TEAVANA

My Vietnamese hair stylist and good friend of fifteen years, Yvonne Hoang, knows how much I love tea. Every time I visit her salon, I ask if she is hair stylist to the stars because her fees are out of this world. She keeps telling me that I should visit TEAVANA [play on NIRVANA] at North Point Mall. I have seen the store, but I have  never walked in.

Larry accompanied me to the mall one Saturday morning and got a massage while I was fiddling around the tea store. The first teapot I picked up was $250. STICKA SHOCK! I cased the shelves and noticed a BUDDHA pot that I fell in love with. The nice, perky little sales girl announced the price: “This is a specialty pot handmade in Asia [I immediately thought [Made in China], and it retails for $350.

Now I was in awe AND in shock. I looked over my shoulder and noticed a cute little green tea pot that could hold about 8 ounces of tea, clearance priced at $150. Comparatively speaking, that seemed like a fair price.

Then the sales girl began a dissertation on the history and craft of TEAVANA cast iron teapots. Known as Tetsubin in Japan, these teapots were originally crafted in the mid 17th century in Japan. A fine Tetsubin can be distinguished by the hand crafted, high grade iron interior and the smooth enamel exterior. The completion of one Tetsubin requires the skill of 17 craftsmen. I asked her if they all signed the pot I intended to buy. She just looked at me. She handed me over to the TEA goddess.

The TEA goddess explained the benefits of drinking tea out of these expensive teapots. She then recited, in alphabetical order, tea flavors: cherry blossom, chrysanthemum, coins, dragon, dragonfly, elephant, grapevine, imperial dragon, Koi Fish, Lotus, Monkey, Rooster, Tea Leaf, Tiger, and I was relieved when she stopped at Turtle.

I was so thankful Larry or his good friend Murray Fuselier, were not there. Can you imagine what those two Cajuns would have said and done?? Murray would have asked to smell the Monkey tea, and I would have flushed like a hot flash at midnight.

Then Larry walked in. I told him that we should return later as I preferred to speak with him outside of the range of the twenty members of the TEAVAN staff. He insisted I show him the teapot I wanted. I explained to him that everything in the store was extremely expensive. He said he would not leave the store until I showed him the tea essentials I deserved.

I showed him the clearanced teapot. He asked me several times if I were favoring that teapot because it was on sale. I insisted that I wanted THAT teapot. He asked the clerk if I needed any other essentials to brew and serve tea. Then began a marathon of showing him trivets, tea sets [cups, saucers, trays], and fresh teas that ranged from $5 to $35 per pound.

He knows I love dark tea and peach tea, so he purchased 2 pounds of tea totaling $70, tea cups and saucers [undisclosed price], a bag of German rock sugar $25 [un-believably tasty rocky crystals], and a bag of Javana Mate, a choc lately tea [$30], and, of course, the teapot. The tea goddess mentioned that I loved the BUDDHA teapot, but I declined, saying that while I could dole out that much cash for a designer handbag, the esthetics of a Buddha teapot was not in my realm of taste.

As we walked out of TEAVANA with bags of tea stuff, we were

accosted by more tea goddesses holding small paper cups of tea

under our nostrils. Larry looked at me, and I said to everyone,

“さようなら.”GOODBYE in Japanese.