Pippa Mills examines her tea plant growing in the courtyard of her tea shop in downtown Port Townsend. It’s 5 years old, as old as the shop itself, and will be ready to harvest next year, Mills said. “It’s coming along really nicely.” Photo by Katie Kowalski
Pippa Mills credits her tea shop’s customer service as one of the reasons it was named Best Tea House for the second year by the Seattle A-List, beating 37 other Puget Sound–region shops.
“The people who work here are genuinely lovely people who enjoy bringing the tea experience to the customers,” Mills said of her “tea mavins,” who help customers at Pippa’s Real Tea.
“We love what we do, and I think that really comes across.”
When Pippa’s was named Best Tea House last year, she thought it was something of a fluke; this year, she was a bit more prepared and did some more promotion. She also thinks last year’s honors helped encourage and remind people to vote.
“People just seem to be really responsive to what we’re doing here,” Mills said.
ACCESSIBLE
The tea shop, located at 636 Water St. in downtown Port Townsend, offers 100 blends of tea and welcomes all types of tea drinkers.
Mills has set up her shop to be as accessible as possible; walls are lined with clear jars of tea samples, which customers can open and smell.
Generally, if someone likes the smell of a tea, they’ll enjoy the taste of it, too, Mills said.
“I think that’s part of the reason we’re so successful,” Mills said of the sensory experience the shop offers. There are also house-made cakes, cookies, and scones and clotted cream.
Mills said she’s most excited when someone new to the tea world enters her shop.
“There’s a lot of fun in helping people discover the joy of a properly made tea.”
A proper brew, Mills said, depends on the type of tea. Green tea, for instance, needs a cooler temperature than black tea, and if it’s brewed too long, “it’s going to taste like the worst medicine you were ever forced to swallow as a child.”
She said customers often come into her shop and ask for green tea, just for the health benefits, but don’t know how to prepare it.
So she prepares both kinds, one made with cooler water, one boiling, and the customers can’t believe the difference in taste, she said.
For coffee drinkers suspicious of tea, she’s created a blend called “Okay Fine,” which one of her tea mavins refers to as a “gateway tea.” It’s a blend of green and oolong teas with a touch of coffee and chocolate.
Mills said her version of a breakfast tea is popular, as are her special Port Townsend teas that she brews in house.
A ginger turmeric tea has been popular, as has “Spice It Up,” which has a black tea base with chocolate, chiles and cinnamon.
One tea she noted is called “Ain’t for Sissies.” It’s a fermented black tea that some people think smells like fish, but it reminds her of the smell of wet saddle after a horseback ride in the rain. “It’s earthy and delicious,” she said.
And if someone’s still a bit unsure, Mills will ask them questions – whether they prefer fruity or flowery or spicy flavors, for instance.
“I’m pretty good at narrowing down within two or three choices a tea that they will like.”
The Seattle A-List’s Best of 2017 also included Mt. Townsend Creamery, which placed fourth in the Best Cheese Shop category. A number of Port Angeles and Sequim shops placed as well.
The Seattle A-List is an online business contest offered by the CityVoter blog, which features more than 27,000 businesses competing for the titles of Seattle’s best.
