| Oregonian Readies Tea Room for Halloween Opening |  |  |
| Tuesday, 27 October 2009 | |
| Just weeks after her 30th birthday – but following years of preparation – Charity Chalmers is ready to open her first business, a tea room in Sandy, Ore. Named Chariteas, both for its founder and her vision of building community through tea drinking, the new tea room officially opens for business Saturday, Oct. 31. Chariteas aptly starts its opening celebration by handing out goodies to kids in conjunction with Sandy's Main Street Trick or Treat Trail. Members of the Sandy Actors Theater will also be on hand to do free face painting and Halloween story-telling. The fanfare continues throughout the week of Nov. 2, with free tea tastings 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and live music 3-6 p.m. Unlike many new tea room owners interviewed by World Tea News, Chalmers is not leaving another career to follow her passion in tea. Rather, this is her first business. Although she had random jobs while at Boston University studying hotel and restaurant management and during the year she's spent planning Chariteas, Chalmers thought long and hard before deciding what she wanted her career to be. Many factors influenced her decision. First, there's the knowledge gained from her studies combined with her love of cooking, which Chalmers said led her to the cafe type of tea business model rather than the cash-and-carry model. "I enjoy being around people and like when others come together, and wanted to have a community environment," she said. "In college we used to go to Tea Luxe (in Boston) a lot and didn’t really know that there were so many varieties. That was my first real experience with tea, and it kind of evolved from there." Add to that the fact she was raised in the Philippines, "so I have connections with Asia and that region of the world," she said. "I grew up where tea grows, so I thought, 'Why not use my connections to build relationships within the industry?'" Last April, she traveled to China, Japan and Indonesia, relying on friends in those areas to help her meet people in the tea business. As a result, she has been able to learn about and source some teas directly from origin, in addition to working with vendors. Why Sandy? In addition to having family in the area, Chalmers did her homework. Sandy has no other tea room and the town of about 7,500 residents is only 45 minutes from Portland. Chalmers is selling her tea loose under her own private label, but says developing a brand will come down the road, after the shop has been open a while. And she's confident that moment will come, despite the recession. "When I was in school, they said that if you decide to open a cafe, make sure you have enough funds to last five years, because you probably won’t turn a profit until after that," she said. "Starting this, that has been my motto. I don’t think I’ll make a profit day one, but I do feel like if I’m here, and put my nose to the grindstone and keep plugging away, eventually, people will see that I’m not going anywhere." |
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yeah! good luck on opening day :) sounds like fun
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