Gong Fu TEA

Gong Fu Tea -
(515) 288-3388
414 E 6th St, Des Moines, IA
 
Here is where I am heading today!!!!  I am so excited to go here!!! While in Ohio, I looked on line and I found them.   I am visiting Des Moines for work.  This weekend I am staying with my college friends- who I have not seen in over 9 years.  Kate is taking me to my work conference, but first we are stopping at Gong Fu- ya!!!!!  I will blog tonight with photos of what I thought. 

I think I want to try this one:
Cranberry Lover’s Tea

This lover’s blend of honeybush and rooibos contains the nutrient powerhouse fruit from the mountain cranberry shrub. These low bush cranberries are packed with high levels of antioxidants and health promoting properties. Blended with rose buds and small sugar hearts, this tea will charm your sweetheart and will pose the question: Be my valentine?
2 oz. - $4.50
 
 

From on line:

 
Gong Fu Tea got its start in September of 2003. My old college friend Rusty Bishop had just returned from participating in an extreme running event held in the Gobi Desert (The Gobi March), and I gave him a quick call to see how he had fared. That "quick call" turned into a lengthy, introspective conversation in which we both determined that we were ready to embark on a venture that would be truly inspirational. At the time, we were both coffee-swilling components of the corporate machine, and looking to completely reinvent ourselves. Tea was the vehicle that we used to accomplish that feat on nearly every level.

My experience with tea began when I was child. My parents weren't coffee drinkers at the time, so we always had tea as our hot beverage of choice. I got away from tea about the same time I started attending college. I became a coffee drinker, and continued the habit for nearly fifteen years before I finally isolated it as something which had a negative affect on my energy level. I stopped drinking coffee "cold turkey" and replaced it with common bagged teas – and felt much better as a result. My interest in tea was immediately reinvigorated at that point.
This interest, coupled with a general interest in all things gastronomically wonderful, fused to form a vision for becoming a provider of ultra-high quality loose-leaf teas to other people – people who would respond in the same positive manner to the terrific tastes and healthful aspects of one of the world’s oldest and most widely consumed beverages.

Rusty and I arranged to meet each other in Chicago for a weekend that same September. The purpose of the meeting was to determine what sort of business endeavor we would like to create. After hashing over a few dozen ideas, I mentioned the concept of a high-end teahouse that would cater to the palates of tea enthusiasts here in the United States. After I shared the seminal vision with Rusty, we were both so taken with the notion that we have never yet discussed any of the other business ideas that we had come up with that day. After scouring the third largest city in America for some representative example of our vision and finding only a few quality shops in the entire area, we mutually agreed to establish our presence in the heart of the Midwest.
We wanted to bring quality teas to the people we were familiar with and that we were sure would respond enthusiastically to the realm of teas, if only introduced to them
 
 
Mike Feller & Rusty Bishop.

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