Fusion Teas

Fusion Teas has been running since April 2010 from a suite on University Business Drive, in the low commercial strip north of downtown McKinney, off US 75. The list runs past 140 loose teas and herbal blends, split between single origins and blends the company mixes itself. It is the rare shop that describes its own packaging in detail: resealable pouches with a five-layer body, latch-lock tins, and boxed sampler sets of four or five extra-large samples.

The three-step ladder is the thing to understand before ordering. Every tea page offers a sample measured in cups, then the standard pouch of three or four ounces, then a bulk bag of eight to sixteen ounces whose saving is printed on the option itself. A few teas add a fourth rung of fifteen pyramid bags. It means the cost of being wrong about a tea is a couple of dollars rather than a full pouch.

The catalogue leans classical rather than fashionable. Darjeelings are listed by estate and flush, with Makaibari and Singell first flushes and a Margaret's Hope second flush; the Chinese side carries a Golden Monkey and a Ti Kwan Yin, and Taiwan supplies the Tung Ting. Per-type sampler boxes are sold as products in their own right. The physical space is a showroom rather than a café, open weekday mornings and early afternoons, and the shop asks visitors to call or text before coming.