In 2016, Jaesy and Wan signed the lease to take what was once a small furniture store on Bedford Street and turn it into a showroom for tea. Before this, Luv Tea existed as a small wholesale-only company in Midtown. It was an amazing four years and it is with great sadness that we announce the end of our West Village showroom due to COVID-19.
We would like to take this moment to thank everyone who stopped by and go through some of the pictures that Wan saved in his phone but never uploaded. So… here we go!
Jaesy looking another potential place for the showroom in Tribeca.Wan in Jeju Island, Korea, checking out the different tea blends at the Osulloc Tea Museum.Prototype packaging for our teas. This did not work out as tea leaves cannot be exposed to direct sunlight.This was at a tapioca pearl factory in Taiwan. They welcomed us with great enthusiasm.This machine makes over 500 tapioca pearls per minute. It is awesome.We also saw some expensive tea wares.We did a lot of tea tasting events at WeWork. Needless to say it took a long time before we finalized the location at 37A Bedford Street. This was a shot of the interior on the first day that we got the keys.Never expected to have this view last four years.Construction begins!Construction basically means a huge mess.We designed our own aprons so it works for a tea shop, and of course, with our logo.Sanding the seats.Architect’s rendering of the shop.We brewed about 80 gallons of tea to stain the floors.Of course, building out the counter took quite a while too.Finally! Shop was done! This picture was taken one month before the opening.Compare this with the first image. It took a lot of work but was so worth it.Jaesy brewing tea at night. In the beginning we were open until 11pm…One of our first customers was Andy, the cat from Cho’s Groceries on the corner. Sadly Andy passed away last summer due to a car not seeing him during a turn. He was fearless.One of Jaesy’s window decorations.During the winter, it would get so cold that we had to get boiling water from a bodega to melt the ice covering the lock so we can open.We sometimes have people from Penguin publishing come over to do book styling with tea.Macy, one of our first apprentices.You know the video from our “About Us” page? Here is a pic of the filming process.A shot of our Taiwanese boba tea during a pop-up called Boba Room.The cold-brewed Golden Lily was so popular that we ran out of the tea within two weeks.Jaesy had to go back and oversee another harvest back in Taiwan during the summer.Dr. Tsewang on the mountains. He would come to the store once a year to adjust our herbal blends and also to bring us medicines from the Himalayas.Tea and desserts.Our apprentice Eva doing a tea ceremony in Uptown.Boiling our Ginger Potion every morning. That was a lot of work but the shop smelled wonderful.Apprentice Leaf during an event in Chinatown.We even got a mention in the magazine “&Premium”.Wan met Kelly from Kelly & Jones ten years ago when he first came to NYC. She would come and do a scenting event. It was awesome.One of the first shots of David in training.Not many people know this, but we had to taste about a hundred different types of tea from all around the world every month. Above is a picture of one of the steeping session. It lasted around five hours.Back to Taiwan again for more tea! Jaesy would make quite a lot of trips back to our farms.Tea processing.Almost ready for NYC.Back in NYC, Wan wrote out “blood” with his gang fingers.Sara hanging out with Sharon.A tea class in progress.David making one hundred origami hearts for PRIDE.Running a tea shop is hard work. But our customers make everything worth it.Nothing lasts forever (except plastic). This was the last shot we took before closing the store permanently. Of course. That does not mean that the tea experience would end. We are currently making tea brewing guides so people can still buy our teas online and make the same drinks.
A huge thank you to everyone who made Luv Tea possible. Thank you to all our customers who stopped by to share your lives with us. This would not be possible without the support of so many people. We had a great run and will be opening yet another tea experience soon. But this time… with alcohol!
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