Fava Tea Company, Appleton — Restaurant in Town of Grand Chute

If you don't care where your tea comes from, if you're new to tea, or you just want to try a new kind of tea you can't find anywhere else, then this place is fine. I am not a tea expert but I do want to know where my tea comes from and want to make sure if I am spending the money that I get the quality for the amount I'm paying. Most of my tea is bought online but I wanted to check Fava out to see if I could save on shipping and handling by buying from a place in town. I went in knowing exactly what tea I was looking for and having done my research knew what I was looking for in that tea. The cool thing about Fava is that they keep the actual tea they sell in canisters that are locked and are not opened until you purchase that tea, unlike Teavana where they are constantly opening the canisters to have you smell the tea while also letting air get to it decreasing the quality. Fava is also really neat in that they have little tins of samples of the tea so you can see and smell the tea before buying it. So as a general tea shop they are pretty good if you are new to tea. Tea for me however is something I spend a lot of time researching before I buy. I went into Fava for 2 different teas and after looking at their sample tins of each, I was a little disappointed in the quality. The color, texture, and especially the smell of each was no where near what they should be. I then asked one of the employees if the samples resembled what was in the actual canister and they had said that they were very fresh so yes that is what I would be buying. One of the teas I was looking at is grown in a very specific area and I wanted to know if their supply was legit or if it was a knock off. I asked the employee where the team came from and after a quick glance back at the canister on the shelf, she said "China". This is the equivalent of asking someone where they got the sandwich they are eating and they say "North America". It really doesn't help at all considering China is the biggest supplier of all green tea in general. I asked if they knew where in China it came from and she didn't have an answer for that. Now I know every employee isn't going to know exactly where every single tea came from but I think you should at least see if you can look in to it. Every tea supplier should have record of where their tea comes from, and if they don't then chances are their tea is not good quality and might have filler ingredients in which you are paying more than you should. So as I said, its a better tea shop than Teavana and has a good atmosphere, but the quality of the tea does not match the price in my opinion and I want to make sure I am buying authentic tea and not 50% tea/50% filler...

I'm a total novice when it comes to tea. I just throw the tea into a cup of boiling water for as long as possible. This store was not kind to me initially. Excellent selection that was more than a little overwhelming. I voiced that I was having a hard time knowing where to start to an employee who asked if I had any questions. She told me, in the kindest way (really), that she'd be happy to help if I had any questions. It was not helpful at all. I wish she'd offered suggestions, such as tasting or smelling teas to find one you like, or showing me popular teas (which she quickly did for people who were trying to gift teas to someone). When I purchased my teas, I asked the cashier how you steam teas (the bag seemed to say that in my really inexperienced understanding, so I thought like vegetables. Lmao.). The cashier said the bag has all the directions for temp and time. It was not a helpful answer. Google explained that, when you steep, temperature matters.

Thankfully, I found the store to be set up to help me succeed if I put in the work. I sniffed the teas to be sniffed and slurped samples. I walked out with three ounces of fresh loose leaf tea for $11. I don't think it was too bad of a price. The tea tastes excellent, so most of the positive stars go to the tea itself. I don't think the service is bad; I just think it isn't adapted for the totally inexperienced.

I'll definitely go back and I look forward to being more...

Now reading some of the reviews AFTER my visit to the store today makes me very disappointed that my experience was less than stellar. I stopped into the Appleton location this afternoon in hopes to find some guidance on the loose tea options. I walked into the store, door bells rang, and did not see store personnel at all. I started to look around and roughly 3 minutes later, a gal walked out of a back room door. Briefly said hello ( in a tone that seemed bothered) and walked right to the registers. I started to head up to ask her a few questions about certain tea suggestions she might have, to my disappointment she did not look up as I was asking my questions. She only looked up from what she was doing to answer “yes, we have stuff like that, right there in the center”, pointing me to the center of the floor. For someone who is very unfamiliar with loose tea, hence all my questions, I was very much taken back. Another indication she did not want to be bothered. And I was the ONLY one in the store! At this point I really just wanted to walk out and take my business elsewhere, but where! This is the only loose tea place that I’ve always been told about. Needless to say, I just picked something from “over there in the center “, paid and left. Such a sad experience when I really wanted to...