The Cozy Teapot: How it started

I. Introduction

We’re really excited to be sharing about our new business, The Cozy Teapot, today! We have been dreaming about starting our own business for over a decade (saying that makes me feel old 🫣). And we are SO EXCITED that we’ve finally found a business that we’re excited to build and share with everyone! And today we’re sharing a little behind the scenes of how the business started, the steps we’ve taken, and what the journey has taught us so far!

II. The Inspiration Behind the Business

So, why, after a decade of dreaming about it, did we finally decide to start a business? The short answer is that we finally found something that excited us and we wanted to share! Ever since high school, we’ve been dreaming of owning a bakery where we could share our love of baking. But, the timing never seemed right, we could never think of a name we loved, and, while we loved baking, we just couldn’t settle on a vision for our business. So, we just never started it and kept pushing it off. Until we discovered our love for tea and afternoon tea!

We have loved tea for awhile and have never been big fans of coffee. It doesn’t taste good to us and always, to us, felt rooted in “hustle culture” and the need to have more energy to do more things and “hustle harder.” While there’s nothing wrong with hustle culture, we just didn’t like that vibe for our life. Instead, we discovered tea and the cozy moments it could create. While we still did drink it for a little caffeine boost while working long hours or sitting through class, we liked the more calming, soothing nature of tea.

And then came a study abroad trip to Oxford, England where we got to try afternoon tea for the first time!! While Georgia was in law school, she took a 5 week study abroad trip where she spent 5 weeks of her summer studying at Oxford University. While there, our mom and I went to visit Georgia and explore England too. With our love for tea, there was no way we were passing up the chance to try afternoon tea in England!! And we fell in love with it-the scones, the clotted cream, the sandwiches!

Upon returning home, we wanted to create some of that afternoon tea magic for ourselves. We made tea and scones at home and we visited local tea houses to relive those afternoon teas we’d had in England. Finally, it came time for Georgia to graduate from law school (exciting!), and we were throwing a party but couldn’t quite land on a theme. Until I suggested an afternoon tea party theme. Immediately, we were all on board! And that’s exactly what we did - we planned and threw an afternoon tea party. We spent months planning and buying decorations, scouring thrift stores for tea cups and tea pots, and planning food. We made just about every afternoon tea treat you could think of - scones, egg salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, cookies, strawberry sandwiches. And we loved being able to share our love of afternoon teas with others. So, we thought…why not start a business selling afternoon teas treats, tea drinks, and everything tea related??

And that’s how The Cozy Teapot was born!

III. The Vision for The Cozy Teapot

With The Cozy Teapot, we wanted to share our love for tea with others. More specifically, we wanted to share the cozy moments and connections with others that tea can bring. We wanted to create a space where others can feel the warmth of tea like a hug and spend time connecting with others, or a good book!

We’ve leaned towards a more vintage feeling for our business simply because we love the aesthetic and think it adds to the coziness we’re trying to achieve. We hope other agree and love our business vibe as much as we do!

IV. The Process of Getting Started

I wish I could say that starting our business was easy and we knew exactly what we were doing. But, I would be lying if I told you that. To be honest, starting our business was stressful! We had no idea what we were doing (and still kinda don’t), but we spent a lot of time stressing out and googling things.

We actually established our business in December of 2024 under the name The Whistling Kettle. While we checked local databases, we didn’t think to check national databases for companies with that name. Unfortunately for us, another company had a trademark on the name. We didn’t find that out until we had bought branded things (stickers, stamps, etc). They sent us a cease and desist letter!! Right when we were getting things finalized and getting excited to start selling at our first market. We spent a lot of time mad and upset with ourselves - we might have shed a few tears too! But, we weren’t going to let that stop our dream.

Instead of quitting (like we wanted to the moment we found out), we persevered. We thought up a new name that we loved just as much: The Cozy Teapot! We thought it perfectly captured the cozy tea moments we wanted to share with others! So, we reordered our branded items and moved on.

While it’s a little embarrassing to think back on, it was also a good learning moment for us. If there’s one thing that owning a business has taught us, it’s that knowing everything isn’t as important as knowing how to figure something out or how to preserve when you feel a little lost!

So, what exactly does The Cozy Teapot sell? We sell afternoon tea accessories (think tea spoons, tea rests, tea cups, sugar cubes, etc), afternoon tea treats (think shortbread cookies, scones, bundt cakes), afternoon tea gift boxes, and afternoon tea to go boxes. Our afternoon tea to go boxes have everything you’ll need to share a little afternoon tea with someone you care about: cookies, bundt cakes, scones, mini jams, honey, and hot tea for two! Our gift boxes have everything you’ll would want to gift to a tea lover: honey sticks, teacup, loose leaf tea, tea infuser, etc!

VI. What’s Next for The Cozy Teapot

We have spent this summer perfecting our menu and our set-up to have everything just how we like it! Almost every saturday, you can find us at the farmer’s market in Canal Winchester selling everything tea related. As we grow, we’re hoping to expand into bigger markets to make ourselves more available to people and to share our dream with others!

While right now, we only sell hot tea and pre bottled tea, we hope to one day sell a more expanded list of beverages like our own iced tea, refreshing beverages, afternoon tea sandwiches, etc. And, eventually, we would love to expand into a permanent place and have our very own tea house where people can come and settle into comfy chairs to drink tea and read a good book!

If you love tea as much as we do and want to help support us, you can find us on instagram, facebook, and tiktok! We also have an Etsy where you can purchase our tea gift boxes and have them shipped to you if you can’t make it to one of our markets to get yours in person. We would love to have your support for our small business, it would mean the world to us 💕

VII. Closing Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading along and making it this far! We appreciate your attention in our busy world. We hope that you find just as much joy in tea as we do and join us in our journey to share that love with others!

We hope to see you at one of our markets (and hopefully one day in our tea house)!

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” - C. S. Lewis