Brewing Up a Brand: Designing a Tea Website That's Steeped in Style

I’ll admit it—I’m more of a water and hot chocolate kind of person (extra cream, of course). So when I first met the passionate team at Silk Road Teas (SRT), I had no idea just how much depth, history, and nuance there was to the world of tea. Seriously, it’s a whole art form! From plantations to ports, delicate leaves to perfectly steeped cups, every part of their process is rich with tradition and care.

Bringing that same lushness and warmth into their digital presence? Now that’s my kind of challenge. I was thrilled to be part of making SRT stand out in the market with elegant, modern, and inviting designs in email marketing campaigns.

Like any great e-commerce brand, Silk Road Teas wanted to highlight their premium tea selection while keeping customers engaged. Working alongside Third Arm Marketing, the focus of this project was a series of weekly email newsletter campaigns designed to:

🍵 Introduce customers to new and featured teas

📩 Boost engagement and sales through stunning visuals

🛍 Create a seamless, inviting shopping experience

With a vast library of teas (seriously, tea lovers, go check them out!), the biggest design challenge was creating a flexible, visually engaging template that could easily be applied to different products each week.

Here’s how it worked:

1️⃣ SRT would send over the featured teas for the week along with key messaging.

2️⃣ I’d craft multiple design options—balancing modern aesthetics with cozy, inviting vibes.

3️⃣ They’d review, tweak, and finalize the designs to ensure they aligned with their branding and sales goals.

4️⃣ Once approved, emails were scheduled and automated for smooth, consistent delivery.

To keep things efficient and user-friendly for the client internally, we chose Canva and MailChimp as the primary design and distribution platforms. This way, SRT could easily make quick edits on their own while maintaining a polished, professional look.

Every week brings a fresh new design, sharing the latest from Silk Road Teas with their audience. Whether you’re a daily tea drinker or just enjoy an occasional sip, these emails are designed to inspire, educate, and tempt you to explore the world of premium tea.

So, the next time you’re looking for the perfect brew, you just might find yourself clicking over to Silk Road Teas—and maybe, just maybe, I’ll finally be convinced to trade in my hot chocolate for a cup!