Our Story

Tea runs in our family

Our original store was established in May of 2002. It was named Wicks & Beans, as the original merchandise consisted mostly of scented candles and coffee beans. Despite the small space, we expanded our assortments, eventually also selling teas and international sweets. Well, it was getting tight, so we were very happy to move to a much larger space at 5872 Forbes Ave in July of 2006 and change the name of the store to Margaret's Fine Imports.

Since then we've become mostly a Tea Specialty store with over 400 varieties of teas in stock, and a huge assortment of teapots and tea gadgets. We even sell items like tea cozies and tea wallets!We offer Tea Classes and Tea Tastings every month. We also carry over 30 types of coffee beans and some neat coffee makers!

We also attend to the sweet tooth of our customers by stocking up on international sweets, especially around Holidays. We offer excellent service and we enjoy interacting with our customers: repeat and new! On May 9th, 2017 we opened a store in Carnegie and changed both store names to Blue Monkey Tea. The Carnegie PA location moved to Pittsburgh in February of 2019.



Our Owner

Margaret Harris

Owner Picture

Margaret Harris is the owner of Blue Monkey Tea, tea & gourmet food store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As one of Pittsburgh's primary tea experts, Margaret Harris is a tea consultant and regularly conducts classes and workshops on tea at a variety of venues, including colleges, clubs, associations, corporations, and at her store. As a native of Poland, where tea is the primary household beverage, her lifelong experience with tea began quite early: she may have had her first "cup of tea" when she was only one day old! Margaret is a graduate of the Warsaw Medical College, which has enabled her to incorporate her medical knowledge into her teachings on the health aspects of teas and tisanes. Margaret is a founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Tea Business Association, as well as several other business and professional groups.