Please visit out Kickstarter Campaign here and help us take over 52Teas!
So it’s been no big secret that I am a big fan of 52Teas! If you’ve read many of my reviews, you know that they’re part of my tea collection – a big part of it!
Recently, I was approached by Frank of 52Teas (he’s the Chief Zoomdweebie of 52Teas and Southern Boy Teas) and he told me that he wants to narrow his focus to the iced tea business, that his passion is iced teas. So, he has been trying to get things going for his iced teas so that he can take Southern Boy Teas to bigger and better things.
Please consider helping Frank raise funds to accomplish this by contributing to his Indiegogo Campaign.
But there’s still 52Teas. So, he asked me if I wanted to take over the 52Teas brand.
Wow!
What an opportunity!
Actually, what Frank said was:
Unless we take over the 52Teas brand that after March 2015, the five plus year mission to create a new tea every week will end.
I don’t want to see 52Teas come to an end. I’ve really enjoyed many of those teas. And there were some that yeah, I thought I could improve on – well, this opportunity gives me the ability to do that too!
My passion for tea is pretty obvious at this point, at least to those of you who have read my ramblings for any amount of time. I love tea. So, this is an outrageously amazing opportunity for me.
I was a little worried though, because I did try the tea thing once before as LiberTEAS. That’s how I got my moniker, I used to blend and flavor my own line of teas and sell them online. I closed that business because while I loved creating the teas, I didn’t love the business end of things. I didn’t love paperwork and making sure that my inventory was accounted for and filing taxes and stuff like that. Hated it!
So, I thought long and hard about this decision. Then I thought about it some more. Then I turned to my oldest daughter for advice. I went into the discussion hoping that she’d either tell me: Yes! You should do this … or NO! You shouldn’t even think about it.
What I didn’t anticipate is that she’d ask me: “Can I do this with you?”
And so, our partnership was born. Amethyst is a very focused, organized type of person that is just the kind of person I need to do the stuff that I wasn’t fond of doing before: She enjoys paperwork and all that other stuff. With her heading up the business side of things, that frees me up to stay creative and keep working on amazing tea blends. Because that’s what I do best.
When I started out in the tea business more than ten years ago, I can honestly say that I was very naive and I didn’t really know what I was doing. All I knew is that I wanted to create the best chocolate tea that I could. And I did that. And I also created some other amazing teas too. But I didn’t really have the contacts I needed to push those teas to the next level.
But in the last six years, I’ve been reviewing teas and that has put me in touch with some pretty remarkable resources. I am less naive and I feel like I’m going to be able to take 52Teas to new heights.
I want to be creating teas again! I want to be the person who is creating those unique and yummy flavor combinations like Raspberry Almond Cookie and Coconut Lime Cupcake.
The only obstacle is that we need money to get our project off the ground and that’s where you come in. I recently launched a Kickstarter Campaign and I’m hoping that I can count on your support to make my dream a reality.
I have the passion for tea. My daughter has the business sense and the drive to propel the business. We just need the ‘Kick Start’ to make it all happen.
Please help us make this happen! We can’t do it without you.
You can visit our Kickstarter Campaign here. Please help in any way you can – even five dollars will help us get that much closer to our goal!
Hi Anne so glad that you reached out to me again. It has been awhile. I do so hope your business gets off the ground and running. God Bless You Angela
Hi Angela! Thank you for your kind comments and your support. I appreciate it!
Wishing you lots of luck to get this business going. Would you be re-blending some old 52Teas favorites?
Hi Debbi: Sorry for the delay in getting your comment posted, for some reason, your comment ended up in our spam folder, I’m glad I checked through them!
We will be reblending some of the favorites from 52Teas! In fact, the kickstarter has five of the favorites (as voted on by Steepster!) listed that will be reblended immediately and all five are available in a special sampler as an incentive on Kickstarter and they are also available in larger sizes in the incentives too.
In addition, with every $2000 we reach toward our goal, we will vote on (on Kickstarter!) another reblend and that tea will be added to the incentives.
Yes, I have every intention of keeping the “history” of 52Teas alive through reblends – some of those amazing flavors is why I fell in love with 52Teas to begin with and why I want to take over! I don’t want 52Teas to end!
Thanks for replying! I’m off to add a little to your pot.
I think I’ve heard of you but just always had other stuff going on that I like more than tea, so I’m sorry for being a “Johnnie-come-lately.” Or I guess, more accurately, “Julia come lately.” whatever.
I’ve got piles of 52Teas that I need to finish drinking, but the one I love love love was the Mayan Chocolate Chai, and I was always gonna buy more, and then when I’d be online thinking about it, he was out. And I wouldn’t think about it for days because of other “life” that got me distracted. Then he switched the label art work on it and re-released it on his ManTeas, which was humorous enough, but yikes, that Ancient Mayan artwork, wellll… being a survivor of various sexual abuses, I’m just a little less than enthralled with those who like to put a greater focus on those areas of their bodies…so then I sort of had a mental disconnect and basically wouldn’t order a chocolate tea that I absolutely loved, but sold in a package that just physically made me recoil? Or does that make sense??
So then I thought in one of Frank’s earlier appeals, I’d do the “rebrand” offer he had, to select teas and flavors and I’d essentially have him reblend the Mayan Chocolate Chai, but I never got around it. He lost his dad and I’m about to lose mine – was out of state for awhile and reading some about the new Kickstarter but didn’t have access to wifi or a faster computer than my phone. Now I’m home…just signed up onto your Kickstarter campaign as I’m not as much an iced-tea fan as I am a hot tea person. Then just now reading this page, I saw where you said “All I knew is that I wanted to create the best chocolate tea that I could.” and I was thinking “YESSSS! A Chocolate Tea Mama!!” so right away, that totally justified my backing your Kickstarter project!! I hope it gets funded!! Will be checking later to see what progress we’re making and to pass the word around as well….
Later!!!
You’re not late at all. I’m sorry to hear about your father.
And don’t worry, our label artwork is going to be quite different. Our earliest releases will have labels that we the name on because we plan on getting a label printer (we found a great deal on a used one), but we don’t know how long it will take us to become acclimated with the device and we don’t want to keep the customers waiting while we’re trying to figure it out. So our first teas will have labels with handwritten names on it with no artwork except for the logo. And based upon the labels that we’ve seen from the label maker that we’re going to buy, I think we will limit the label ‘art’ to a logo and the name of the tea. It’ll be easier on the ink usage too.
By the way, it does make total sense. I don’t think I’d be able to buy something that I enjoyed if the label evoked such horrible memories.
Thank you for your support!
~Anne