After a little more than a month in operation, The Tea Caddy, a new Tooele-based business specializing in flavored teas, has been exciting the taste buds of many people desiring unique variations of the popular hot beverage.

The Tea Caddy is owned by Mark Smith, a native of Birmingham, England, who has lived in Tooele County with his family for the past 16 years. Smith currently runs the business solely online, with people being able to purchase teas through his Web site, www.theteacaddystore.com. He has been leasing 3,400 square feet in the Utah Industrial Depot for his supply warehouse.

Smith opened his own tea business to serve a market that he said was lacking. He said that his wife Kathryn and four kids will also help out with the operation of the business.

“I wanted to open the Tea Caddy because I noticed that there were not many places in Tooele County, Salt Lake County or all of Utah that specialized in a wide selection of fine teas,” Smith said. “We first went online the first of November, and we feel that there’s definitely a market here and in Salt Lake for a business like this. Each week we’re doing better and better, and we have people from all around the country ordering from us, most especially people from California and New York. The more people become exposed to us, the more popular we’ll become.”

Smith first became interested in tea after moving to America, where his doctor had told him that it was good for his asthma. Since then, he had always had a real passion for several different types of tea.

“I started drinking tea regularly because, as someone with Asthma, it helped open up my airways and ease the inflammation,” Smith said. “Tea also has several health benefits, such as different antioxidants and polypherols.”

The Tea Caddy supplies more than 140 types of tea: smooth and rich blends, chai, traditional or flavored green teas, white teas, decaffeinated teas, fruit infusion teas, herbal teas, organic teas, special teas for children, and regular fruit teas that can be drank hot or cold. Different flavorings for the teas are peppermint, lavender and chamomile.

Smith said that most of his teas are loose-leaf teas that don’t require tea bags and that he also sells teaware and accessories, gift baskets, honey spoons, and dark and milk chocolate.

"We also sell a type of chocolate called ‘choclatea,’ which is a chocolate product made up of either milk, dark, very dark or white chocolate, and it is infused with tea flavorings,” Smith said. “Choclotea comes in flavors such as ginger tea, wild raspberry tea, pistachio green tea, and herbal chai. We sell both Cadbury and Galaxy brand chocolate, and I would like to expand our entire British chocolate line in the future.”

Smith also said that his decently-priced teas provided by The Tea Caddy come from plantations in India, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Nepal and the United States.

“I’m lucky that I have vendors who are able to supply me with tea from plantations in countries all over the world,” he said. “I hope to expand both our tea and teaware selection as we become more popular.”

To educate others on different types of tea, Smith said that he and his family members also offer free, in-house tea parties for families in the area. He said they have already been quite successful in entertaining local residents with their parties.

“We will come to one’s house and brew different kinds of tea for them to smell and taste, and me and my wife, as well as our two oldest daughters, are usually the ambassadors for the parties,” he said. “Tea can be a very social drink at parties, and these tea parties are a great way to showcase our products and share my family’s love of tea with other people. We are also always looking for more ambassadors to help us with the parties. We want not only want to sell tea, but we hope to help educate on it as well.”

Even with the economy going under, Smith believes that people will always go out of their way to purchase tea because of its reputation as a comfort food.

“Tea is still an affordable luxury and no matter how bad life gets, a cup of tea by the fireplace can always make you feel better,” Smith said. “When people get depressed or anxious they turn to comfort foods like tea and chocolate, which allow them to relax, de-stress and feel a whole lot better. Tea is very therapeutic and has always had a strong turnout of buyers throughout hard economic times.”

Smith said word on The Tea Caddy is really beginning to spread out in both Tooele County and the Salt Lake area.

“We have been doing local newspaper advertising, as well as advertising with the Salt Lake City Weekly, and people are able to easily find us online,” he said. “People have also heard of us from friends who have attended our tea parties or had us do one for them. We’re definitely offering something fresh and different, and people in Salt Lake are really starting to find our about us.”

To save money as a new business owner, Smith said he most likely keep The Tea Caddy as an online business for awhile before opening a shop.

“With the way the economy is right now, business owners have to be sensible about how they operate,” he said. “A lot of businesses go under because they stretch themselves before they’re ready. By doing it online right now, I can save money from what I could be paying for an actual store, and I’m able to offer products at a better price.”

Smith, who also works as an area manager for Allied Barton Security Systems, said he hopes to open Tea Caddy stores in both Tooele and Salt Lake County, in order to maintain an even healthier business relationship with customers in both areas. He would also employ more people as the business grew, which he said would help out greatly during future hard economic times.

“I would like to one day have actual stores in Tooele and Salt Lake to help open more peoples’ eyes to the world of tea, and further down the road I might like to do a franchise and open stores in Idaho or other places across the mountain west,” Smith said. “My wife and I are very social people who love to talk with everyone, and we want other people to get to know us as people. The bigger I get, the more I want to expand even further. I want the name Tea Caddy to be synonymous with a cup of tea.”

Doug Radunich: dougrad@tooeletranscript.com