Wednesday, October 9, 2024
By John McCracken
Contributor
GREEN BAY – Jennifer Nowicki has bounced around the world selling tea.
The Green Bay native learned the trade in Seattle, New York City and China and owned a tearoom in Milwaukee for three years.
Now, she’s come home to her roots.
The newly opened Cultivate Taste Tea Salon, 520 N. Broadway, Suite 120, specializes in loose-leaf teas and accessories.
Nowicki said she opened Cultivate Taste Tea Salon to build an appreciation for quality loose-leaf tea in the region, and give patrons a place to sit and chat.
“I’ve always been drinking tea my whole life,” she said. “I first used to drink it with my grandmother.”
Nowicki, a certified tea specialist through the New York Specialty Tea Institute, has spent 30 years in the industry.
“I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of teas, and you kind of develop your palate and you learn the nuances,” she said.
The tea salon’s opening continues the expansion of businesses in Green Bay’s 22-acre Rail Yard Innovation District.
“Cultivate Taste Tea Salon represents another unique and exciting business model in the Broadway District that makes us such a desirable destination,” Brian Johnson, On Broadway, Inc. executive director, said. “Residential and office growth has spurred additional investment from the retail sector, and we’re thrilled to add another niche space that caters to the tea lovers in our community. The addition of another third space open to the public will certainly fulfill a catalytic role with the continued redevelopment of the Rail Yard.”
Cultivate has a variety of offerings ranging from $5 one-ounce green tea blends to more premium Matcha tea at $35 for a half-ounce.
Nowicki said she guides newcomers to the tea realm by offering traditional blends, such as green or black teas, then expanding their tastebuds to bolder Japanese blends or subtler Chinese green blends.
Cultivate has teas sourced directly from farms in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Peru and other connections she has fostered over the years.
One tenant of Nowicki’s vision is selling sustainable, fair trade and ethically sourced teas.
“I want to make sure that (producers) can have decent lives themselves,” she said.
Currently, Nowicki is working on making all of her packaging biodegradable and sustainable.
“I like to cause less harm to the planet,” Nowicki said.
In addition to the retail storefront, she sells wholesale teas online and plans to expand the salon to offer café sandwiches, salads and other eats to accompany the variety of teas sold in-store.
