Plainfield: New Shop 'The Tea Tree' To Hold Soft Open Saturday

PLAINFIELD, IL — The Batavia-based tea shop "The Tea Tree" is expanding. A new location is set to open on 24041 Lockport Street in downtown Plainfield. Co-owner Missi Hartmann confirmed that the shop will hold a soft opening on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 23.

"We'll be open," Hartmann said. "10 a.m."

Hartmann said she and her husband, also a co-owner of the shop, had been looking for about a year-and-a -half to expand their small business after the Batavia location proved popular. After about two months of preparation at the new location, they're ready to open in time for the holiday season.

"I live in Oswego; it's a really nice center for the both of [the shops]," Hartmann said. "We were actually looking at Plainfield, it was one of the towns we looked at before Batavia, but nothing was really open... then this spot just came out of the blue, so we took it."

As its name suggests, The Tea Tree sells an assortment of loose leaf teas available in small and large sizes. Caffiene-rich and caffiene-poor, white, black, green, and red; it's all ready for steeping, sourced via wholesale tea vendor Art of Tea. Samples of each will be available for the uninitiated to take home, but due to the different sizes of the various tea leaves, there isn't an exact measurement of what the for-sale "small" and "large" sizes constitute.

"The reason for why they're all different is, some of these leaves are so big that they can only fit so much in there, while some are very small," Hartmann said. "So they'll range from about an ounce to... about three and a half ounces for some in these smaller tins. And then the larger tins can go anywhere from two to... like six-and-a-half. So it really just depends on the tea."

Besides teas, The Tea Tree also sells a variety of spices, craft olive oils, soaps, and other kitchen and home accoutrements. Hartmann said that she tries to purchase her items from local artisans and free-trade sources as much as possible. She added that the amount of items on sale now - already enough to fill several custom made shelves - was not the whole range of what eventually be available. She said she hopes to expand the olive oil selection in particular after the holidays.

After the soft opening on Saturday, Hartmann said the store would be open Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday during the Thanksgiving holiday week. They will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, but re-open for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

"We'll be open through December," Hartmann said.

For more information about The Tea Tree and its new Plainfield location, visit The Tea Tree website or its Facebook page.