A year after celebrating its 15th anniversary in business last August, The Green Teahouse has announced plans to close its location at Westfarms mall next week.
In a Facebook post dated Aug. 7 and addressed to “Dear friends,” the Teahouse said it will close on Aug. 24.
“After 16 wonderful years of serving you in our Teahouse, the time has come for a new season,” the post states. “We are closing our physical location to focus fully on our growing online store, where we will continue to share the teas and products you’ve come to love.”
Founded in 2009 by Ting Luo, The Green Teahouse first opened in Blue Back Square in West Hartford Center. A second location was opened on Chapel Street in New Haven in 2014, but in 2018 Ting merged the two locations into one site, the former home of Teavana next to Macy’s in Westfarms mall.
The store sells a selection of loose leaf teas, tea sets and other items.
The post thanks numerous organizations for their assistance and support, including the Women’s Business Development Council, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the Connecticut Small Business Development Center, HEDCO, and Sen Richard Blumenthal.
In 2024, the SBA named The Green Teahouse Connecticut’s Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year.
In a video accompanying the closing announcement, Luo includes photos of staff members but does not say how many employees she has or whether any of them will continue to work for the online store.
In the video, Luo states she plans to be more active on social media after the store closes “so I can continue to share tea tips, health benefits and the knowledge of tea I have learned with all of you.”
She also states that customers with a physical gift card should visit the store before it closes to convert it to an online gift card, and added that customers who earned $5 cups of tea to go from in-store purchases can use that to purchase items on its website, www.TheGreenTeahouse.com.
