We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danielle Spinola a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The concept for this business has really evolved over time. It began with a really great cup of tea in the back of the Jade Buddhist Temple in Shanghai. I was there with my now husband, then boyfriend. He was working in Shanghai and I went along because I was in-between jobs. We were out exploring one day and went to the Jade Buddhist Temple. I was so enamoured by the sights and sounds and spirituality. However, like every good tourist spot, they dumped us into a gift shop, except it wasn’t any old gift shop but a tea shop. There we had tea with a sweet young girl who told us all about the teas we were drinking. We ended up buying a whole bunch of teas from her. As we left, I looked at him and said, I think I really want to do tea. Not fancy tea, but REAL tea like we’ve experienced here. At the time, most tea places were English style with fancy hats and gloves and proper sandwiches. Yet what I was immersed in was a culture in which tea was consumed in washed out jars with leaves just floating around all willie-nillie. I was in the birth place of tea and THIS was how it was being used.

I came home and started working on how to connect the dots of what I had experienced to what was in the market and where my strengths could fit in. I started utilizing my collected knowledge of herbs and mixing them with teas to create unique blends that tell a story.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I fell in love with tea in China, but I had always been a tea drinker, albeit bagged and not good. I also have studied the healing properties of herbs and herbalism for over 30 years. I have been self taught until this past fall when I completed a certificate program at Cornell University in Medicinal Plants. These two things, tea and the healing properties of herbs, along with my love of a good story and my previous sales experience have set me up to do this exact job.

The business is based upon creating blends that are good for you and taste good. We do custom blending for clients where we tell stories with our blends. We have created teas for weddings and told the story of the couple. We have created blends for organizations to give out to potential clients and told the story of the business with herbs and teas. We have also created teas for authors to sell along side their book, that mimic the story in the book.

One of our biggest clients are coffee shops and cafes. We specialize in helping build a menu and training on how to create a proper cuppa tea. Education is really important and our goal is to have people fall in love with tea the way we love it.

The brick and mortar shop is located in a tiny town called Millvale, about 3 miles north of Pittsburgh. We are thoroughly immersed within the community and actually identify as a community tea shop. Outside of our shop is a free pantry which we have cultivated a small group of people who help us keep it stocked. We are involved in initiatives that support refugee families coming into the neighborhood. We also support efforts to feed and support local kids. Our shop is physically and emotionally connected to the Millvale Community Library. We share back yard space and consider ourselves partners in a lot of the things we are doing in the community.

Another important passion of ours is supporting artists. In our store you will find the majority of items we sell, aside from tea, are locally produced by artists. From the origami boxes we use to create our samplers to jewelry, to candles, to journals, to books by local authors, we fully support artists.

I am constantly looking to utilize tea in unique applications. We have begun experimenting with NA Cocktails as well as providing product to breweries for use in beer. We host events educating people on tea, bachelorette parties, blending classes, and more. In the future, we are looking to do some Tea Travel Adventures. At the moment we have created two teas for a local author’s series called The Dark Matter Series by John P Wallman. Each tea tells the story of the book through its ingredients, also, we have developed a tea for a local mural series called the Vanka Murals. We cohost events at a local Japanese Zen Garden and work with people in the wellness community to provide experiences with tea and various wellness practitioners. Overall, I think tea is able to be utilized in so many different ways and I’m always looking to get creative with it!

Have you ever had to pivot?

Before covid and during we operated a small vegan cafe within our tea shop. However after reopening from stricter covid protocols, I realized habits had changed. In addition, during our time closed from the public, we were developing new lines of tea which meant we needed more floor space. The last nail in the coffin was when we were threatened with a lawsuit unless we changed our name. All of these things meant we needed to pivot.

In looking at the numbers we were making just enough money to cover our cost of running the food side of the business. The kitchen was meant to supplement the tea, however, it was becoming the main source of my energy and time. With the rebrand, we needed to let the cafe go. Instead, we kept the baker, who makes delicious baked goods to go with tea.

We have a few ideas, possibly coming soon, as to what will be done with our kitchen moving forward. Right now we use it to create food for the kids in town who are facing food insecurity and we host pop ups with other small food businesses.

Looking back it was absolutely the correct thing to do, however, it is really hard to not be a source of specialty food for the neighborhood and community at large.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In October of 2021 I was contacted by the owner of a large business who was moving into town. He indicated that I would have to change my name because I was in violation of their trademark. Now at the time I had owned my name since 2007 in Pennsylvania, however, I never trademarked because I didn’t see the value in doing so. Through some back and forth with my lawyer I learned I would have to change my name.

When they say nothing happens as you plan, in October of 2021, I was planning a big grand reopening from my strict lockdown of covid. I was planning a big “WE ARE BACK” party but what I got was a whole bunch of legal and monetary garbage. I had been struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic and was just happy that I “made it” out of the pandemic without having to close my doors. Here I was now having to accrue debt to rebrand out of the blue.

I won’t say I wasn’t angry or upset, because I was, but I try to approach everything with a Buddhist mindset. I rationalized that I started my business in 2007 and at the time I started it, I was a different person, in a different era of my life. I reframed my attitude that this was a way for me to match the business to my current and future plans. The business has always been a reflection of me and so this felt fitting.

In 2024 I am still dealing with some of the fall out of this rebrand. Still digging out of holes it put me in, but I’m still here. I remind myself that in rebranding I am able to look forward to where I want to go and build it on a newer version of what I started. It hasn’t been easy. There have been plenty of times I have been more angry and sad that I will ever admit. However, two things keep me grounded. 1. Nothing stays the same and 2. No mud. No Lotus.

As a small business owner, I have learned remaining nimble with the ability to change as I need is actually a superpower even if it feels like a burden at the time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.avteaco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abeillevoyanteteaco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avteaco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AVTeaCo
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/abeille-voyante-tea-co-millvale?start=20
• Other: tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@avteaco

Image Credits
Dr. Rachel Robertson (picture of the mocktail with the citrus wedge in it) Loop Pictures (Picture of my product) Jess Landolina (picture of the class) Danielle Spinola (all other pictures are mine) Zaheen Hussain (Picture of me blending)