Capital Teas, the attractive tea shop with five area locations, will be opening later this month at 4806 Bethesda Avenue, in the former Amethyst jewelry store (which moved next door).
Peter Martino, who owns the shops with his wife Manelle, a fifth generation tea merchant (her great-great-grandfather oversaw a tea estate in the 1890s in Ceylon), said “my target is to be open prior to Thanksgiving.”
Although the space is only 322-square feet, Peter Martino said it will still sport the store’s signature “tea wall” of 120 types of loose tea nestled in little canisters.
It will also sell hot tea by the cup and iced tea and tea smoothies in the warm months.
But because of space constraints, it will stock fewer tea accessories than the location in Bethesda’s Wildwood Shopping Center, which is more than twice as big.
It will, however, still sell a number of packaged tea-related foods, such as French cookies and tea-infused chocolate bars.
Martino said Capital Teas’ business has taken off, as people have become more aware of the reported health benefits of the beverage, as well as its price. Says Martino, “We call tea the affordable luxury.”
