DAVIS ISLANDS, Fla. — Located in the Davis Islands Village, right on Davis Boulevard, you'll find a successful tea company that got its start in that very store.
For the past 13 years, TeBella has called Davis Islands home.
Abigail StClair has always been passionate about tea, so when the opportunity to open a store arose, she took a chance.
Since then, she's opened multiple locations across Tampa Bay and provides tea wholesale to other businesses, too.
But, it was the Davis Islands community that changed her future.
"It's just generally a tight-knit community full of people that want to support the local businesses," said StClair. "They wanted us to thrive. And so it really felt like they were rooting for us and working hard to support us, which was great. And then it was actually a Davis Islands resident who helped us with our second location, the founder of Oxford Exchange, he was coming in as a customer, which is how we got the privilege of opening our second location inside Oxford Exchange. We just felt like everybody was rooting for us."
TeBella specializes in loose-leaf tea that you can make at home, with about 100 different flavors.
"So we import from about 19 different countries. We do a lot of our blending in house at a warehouse that we have here in Tampa. We also buy some blends that we sourced domestically here in the United States, but we get the raw leaves from all over and then mix them with different fruits, spices, herbs, botanical and all sorts of different flavors," said StClair.
They also make drinks, hot or iced, in-store. Stop in and say hello.
"People used to say when I first opened 13 years ago that it kind of felt like Mayberry, you know, its own little isolated community. People ride golf carts everywhere. Bikes are surrounded by water on so many sides. It's really quite idyllic. And I think the people that get to live here are so lucky. And they know that and so it's just kind of a joyous place to be," said StClair.
