Willow & Pine Tea Co.
Boutique ecommerce experience for a small-batch tea brand, blending sensory storytelling, tasting notes, and calm, high-end UI.
Project snapshot
A warm, story-driven ecommerce experience built around ritual, craft, and sensory exploration.
A fully custom Next.js + headless CMS storefront featuring tasting notes, brewing rituals, and a calm, guided shopping flow.
Overview
Willow & Pine Tea Co. is a fictional boutique tea brand offering small-batch blends. The goal was to create a brand-forward ecommerce experience that feels warm, intentional, and immersive—showcasing how SmalCoda builds high-end DTC stores for small businesses.
Challenge
Most small tea brands rely on generic themes that don’t express the nuance of their products. The challenge was to design a shopping experience that communicates aroma, ritual, and calm while still feeling fast, clear, and conversion-friendly.
Approach
I built a modular design system centered around editorial product photography, tasting note badges, scroll-based brewing rituals, and subscription upsells. The content structure encourages exploration: seasonal highlights, flavor discovery, and pairing suggestions, all within a calm, spacious layout.
UX & UI Design
The homepage introduces the brand through a simple hero, seasonal picks, and clear entry points into the catalog. Product pages focus on narrative: tasting notes, ingredients, and brewing steps unfold as you scroll. On mobile, a sticky purchase bar and simplified layout keep the experience quick but still premium.
Engineering
Built with Next.js and the App Router, the store uses a headless CMS for product data and image metadata. Server Components and image optimization keep the site performant. Cart interactions are handled via server actions and lightweight client components.
Outcome
The result is a serene ecommerce experience that combines brand storytelling with practical flows like subscriptions and upsells. It demonstrates how SmalCoda can deliver premium DTC experiences that feel handcrafted but remain easy to manage for a small team.