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Anna Green

Culteavo opened in July of 2015 and has become a popular place in Unionville.

   Unionville has recently gained a new, quaint tea shop that offers a wide variety of hot and iced teas, breakfast pastries and sandwiches, as well as a fun and modern cafe environment. The tea shop, Culteavo, was opened in July 2016 by the mother of recent high school graduates.

   “I always wanted to have my own business. My family had a small business when I grew up, and it was something that I was waiting for the right time,” owner Viviana Pinhasi said.

   The name Culteavo comes from the Spanish word, cultivar, which means “to cultivate.” The goals of the business stem from the meaning behind this name.

   One of Pinhasi’s main goals is to make her shop into a good place for tea drinkers to spend their time and make friends with one another.

   “When you drink tea, you cultivate this space of tranquility and inner peace, and you cultivate friends around a cup of tea,” Pinhasi said.

   She also hopes to promote the culture of the tea-drinking community to the area and educate her customers about the process of tea and how it goes from the plant to your cup.

   In the near future, Pinhasi hopes her visions will come to life. Customers seem to really enjoy the atmosphere, nevermind the tea itself.

   “In addition to the tea, Viviana did a great job with the tea shop decor. It’s a contemporary and relaxing space. I’m thrilled to have a quality tea shop in Unionville,” Culteavo’s first customer, Lori Brantner said.

   Culteavo has a very interesting logo that displays a wide range of representations. The main reasoning behind the green symbol is to represent the tea fields. Women who work in the fields make paths so they are able to walk through the bushes.

   The logo is an aerial representation of what a field might look like. Pinhasi likes how the logo can be interpreted by the customer. Some customers of the shop view it as a tea strainer and, sometimes, a face.

   Although the future for the aspiring tea shop feels uncertain to Pinhasi, she does hope to expand by selling her teas to local restaurants in the near future. She has already began to distribute some teas to Cure Restaurant, a neighbor to Culteavo. Pinhasi also plans to have her teas at the high school’s Project Graduation 2016.