116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Ground Floor: Tea turned into business for Cedar Rapids entrepreneur
By Deborah Neyens, correspondent
Dec. 4, 2017 12:00 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — Did you know that most teas should not be steeped in boiling water? Or that teas grown at higher elevations are of higher quality than teas grown at lower elevations?
A discussion with Amy Steiner, owner of Exploring Tea and More, is likely to reveal Steiner's vast knowledge of her favorite beverage. But one of the more surprising facts one will learn is that up until about a decade ago, Steiner didn't even like tea, much less know anything about it.
'My chiropractor gave me a cup of tea once,' Steiner recalled. 'It was green tea, and it was awful.'
Her opinion of the beverage changed on a trip to Canada with her husband. The hotel where they stayed had a tea menu with about two dozen different types of loose leaf teas displayed in glass jars.
'We had our first cups of tea at breakfast at the hotel,' Steiner said. 'I realized how good it could be.'
She liked it so much that she ended up befriending a woman who sold loose leaf tea at the hotel gift shop.
'She spent about eight hours over the course of our stay educating me about teas,' Steiner said.
Not only did Steiner purchase some tea to take with her, by the time she got home, she had devised a plan to launch an online tea retail business. That business, Exploring Tea, offers a variety of loose leaf teas from around the world, along with related accessories such as tea balls and infusers.
In the years after launching her online business, Steiner continued to expand her knowledge of tea. About two years ago, she attended a tea-blending workshop offered by one of her major suppliers.
On the way home, she decided to open a tea shop in Dubuque, where she and her husband live.
'I started thinking of other products to add to tea to make a tea shop in Dubuque viable,' she said.
Those products include natural soaps, skin care products and household cleaners, honey, beeswax candles and essential oils, along with tea and tea accessories.
Steiner opened her first shop in August 2016. By early 2017, the business was doing well enough that she began planning a second shop in Cedar Rapids, her hometown.
Exploring Tea and More opened in Cedar Rapids on Nov. 21. As with its sister shop in Dubuque, the store offers more than 100 different varieties of teas and herbals.
Customers can purchase tea by the cup or bagged loose leaf tea to take home.
For those customers aren't sure what they want, the shop offers sniffer jars for each variety of tea, along with write-up prepared by Steiner. Or customers can ask Steiner or one of the store's two employees for recommendations.
'We help people find the right tea for them,' Steiner said.
[naviga:h3 style="padding-left: 60px;"]AT A GLANCE
Owner: Amy Steiner
Business: Exploring Tea and More
Address: 7037 C Ave. NE, Suite 300, Cedar Rapids
Phone: (319) 777-1816
Email: ExploringTea@yahoo.com
Website: www.ExploringTea.com
Know a business in operation for less than a year that would make a nifty 'Ground Floor'? Contact michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com