A large tin can hold almost a pound of Jasmine Pearls. It's priced at $12 for 2 oz. There's 16 oz in a pound. So that large tin ends up being almost $70, plus the price of the tin.... Unfortunately most customers don't pay attention when they're at the register, and they hand over their card. The next day, they return, shocked at the entry on their credit card statement. They try to return the tea. But they can't, because it just so happens that tea is not returnable..
Also, employees will tell you that white tea has the most antioxidants (15x the amount in green tea), but if you look in their booklet it says that red tea has 30x the amount of antioxidants of green tea. Why say white, then? White tea is rarer and therefore more expensive... it's all about the commission.
P.s. The place isn't exactly hygenic, either. I found a dead ladybug in a new bag of peppermint tea once. It didn't have legs on it. I wonder if someone already drank them...
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Rant
Okay, it's come to that point where the gloves are off. You know, that point in the movie where the good guy has taken everyones crap for the last hour and a half and just kinda put up with it? And he gets to the last 20 minutes or so and realizes that, yes, everyone is treating him like crap. and yes, he IS supposed to wind up with the girl, and YES he DOES know Kung-Fu. And then for 20 minutes straight there is just this hell unleashed upon all the bad guys in the whole movie and then the credits roll. This is that point.
THIS TEAVANA IS BAD.
THIS TEAVANA IS VERY BAD.
I got really excited about this place becuase I heart tea, I really do. In fact I took classes on JUST TEA in school. And you know what? Teavana has some cool teas, and hella nice pots and other tea drinking equipment. Fine. It gets one star for it. The Palo Alto location got like 3 or 4 from me. I don't have a problem with the tea. And I don't really have a problem with Teavana in general. Its this specific location, and the wench who manages it. This woman is a Bitch. She is racist, mean, pushy (try buying tea without a tin...) and violent. I know a guy who worked there, she hit him. In the chest. With her fist. And HE got in trouble. Figure that one out. Take your money, drive 15 minutes north and spend it in the Palo Alto Teavana, or WALK ACROSS THE STREET TO FANTASIA. I would drive from Almaden to Palo Alto just to avoid stopping at this Teavana location.
/Rant
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Tea was never my fancy until this place. Upon discovering it, my boyfriend and I began planning out which flavors of teas to mix together for the perfect healthy yummy blend.
It is premium tea so of course you can't expect a box full of ready tea bags for 3 bucks!
They always have free tea in front of the store in their most popular blends. There are also frozen drinks available. Starbucks but healthier! Woohoo!
The pamphlet offers insight into the different types of teas and how they affect the body. A must read if you are new to teas and want to fix an ailment or even enhance your skin.
There's even a slender tea!
UPDATE 7/7/07
They no longer have the frozen/blended kinds of frozen drinks. They took down that menu and now you can only get any of the tea flavors they have either hot or cold. No more karmachai something that was super good. Boo! 1 star less!
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AMAZING PLACE for fellow tea lovers!!
i can't tell you how hard it was to narrow it down to one flavor. Go into this store and you shall see what I mean...
i got their white tea, and next time im gonna try me some oolong =) yay
For non-coffee drinkers who drink tea (like me), you have got to come here. The teas are expensive, but, wow, this place smells good and the teas are so good. I sampled one of them and it was the best tea I have ever tasted -- it was the combination of the Rooibos Caramel Creme Rooibos Tea and Mate Vana Herbal Tea. All I bought was the iced tea but I think will end up buying tea's on a weekly or so basis just to treat myself. :)
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Coffee drinkers need not apply, this is for the hardcore tea drinkers.
Teavana has one of the biggest selections of tea that I've ever seen. White teas, Black teas, Herbal teas, Rooibos (Red) teas, you name it they probably have it. They even have the rare and exotic "Monkey Picked Oolong", at $25 for 2 ounces. No, I've never had it, but hey if a monkey picked it, it's gotta be good, right? :)
They can make drinks for you at the bar, iced or hot. You can pick from a customized combination of teas, or you can choose from a menu that's behind the bar. Trust me when I say that it's usually better to choose your own teas than what they have already pre-picked. That way you know which flavors and aromas you'll be getting in your tea.
I'd give this a fifth star, if the place was a little bigger.... That's the only downside. Literally, only about 5 people can be in this place at one time, and 3 of them are normally the employees... This place is cramped!
They also have a wide selection of teacups and teapots. They range from pretty plain to quite exquisite. They make great gifts for the tea addict in your family!
OMG, I have no idea why people love this place. If you want your tea to taste so sweet, just drink some damn juice! Seriously, this is one of those times that I'm ashamed of my half-whitey blood. Besides the fact that they don't have anything that doesn't just assault your nose with fruit, fruit, and more fruit, the girl who was helping us out just didn't know when to shut up. My wife and I just wanted to look through the menu, and she continued to push tin after tin of nasty crap under our noses and try to sell something to us. After the fifth tin, we got fully annoyed and just walked away while she was talking to us.
There are only two things that kept me from rating this place with 1 star: 1) they have a nice selection of teaware at decent prices, and 2) they have free samples that you can just walk up to and pour. Yeah, I know, why drink the samples if I don't like the stuff? It wets my whistle during a long day of shopping and my half-Chinese blood can't pass up anything that's free! Hahaha.
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The place is very nice, clean, i enjoyed every single sample tea i tried, stuff was outstanding, friendly, knowledgable, very sweet. good location too.
What i did not like that they had to open jar for every customer who wanted to smell the tea, jars were huge and wide, and my guess that the wonderful aromas of tea were not as strong were prooven after i bought a coule of teas and brought them home: and since i still had some leftovers of the same teas i purchased online i could compare them. the difference was huge but the price was the same. i would not buy from this store again, will buy online but will visit it to smell and try other teas they offer.
and yes, their tints are very overpriced
I go here every few months to stock up on my loose leaf teas. They are slightly expensive, but they also do things right. They have a large variety, and a proper tea seller will cycle out some teas and cycle in new ones to try, and will always, always have you smell the tea by default. Aroma is important. :) If they don't offer, they're into the image, not the tea. The main reason I go is because they have a good strong selection of black teas (for cream and sugar), herbal and floral infusions (for those days when you need something lighter or to make iced tea), and my favorite, a handful of good white teas. These are the rarest and finest of the breed, and the fact they sell more than one or two makes them worthy in my book.
They weigh the tea by the ounce and no standard person ever buys a pound of tea unless they have a huge household of tea drinkers. They have some for as little as $5/6 a pound to $25 a pound but I don't remembering seeing any for $40, but I might not have been looking closely enough. They also offer airtight cannisters you can re-use and refill to store your tea, and if you don't wanna shell out the extra dough, you can just get it in foldover bags like the kind you get for coffee.
I've never tried the drinks they offer on site, but hear they're good. They also offer lots of pretty tea accessories (ceramic drinking/pouring sets, cups/mugs, their electric and manual teapots, etc.) but these run on the expensive side and you're better off shopping around online. I have purchased their patented tea for two thingiemabobber, and it works pretty good (though it's awkward to clean and dry).
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Gourmet tea store located at Valley Fair mall which lures you in with samples of the different types of teas available. The teas are delicious and luxurious, which means, it is also very very expensive.
Yes, this is the good stuff! You can even taste it before you buy it if you want to wait for the infusing time (2-3 min.)! But they do have samples of their good (read: pricier) teas at the entrance. Note that they do add honey to their samples, so make sure to add a bit of honey when you make it at home. Their tea is loose, so don't expect to buy the tea in bags. They do have their own patented tea infuser (made of acrylic plastic) that is so easy to use! If you want a nicer tea set, they sell them too. There is also a location at Stanford shopping center.
This is a great shop for picking up special gifts for tea-lovers. As for the drinks they make in the store, the toasted coconut blast is wonderful.
note: if i could give this company zero stars i would. if i could give negative stars it would be even better!
don't bother with this place. yes they have nice/cute pots and a large selection of teas ... but its also so dirty. they don't clean the teamakers they make your cups of tea in very thoroughly. don't sample their teas. you don't even want to know what it looks like inside those dispensers. disgusting. behind the closed door of their storage room are a number of health code violations. they clean everything w/ windex or bleach. i once even heard one worker tell the other to clean the teamakers in a mixture of the two!
now even if this place was impeccably clean i don't recommend buying anything here. i don't recommend any teavana store. the company is a money hungry succubus. they only care about $$$$$. they teach their employees dishonest sales methods ... which i understand is true for most sales jobs ... but they go above and beyond. no care to who they rip off. i've seen in-store training sessions where employees watched a trainer trick a poor high school kid out of $120. he only had $100 and had to borrow $20 from his gf. what made it worst is that most of the sales was in tea. meaning no refund or exchange. i understand to get a lot of sales you have to trick people into buying more, but the company supports and teaches the workers to lie the the shopper.
DON'T BUY THE TINS!!!! not only is it a rip off, its a sales scam. they ask if you want to "fill up your tins and save 10%" and don't even tell you that it'll be over 16oz of tea when the minimum you can buy is 2oz. and really ... $6 for a cheap tin you can buy anywhere for less than a dollar?
they will lie to make a sale. i was told by one worker that teavana bought out the supply company they had originally purchased from. bs. a friend contacted that company to ask if this was true. the reply back was that it was absolutely not true.
yes the workers get a commission on their sales if they reach a certain goal ... but could i have at least one minute w/o having one of them attaching themselves to my side like a leech. there is no way you can take a look at everything at the store because the workers constantly try to direct your attention to the most expensive stuff. do you really have to have a $150 cast iron to "truly have the best tea flavor?" they acted like no other method of tea making existed or something. and if it did it was a blasphemy to the art of tea. *rolls eyes*
the only time i would say you should go to teavana is to go and smell the teas. that way you can go buy the same exact tea for cheaper from their own suppliers at:
www.specialteas.com
not all of them are on there but its not hard to shop around online for larger selections at cheaper prices. even their teawares are a rip off. its cheaper online even w/ shipping. or you can go to the new whole foods market that opened up in cupertino and get beehouse teapots for cheaper. they also have a larger selection which includes more colors, cups, sugar bowls, and creamers. if you really don't want to buy tea online then go one story up at valley fair mall, across the food court to lupicia. though i would agree w/ one reviewer that some of lupicia's flavored teas do have a bit of a synthetic taste. but then some of teavana's teas only have flavor if you scoop mounds of sugar. prices are about the same at lupicia. some are a little more some a little less. but they don't have huge tins they scoop your tea from that everyone looks, smells and touches from. all the teas are individually packed in airtight bags. and pretty much any tea shop you go to all the teas are the same. teavana will tell you they have "exclusive" tea but that is just more bs the company tries to shovel down the consumers throat.
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this place is pretty good and they have some nice teas and teaware.. the only thing i have to gripe about is that there is always a huge line and it takes them forever to ring you up!! the price for their white teas are insanely expensive too!! they don't have as much of a variety as lupicia but they have some great herbal teas!! i pretty much only come here for their herbal tea and white honey.. the employees are very unfriendly (the last review said they are racist!) and they seem like don't care much about you or the next person. the music that plays here is always fun and gets me in the mood to shake my booty!! they also have a tea bar so you can try their tea before you buy it and about 5 teas brewing that you can try while waiting.
i work in the valleyfair mall, where teavana is located. im forced to go there to get my tea, because its super close. otherwise, screw that, i hate that place. the employees are RUDEEEE. especially the manager. shes just plain crazy.
they are running the most unorganized place ive ever seen. there are always boxes everywhere and at least 5 employees standing behind the register, none of them doing anything. while i wait at least 15 minutes to get a damn cup of tea. this place is rediculous.
I haven't put in great effort for finding loose leaf tea but this is the most convenient spot for me to get some. The price? Not so bad. Yeah, this place is located in a mall but it's far from your Starbuck;s kind of customers. People tend to loiter in this store---which is awesome. It's refreshing to see people browse menus, flavors and specials. This comes rare in a mall. There are lots of flavors and even if you don't buy anything, it's lovely just to sniff 'em out. The tea sets are expensive but you can find dope deals at Ross or Target. Mates vanas are awesome. I love herbal teas. Carribean breeze is also good if you like kool-aid like tea. I'm the kool-aid tea and earl grey type ' guy.
its a great place, just three stars cuz of the price, but its well worth it. i love the "monkey picked oolong both for its name and taste. i would go here more often if it wasn't so expensive. try their samples (:
this is nothing against them but the first time i was in here, i wasn't sure if it was free samples or what, so i asked this lady next to me and she stared me down and walked away. i try to stay away from valley fair cuz i've had A LOT of bad experience from the shoppers who shop there.
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