Coffee giant Starbucks recently acquired the ‘Teavana’ chain of specialty teas and tea accessories, rebranding it as ‘Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bar’, its first foray into the tea business.
“The difference between a Starbucks coffee shop and a Teavana teahouse is like night and day, it’s much more zen-like than anything you’ll find in a Starbucks store,” said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who likens the tea bar to “a shrine to tea”.
Teavana outlets serve up an impressive array of fine teas and herbal infusions, and there are no coffee beverages on the menu. Gourmet food items include Lemongrass Ginger Chicken Rice Balls and Roasted Butternut Squash Strata, and are priced a little more steeply than Starbucks food items.
With its first Teavana outlet located in the Upper East Village, Starbucks plans to open at least 1,000 more outlets in the next five to ten years. “We'll do for tea what we've done for coffee,” said Schultz.
[via Food Beast and USA Today]