 Artisan's
Cup™, originally named ... TEAS BY DESIGN™ was founded in 2003, by Lisa Wynn, former owner
of a popular and successful tea cafe called "Embellish",
in St. Paul, Minnesota, opening its doors in 2001.
Originally conceived as a gift idea for a friend, her
first tea recipe was flavored and packaged in 2002 with
the help of a local blender.
This spawned a tea cafe trend! With everyone having
their own individual tastes in teas, Lisa decided to
offer the service of creating personalized blends in the
tea cafe. It was an instant hit, touching many as her
tea cafe was gaining popularity while named in several
magazines and newspapers, spawning speaking engagements
from Barnes & Noble to local women's clubs. New Life...
Now residents of Greensboro, North Carolina after her
husbands job required a transfer, Lisa and ARTISAN'S CUP
... TEAS BY DESIGN™ continue their popular personalized
tea blending here in the South, using only the freshest
and most aromatic high quality teas shipped directly
from the Assam gardens to her site. Blending and
flavoring all her teas now, in a newly built facility in
Greensboro, which is expanding this fall 2005.
Lisa says: "We have outgrown our last site in less than
one year, we never saw it coming. It was not easy
learning the ropes, finding all the perfect flavorings,
learning packaging regulations, all the licensing,
branding, and hiring the perfect design company to do
our logo. Passing inspections, and trial and error with
the ever changing shipping (yikes)!
Trying several teas types to flavor, and sadly tossing
50 lbs away that didn't work out, Buying equipment we
never even knew existed! Now we see it was a key
learning experience. It helped us learn how to *deliver*
when the "big" orders came in. We needed to deliver and
fast. Luckily we had our "ducks in a row" and have
excellent vendor relationships, which are just as
important as client relationships."
Lisa prides herself on "over the top" customer service.
Personal and caring, she treats each client as a friend,
taking time with each as if they were the only one.
Although her commercial kitchen is not open to the
public, her teas are available online, and at the
Greensboro Curb Side Market (See "media Coverage" link)
and in several states, now with dozens of territory reps
and distributors nationwide, including top resorts, spas
and B&B's.
Lisa's Vision...
"I wanted to zero in on specific clients and I knew I
wanted to gear towards wholesale as a strong backbone of
my company. Limiting myself to those tons of "one and
two" bag orders at a time was killing me. I had a vision
of working with large accounts across the nation as well
as keeping my beloved retail clients. I also was driven
to implement a "do-able" minimum order as a win-win
situation for both sides.
"My pet peeve was the huge minimum orders I was stuck
with when I was starting out in my tea shop years ago.
It's unrealistic for newbie's. I swore I would never do
that to someone else. It's almost as if they did not
want my business unless I had a huge bank roll. My
passion is "relationships with support" and none go
unrewarded for their sales, which happened full circle
to help us grow. I take the time to train my clients
staff as part of ongoing free support, I got a bit of
slack in the beginning from well meaning friends for
"giving away" my time (and about half of my tea the
first year)!" but I believe it has set me apart from the
others, and gained me larger orders in the end. It was a
small price to pay for the harvest. I actually WANT my
vendors to succeed, imagine that! I have learned that
all Relationships have to be a two way street with good
boundaries or they become toxic. "
Blending for celebrities and country singers, and her
teas appearing at the 2005 Oscars, Hip Hop Awards, and
Top 40 Awards gift bags this year, Artisan's Cup has
grown by leaps and bounds since it's inception, with an
average of 300% each quarter. Lisa has expanded her
business to include: Ice teas, spa blends, Tea Slammers™
adult beverage, consulting, speaking and freelance
writing.
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