A BIG thank you!
Today is our birthday. The Guru team would love to thank each any every one of you for sticking by and supporting us in what we absolutely love to do, drink and sell tea! We’ve met so many beautiful people on this journey so far and it’s a pleasure to serve each and everyone of you! We’re so lucky and It’s a privilege to be able to share what we love with the world.
We started this business with the foresight that we could carry it on way into our retirement, I have visions of a wrinkly grey haired Oli churning out YouTube vids decades from now! We don’t intend on going anywhere soon.
Where we were and where we’re going:
If you followed us from the start you’ll know that we used to be trading as ‘Green Tea Guru’. The initial plan was to market this business towards people that would not ordinarily know about proper tea. Everybody in the UK and Europe is very familiar with Green tea. My idea was to coax people in with a familiar product ‘Green tea’ for them to then discover a whole new world of tea beyond. However after a year of uphill battles I figured out this approach wasn’t working particularly well as the large majority of our clientele were seasoned tea drinkers. We decided to ditch the large green tea selection and change the name of the store to The Tea Guru. We’ve always had a strong emphasis on Pu Erh since the start, we have the largest selection available in the UK and this certainly won’t change. We’ve made close connections in Guangdong that has helped springboard our collection to be more exclusive and interesting.
We are so happy with the recent Guru brand Da Shu & Gu Shu cakes. These unique teas have helped us stand out from the crowd. In the last few years we’ve made a real push with our Oolong tea selection and we’ve seen real growth in this area. Aged white tees have also been a big hit. Our Hong Cha (Black Tea) Selection has moved from mediocre to breathtaking with selections like our Wild Lapsang & Sun Dried Shiahong Gushu. We are always on the lookout for new and interesting offerings to bring to store in all categories but for the next few years we are really going to try and add some special new additions to our Ripe and Raw Pu Erh. Top priority for this year will be to add a higher selection of Spring Raw Pu Erh Gu Shu cakes And we are also in search of the perfect every day Guru Brand Ripe cake. Creating the perfect blend won’t be easy but this is been on my list for a long time and is way overdue. We currently have quite a lot of single estate in the raw section. We would very much like to introduce more blends from lesser-known tea factories. I try to treat our store as a kind of a sweet shop for tea drinkers. We understand that you guys are interested in what’s new, what is fresh and a procession of new stock will keep you interested. We will always do our best to keep things moving here in order to keep you coming back to see what’s new.
Cheers to another 5 years and beyond!