The Stillroom

I think I left out a cha.

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime.  Never make a negative decision in the low time.  Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.  Wait. Be patient.  The storm will pass.  The spring will come.  -Robert H. Schuller

Well this little passage made some sense for me today.  I was faced with an important decision regarding The Stillroom Tea Shop.  For over fifteen years, I have had the pleasure of working with the Stash Tea Company.  Over time, as wholesale prices rose, I kept the tea prices the same.  So, from 2001 until 2018 our ten packs of tea have been 2.79.

Throw back to this past Friday. I was excited to receive my 2018 catalog from Stash.  I always really look forward to see what new tea flavors they’ve added for the new year.  I ripped it open and started making out my order, starting with the newest flavors.  (Let me say they are going to be very summery). As I started writing,  I suddenly did a double take.  What was this?  I survived the recession in 2008 that included a pretty big increase in the minimum amount of tea I could order for my tiny shop.  I stuck with it. So what was this I was staring at?  They have discontinued the ten packs and switched them out to boxes of 18-20 bags per box.

I felt my heart kind of sink.  I thought this was awful news for me.  I started thinking well, this might have to be my exit from the biz.

After doing calculations and some careful thought, I decided that I will roll with the change and start stocking the boxed teas.  I like the idea of the boxes because they are pretty and more functional for storage purposes.  But, the best part is the price will drop per tea bag.  After I thought about it, I never cared for the cello wrapped 10 packs.  If you pull one out, the whole package would just spill out.

So, over the next few months, you will see a change on the shelves of The Stillroom for the tea part of the shop.  I will sell out my stock of 10 packs and will hopefully replace all 80 flavors of tea.

In addition to the Stash Tea and Harney & Sons, I am looking forward  to the Bigelow line of teas that will include the classic Constant Comment.  Although I am more of a chamomile consumer, I grew up on Constant Comment.  This was one extravagance my mom would occasionally allow herself.  I loved this tea.  In fact, I might just order nothing but Constant Comment from them!

I have decorated for spring and The Stillroom is featuring air plants in hanging glass bulbs.  Very pretty and easy to care for!  In stock now are dried lavender bunches and really delicate and colorful dried and fragrant floral bundles.  Also new to the shop are dried floral arrangements that include french blue lavender in vintage containers.

If you are a lover of peppermint, (it’s my most favorite flavor on earth) the shop now carries the sweet Dutch confection, Wilhelmina mints.  The only other place to find these are at MonAmi in the Strip.   I’ll save you the trip! 🙂  These mints come in a cool little box that opens on the end and a little tray full of mints slides out.  If you have never had a Wilhelmina mint disk, here is  your opportunity to try them!  These sweet confections have been made for 120 years!  These were created as a homage to the Dutch Princess Wilhelmina, who was 12 years old at the time.  The portrait of the Princess Wilhelmina can be found on each mint tablet.  Sweets for the sweet.

The Open House was extremely well received!  Such a beautiful transformation of Diamond Antiques & Gifts.  The shop bustled with happy faces carrying their found treasures as we all enjoyed the warmer weather and the beautiful evening.

You can tell everyone was so happy to be out of the house after the crappy weather.

We are a few weeks out from Spring and I can not wait until the hillsides turn that delicate lime green and then explode into trees that look like broccoli until fall.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone that turned out for the Spring Open House.  It was deemed a smashing success.  Can’t do it without ya!