About

Hello! This is Vee of Vee Tea, here to tell you about myself and about my company . . . and, of course, about tea.

Tea is something I’ve loved for a long time. I grew up in the South, where no meal after 11 AM is complete without sweet tea. The first time I tasted hot tea, I was 7 years old. To my parents’ horror, I went vegetarian for about a year at that age, flatly refusing to eat anything that contained meat on ethical grounds. After a while, they got used to it, and my dad took me out for some tofu at a nice Chinese restaurant near our house. I don’t remember the tofu. What I DO remember is this-- at the end of the meal, I got to try green tea. My dad said the tea tasted like the essence of the earth after a heavy rain and for the first time in my life, I noticed the complexity and subtlety a taste can carry.

When I was in college I became a vegetarian again (though this time it stuck!) and started working at Whole Foods. With my hefty employee discount, I could, despite my college-student status, afford to buy foods other than ramen. The thing that made me happiest, though, was being able to purchase high-quality loose-leaf tea. I started to explore the wondrous tastes and aromas of a world of tea I hadn’t even known existed a year prior. I began my obsession with tea.

After I graduated, I took my accumulated tea knowledge and a good deal of bartending experience to Urbana Cityspa & Teabar. In its developmental stages I was a consultant and once it opened I became the teabar manager. My passion for tea deepened as I saw how I could use my expertise of it to educate and entertain others. I gave seminars, held tastings, trained employees, and learned as much as I could about tea. Later, circumstance brought me to New York. I spent my time working selling tea for an international tea retailer and hunting down the city’s best tea resources.

At work, I helped those who were lost in the sea of tea. I proved to be a terrible salesperson, but an exceptional educator. Customers raved about my expertise and explanations; one went so far as to write the manager of the U.S. division of the company about how much she had enjoyed learning about tea from me! It was obvious to everyone that I adored entertaining people with tea facts and anecdotes and that they learned a lot from talking with me, but I couldn’t very well become “Professor of Tea” at NYU, so I stayed in retail.

In my spare time I delved into New York’s incredible array of tea houses and shops. Some of them were beyond compare, while others... not so much. I paid close attention to what makes each one successful and where each one could improve, noting that (just like in my critiques in college for textile design) it is much easier to see these elements from an outside perspective. So many tea businesses were open or opening, and I saw that so many of them could use a boost in marketing, employee training, tea menu selection, and other areas that make or break a tearoom. With my zeal for tea, knack for teaching, disdain for the “trite and true,” and love of all that makes tea hot, who better to do the job?

And so Vee Tea came to be. I offer business consultation, employee training, tea tastings/seminars, one-on-one/small group tea classes, and online tea lessons. Learn how to build your tea business. Hold a tea tasting. Pick an expert’s brain over a cuppa. Read up while sipping your favorite brew. Most of all, enjoy your tea!



If you'd like to learn more about me and my business or if you are interested in working with me, feel free to email me with any questions you have about my services and experience.