Natalie DiCocco: Tea Extraordinaire

By DOMINGA GLEASON
Contributing Writer

Priding herself on being a tea specialist, Natalie DiCocco, 19, prepares and sells some of the rarest teas on the planet for Teavana. She is known as a “teaologist” and begins her day by preparing tea samples, including her favorite tea, Jasmine Sliver Needle, as well as Maharaja Chai Oolong Tea, which DiCocco has learned through her job is Oprah’s favorite tea.

Teavana, located at Crossgates Mall in Albany, is a store that provides delicious and exotic teas from all around the world. A short half hour bus ride brings DiCocco to this delightful job, where also she helps sell the tea and its merchandise, such as teacups and tea makers. Her day ends with her cleaning off the counters and the tea infusers so that it is ready to go again the next day.

DiCocco started her job in November; her friends who worked there suggested the job to her. She now intends to work there hopefully all throughout college and work her way up to positions like assistant manager.

DiCocco plans to “sell sell sell” in order to make this dream a reality. If after college DiCocco found herself in a solid position there, she would consider working there much longer.

“Natalie has such a positive attitude and she’s a hard worker, so I can picture her being able to work her way up at any job,” said Melissa Nittolo, a close college friend of DiCocco’s.

DiCocco grew up in Schenectady, west of Albany. She is a graduate of Niskayuna High School, where she was president of the Art Gallery Club. While still in high school, DiCocco started her first job at McDonald’s when she was only 16.

Now a freshman at The College of Saint Rose, she is studying Communications with a concentration in journalism. “I’ve always been extremely charismatic,” said DiCocco, “And I’ve always had a passion for film and journalism.” So communications only felt right for her. DiCocco hopes to be a news broadcaster, but her dream job would either be Anderson Cooper’s job, or being able to “travel the world and learn about different cultures through their traditions.” Then DiCocco would use her degree to write about her experiences.

DiCocco’s love for various cultures comes in handy everyday at her job when she gets to explain traditions and the history of tea to her costumers. As a key component of her job, DiCocco had to learn all sorts of tea facts.
This knowledge helped turn new customer, Julia Miller, into a frequent tea drinker. “She was very informative,” said Miller, “I learned all sorts of things! First Natalie did an introductory to tea for me since I was only a coffee drinker. She told me about different types of teas, how they needed to be store, and the differences between each ones.” Miller left the store that day with a gift for herself, a friend, and soon returned.
Besides the culture, DiCocco enjoys her job because of her love for tea, the free samples of tea she gets to receive, and her awesome co-workers who she gets along with well.

“She’s a rad teaologist, man. She’s great at her job,” said co-worker Joey Mrozinski.

Teavana pays $8 an hour and DiCocco works about 20 hours a week. She likes to use this spare money to treat herself and to buy “enlightenment” via books, music, and food.

DiCocco is also able to use her job to help expand her mind, which will only help her in her future career. While she keeps a busy schedule between working and being a full time student, DiCocco does not let that slow her down. “I live for the moment,” said DiCocco.

One of these great moments was recently when she had what she calls her “funniest day on the job,” DiCocco quotes “I was cleaning off a shelf and I knocked down an entire tea rack and it broke. There weren’t too many people in there thankfully, but it was really embarrassing. However, I cleaned it up and it was all good again.”

From her job, DiCocco learned not only a vast amount about tea, but also about people. “I’ve learned never to judge a customer, and they always seem to surprise me, you never know who you’re going to meet.”