TheBuzz Erika Engle

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Jee’s teas are brewed to please at Ala Moana Center

Lynette Jee is a recovering attorney, though she does not describe herself that way.

Jee is owner and president of the Pacific Place Inc., a company she formed in 1992 while obtaining a patent for Rookie Chopsticks, but that's not what this column is about.

On the Net: » www.pacific-place.com » www.makemineamillion.org

She is one of only 10 women business owners across America who won business-building prizes last month from Make Mine A $Million, a nonprofit organization she read about in Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine.

Jee was the only winner from Hawaii, chosen from 20 finalists who were winnowed from a field of 1,200 applicants.

The prize includes coaching, access to low-interest loans and connections that could get her teas into major nationwide retail outlets, hotels and more. "I am just amazed at how much help I am getting," she said.

She entered the competition because "when you get beyond startup level, everything goes up. Your revenue goes up, but so do expenses." Her desire was to learn how best to take her business up by about 300,000 one-dollar notches, give or take.

Her first presentation could have gone better, she said.

One of the coaches told her she has "a fabulous business. Open up your heart and let your heart speak tomorrow."

"So that's exactly what I did," Jee said.

"It was amazing. She came up to me later with founder Nell Merlino and they shook my hand and gave me a hug and said, 'You knocked us out, Lynette ... we're sisters now.' "

The competition's goal is to help a million female entrepreneurs reach the $1 million revenue mark. There are 112 winners so far and some are now working toward their second million. Its Web site is a mine of free help and inspiration.

The most visible of Jee's operations is the Pacific Place Tea Garden on the third floor of Ala Moana Center, open for about two years.

"The whole concept was to make healthy drinks" with no added sugar, she said. Customers can get sugar if they want it, of course.

Pacific Place sells about 60 teas, 100 percent Kona coffee, tea-infused sorbet floats and food items and offers free classes on teas.

She secured her spot amid luxury retailers, in part, due to her track record as a wholesaler and private label tea purveyor.

Jee's teas are well known to well-heeled clientele at several high-end Hawaii hotels and restaurants, including those who take high tea on the veranda at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, pinky-pointers at Halekulani and tea-drinkers at Chef Mavro.