LEXINGTON, KY - Yes, there is a sterling silver tea set on display, but MonTea is not that kind of tea place.
"It's not like a traditional tea room," said Danielle Montague, who, along with her husband, Miller, opened MonTea at 814 Euclid Avenue earlier this month. While there are a couple of chairs for sitting while a cup of tea steeps, it is primarily a retail store, featuring loose leaf teas and tea accessories. No scones or doughnuts, but there will always be water, heated in special tea boilers, hot and waiting for those wanting a cup of tea to go.
"We decided it was better to smart very small and very specific," Danielle Montague said.
She is working currently toward master certification from the Specialty Tea Institute. "We have worked very hard and very long at educating ourselves," she said.
And the Montagues are ready to share with their customers what they have learned about the more than 50 types of tea lining the back wall in stainless steel canisters.
"We want it to be interactive," Danielle Montague said. "We want people to understand that brewing loose leaf can be very easy."
Loose leaf means, of course, that the tea is not in pre-packaged bags. Two ounces of tea costs an average of $5.50, but prices vary depending on the variety. Two ounces is enough to brew roughly 20 eight-ounce cups.
Tea is becoming more fashionable in the United States, according to Danielle Montague. The beverage has gained appeal among students who want to try something different and earth friendly, Baby Boomers interested in the health benefits of tea, which is rich with anti-oxidants, and the international community who have strong cultural ties to drinking tea.
For the Montagues, it has been a natural evolution that led to Lexington's first retail tea store.
"I have enjoyed tea all my life," Danielle Montague said. "But our tea tastes have evolved."
And turning a taste for tea into a business really began about four years ago, when the Montagues were visiting Charleston, S.C., and found themselves in Teavana - a shop specializing in loose leaf teas.
They have been working on the idea of bringing a tea store to their hometown of Lexington ever since. But when the recession hit home last year, putting both Danielle and Miller out their jobs, they "decided to go ahead full force."
Still, they did their homework before opening the store, Danielle Montague said, calling and e-mailing shops in other cities to see how they were doing in the tight economy.
"Tea shops have been doing very well," she said.
And they considered buying into a franchise such as Teavana, which has locations in 34 states, but ultimately decided going their own way was more their style.
That decision was made easier by fostering a relationship with Bruce Richardson, the owner of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, a tea distributor with a national reputation based in Perryville, Ky. Richardson provided a lot of knowledge and also provides the tea for MonTea.
"It was a natural fit," Miller Montague said. "It's so much nicer to deal with a wholesaler from Perryville than somebody over on the East Coast."
The small storefront on Euclid Avenue also suited their style. Both are from the Chevy Chase area. They liked the access from the University of Kentucky and downtown. And they are on the same block as the Chevy Chase Plaza, where plans are developing to turn the street-level offices into retail and make the area more of a retail destination. And it's an area with a lot of foot traffic.
"To be in this area was important to us," Danielle Montague said. "We had to turn people away while we were getting ready."