Teas and Treasures is a small store/boba shop on Main Street St. Charles next to the Bike Stop Cafe. It just opened on Oct. 1, 2023.
The store started originally with NaRetta Forrester and her business ”3 Sisters Tea”. When Kyle Morris and NaRetta Forrester met, they moved in together and almost immediately started to work together.
“We’ve been in a relationship since August of 2022. I would say we have been working together since the day we met,” Morris said.
This cute unique store owned by Morris and Forrester sparks the interest of two very different people: car lovers and people who love a tasty drink any day.
The two stores are connected and have a little bit of each in the other store with tea leaves on the car side and car collectables on the boba side. Morris runs the car collectible part of the shop while Forrester runs the boba and coffee shop in the back.
The car side of the shop has so much to offer for so many different people. They have Barbie, Scooby Doo, and Looney Tunes cars.
When you walk in the main entrance, you are flooded with loads of cars from small collectibles to ones the size of keyboards. Morris´s favorite is the large-scale Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine signed by Scott Innes who has been the voice actor of Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and Shaggy since 1998. Forrester´s favorite is the Supernatural 1971 Chevy Impala SS.
Overall the car side is very cute and unique and Morris is such a friendly person who can help you with whatever car you need.
“My goal in five years is to be successfully operating the business to the point we are recognized as highly as some of the toy stores I grew up with like Toys r’ Us or KB Toys,” Morris said.
This is the side of the store people normally walk into, not realizing there is a boba shop on the other side.
“If I could change one thing about my store, [it would be how] currently there is a wall that divides NaRetta and my rooms. There is a huge, doorless door frame to go between the rooms. But, because you can’t easily see NaRetta’s Tea Shop, she gets missed. We are still working on figuring out how to help potential customers realize that both of us are here,” Morris said.
If you walk through the door at the end of the car shop, you walk into almost a different world from the cars. The boba store has a much warmer environment. The tea side has so many tea leaves and a place to order boba, tea, and coffee. The tea room has such a calm vibe, with leaves, string lights, and plushies in multiple areas. There are a couple of small tables around the room for people to sit and enjoy their tea.
Forrester is so kind and knowledgeable about tea. She is willing to educate people about the different properties of teas and help people find one they will love.
“My favorite is the new tea dropping this spring Blackberry Sage, but on our current list, my favorite is the peach black,” Forrester said.
On the car side, patrons can purchase gifts for people or collectibles for themselves. They have items priced from $6 up to $400. Besides cars, they also have figurines related to Disney, Alice and Wonderland, Grease, and more.
On the tea side, customers can purchase a variety of drinks, loose teas, and desserts. The tea side even hosts special events like the upcoming Craft-Tea Extravaganza where people can create Valentine’s Day cards while drinking Valentine’s Day-themed tea and eating scones.
“I believe it is going great. We are just getting started, so getting our name out there and still figuring out marketing and the area is always an adjustment but it’s also part of the fun,” Forrester said.
The shop is open from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. every day but is closed on Wednesday. They have two entrances: the front door which leads you to the car side or the side door which leads to the boba side.
“Personally, I would love to see the business grow into an even larger space, together. I would like to continue my tea room vision and have its own space as well for that,” Forrester said. “To me, our successes so far is just getting opened. It takes a while to get started and get yourself out there. We have some recurring customers already and that is an amazing success I feel.’’
