It's a Small [Tea] World After All!

When I took Dawnya Sasse's Start a Tea Business online course in 2003, one of the teas we sampled during the course was SerendipiTea's Persian Nectar - a fair trade certified, organic Indian black tea and organic peach.  My taste buds thought it was divine, and I've ordered it since. 

The company, located in Manhasset, New York, was founded by Tomislav Podreka and Linda Villano in 1975.  After Tomislav's death in 2004, Linda kept the business going.  I have their book, A Guide to the Varieties, Origins, and Rituals of Tea, and consider it a great addition to my tea library.

Now fast-forward ten years... my middle son, who is a minister, recently made a trip to Cordova, Alaska, April 11-18th, to speak at special services, and to plan a Work & Witness trip this coming July with 20 parishioners from our church.   They will make improvements to the church building in Cordova, and conduct a children's Bible school while there.

The City of Cordova, which was formed in 1909,  is situated in the southeastern end of Prince William Sound, in the Gulf of Alaska.  It lies 52 air miles southeast of Valdez, and 150 miles southeast of Anchorage.  

It has 61.4 square miles of land, and is only accessible by aircraft or boat as there are no roads to connect the town to any other town.  

Cordova has a population of 2,316 residents, and commercial fishing is their main industry. There are six churches in the small city.  The photo below is the church of our affiliation.

In this remote city with no shopping malls, my son found a shop called SerendipiTea.  The Cordova Chamber of Commerce lists it as a Gift Shop, but they sell tea [with tastings and samplings], as well as other merchandise.

I'll have to train my son to come home with photographs when he finds a tea shop!  ;-)  It was a futile online search to obtain a photo of the shop, so I'll just have to wait until he returns in July to get one.  But he did come home bearing gifts from SerendipiTea.

My interest was piqued by the name of the shop, and I HAD to know if it was affiliated with SerendipiTea in New York.  The only way to find out was to call the business in New York  and ask.  Sure enough, they are the namesake for the shop in Cordova, which stocks their teas.  I'm impressed that a small, remote city has a shop that carries quality teas.  Those tea loving residents definitely have their priorities right, don't they?  ;-)

Now I'm off to make myself a cup of Persian Nectar tea!