Starbucks’ First Teavana Store Debuts

Starbucks Corp. has opened its first Teavana tea store and bar on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The inaugural store has a tea bar serving hot and cold drinks; the food menu includes baked goods, salads and flat breads.

Starbucks acquired Teavana Holdings last year for $620 million. Teavana had about 300 shopping mall stores that sold loose-leaf, exotic teas; the coffee chain said it would decide later whether to add tea bars to those existing stores.

Starbucks is already immersed in the tea market. It bought Tazo tea for $8.1 million in 1999 and built it into a billion-dollar retail brand. The company opened a Tazo tea store in Seattle last year and now plans to convert it to a Teavana store that will open in mid-November.

Starbucks also has opened four Evolution Fresh juice bars since its $30 million purchase of the juice maker in 2011.