Published July 2002

Terrace Tea focuses on providing quality,
giving back to community

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

Tea is both a passion and profession for Bonnie Barnard, owner and operator of The Terrace Tea Co., an online retailer of custom-blended teas.

“Tea’s been a passion of mine forever. I love tea. I drink tea all the time — I think it’s fabulous,” said Barnard, a former college administrator, most recently for the Applied Technology Training Center in Everett.

When she left the center in November 2000, combining her love for the beverage with her management experience seemed an obvious next step — and a study of the market helped to confirm it.

“I did a lot of research on tea and found out that it’s the next drink of our decade,” said Barnard, who interviewed a number of companies in the tea and beverage industry. “In the ’80s, it was really about wine and the different kinds of varieties to go with different kinds of food. In the ’90s, it was coffee, and all the research I did said that 2000 was going to be the decade of tea.”

With the research done, she looked for someone to blend her specialty teas — a company in Montana — and gathered a focus group of tea and non-tea drinkers to evaluate the blends. Three blends were selected — Mystical Mint, Lemon Whisper and Harvest Medley — and in April 2001, The Terrace Tea Co. went online.

At first, Barnard had visions of huge market share and rapid business expansion, but those visions soon changed as her mission crystallized — “providing high-quality tea with some money going back to the community.”

“Some money” equals 75 percent of the profits made from tea sold online, which goes to the Seattle chapter of Gilda’s Club, a support community for people living with cancer that offers networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events.

“When I learned about that and talked about a partnership, it just made sense that proceeds would go to them,” Barnard said. “I liked what they were doing and what it stood for.”

Keeping to her mission has meant that Terrace Tea doesn’t show up on store shelves, said Barnard, who also is a practicing metaphysician.

“If I (sold the tea) through a store, then Gilda’s House would get zero, and the store would get the money. It’s more important to me at this point that the tea become an avenue for good than it is that it expands and is in many different stores,” she said. “I get numerous calls a week asking to put my tea in people’s stores, and that’s not my market. I’m very clear about that.”

Instead, people are finding out about Terrace Tea through word-of-mouth, or they taste it firsthand at an event where Terrace Tea is served, such as retirement-center parties, college lectures, author appearances and tea-tastings.

“People taste the tea and then they love it, and so what I’ve found is that most of my customers are repeat customers, or they buy the tea and gift it to other people,” said Barnard, who packages the tea herself with the help of contract workers and volunteers.

Now over a year old, the company’s customer base is growing steadily, and Barnard has partnered with Seattle chef Peter Gallagher to expand her teas’ uses by creating recipes with Terrace Tea as an ingredient.

“It’s fabulous,” she said. “... He’s created actually a whole menu — from appetizer through dessert — with tea as one of the ingredients. ... And so what I’m finding is that the younger group, those in their 20s, who are real playful and open with their food as well as with what they drink, are really loving the tea because it is different.”

As for expanding the tea line with more flavors, there are no plans at present, Barnard said. “I really like the three (teas), and actually have come to a really different point from when I started.”

For Barnard, Terrace Tea is about more than the bottom line.

“To me, the choosing of tea was the choice of something so much bigger than having a product. It was saying that I was going to be in the business of creating community,” Barnard said.

“That’s what I’ve gotten to do — I’ve gotten to enter people’s community with a product that soothes and revives and feeds people’s bodies and their souls,” she said. “And it’s been a real excellent experience for me and a real solid company. Everyone’s won.”

For more information on Terrace Tea, call 425-776-9291, send e-mail to TheTeaLady@TerraceTea.com or visit the company online at www.terracetea.com.

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