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Starbucks acquires Teavana for $620 Million
- eekfuh 14y agoNon-techie in me: Maybe this will make Starbucks actually have good tea... or at least more variety. (Teavana is more smelly tea than tasty tea)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mmanfrin 14y agoWasn't that also the point of them acquiring Tazo back when?
- jgeorge 14y agoTazo teas don't have the reputation of being high-end enough to fetch the prices teavana teas do. I drink some of them, but boy, they ain't cheap. I mean Teavana, but in hindsight that same comment applies to Starbucks as well.
- rhizome 14y agoExcept Tazo is pretty pedestrian, the General Foods International Coffees of tea. http://dailyshotofcoffee.com/candied-coffee/ http://dailyshotofcoffee.com/candied-coffee/
- amckenna 14y agoI have loved Teavana ever since they opened a store in the mall near me. I hope they start using the teas that Teavana has to beef up the selection in Starbucks stores. Tazo is decent but the variety is lacking and they miss out on the complexities of flavor and aroma that specialty teas have. I will be a happy customer when I can go get a Himalayan young black tea with the same ease I can get a bag of Colombian dark roast beans.
- GR8K 14y agowow, they got a lot of locations! http://www.teavana.com/retail/united-states http://www.teavana.com/retail/united-states http://www.teavana.com/retail/canada http://www.teavana.com/retail/canada
- deveac 14y agoWeird. Or really, the exact opposite of weird. There is a Teavana in a mall near me. I've enjoyed their teas, and bought bags to brew at home, as well as a rather nice iron kettle. Every time I walk in there I say to myself "This place is like the Starbucks of Tea." I like premium Tea from Teavana much more than Starbuck's coffee though. As I should for the prices they charge...
- ryangripp 14y agoI bet these guys (http://www.argotea.com/ http://www.argotea.com/) had something to do with Starbucks decision to gobble up another tea company.
- mredbord 14y agoThey're doing in-home coffee, merch, etc. and now a big chain of pure retail locations. Starbucks is really starting to open up alternative revenue streams. Good for them.
- acgourley 14y agoTeavana always had me torn. They found a sustainable formula for popularizing tea. That's good! But they are very expensive and their sales staff sell on commission which I find uncomfortable. I find myself in the position where I'm glad they exist but I never recommend anyone to actually go there.
- _delirium 14y agoI have similar views: I like that people seem to be caring about tea, though I don't find much to like in this particular shop. Nonetheless, several people who know I like tea have pointed me at them, so Teavana must be doing good marketing, to the extent that people who aren't that into tea think of it as something to recommend when they hear an acquaintance likes tea. I personally mainly shop mail-order from Upton Tea Imports (http://www.uptontea.com http://www.uptontea.com). When I compare their selection and pricing to Teavana's, I don't see a lot of reason I would want to switch. But maybe that's like comparing newegg.com to Radio Shack: not really going after the same market segment.
- objclxt 14y agoI like the newegg / RadioShack comparison...it seems rather apt. I think Teavana promotes a certain lifestyle around their tea, and that's one of the reasons they are rather expensive compared to the competition. Marketing definitely plays a large part: if you are not an avid tea drinker and looking for a gift you're probably not going to know the local places to go (or the mail-order sites to visit).
- bennesvig 14y agoLove the experience at Teavana until someone talks to me. The sales staff are very pushy to the point where shopping there is uncomfortable.
- re_todd 14y agoSame here. It looked like a great place when I first went in, until I got the high-pressure sales treatment, then I decided I'll never go back.
- mmwanga 14y agoAfternoon hot tea is considered normal in other countries and it's a very strange concept in America. Hope this changes that...
- cmelbye 14y agoI wouldn't call it very strange. No one would judge you for having a cup of tea in the afternoon, and they might even want to join in and have a cup with you. Its just not something that most people would think to do.
- yesimahuman 14y agoNot that strange. Everyone I know drinks tea, and they aren't connoisseurs. It's just not a big scheduled thing.
- supersaiyan 14y agoI don't understand why people buy teas from these places (teavana, teopia,etc), there all over priced, sub par tasting teas, The best teas are found in small outlet stores (chinese, indian, thai, etc); it's like going to East Side Mario for a taste of italy.
- citricsquid 14y agoConsistency. If you like something from one place enough to be happy to have it again why spend your time trying to find something better when it's not guaranteed there is better? I always order burgers from McDonalds, sure there might be a better independent place but I don't have the desire to spend 6 months finding it and I know if I'm 200 miles from home I can get exactly the same thing I like with ease.
- supersaiyan 14y agothat's a good point, never thought of it that way.
- majorlazer 14y agoSee, I am the exact opposite. I will never eat at a chain restaurant unless I have no other choice. I will spend an hour looking for a new place to try rather than settle on a chain that I know will be mediocre at best. This has annoyed my brother on more than one occasion when I decided to drive across town to try a new burger place.
- firefoxman1 14y agoI'm the same way. The best tea i've had is from little shops in chinatown and Samovar, which only has a few locations.
- cypherpunks01 14y agoI've always used and liked http://adagio.com http://adagio.com for tea - they have a really simple and easy-to-use site.
- dromidas 14y agoamazon has some of the best selection of tease imo, can't get all the interesting blends but almost everything I've been shopping for was there. And i don't mean in those gross little boxes where you get baggies of random tea, but the foil lined packages or tins of loose tea from reputable companies.
- dotBen 14y agoAs an aside, I'm very confident Starbucks will acquire Blue Bottle Coffee in the next 18 months-2 years. By raising venture funding they are signaling they are looking for some kind of shareholder return/exit. The quality of the coffee, plus the "no-laptops" approach to their official cafes would make a great "luxury"/"high-end" marque and differentiator for Starbucks in markets where they are already saturated or want to attract greater wallet spend (SF, NY, etc). Look at what they did with Seattle's Best but the opposite end.
- rlt3 14y agoI did some quick googling, but didn't pick anything obvious up: Blue Bottle Coffee has 'high-end' coffee shops that disallow laptops? If so, any reasoning behind this?
- dotBen 14y agoThere are Blue Bottle franchises and Blue Bottle cafes - notably Mint Plaza (off 5th), Ferry Building, and Linden Ally (also Emeryville @ their roast plant). Mint Plaza, their flagship cafe, is modeled very up-scale and is about the enjoyment of coffee. The tables are not laptop friendly (narrow), no power, and just like all their other cafes, offer no wifi. I heard one of the owners/managers explain it was because drinking at a Blue Bottle coffeeshop is about enjoying the coffee and the experience, not an alternative for an office
- _delirium 14y agoRicher people all have 3g iphones and ipads. ;-)
- tptacek 14y agoStrong cut-to-the-chase possibilities: increasing customer turnover (important for retail hospitality businesses), minimizing overhead.
- onewland 14y agoI think Blue Bottle has more ambitious plans. Have you been to any of the coffee shops in SF (maybe more in the Outerlands) that serve Blue Bottle? They usually have it decal'ed into their front window and the brand displayed prominently. With their precise brewing process and recognizable brand, I think they want to franchise "store-within-a-store"s and get people selling their coffee sourced from their beans made with their equipment without having to pay rents or any of the costs of operating locations.
- TechNewb 14y agoStarbucks currently boils their tea, maybe this ignorant act will stop now??? It is why I try and not go to Starbucks for tea.
- dreamdu5t 14y agoAmericans in general boil and over-steep their teas. It's common for people to let tea steep indefinitely. It's sad.
- jseliger 14y ago>It's sad. It's also the result of ignorance. I did this for a long time because a) nobody around me knew differently and b) I never thought to ask if it should be done differently. So I simply thought I didn't like tea. Only after reading "A Hacker's Guide to Tea": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1934051 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1934051 did I realize what I was doing wrong.
- knightni 14y agoWhen I went to a starbucks in NY recently (I'm British), I ordered a medium-sized tea, and got given a tent-sized teabag sufficient for a very large teapot. It made the tea extremely nasty, presumably in aid of a quantity=quality impression.
- graue 14y agoWhether that's ignorant depends what type of tea you're drinking. Steeping at 212°F (boiling) is the recommendation I've always heard for nearly all black teas and herbal teas. You are correct that lower temperatures are better for most green, white and oolong teas.
- TechNewb 14y agoTrue, I should have clarified I was talking about green tea, as it's the only tea I drink.
- gadders 14y agoFor Americans that use Teavana, are you drinking this tea the English way with milk, or iced? I remember when I first went to America as a 21 year old (I had a job door-to-door selling) and Americans, being the hospitable souls that they are, would frequently offer me tea. Unfortunately, it was the cold variety :-(
- donw 14y agoTea in the US is usually either hot without milk (sugar if you like), or iced.
- cmelbye 14y agoIced and hot are both common, but putting milk in tea is not common.
- gadders 14y agoI take mine like a builder - milk, and two sugars.
- yardie 14y agoIced tea is awesome! Especially when done right, with lemon and honey. I grew up in Miami and getting iced tea on a hot (32+) day was godsent.