As if having 3 coffee bars at Bellevue Square wasn’t enough (I don’t count the Starbucks clinging to the outside of the mall like a barnacle), Teavana moved in last December. I finally noticed they were there after the mall packed up the Satan display (Santa. I MEANT SANTA!) and the adoring mob dispersed. In the new quiet, I stared across the center court, and there, where Kit’s Camera used to be, was Teavana.

Teavana bills themselves as “Part Tea Bar, Part Tea Emporium.” Out front they are giving away free samples of tea, all sterile in little plastic sample cups. Further in, the store has that barren, lots-of-space look that one has come to associate with wanna-be oriental-themed stores. On the shelves around the store, little yixing clay teapots rub shoulders with japanese iron teapots (tetsubin) and an array of teacups. There are a few electric tea kettles, but this is definitely an asian-influenced store, so if you want a brown betty, don’t stop — just keep moving. I’m not in the market for a teapot at all, so I found all the cute little asian teapots impractical and expensive.

One side of the store is dedicated to the tea bar, canisters of loose leaf tea on large shelves behind the cash register; a counter with hot water dispensers and tea steeping canisters stacked tidily at the back wall. I had to keep moving so I didn’t stop to check prices, but no doubt they will be priced to challenge the Seattle’s Best Coffee across the corridor.