text: I have been to Urban Tea Loft several times to buy and try to buy tea Once I got a warm feeling I want to remember and other times I got a prickly feeling that takes me a long time to forget The difference is who happen to be there The owners warm feeling the employee staff prickly feeling I now feel compelled to tell the storyn nFirst times I am slowly forgetting I wanted to buy something to make tea at home tea bags tea ball infuser A gal said I am not really familiar with what you use to make teas the owners are not here So I left emptyhanded and thought It is a big nothing strike n nSecond time I came in I wanted to buy an iced tea As the only person in line I waited waited waited and was completely ignored by the gal behind the counter who seemed hyped up and agitated and trying to tap something into the cash register over and over I was standing face to face about a foot from her head yet she completely ignored me I looked right direct in the eyes nothing Maybe if she ignored me long enough I would leave thereby making her day so much easier Finally she scuttled into the back kitchen and said can somebody get out here and do something for this customer A guy came out and put the tea in a plastic cup charged me and slapped a domed lid on it I stopped for a moment trying to figure out how to drink it It was a lid you would get for something with whipped cream or something taller than tea I asked for a straw I unwrapped it and placed it in the large hole in the domed lid where it promptly disappeared inside the container I looked at him a longer straw Nope that is all we have he said with a grin hoping to get off the hook and get back to the kitchen This really does not seem to work does it I said holding up the container That is all we have he said opening some cupboards quickly I had a vague deja vu of a monte python sketch I left strike n nThen another time I came in midweek and was looking at all the flavors of teas and a young black gentleman came up and spent about minutes with me letting me sniff various teas telling me the story of Rooibos and Rose tea and how the rooibos grows as a shrub in South Africa and how people can actually steep it on the stove for hours and it does not get bitter This slowed down time and made me feel like I was the center of the universe for about minutes He said he could make up a halfbag of tea for to let me try it out and gave me a handful of white tea pouches to get started This gave me the warm feeling that I continued to get when I made tea for myself at home It was delightful and I would actually pay for the storytelling and good feeling that came with it the tea was a bonus An nI went in again today Saturday hoping to get that feeling again but there was the girl with glasses and short black hair As last time she seemed agitated and tightlipped but did notice my presence However a smile would have gone a long way if she has more than one thing to do she could lighten the room by putting the customer at ease Finally she announced I can get it for you but you will have to wait I am out here all by myself she hurried around looking extremely focused yet flustered hurriedly tapping something into the cash register over and over and walking back and forth It makes you feel her day would be so much easier if there would not be any people coming into the store trying to buy something I asked her for some mixed looseleaf tea out of the containers on the wall behind the counter which is where the guy got it from last time She looked like cannot you just buy the precanned stuff on the back wall and be gone Finally after about minutes she got the guy in the kitchen to come out and put of the teas in separate bags which she caught and said no she wanted both mixed in bag so she ended up doing it herself which probably irked her because he was not saving her time n nI asked the guy for a tea bag to make it with He held up something long and brown not like the white kind with a string flap the gentleman gave before Finally i bought the tea but no tea bags so asked for a tea bag She went to a box and said this is all we have It was the white ones that I originally asked for and that she said she did not have minutes ago She gave me and looked like she was thinking now leave but the words that came out of her mouth were Have a Happy Valentines Day which was the reverse of what i was feelingn nI think I will continue to come back to Urban Tea Loft but on a day with the genial young gentleman who gave me the feeling of New Orleans or somewhere where time stands still and people do not rush around That is the feeling I am trying to get by coming into the Urban Tea Loft It is elusive