Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Oliver.
Jasmine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always had a love for tea. Growing up, everyone in our household was tea drinkers. We drank tea in the morning, tea at night, tea when we were sick, etc. As I got older my love for tea never changed.
A few years ago, I opened my cabinet and noticed a ton of different brands and thought to myself, hmm I should make my own tea. After a ton of research, I found out that I could actually become a certified Tea Specialist. (Yeah, that’s really a thing). I started studying for about nine months under the World Tea Organization, learning everything from the origin of tea, the one single plant that all tea comes from, the history of tea, and how tea is celebrated in different cultures. The best part of my courses was when I started learning how to blend, flavor and scent tea.
It was from those courses that I discovered how to manipulate tea leaves and how to use fruits to get the flavors that I wanted to achieve. I eat a pretty healthy diet, but my biggest problem is my sweet tooth. It’s huge! So when I was coming up with the type of tea brand I wanted to create, I instantly thought of dessert flavored tea. I figured it was a way for me to have my cake and drink it too! After getting positive feedback from friends and family, my mind was made up. After finally finding a manufacturer that could produce the tea quality and flavors that I wanted to bring to life, it was a go.
Has it been a smooth road?
Up until recently, Tea Please has been solely online. Trying to launch a new company without a large budget for marketing or the influence of a Kardashian has not been the easiest. Add in the fact that I’m selling tea in a country that prefers coffee as its hot beverage of choice, let’s just say my passion for this is really strong. Plus, I’m a small online retailer, people can (understandably) be a bit apprehensive when it comes to entering their credit card information on a site with no real clout. We recently have been accepted into the Four Seasons Farmers Markets, making appearances at the Las Colinas Farmers Market and the Flower Mound Farmers Markets on rotating Saturdays as well as the Carrollton Farmers Markets on Sundays, so hopefully, with a physical presence, people will gain more knowledge and trust with the company.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Tea Please story. Tell us more about the business.
Tea Please is a dessert flavored loose leaf tea company. It is a tea that is for those that are wanting to watch their sugar intake, yet still wanting to satisfy their sweet tooth. You know, because giving in to your cravings is self-care. Tea Please offers both hot and iced teas. I am a certified Tea Specialist. I’m a one-woman ran show. I literally do everything. I do tea tastings/samplings with my friends and family after the tea has been crafted, I design the labels, I label the bags, I ship all of the orders, I handle the social media, I stage the photoshoots, etc. The things that set us apart from others are the flavors that I offer and the fact that we are loose leaf-meaning you can take control of how flavorful you want your tea and your tea leaves are larger and fresher than that of popular brands that offer their tea in tea bags.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
With Millennials and Generation Z-ers becoming more health-conscious than our predecessors, tea consumption has been on the rise in the past decade and have shown no signs of slowing down. Studies have shown that 84 billion servings of tea was consumed by Americans and 4 in 5 consumers drink tea with 87% being millennials.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TeaPleaseTea.com
- Email: info@TeaPleaseTea.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TeaPleaseTea
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeaPleaseTea
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/TeaPleaseTea
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