Amber Hamilton opened The Tea Spout by Aquene Amora, a tea health and wellness shop, in the summer of 2023. Before opening The Tea Spout, Hamilton had a small business, Aquene Amora.
Hamilton said she originally created her business for her two kids, who are 11 and 13.
“It was around 2015 when I started noticing things in food, mainly through feeding my girls, and I was like ‘wow what is going on here.’ That’s when I jumped in on learning about functional healing, which eventually led me to all this craziness,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton started her business in the reception area of a small office during COVID-19 and was there from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021.
“Since it was during COVID-19, nobody was [at the office], so they rented out some of their spaces. So I just rented out their front little entryway. That was basically like my little [area].”
While at her rental space, Hamilton had the flexibility to stay home with her kids more often. However, once they went back to school full-time, she got bored.
“I thought, ‘what else can I do?’ So I branched out a little bit and started at Painted Tree,” she said.
Hamilton had a shop at Painted Tree Boutiques from 2022-2023.
“I loved it there, but I hated that I couldn’t be there. I couldn’t sit and be there to talk to people,” Hamilton said. “At [Painted Tree], I really didn’t have the comfort of always being there.”
So, Hamilton began looking for opportunities that would allow her to interact with her customers more directly.
“So once I started getting into [health and wellness], I really wanted a place for my clients to be able to go and get the things that I was recommending for them,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s business is Aquene Amora, however, she noticed that the name was hard for people to remember and pronounce, so she decided to name her store something different.
“I liked The Tea Spout because I use tea in a lot of my products,” she said. “And the spout just pours into everything health and wellness…which everything in my store has to do with.”
By opening The Tea Spout, Hamilton was able to start serving beverages, a huge change that she said she wasn’t able to incorporate in her smaller prior shops.
“I am able to actually serve beverages, which is really nice because people get to try all the different products [I’d talk about],” Hamilton said.
Overall, Hamilton said her favorite part of owning The Tea Spout is connecting with people.
“Before, I was very introverted, just being at home with the girls, and I didn’t really branch out besides with my friends that stayed home as well,” Hamilton said. “Some of the men and women that come in here are just so much fun and they have great ideas. And then to hear their success stories is the most heartwarming thing ever.”
An example of this that sticks out to Hamilton was feedback she had from an elderly woman.
“I had a lady who called and she had been having some issues with her stomach and gut issues. She called and [said], ‘oh my gosh, what you gave me worked.’ And that feeling was just so amazing because as an older woman, she found relief in something new age. And she felt secure enough to call me and tell me that as well,” Hamilton said.
Through success stories like this, Hamilton has found fulfillment in owning The Tea Spout.
“I’ve realized, ‘OK, I feel like I’m really helping people, and they’re helping me in so many ways, mentally, physically and just giving me the motivation to keep going with all the health and wellness stuff,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the connection she’s made with her customers wasn’t something she expected.
“I will say, I don’t know what I expected. I’m not sure if I expected more people who would come in and just know health and wellness, so they’d pretty much tell me what they needed and wanted,” Hamilton said. “
Overall, Hamilton said the most surprising part of owning her shop has been the variety of people who she’s met there.
“It’s not just one type of people, some people have never touched health and wellness, but they’re interested and then they leave with information. Then they call me and it’s just kind of like that connection [is my favorite part,]” she said.
