When you think of “boutique tea,” you probably don’t associate it with obnoxious upsells and sneaky add-ons. If you do, perhaps you’ve visited the same Teavana outlet as one of our readers. Michael was so annoyed with his recent visit to the Willow Grove, Penn. store that when he realized what had happened, he had to share it with Consumerist over a nice cup of white needle tea.
I am not sure how widespread [Teavana] is, but it was my first experience with them (and my last). I do feel that my story should be taken with a grain of salt, as I have no idea whether this is a common business practice throughout the chain.
Walking in the mall today, I was delighted to discover the existence of the stores, as I am an avid tea drinker, and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to see a wide selection of loose teas and accessories in person, rather than working off of descriptions from online tea sellers. The store seemed to be perfect; they had a wonderful selection of teas, and they had all manner of brewing and serving equipment, much of which I had not seen before. My problem comes from the really unconscionable upselling that the salesperson carried out. It is not that there was undue pressure to buy extra items. I don’t believe myself to be easily coerced into unwelcome purchases, and were that the case, I would not be as bothered as I am. Rather, I am utterly dismayed at the way in which the salesperson added more than the quantity requested of some items, and much more egregiously, added items to my bill without ever informing me about the extra charge that would be incurred, or even intimating that they were, in fact, considered to be purchases.
The first inkling came when I ordered loose tea. The tea is sold by two-ounce units. I requested two-ounces, the salesperson ended up putting 4 ounces in (This doesn’t seem like much, until you consider that we are talking about tea that is $9/2oz). Although I admit that I should have said something, I was sure that I would get a use out of the tea, so I did not think to object. The true problem comes from the tin that the salesperson automatically filled with the tea. This tin, which he introduced with, “And you can keep coming back and using this tin for this tea in the future,” cost an extra $7. Which, is absolutely an outrageous price, and something I would never voluntarily pay for a tea tin. However, the absolute worst was still to come. I ordered two-ounces of their “special Silver Needle tea.” Without any prompting, the salesperson went into the back and came back with the tea in a small (two-ounce) blue tea tin with bamboo painted on it. As he made no comment on the container, I did not even consider the slightest possibility that there would be an extra charge (Ask yourself, if you just bought a tea that was 20/2oz, do you think you would be expected to pay for the tin it came in?).
Obviously, had I been aware of any of this when I was checking out, I would have objected without thinking twice. Very conveniently, however, the cash register did not have a display showing the charges as they were being rung up. It was only after leaving the store and realizing that I had just paid nearly $90 for tea (Admittedly, my purchases included more than the aforementioned items) that I began to look over the receipt to see where the charges came from. It was at this point that I discovered that the small little blue bamboo tin, the tin which I had expressed no desire to purchase, cost $13.99. I’m enclosing a picture of both the tin and the receipt.
I really cannot understand why a company would choose to employ such unscrupulous upselling strategies. Had they even provided a mediocre experience, they would have had a very long-lasting customer, as they provide a service that it fairly unique, and at least to me, valuable. However, I absolutely have no wish to patronize any store that I feel that I have to keep a constant vigil against being ripped off. As such, they’ve absolutely lost a customer, and I would never set foot in there again.
Check the store’s return policy, then return the unwanted tins if permitted, explaining precisely why. Have any other readers experienced similar sneaky sakes tactics at other Teavanas, or other retailers?
(Photo: yosonuts)
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I guess I don’t understand.
If I were in the same situation, I would have went back to the store as soon as I noticed the charges on the receipt.
I had something similar, but less extreme, happen to me at a Catherines.
It’s a sad thing that you have to assume that salespeople are going to try to trick you just to protect yourself.
My experience with Teavana is so-so. The employee did try to sell me various things but when I declined, they didn’t ask again. I was made fully aware of the price of the tins that they put the tea in. Nothing was secretly added to my bill.
I’ve been in there a few times, but I find the store off-putting and so I avoid it whenever possible. Their tea and tea pots are overpriced, except occasionally the yixing ones, which I’ve found a deal on once or twice. The salespeople will not leave me alone when I walk through the store and every friggin’ time I’m in there, they try to explain to me again how tea works. I know how tea works, thankyouverymuch – I’ve gone through horrible tea snobbery and back again a few times. (And if I was feeling truly snobbish I’d point out that the fruity blend they were trying to sell me was half a step up from celestial seasonings and ten times the price.) Also, they always make me feel guilty for firmly refusing to buy more. So, no, I do not enjoy being their customer.
I used to live in Ann Arbor and frequented the Tea Haus there (which is amazing, you should all check it out if you’re in the area or order online [www.teahaus-annarbor.com]) and I often talked to the salespeople there. I had a pretty decent discussion with one of them about Teavana, and basically he told me this: Teavana is owned by the mall, the people who work there don’t really know anything about tea (besides absolute basics), and all they care about is money. Places like the Tea Haus or any independent tea store (or even Whole Foods) will serve you much better.
Not a surprise at all. I worked for Teavana for a while, and it was just a downhill story. Owners of the company are pretty horrible too. Check out my story:
[www.teachat.com]
@Evan MacIsaac: That was a hell of a job! It reminded me of the time I worked for The Body Shop, from starting out with everyone positive and trying to do their best, then the employees getting blamed for slow sales despite going above and beyond to make it work, then HQ sending in morons from corporate who only made things worse, ending with the staff quitting. I’m pleased to say that branch closed down not long after.
And now that it’s forever associated in my mind with that experience, I for one will never shop at Teavana!
@Evan MacIsaac: Evan, I read your story yesterday; one of the other folks posted a link to it as well. What a story! Even though it was lengthy, I read in its entirety. Thanks for sharing it with us, and I hope you never have such an awful working experience again.
BTW, they provide a variety of teas & coffees for us for free at work, so I can’t imagine shelling out such dough for it.
I was at Teavana yesterday and was offered lots of extra items but declined all. I bought just the minimum amount of tea in a little bag.
I’m very surprised by the upselling ‘horror’ stories… my wife and I have been purchasing loose leaf tea (and some starting accesories) from Teavana in Maple Grove, MN for 3 yrs and have always had a great experience.
The first time we went in they did a great job of explaining the correct water temps and steep times for each type of tea and RECOMMENDED the tins for extended shelf life. The staff was up front with the pricing and if I wasn’t clear on what something cost I would just ask, especially the first few times I went in (how hard is that?!).
They’re positioned as a high-quality, boutique-esque tea store so you’re paying a little extra but if you buy in bulk you can get a great value for your dollar (10% off once you hit 1lb of loose leaf tea).
/does not and has never worked for Teavana
//lesson learned: if you’re afraid what it costs you probably shouldn’t be shopping brick & mortar IMHO
@highpitch_83: That being said: if anyone knows of a ‘better’ option for high quality loose leaf tea in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN metro I would love to hear it!!! (can’t find anyone else that has quality tea so far…)
@highpitch_83: EDIT: “//lesson learned: if you’re afraid TO ASK what it costs you probably shouldn’t be shopping brick & mortar IMHO”
First of all, what is “Willow Grove, Penn.”? Who abbreviates states like that? Is this the 1950′s? Second of all, just go to Wegmans in Warrington…they have a huge tea department…boxed, bulk, etc. plus all the accessories that go with it. Skip the fancy mall boutiques.
@mbz32190: Abbreviating in that manner is AP style, which is what journalists use. This might be a website, but everyone who writes here is technically a journalist.
Can you give me the address of the “China” market in my town? Not everyone lives in a large, ethnically diverse city.
What the store did sucks, no question. But when you’re buying things, you should always keep a running estimate of the cost so you’ll know if you’re being overcharged at the register. This person paid 9 + 7 + 14 = 30 dollars more than expected, which is a full third of the $90 purchase. A little mental math could have saved a lot of money.
@vladthepaler: It sounds like prices may not be posted on all items, which makes keeping a running total difficult. Even if that is the case, such a high total would have stopped me in my tracks. If I have a sense that I’m paying more than I expected, I’ll ask for a breakdown or carefully review my receipt before leaving the store.
Given that this seems as much about their corporate culture as the individual salesperson, I don’t know that I’d bother with a formal complaint. At a minimum, I’d return both tins.
you should definitely take the time to forward this to their corporate office. i think you should always formally tell a company when they treated you so badly that you can never be a customer again.
I’ve never had a problem at the King of Prussia, PA store – they always try to sell you a tin, but politely, and they back right off when you say ‘no thanks’. I think you’ve hit a bad employee, or possibly store. The chain as a whole isn’t bad, though.
As far as Asian Markets go, Here in Wichita, which according to popular consumerist opinion is little more than a whistle stop on the chisolm trail, has a sizable Asian population and at least a couple of really interesting Asian supermarkets. Thai Bihn comes to mind.
@temporaryerror: There’s a Thai market in Wichita? I’m jealous!
Just sounds like a crappy sales person that doesn’t understand the need to inform customers of the price of an item before they are rung up.
Why you didn’t look at the amount on the credit card receipt when you were signing is a little strange.
Just return the unwanted items. I wouldn’t consider this a knock against Teavana, really just a matter of a crappy sales person.
I get that the salesperson was tacking stuff on, but how hard is it to say “hey, that total’s pretty steep. What am I paying for?” It’s just not possible for you to have no idea how much you paid until after you left the store, unless you’re completely irresponsible with money. Next time the till rings up $90, grow a pair and make the salesperson go over everything you bought.
This happened to me and my sister in law at the same Willow Grove location. I was thinking about writing a complaint letter about the really underhanded way we got ripped off there. Its the -same- exact story. They put in more than I wanted, gave us tins they implied were free and never stated they were charging for, and I walked out almost 70 bucks poorer. My sil, who is both pregnant and recently laid off and just wanted some ginger tea to help with morning sickness, was out 48 bucks.
@SlayBelle: Freshly grated ginger root steeped in boiling water and sweetened with honey makes a great anti-morning sickness brew, if she’s still in need of one.
@JulesNoctambule: Thanks for the tip! I’ll pass it along to her.
myb y shld hv jst sd N nd nt bn n f ths dts wh fll fr pshy slsmn.
@89macrunner: Maybe the world should end tomorrow.
Maybe somebody should give me a million dollars (yes please).
There are lots of maybes out there… here’s one:
Maybe salespeople shouldn’t be pressured to be so pushy?
@Wombatish: Maybe salespeople shouldn’t be pressured to be so pushy? LOL. You’re clearly not in sales are you? They’re called quotas, and every sales person in every industry has them. Sales people are agressive – that’s why they’re…get this..in sales.
I don’t condone the salesperson’s unscrupulous behavior – but the phrase “caveat emptor” isn’t around for shits and giggles you know.
Don’t walk into a boutique tea store, get snowed for more than you asked for, then NOT speak up. Don’t you think everyone needs to be their own advocate at some point or another in their lives.
Maybe?
@89macrunner: Maybe the salesman should’ve actually mentioned the extra charges he was piling onto the bill.
@89macrunner: Good call, they should totally have said no to questions they weren’t asked.
ll’d
Those of you who live in an urban area can get better quality tea for vastly cheap prices at any Chinese, Japanese, or Korean grocery store. I bet you could find it online as well. I know Marukai (Japanese grocery and home store chain)has an online presence and I believe Mitsuwa does as well. How Teavana manages to get customers to pay ridiculous prices when you can get the same quality for a couple bucks is beyond me.
It is sad that the salesperson took advantage of this guy, but this individual still has quite a bit of blame. He should have spoken up if he was concerned about the situation instead of crying to Consumerist about it. There are plenty of valid reasons to raise alarm. Customer stupidity isn’t one of them.
I managed a Teavana in its beginings. There is a HUGE pressure put on sales people to meet personal and store goals. As friendly as the shop seems, and as nice as the product is, the upper managment are hard people.
I quit after a year of managing and several months of threating phone calls at home on my days and hours off for not doing things like adding on extra tins. They also thrust me into the management position when I was 19, with my only previous experiance being the day before, when I was an assistant manager for less than 24 hours. They worked me to death.
More importantly, the mark up at the shop is increadable. You can get most of the same exact teas at a portion of the price http://www.specialteas.com/ Teavana used to buy direct from them, and you can too!
I shop frequently at the Teavana store in the Sacramento, CA Arden Fair mall, and have had nothing but excellent service from them. They’ve never snuck anything in on me, other than being slightly over or under on my tea (this is pretty standard practice in a lot of “scoop and scale” purchases.)
I hope we’ll get an official response here from Teavana, and hope that the OP goes back into the store to return the unwanted items, and complain to the wayward employee’s manager.
I had a really similar experience at the Teavana in King of Prussia, PA. I don’t normally get suckered in by things like this and was surprised by how much extra I bought when all I wanted was a few ounces of tea in a bag. I ended up spending almost $50 on a half pound of tea and a tin and the vague feeling that the very attractive saleswoman was romantically interested in me (she wasn’t).
They opened a Teavana in Crossgates Mall recently, and I’ve found the staff to be very friendly. But in that new store way, very eager to show you all the products, and try to get you to buy something.
I listened to one salesperson’s pitch all the way through, and each time I go back to look around or have a free sample I just politely decline their advances.
I understand it is a business. Trying to succeed. And it’s high end, and sells a lot of overpriced items, so they’re afraid they might not turn a profit and have to close. But if they did to me what they did to the OP I’d have marched back inside ASAP and return the stuff they tacked on without mentioning it would cost extra.
Speaking of high end stores that I like to shop in despite it all, the Harry and David’s in Crossgates is closing in August. Everything is 33% off at the moment. Makes me sad. But they had a lot of business in there for once.
I went into Teavana in Arizona once because I was curious to see what types of tea were in the store. I’ve grown up with Chinese parents drinking tea from China, Taiwan, Japan, etc. So I thought it would be kind of neat to try some flavored tea for a change. When I found a tea that smelled really great, I asked for 2 oz since I only wanted to try it. The sales lady REALLY tried to push other teas on me and even went as far as assuming I wanted to purchase something she recommended. I firmly told her what I had wanted.
Before she filled my order, I noticed she took out a tea canister. Now I had glanced at the merchandise in the store and knew they charged extra. So without even asking me, she started putting the tea I asked for into the tea tin. By this time, I was quite annoyed and told her I didn’t need a tea tin considering my parents had a lot of extra sittting around. The sales lady proceeded by telling me how THEIRS was special. By special, she told me that their tin kept the teas a lot fresher and how the flavor of the tea would quickly loose its freshness after a month if I didn’t buy their tin. She never offered me the option of a free bag. While she was explaining, she kept scooping tea leaves in the tin. The tin was close to 8 dollars. I was annoyed but didn’t want to argue with her anymore over 8 dollars so I complied. If I had assumed that the tin was free, she never would have told me that it cost extra. I asked for a pamphlet of the different assorted teas. While flipping through it, I noticed that they also sell a smaller version of the tin with just the teavana sign on it. I had only asked for 2 oz so the medium tin was a bit ridiculous as it only filled less than 1/4 of the tin. I left the store annoyed with the feeling that I had been duped.
I orginally went into the store with the notion that it would be nice to try some different types of tea I haven’t had before. And if I enjoyed it, I would continue coming back for different flavors. I left with the uneasy filling that I was ripped off.
Later on, I decided to brew the japanese cherry green tea I had bought. When I opened the tin, it smelled absolutely delicious. So I followed the instructions in the pamphlet on how to properly brew tea. After steeping the tea in hot water for exactly 5 minutes, I strained the leaves, blew on the tea in eager anticipation. After it had cooled down just enough for me to be comfortable tasting it, I was dissapointed at how low the quality of green tea was in my cup. I could barely taste the cherry flavor and when I looked at the leaves again, I was struck by how it looked like thin dried grass. In order for the tea I bought to be drinkable, I had to add tea leaves from China to the mixture so it could have some quality flavor.
All in all, my experience at teavana was not great and the trouble I went through was not worth the low grade overpriced tea. You can go into ANY asian supermarket and find REAL tea that costs a fraction of what they were charging. I would not recommend anyone going to Teavana.
@SharvariRagnarok:
“So I followed the instructions in the pamphlet on how to properly brew tea. After steeping the tea in hot water for exactly 5 minutes, I strained the leaves, blew on the tea in eager anticipation. After it had cooled down just enough for me to be comfortable tasting it, I was dissapointed at how low the quality of green tea was in my cup.”
You followed the wrong instructions. 5 minutes with boiling water are for herbal infusions, rooibos, and mate.
The Teavana green tea instructions are 175F water for 1 minutes, 1tsp of tea/8oz of water.
I have never had this problem at either of the Teavanas that I go to (Tysons Corner Center and Fair Oaks Mall, both in Virginia). Admittedly I don’t go as often as I used to, but I recently went in and was able purchase my tea without any dissembling from the cashier. They did offer me a tin, but I declined and took my reasonably-priced, good-quality tea home in a little paper bag instead. No problem.
I guess the moral of the story is ask what the total is before you pay?
This is something that has happened to me at Teavana here in Miami. My boyfriend was asking for x amount of tea (we already own the tin, as the discount pays off for us) and the guy started FILLING the tin. This is a huge tin. I had to point it out to my boyfriend, shocked, who then told the guy he was batshit crazy and to take all of that tea of his tin.
I also purchased a very small amount of tea, just to try the flavor, and the guy would NOT stop trying to get me to buy a tin. Even after I explained that I knew about the discount, that the tea wouldn’t stay fresh in the little baggie, etc…they just kept pushing.
For loose leaf I like adagio teas (online). Maybe go to places like teavana and sniff and smell and taste the free samples and once you think you know what you like get online and buy?? Adagio charges about $2 for a sample (about 2oz) and larger sizes are reasonably priced. The tins are kinda plain but come with the tea (no additional cost) and you can create your own tea blends. The guys from digg.com have their own blends on that site too.
Also for teabags I really like Stash.com. Their chai is my favorite and my boyfriend likes the peach black tea.
wow, a store on consumerist I go to. Wel, I tried their samples, looked at their crap, and moved on. The new Teavana store in the mall is staffed by teenage assholes who are loud and obnoxious and utterly lack social skills. i’m not surprised they just charged the poster for the stuff without even trying to sell it to him. Teavana itself is a ridiculous store that tries to be new agey but is really just filled with cheap mass produced crockery and tea you can get anywhere.
Original poster, try the tea section in the new Wegmans up on 611, a few lights past the Regal Warrington movie theater. They have far more selection than Teavana in bulk teas, plus tons and tons of packaged tea. No upselling.
I went into Teavana in Arizona once because I was curious to see what types of tea were in the store. I’ve grown up with Chinese parents drinking tea from China, Taiwan, Japan, etc. So I thought it would be kind of neat to try some flavored tea for a change. When I found a tea that smelled really great, I asked for 2 oz since I only wanted to try it. The sales lady REALLY tried to push other teas on me and even went as far as assuming I wanted to purchase something she recommended. I firmly told her what I had wanted. Before she filled my order, I noticed she took out a tea canister. Now I had glanced at the merchandise in the store and knew they charged extra. So without even asking me, she started putting the tea I asked for into the tea tin. By this time, I was quite annoyed and told her I didn’t need a tea tin considering my parents had a lot of extra sittting around. The sales lady proceeded by telling me how THEIRS was special. By special, she told me that their tin kept the teas a lot fresher and how the flavor of the tea would quickly loose its freshness after a month if I didn’t buy their tin. She never offered me the option of a free bag. While she was explaining, she kept scooping tea leaves in the tin. The tin was close to 8 dollars. I was annoyed but didn’t want to argue with her anymore over 8 dollars so I complied. If I had assumed that the tin was free, she never would have told me that it cost extra. I asked for a pamphlet of the different assorted teas. While flipping through it, I noticed that they also sell a smaller version of the tin with just the teavana sign on it. I had only asked for 2 oz so the medium tin was a bit ridiculous as it only filled less than 1/4 of the tin. I left the store annoyed with the feeling that I had been duped. I orginally went into the store with the notion that it would be nice to try some different types of tea I haven’t had before. And if I enjoyed it, I would continue coming back for different flavors. I left with the uneasy filling that I was ripped off. Later on, I decided to brew the japanese cherry green tea I had bought. When I opened the tin, it smelled absolutely delicious. So I followed the instructions in the pamphlet on how to properly brew tea. After steeping the tea in hot water for exactly 5 minutes, I strained the leaves, blew on the tea in eager anticipation. After it had cooled down just enough for me to be comfortable tasting it, I was dissapointed at how low the quality of green tea was in my cup. I could barely taste the cherry flavor and when I looked at the leaves again, I was struck by how it looked like thin dried grass. In order for the tea I bought to be drinkable, I had to add tea leaves from China to the mixture so it could have some quality flavor. All in all, my experience at teavana was not great and the trouble I went through was not worth the low grade overpriced tea. You can go into ANY asian supermarket and find REAL tea that costs a fraction of what they were charging. I would not recommend anyone going to Teavana.
I’m also a regular tea drinker and I buy my teas at Teavana in Palo Alto, CA for the same reasons as Michael (can’t smell teas online). I’ve never had an issue with being upsold there and the employees there have always been courteous. He’s right, the tea is expensive, but you get what you pay for.
In defense of Teavana, I think it was naive of Michael to think he was getting a hand painted tin for no cost. If you look around the store (at least the one in Palo Alto) you’ll see stacks of painted tins with price tags (which are admittedly on the bottom) that I agree are outrageously overpriced. Also, why couldn’t Michael ask how he spent 90 dollars before handing over his credit card?
Okay, ALL of you, and especially the consumer this article is about – sit down. I’m only going to explain this once.
1. ALL stores at the mall are set up to make you pay way too much for items you can easily get cheaper online.
2. This has been true since time began, except you didn’t have the Internet to even the playing field.
3. Look up reviews online of what you wish to buy, and then buy it from a highly reviewed, reputable retailers.
4. Use the mall to examine products in person, for size, color and quality review – DO NOT BUY THERE.
It’s just that simple, people. All the “high-end” hoity-toity mall shops exist just to drain money from you – not provide a quality product or a fair bargain – NEVER.
If you do the opposite of what I recommend here, you will get shoddy goods, and lose money. Period. The original shopper in this story is simply gullible from the start, don’t be him.
Outside the mall, there may be local merchants who can do right by you as well – look around.
I experienced a very similar shopping trip at the same store in Willow Grove. I also asked for a 2 oz and they continued to scoop well beyond. I told the sales person stop and unscoop that tea. They also kept insisting that I wanted to mix teas and buy more types when I was very specific and told them numerous times what I liked to drink.
I go to the Teavana in the Florida Mall, and I’ve never had problems. They give me my 2oz in a little bag, and never tried to upsell me on anything.
On the other hand, I was buying Gunpowder Tea, which is one of the cheaper ones, so that could have been part of it.
this sounds like a isolated instance…
The Teavana in my local mall, Danbury CT, has a great staff that has been nothing but a pleasure to be around. they had lots of samples brewing and let me take my time, and when i ordered they put my tea in a bag and only mentioned the tin right before i paid. i declined the tin, and that was that.
a week later i went back for more tea, and the shop girl recognized me and recommended a tea based on my previous purchase, which turned out to be well suited to my tastes. oh, and did i mention that the shop girls are all beautiful and between 18 and 25?
My first & last visit to Teavana was this weekend, Briarwood Mall, Ann Arbor, MI. The teas are overpriced, waving a lid over the canister is not how you smell tea, it only creates fannings (the stuff Lipton puts in their bags), the dust gave me an allergy attack, and they want the customer to see them as elevated beings willing to share their god-like knowledge out of pure graciousness. Poseures, crummy tea, hard-sell, no posted prices, ridiculous prices, sneaky sales techniques (I was asked if I “want the tin”, no hint that it would be a purchase), minimum purchase requirements, and they don’t even drink tea! The crummy cast-iron tea pots they sell will rust after one use, they’re not tea pots, people, they’re humidifiers at best! Plus, the pots are really ugly. There are some good things I see here: 1. in this economy they’ll be gone soon, there aren’t enough moneyed poseure-wannabes to keep them in business; 2. if you follow their directions for tea you’ll get tepid brown water (again, almost Lipton’s) which will make sure they get no repeat business; 3. I bought 2 oz. of a peach-flavored tea blend (my husband loves peach sun tea) with big enough pieces for me to see what they put in it and blend it myself in future; and 4. people who really want tea may see my comment here, read all the way to the end, and find a lovely place called Upton Tea (do an on-line search)which has single-estate teas, sample sizes, world-spanning selections, excellent descriptions, clearly stated prices, and (in my 2 1/2 year experience as a customer), excellent customer service. You even get to choose, tin or no tin, at a minimal cost. I bought the Upton tins my first time around, now I have plenty. Try the Hattiali and the Sree Sibbari, both fabulous Assams.
OMG! I had a very similar experience yesterday at the same mall (Willow Grove, PA).
The sales representatives kept pushing me loose teas in a humongous tin. I only wanted a cup of brewed tea, so I had to keep saying no to loose teas again and again. They I was charged more than five dollars for my tall cup of tea (they don’t post prices for loose tea or brewed tea). I felt ripped off. I will be staying clear of Teavana in the future.