Greetings, tea friends! May this post find you healthy and happy.
I’ve been reflecting a lot this month about Mandala Tea as it marks twenty years since I first began importing tea here and I wanted to share a bit about this with you all.
Back in 2005, after years of being a massage therapist and serving tea to my clients, they began asking where they could get good tea. It was then that I pursued connections with people in China who could ship tea to me in order to resell at my wellness center in Winona, MN. I’ll never forget the first transaction that I made, cash for tea, before I even had anything other than clear ziplock baggies to send along with clients for their green leafy substances. I remember telling clients, “don’t get pulled over on the way home for the police might find your baggie of tea suspicious contraband!” We all laughed.
When Mandala Center for Wellness opened in 2007 is when things really got cooking for Mandala Tea as we were able to have a tasting room and proper retail space along with a branded logo and a website. What a thrill to be able to teach classes on tea and get our first few wholesale customers as well, some of which are also still in business and selling our teas to their customers! Big shout out to Bluff Country Coop in Winona, our very first wholesale account, still selling a selection of our teas there.
Over the years in Winona, the tea business began taking on a life of it’s own and I found myself needing to do much less on the wellness center side and dedicate more time to tea. While I adored doing massage/bodywork, tea was also a part of wellness and relaxation for me, a business born out of love and a desire to share the peace and health that I had received from it over the years.
We made the decision to sell the wellness center in 2012 and began making all the plans to open up a tea shop in Rochester, MN in 2013 and created something quite special there with a beautiful tea tasting bar, a classroom for teaching and a welcoming retail space. We continued with that for over three years before we realized that an expensive retail store, and all the hours and resources it took to keep in going, was not where we needed to put our energy and the decision was made to close that shop.
We had to dive deep into our motivations/intentions and make a decision about whether to keep going with tea mongering as a vocation or to go on to other pursuits. Thank goodness we kept going in the online and wholesale tea business as we came off of the burnout of a retail operation! Had we not kept going, we would not be getting the many wonderful notes/emails/reviews from happy customers near and far that lift our spirits and remind us why we keep going with Mandala Tea.
It has been your orders, your kind words and your reviews that help us to see that the original impetus behind my initial foray into the business truly has taken root. You are telling us you are more relaxed and healthy, you are sharing with us the peace you are finding in tea time and you are sharing the love with others in your circles, helping them to think more lovingly, more peacefully and with greater hydration, to boot!
Here we are, at twenty years of business, blown away by the fact that so many years have passed since the earliest days of Mandala Tea. As I see the orders that come in and help to prep them for shipment, I get a bit verklempt when I pack orders from customers who have been with us the entire twenty years! Such joy and gratitude that brings to my humble heart.
Thank you - to all who have been a part of keeping Mandala Tea alive and kicking - from those who have purchased from us, to the stores, restaurants and coffeehouses that sell our teas and to anyone along the way who has contributed time and effort over the years to nurture Mandala Tea on it’s journey, including our growers and suppliers in China, Taiwan and Nepal. Here’s to another twenty years!
With love, warmth and gratitude,
Garret
