Little Woods: Herbs and Teas — Restaurant in Ames

Stopped by after perusing the farmers market this Saturday. Was drawn in by the sandwich board stating it was "Chai Time!" or something along those lines. We love chai lattes so in we go.

We order 4 chai lattes and these took more than 20 minutes for them to make. This is 11am on a Saturday and when we entered there were no other customers so prime time for when they should expect drink orders and not busy. Afterwards there was zero apology or acknowledgement of the fact that I had to just mill about in the store for 20 minutes as my family waited outside. Nope just 'here's your lattes that you ordered 20 minutes ago now give us $22 please'. $5.50 for a chai is on the upper end of the spectrum for that drink so I was at least hoping they would be good, but no, they tasted fairly weak - mostly like milk and sweetener.

The final straw that really bugged us is that despite the advertising, the employees didn't really seem to have a good functioning knowledge of how baristas should work. There were at least 3 employees there, but the other 2 left the 1 to struggle through making the drinks, offering no help at any point even though I, from the other side of the counter, could tell they were not having the easiest time keeping things straight. Main sticker was that each drink was made individually and then kept behind the counter until all 4 were done. This meant the first 2 made sat long enough that they were not hot when we got and paid full price for them.

Just didn't really seem like they should have been advertising their drinks that hard if they weren't also going to be 100% ready for someone to order them. Seemed completely unprepared for that scenario which is kind of...

Who would expect a little college town in central Iowa to have the best tea shop? I fell in love with Little Woods when I was a student at ISU and became a regular customer when I stayed in the area after graduation. Their loose leaf tea has always felt very high quality to me, certainly more flavorful than your average store bought tea bags. Not to mention better selection. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly in my experience, and the store is clean and calming. I absolutely loved buying a tea (this is a great way to taste before you invest in a bag of loose leaf!) on Saturday mornings before going to the main street farmers market. I moved to a larger city a year ago now, but I miss Little Woods dearly as I have not found a comparable shop here. Thankfully, I can still order from Little Woods online and stop by when I visit my younger sister at ISU. To this day, Little Woods remains my favorite local shop. If y'all ever make...

Company lures you with a discount them never gives you a discount and tells customers for weeks they'll get a refund and it never happens. I like to shop locally but not from a company that is dishonest and does nothing to correct the issue.

Update: I did get my refund but only after I posted a negative review. Funny how that suddenly happens and a sudden 'explanation' they couldn't have told me weeks ago. This wasn't about the refund. It's about the company not being honest about why I wasn't getting the refund and kept putting me off and saying 'oh, you'll get it in a week' then nothing for weeks and I emailed again and they say 'oh, you'll get in a few days' then nothing. Transparency and honesty are rather important, whether you're a big company or small,...