{tea slingers}

{sidewalk sign}

{back l.to r.} nico, connor, philip {middle l. to r.} amber, alex, adrienne
{front l. to r.} meg, annie and bil

{the back of our employee tea shirts "tea slingers"}

{the gang with annie}

{the gang with paul}


{the girls l.to r.} adrienne, alex, amber
missing: jill and lindsey

{alex or as annie used to call her alco}

once upon a time i owned a fabulous tea house here in newburyport. licorice & sloe company. it was a wonderful place. we served over 100 different loose leaf teas that we imported from around the world. we offered unusual tea beverages and lattes made fresh to order. it was a very unique place. and very unique people patronized our tea house. we showcased beautiful artwork from local artists and enjoyed sunday morning music "crumpets and jam" from local musicians. licorice & sloe offered a very unique respite from the world. but alas all good things must come to an end. my husband and i decided that we were never going to be able to "support" ourselves with this business. this business that we put our heart and soul into as well as our life savings....so we decided to close our doors this past september, on our own terms.
but that's not the reason for this post. the reason is the staff at licorice & sloe company. we were so lucky to have the most incredible people work for us. high school and college kids that took their jobs seriously, were pleasant and lovely to all our customers, who cared about about my husband. cared about our daughter. cared out about our business, and like us had a great love for all things tea. when we closed our doors we weren't sorry about losing all that we had worked for, we were sorry that we no longer could offer these kids a place to work and a place to hang. that is what we miss.
we had a tea slinger (a phrase coined by my husband for those that serve tea in l&s co.) reunion the other night. some are away at college and were home for spring break and others are finishing up their senior year in high school and ready to move on. how cool are these guys, they showed up in their tea house shirts!! bil made homemade pizzas, we drank out of dora and diego paper cups courtesy of annie and we just enjoyed being together again. paul joined us as well, as one of our daily customers of the tea house, he too was touched by our "kids" - nico, philip, connor, jill, lindsey, alex, adrienne and amber( tea drinker and supporter extroadinaire).
these tea slingers mean the world to my husband and myself. we miss seeing them everyday. being a part of their lives. they really are great "kids" - we call them our kids but they are adults and they are amazing and will leave their mark on this world. we hope our daughter grows up to be like them, to care about school, to want to do great things with her life just like our tea slingers. we are very lucky to know them.
it was a very special time in our lives, owning licorice & sloe company.