Today we’d like to introduce you to Doyle Mullins.
Hi Doyle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As my wife Sonia approached retirement from her teaching career, we started to look at what the next part of our life would look like. We were living in Florida and decided to move back to my home state. I have been an avid cook for most of my life and I have developed a catalog of recipes and herb and spice blends. My wife loves loose-leaf tea so we started to piece together an idea to offer these in a retail location. Our kids are grown and we wanted a lifestyle that was a slower pace.
We were primarily looking for a small town with an active small business community, a local government that supports local businesses, and a population that would benefit from our vision. We traveled to dozens of small towns in Northern Ohio searching for that main street experience. When we found Wadsworth, both of us were very comfortable with the vibe of the town, and the opportunities we both saw for our vision. Once we opened the shop, the town, the businesses, and the civic leaders have been hugely supportive and welcoming. We are so appreciative and happy to find a new hometown.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course, there have been some struggles and bumps in the road. We simultaneously ended our careers in Florida, sold our house, moved across the country, and started construction to convert the space into our dream. The city and county officials were so helpful in helping us get everything we needed to open.
Through it, my wife was the very definition of patient and understanding as there were several starts and delays in our schedule as we got all of our requirements to comply with the various codes and regulations.
As you know, we’re big fans of New World Spice & Tea Traders. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a small-batch custom blender of spices and loose-leaf teas. We rotate our selections of teas, spices, flavored oils and vinegar, and hot sauces for the seasons. I currently blend about half of the spice blend we offer. We also trade with other blenders around the country to take advantage of their expertise and regional flavors. There are only so many ingredients a small shop can buy, so there is a network of blenders around the country that specialize in certain blends and regional specialties. This gives us the opportunity to offer our friends and customers a much wider selection and the product tends to be much fresher because the blenders who specialize can turn over their inventory faster than a shop operating alone.
Our teas are a very similar model. There are just fewer options for good blenders. One aspect of our shop we are very happy about is our selection of hot sauces. We have over 125 hot sauces from around the country and many are made in Ohio. We focus on sauces that are not found in mass-market stores and look for small-batch companies. Many of these companies work directly but we also work with a distributor who also specializes in small-batch sauce makers. Our olive oil company is a certified allergen-free facility and they own their own trees. All of the oil we sell is grown, pressed, and bottled in the US. We can guarantee the quality and origin of our oil because we buy directly from the farmer who raises the trees.
What does success mean to you?
Success for us is introducing our new friends and neighbors to flavors and products that they have not had an opportunity to try before.
It is very heartwarming for us to have customers who had no experience with loose-leaf tea or some of the spice blends return with their own family and friends to show off our new shop.
Pricing:
- All of our blends are done in small batches, less than $5 pounds at a time
- Our oils are purchased directly from the orchard owner
- All of our cups, lids, and sampling spoons are plant-based and biodegradable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NewWorldSpiceandTea?ref=profile_header
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/newworldspiceandtea
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066522220258
