The first TeaSource shirt.

Front and back of the shirt.

This shirt was given to me by colleagues when I quit the corporate world. 

Most of my colleagues knew of my checkered and varied work history and my search to find a calling that satisfied and fulfilled me.

My mother saw it differently, having said to me on numerous occasions, “Can’t you hold a job?”  Eventually I found a job that I wanted to hold for a long time: TeaSource.

The last career I had before TeaSource was in the wholesale grocery business; training independent grocers (mostly family owned single store operators or very small regional grocery chains) how to open grocery stores, and how to operate their stores and their business more effectively. 

As I got more and more into the world of tea, it occurred to me that what I was doing for the past 8 years with grocery retailers was the perfect training ground for opening a retail specialty tea store.

So, as I approached my forties, I started thinking about how cool it would be to have a tea business. 

For more than 20 years I had been fascinated, perhaps even obsessed by tea. One of my previous careers had been as a librarian at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where I had learned how to do serious academic research. So for a long time I had been researching everything I could about tea.

I started TeaSource in a spare bedroom and a tiny bit of packing space in a food warehouse in NE Minneapolis, MN. I ran it solely as a mail order catalog (I produced the catalog myself at Kinkos), sold tea to family and friends, and did lots of tea tasting around the Twin Cities; kitchen stores, specialty food stores etc. I sold packages of tea along the way. 

One of the early TeaSource catalogs.

After a year of doing this while still working my full-time career, I realized that “this tea thing” (as some friends referred to it) was either the most time consuming hobby ever imagined or I should just quit my career and jump into the world of tea full bore. 

I knew one thing with certainty; I wasn’t going to get braver as I got older. 

So I found an empty retail space in the Highland Park neighborhood of St Paul. I signed a lease, turned in my 30 days notice, and embarked on the 3^rd scariest thing I have ever done.

Highland Park TeaSource location on south Cleveland Ave.

I did most of the remodeling work myself (except for the electric and the cabinetry - those areas actually require a high level of skill). I was pinching pennies. My operating budget was my life savings and my retirement fund. So (with a little help from my friends) I did the demo, the drywall, the construction, the flooring, the painting, etc. We had a crazy 75 days of dust, demolition, and exhaustion. 

Highland Park TeaSource store on July, 1998, fifty days to Grand Opening.

Many thanks to Steve S., John W., Greg P., Jim G., Beth A., Kit C., Keith W., Kathy W., Sean D., Megan D., and anyone else I am missing.

Our grand opening was Sept. 5th, 1998. 

Highland Park TeaSource, the early days. Hanging the ceiling over the counter was a piece of cake...not! And yes, I did make those copper-topped tables.

TeaSource in Highland, circa 2002. Remember those tea chests lids on the wall? 

My wife Liz has been unbelievably supportive throughout this whole journey, even pre-TeaSource when I was taking over whole kitchen cabinets with strange tea packages and tea paraphernalia. From the moment I told her I was thinking of quitting my career and opening a tea business up through this year when we have been incredibly busy dealing with new federal laws and regulations impacting our business, she has been behind me.

Patience, support, flexibility, and creativity have been among the gifts she has given me. She’s been amazing. 

The first couple of years were rough. Most folks had never heard of a tea store before. So that meant lots of education, proselytizing, sampling, etc. was necessary. Initially, I had one employee besides myself, Jen H. She was there during construction and for many years afterward and was key to getting TeaSource integrated into the neighborhood.

We had a number of colleges nearby so we employed lots of students in the early years. We have always been really lucky to have great employees, many of whom have been with us long-term.

We do tend to start them off young. 

 

Circa 2003, my daughter Mag surveying her domain. 

Remember my little wall of tea chests? Today wooden tea chests are no more.  They are just a part of tea history. 

In addition to the challenges, there were also a lot of successes, acceptance, and love shown to TeaSource in the first couple of years. 

Thanks to the many, many people, staff, suppliers, neighbors, family, and customers who survived those first 2-3 years and began to establish a tea foothold in the Twin Cites, providing a solid foundation from which to spread our message. 

Bill Waddington

Tea Merchant

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You could say TeaSource was born in Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales (United Kingdom) on November 15, 1840, when Augustus Waddington was born. He was the first Waddington to go into the tea business.  

Augustus was not the first born male child (look up primogeniture on Wikipedia), so he was destined to leave Wales in search of fame and fortune. He arrived in Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka, in 1868 to work in the coffee industry. The following year the Great Coffee Blight of 1869 struck Ceylon and in short order wiped out the entire coffee industry. So all those ravaged coffee plantations were converted into tea estates. 

Augustus stayed in Ceylon for 10 years working at more than eight of the early tea estates.

Flash forward; I founded TeaSource in my spare bedroom in 1997. In late 1998 (more than a year after I founded TeaSource) I ran across Augustus’ unpublished memoir in a box of old family memorabilia, which no one in my family knew about.

The unpublished memoir of my great grandfather.

Buried in this memoir were about 15 pages describing my great grandfather’s time in Ceylon. Including some cryptic references messages to his brother Henry, who was in southern India. 

Map of Ceylon and south India, where 2 brothers were working in the tea industry in the late 1870’s.

During this same time, i.e. the beginnings of TeaSource, I immersed myself in tea knowledge. I was able to purchase a copy of the original reference work on tea, All About Tea, by William Ukers, a 1,127 page two volume book on tea, published in 1935 and out of print for decades.

The original reference book on tea.

The inside front cover of Ukers, All About Tea.

Published 1935, and still on the book shelf of most tea professionals. And as I was working my way thru this tome, on page 143 I ran across this:

Apparently Henry stayed in the tea industry for most of his life (unlike Augustus who left Ceylon and moved to Kansas after 10 years).

Then a few years laterout of the blue, an employee came to me and said, “Bill, there are a couple of customers who would like to talk to you.” Being a good Minnesotan, I assumed I had done something wrong and they were there to complain.

Instead, they turned out to be regular customers who greeted me with smiles and handshakes and compliments about TeaSource. They were the ultimate Minnesota Snow Birds - spending summers in Minnesota (her birthplace) and winters in southern India, the Nilgiris (his birthplace). On their most recent stay in India in the city of Coimbatore (the center of the south Indian tea trade for the last 100 years), they had dinner at the Coimbatore Planter’s Club.

Above, the official history of the Coimbatore Club book.

(I have to digress here for a moment: when the British established tea plantations anywhere in the world, they would very quickly also establish “Planter’s Clubs” where the British owners and managers of the plantations could go to relax, drink, race, gamble, socialize, scandalize etc. Think Downton Abbey with a dash of Mar-a-Largo thrown in.)

These TeaSource customers, while walking down the hallway lined with all the historical information about the Coimbatore Club, ran across plaques showing all the past presidents of the Coimbatore Club going back to 1910. Lo and behold, there was H. Waddington, President from Sept. 1920 thru June 1921. They took pictures of the plaque to bring back and share with me.

Mr. H. Waddington, Sep 1920 – Jun 1921

Photo in the Coimbatore Club book. It is likely Henry Waddington is in this picture.

So after an 80 year break, the Waddington family returned to the tea business: from my spare bedroom in 1997 to the first retail store in 1998.

And we keep rolling forward today. 

Bill Waddington

Tea Merchant

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We're excited to announce the latest installment of the Tea Masters Series!

Mike Spillane is the owner of the oldest continuous operating family-owned tea business in America, The G.S. Haly Company. That history and longevity gives him a unique perspective on tea in America. This latest installment of Tea Masters will focus on the origins of tea in America, how the tea industry and the specialty tea industry evolved, and how it kept pace as America grew and expanded from pre-revolutionary times into the 21^st century. 

Can't attend in person? Join us on Facebook LIVE!

George Standish Haly (left) & son, Thomas (right)

We’ll taste our way through the history of tea in America:

• Pre-revolutionary American colonies
• The American Revolution era (we’ll sample the same tea that was thrown into Boston Harbor!).
• The 1800’s thru the Opium Wars (which more accurately could be called the Tea Wars), during which black tea came into vogue.
• Tea thru the 20^th century – the global cultivation of tea, across two World Wars and the rise of communist China.
• The rise of tea bags and the rise of specialty teas.
• The last half of the 20th century (we’ll taste tea that was illegal to import into the U.S. until 2000).

Shop the Tea Masters Collection

Mike succeeded his mother as president in 1977.

Mike is the 2016 recipient of the World Tea Expo’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Please join us for this rare opportunity to meet, learn from, and ask questions of a true Tea Master.

Can't attend in person? Join us on Facebook LIVE!

When: Sunday, September 2, 2018, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Where: DoubleTree by Hilton, Bloomington Minneapolis South

Cost: $20.00 per person. Pre-registration is necessary. This workshop will sell out.

To register: Call the TeaSource warehouse at 651-788-9971

Mike’s father Edward Spillane (4th from left) at the Board of Tea Directors meeting, 1955

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July 1st is National Gingersnap Day! We love any excuse to pair delicious baked goods with a cup of tea. Check out the recipe for these iced ginger snap cookies and pair it with your favorite tea! We recommend the Georgia Sunshine, Sweet Ginger Green, or White Mango Ginger. The icing for these cookies calls for our TeaSource Chai Spice Blend, which is a fantastic ingredient to add to your spice cabinet.

GINGER SNAPS (Makes 48)

Cookies

                1 cup sugar

                ¾ cup shortening

                1 egg

                ¼ cup molasses

                ½ tsp salt

                1 ½ tsp ginger

                1 tsp cinnamon

                2 tsp baking soda

                2 cup all-purpose flour

                Extra sugar to coat the cookies (about ½ cup)

Icing

                2 cups confectioner’s sugar

                ½ tsp vanilla extract

                1 tsp TeaSource Chai Spice Blend

                2-3 tbs milk

Directions

•  Preheat oven to 375F.
• Beat together the sugar and shortening until fully incorporated.
• Add the egg, molasses, salt, ginger, cinnamon, an baking soda to your bowl. Beat together until smooth.
• Add the flour and beat together until fully incorporated.
• Roll the cookie dough into 1” balls and roll them until completely covered in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper leaving a 2” space between each ball, and bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes.
• Let the cookies cool off on a wire rack. They must be COMPLETELY COOL before icing.
• Once cool, whisk all of the icing ingredients together in a small bowl. Start with less milk and add more if needed – you are looking for a smooth consistency that drizzles in a thin, steady stream back into the bowl.
• For icing, get a sheet of wax paper underneath your wire cooling rack to catch the drips. You can either use your whisk to drizzle ribbons of icing across the top (as pictured) or dip one side of the cookie into the bowl to coat one side.
• Allow cookies to sit on the drying rack until the icing has completely set. These cookies can be stored at room temperature.

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In honor of Cupcake Lover's Day, we wanted to share this delicious cupcake recipe using our Matcha! We can't think of a better way to spend the day than with tea in one hand and a cupcake in the other. 

Shop the Matcha Collection Here

PISTACHIO MATCHA CUPCAKES (Makes 12)

Cupcakes

1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 tbs cornstarch

1 tbs Matcha

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

3 tbs softened butter

¾ cup sugar

3 tbs vanilla yogurt

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

½ cup milk

½ cup chopped pistachios

 Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

1 ½ tsp almond extract

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ tsp Matcha

 Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• In a large bowl, sift together your flour, cornstarch, matcha, baking powder, and salt.
• Use a standing mixer or a hand mixer to cream together the butter and sugar. Once fully mixed, add in the yogurt and beat together for a few minutes to fully mix.
• Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and mix thoroughly.
• Add half of the sifted dry mix and beat it together until the flour just starts to incorporate. Then add half of your milk and beat together until the milk just starts to incorporate. Repeat until the dry mix and milk is all in the bowl.
• Add the pistachios and give the batter a light mix just to distribute your nuts.
• Line the cups in a standard muffin tin with paper cups and fill each ¾ of the way full with your batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes (until a toothpick can be stuck in the center of a cupcake and comes out clean).
• Allow the cupcakes to COMPLETELY COOL before starting the frosting.
• Add all of the frosting ingredients to a mixing bowl and beat for several minutes until the frosting turns pale and fluffy. You will probably need to scrape down the sides of the bowl at least once.
• Pipe and spread your cupcakes with the frosting and sprinkle some of the chopped pistachios on top. For the best results, chill the cupcakes before serving and keep them refrigerated in a closed container.

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