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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Tea shop opens in Bloomington

Region Filler

Kayla Maldonado and Jessica Messmer spent more than a year tasting different teas, keeping a spreadsheet of flavors and deciding on their tea selection. They tried too many teas to remember them all, but Messmer guesses she tasted at least 1,000 different kinds.

Now, two years after they first started the project, their tea shop is finally open.

Cup & Kettle, a tea shop owned by Maldonado and Messmer presented its grand opening Friday. It officially opened March 22, and it is located on 208 N. Walnut Street.

The shop’s hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The store’s main focus is selling organic loose-leaf tea of high quality, Maldonado said.

The shop offers loose-leaf tea, which is sold by the ounce. People can also buy tea to drink in the store and tea to go.

Cup & Kettle also sells equipment for brewing tea and handmade pots and cups from local businesses CMT Pottery and Rebecca Lowery Ceramics.

Cup & Kettle has 50 tea varieties, including black, green, white, herbal, matcha and oolong tea. In addition to tea, the shop serves drinks from Hopscotch Coffee, Needmore Coffee Roasters, Aahaa Chai and Uel Zing Coffee.

The menu also includes food items like cookies and pastries from Piccoli Dolci, Baked! of Bloomington and LuckyGuy Bakery. The shop makes sandwiches and salads in its kitchen.

Messmer said she has enjoyed working with other local businesses.

“Our favorite thing has really been the local business community,” she said. “We just love everybody so much, and we love being part of the local business scene. It is very collaborative and inspiring, and we just really like that.”

Messmer said they hope to expand their selection to 100 to 150 teas in the future. Before, they had to rely on other companies to blend their teas, but they can now blend in their own kitchen. She said she is experimenting with new recipes.

Before the space on North Walnut Street became available, they sold their teas wholesale in a pop-up shop at College Mall in November and December 2016.

Messmer said the customers’ reactions have been positive since they opened.

“I think people are really excited to have a place where tea is the feature product instead of kind of an afterthought,” she said.

The money they earn in tips for April will go to Gather: Handmade Shoppe to support women-owned 
businesses.

IU senior Verena Lucke settled into the store’s cozy atmosphere andtried the lavender Earl Grey and Piccoli Dolci’s madeleines at the grand opening.

“It seems like a really nice way to spend a cloudy day,” she said.

Teresa Benassi, 57, who attended the grand opening, said it was her second time at the shop. She ordered a pot of Irish breakfast tea.

“I used to host tea parties all the time at my home, and I always said I wished Bloomington had a tearoom,” Benassi said. “I was thrilled when I found out this was opening.”

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