Marking her first decade in the tea industry, Amy Lawrence, owner of Afternoon To Remember, is celebrating the anniversary of her original brick-'n-mortar store with the Grand Re-Opening of a new retail shop in The Country Village in Bothell, Washington. On August 27 - ten years to the day of her first opening - Afternoon To Remember will officially reopen with festivities, tea tastings and food samples from ATR Publishing's line of twelve cookbooks.
"To me, the real success we're celebrating are the customers who have been with me since day-one and whose love of tea has helped shape my entire business. Many of my first customers in the Newcastle store are still with me today - virtually. Some even come from California to visit me in Seattle for tea events here like our annual Northwest Tea Festival."
Satisfying her customers' tea tastes led Lawrence to study blending and flavoring, ultimately creating many of her own unique products, including a dozen specialty chai blends and dozens of other blended greens, blacks and whites. But her love of whole-leaf, single origin gourmet teas keeps her involved with the specialty side of the industry and up on the finest teas for her gourmet customers. Demand from other teashops in the U.S. and Canada persuaded her to develop a wholesale side of Afternoon To Remember and she now serves almost two hundred tearooms around North America - US and Canada.
"What I really love the daily contact with my people," Lawrence is quick to say, "and this new store is a perfect fit." Her new shop in Bothell is an amazing destination location for her tea-loving fans, especially if they have families.
Meandering paths lead through a whimsical world filled with adventures like train rides for children to antiquing and crafting for adults and a farmers' market for all ages. It's a place where she can continue her commitment to tea education for her customers with events such as an upcoming visit in October by tea luminaries, James Norwood Pratt and Devan Shah.
Afternoon To Remember has stepped into several different venues over the years - from the origins in the British-style afternoon tearoom first opened in Newcastle, CA to educational events in small markets and trade shows to publishing a dozen tea-themed books. Some are cookbooks and instruction manuals geared toward the tea lover who wants to create their afternoon to remember for family and friends to tearoom owners who want to learn from Lawrence's experience. One of the most frequent questions asked of her is how she finds the time and energy to do so much. She quickly credits the help and support of her family and her favorite tea, of course, "There's nothing like a good Yunnan to get you going in the morning."
"To me, the real success we're celebrating are the customers who have been with me since day-one and whose love of tea has helped shape my entire business. Many of my first customers in the Newcastle store are still with me today - virtually. Some even come from California to visit me in Seattle for tea events here like our annual Northwest Tea Festival."
Satisfying her customers' tea tastes led Lawrence to study blending and flavoring, ultimately creating many of her own unique products, including a dozen specialty chai blends and dozens of other blended greens, blacks and whites. But her love of whole-leaf, single origin gourmet teas keeps her involved with the specialty side of the industry and up on the finest teas for her gourmet customers. Demand from other teashops in the U.S. and Canada persuaded her to develop a wholesale side of Afternoon To Remember and she now serves almost two hundred tearooms around North America - US and Canada.
"What I really love the daily contact with my people," Lawrence is quick to say, "and this new store is a perfect fit." Her new shop in Bothell is an amazing destination location for her tea-loving fans, especially if they have families.
Meandering paths lead through a whimsical world filled with adventures like train rides for children to antiquing and crafting for adults and a farmers' market for all ages. It's a place where she can continue her commitment to tea education for her customers with events such as an upcoming visit in October by tea luminaries, James Norwood Pratt and Devan Shah.
Afternoon To Remember has stepped into several different venues over the years - from the origins in the British-style afternoon tearoom first opened in Newcastle, CA to educational events in small markets and trade shows to publishing a dozen tea-themed books. Some are cookbooks and instruction manuals geared toward the tea lover who wants to create their afternoon to remember for family and friends to tearoom owners who want to learn from Lawrence's experience. One of the most frequent questions asked of her is how she finds the time and energy to do so much. She quickly credits the help and support of her family and her favorite tea, of course, "There's nothing like a good Yunnan to get you going in the morning."