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Gates
brews a national tea-party emporium
Charlene
and Eric Phillips started Tealightful Treasures
Inc., a national direct selling home party company.
By AMY CAVALIER
Messenger Post Staff
When
Charlene Phillips started making scone mixtures
from the basement of her Gates home in 2000, she
had no idea that she had tapped into the recipe
for a national home tea-party business.
“Initially
we thought we’d sell them (scone mixes) to
tea rooms and gift shops, yet as I got into the
manufacturing part of things, I realized it wasn’t
so much fun,” she said. “I wanted to share
them with people. I was excited about them and I
didn’t want to be stuck in the basement with
the flour.”
And
what better to go with scones than tea?
“I
have a Scottish-English heritage,” she said,
“and growing up I got to visit England when
I was 12. I was enamored with the whole tea time
experience.”
Collaborating
with her husband, Eric Phillips, a Gates native
and Rochester Institute of Technology packaging
technologies graduate, the two came up with the
idea to do in-home tea parties.
“We
took our assets and we combined that into a business
that worked for us,” said Eric Phillips. “I
think that’s a successful formula for anybody.
You take what you’re good at and you work it.”
Today,
Tealightful Treasures, based in Bermar Park in Gates,
has about 100 consultants in 35 different states.
Consultants throw tea parties in people’s homes.
The Hostess of the party picks certain themes such
as the “You are My Sunshine Mother and Daughter
Tea Party” or a “Decadent Dessert Tea
Party” and consultants bring a specific line
of products along for guests to sample, while ordering
out of the Tealightful Treasures catalog.
Seven
years after Charlene and Eric Phillips invested
in the industrial kitchen equipment to make scone
mixes in their basement, Tealightful Treasures has
expanded so much that the 2007 offerings filled
a 19- page catalog. The collection includes specialty
lines of china, Zen oil burners, scented sachets,
natural soaps, teas of all varieties, herb and fruit
mixtures which can be used like loose tea, hand-crafted
tea pods made of exotic flower blossoms and green
tea leaves that bloom into a decorative and drinkable
work of art, and of course, scone mixes.
It
didn’t happen overnight though.
First,
Charlene tried it herself, bringing her scone mixes
and tea products into the homes of friends and families
for parties. Then, in the summer of 2003, the couple
invited hostesses and customers from the Rochester
area to a tea at the Springhouse in Pittsford to
share their vision to grow the company into a national
direct-selling home tea party business.
“When
we investigated this business model, it was apparent
that you could be successful on a small regional
scale as well as on a national scale,” said
Eric Phillips. “It allowed you to take steps
to get to that point.”
For
the next year, the group worked to develop policies,
procedures and a training manual for consultants,
all while going out into homes to host parties.
“It
was very exciting because as they started having
their first tea parties, they were having the same
results I was,” said Charlene Phillips. “Good
attendance, good sales, and that’s what I needed
to see, that it wasn’t going to work just for
me.”
That
inspired the Phillips’ to take the next leap
of launching the company nationwide. Tealightful
Treasures Inc., grew state by state, with consultants
in Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York.
In September 2007, the company moved to 25 Bermar
Park in Gates.
“We
have a huge vision and the tea industry is growing
phenomenally,” she said. “When I started
this there were about 100 tea rooms nationwide.
Now there’s well over 1,000. And the specialty
segment, loose teas and specialty teas, which we
do — it’s forecasted to be $12 billion
by the year 2011.”
Tealightful
Treasures is a member of the Direct Selling Association,
an organization that is in place to uphold the ethics
of the direct selling industry.
"We've
learned and been mentored by other direct selling
companies as a result of our membership," said
Phillips.
Consultants
can get into the home tea party business for $199,
Charlene Phillips said. Tealightful Treasures provides
consultants with a lot of support such as Web sites,
training materials, networking opportunities, weekly
conference calls and incentives to bring more consultants
into the company. There’s even a certified
CPA who specializes in home-based businesses available
to help consultants with their taxes.
“We
encompass everything you need to know to be successful,”
said Charlene Phillips.
Wendy
Palczynski of Chili recently started as a consultant
to make a little extra cash since her other job
as a mortgage consultant has been slow lately.
A
tea drinker for years, Palczynski said, she’s
learned a lot more about tea. She even went so far
as to recommend her friend use it to help her older
dog’s bad breath. And when a tree fell on her
neighbor’s house during the recent wind storm,
Palczynski brought her some scones and tea over
to help calm her down.
Tealightful
Treasures promotes tea not just as a drink, but
as an ingredient to cook with and a way to incorporate
anti-oxidants into your diet. Tea adds an interesting
spice to foods and the tannins make a wonderful
natural meat tenderizer, Charlene said. Foods being
sampled at an open house at their Gates headquarters
last week featured Tealightful Chicken soup, cooked
using Tealightful Treasures’ Apricot Tea, Pork
and Mushroom Stew, using Tealightful Treasures’
Lapsang Souchong tea leaves, Jasmine Tea Rice, and
Herb and Tea Cheese Scones.
Lisa
McMahon of Rochester was surprised at just how tasty
the foods were.
“It’s
not something I would think to put in my chicken
noodle soup,” she said.
Amy
Cavalier can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext.
243, or at acavalier@mpnewspapers.com.
Fun facts about tea:
- A
few wet tea bags applied to sunburned skin will
take out the sting.
- Revitalize
tired, achy, or puffy eyes by soaking two tea
bags in warm water and placing them over your
closed eyes for 20 minutes.
- To
give a natural shine to dry hair, use a quart
(liter) of warm, unsweetened tea (freshly brewed
or instant) as a final rinse after your regular
shampoo.
- To
ease toothache or other mouth pain, rinse your
mouth with a cup of hot peppermint tea mixed
with a pinch or two of salt.
- Schedule
an occasional tea-time for your ferns and other
acid-loving houseplants. Substitute brewed tea
when watering the plants. Or work wet tea leaves
into the soil around the plants or place a few
used tea bags on top of the drainage layer at
the bottom of the planter before potting.
- To
speed up the decomposition process and enrich
your compost, pour a few cups of strongly brewed
tea into the heap.
For
more information about Tealightful Treasures, or
for recipes from the Healthy Comforts collection,
visit www.tealightfultreasures.com.
Amy Cavalier
Gates-Chili Post Reporter/Editor
Spencerport-Hilton Editor
(585) 394-0770 ext. 243
(315) 529-6071 (cell)
(585) 394-4160 (fax)
acavalier@mpnewspapers.com
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