Even with all of the tariff pauses, changes, and adjustments, businesses operating internationally have already had to adjust to a new reality: most notably, higher import taxes and, therefore, higher costs.

Rachel Rozner is the owner of Elden Street Tea Shop in Reston, Virginia. Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour checked in with her to hear how business was doing. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Sabri Ben-Achour: So what kind of teas do you sell? Where are they from?

Rachel Rozner: We have tea all over the world — China, Japan, India. We have tea from Taiwan, Brazil. We also work with small craft tea blenders in the United States, as well.

Ben-Achour: Can you get tea from the U.S.? Is that something that we grow here?

Rozner: We do have a small group of American tea farmers in the U.S., but they are not a sustainable farm for the large tea industry, as well as the many tea shops and tea houses in the United States. We also, I think, have about 400 acres total in the United States of tea farms. So it's not sustainable for the commercial industry of tea, for sure.

Ben-Achour: Yeah. What tariffs are you having to pay now?

Rozner: Currently, we are having to pay tariffs in China. In fact, I have an order that's going to be coming in in the next couple of weeks that we're having to pay about a 27% tariff on currently.

Ben-Achour: Are tariffs something that you are able to eat or share along the supply chain?

Rozner: The answer is, right now, we're kind of just holding on as much as possible, trying not to increase our prices. Eventually, we are going to have to increase our prices, because what happens is the tea comes over from a broker, we usually buy it from a middleman, the middleman puts on their margin on it, and then we pay. But actually, we are kind of taking a different avenue right now. I actually purchased a wholesale tea company in order to circumvent some of the middle tea companies, in order to buy direct to avoid these tariffs. If the tariffs go up any higher, say, 30% or higher, that's when we're going to have to start really thinking about what we're bringing in, as well as our price increases.

Ben-Achour: How do you plan for that? Can you plan for that?

Rozner: Well, right now, currently, I am working with 50 other tea businesses and coffee businesses to ask for a reduction in the tariffs to zero. Tea has never been tariffed. It has been taxed. And I have a sign at my shop that literally says, "The last time tea was taxed, there was a revolution." And it's kind of to provoke something that people are able to relate to on a daily basis. People don't necessarily understand the impact of aluminum and steel on tariffs, but they do understand if their tea or coffee is impacted.