From Tracy Bell - Co-Founder & CEO: How we started Millennia TEA
I didn’t come up with the idea for Millennia TEA. In fact I pushed against it for months.
I didn’t understand. Cleaning and freezing fresh tea leaves? If the idea had merit, why wasn’t the industry doing it already?
But Rory’s vision for the future won me over. He saw the tea plant’s powerful role in promoting health and longevity – in giving people ‘more good moments’ with their loved ones.
And he had a hypothesis – a scientific method he believed would safeguard the maximum amount of antioxidants, and help those antioxidants better absorb in the gut.
We started talking to tea farmers. We saw tea plants in person for the first time.
We gathered samples, and started experimenting and testing Rory’s hypothesis… sending little baggies to labs experienced in measuring the catechins and polyphenols found in tea.
I remember the moment I knew we had to bring this product into the world. It was when we got the lab results that he convinced me.
We travelled to the highlands of Nandi Hills Kenya.
Then to the rainforest in Bitaco Colombia.
Then to the mountains of central Sri Lanka (where, coincidentally, we watched the tea pluckers chew on fresh tea leaves as they worked).
OUR VISION: find the most nutrient-rich plants on the planet and share them in their purest and most naturally-powerful format to help millions Live Better Longer.
Fast forward to today, we’ve got patents for our fresh-frozen processing method, a product in market across Canada, and a growing group of loyal customers who say our supercubes are benefiting their lives in ways they can see + feel.
And I can answer the question that stumped me back in 2016 when we started this journey… the why-isn’t-everyone-doing-this question?
It makes sense now. We are asking consumers to take the most consumed beverage in the world after water and to imagine it in a way they’ve never considered before, and can’t see in their mind’s eye. Then we ask them to find us in the FREEZER vs. the dried tea aisle.
It’s a struggle for sure. And it’s going to take some time to redefine an industry that’s been around for a millennia.
And I’m good with that.
We didn’t come here for a walk down Easy Street. We came to do something new and bold, and difficult, and SO worth it! Because the joy is in the journeying, and the process of bringing something new to life.
I didn’t understand. Cleaning and freezing fresh tea leaves? If the idea had merit, why wasn’t the industry doing it already?
But Rory’s vision for the future won me over. He saw the tea plant’s powerful role in promoting health and longevity – in giving people ‘more good moments’ with their loved ones.
And he had a hypothesis – a scientific method he believed would safeguard the maximum amount of antioxidants, and help those antioxidants better absorb in the gut.
We gathered samples, and started experimenting and testing Rory’s hypothesis… sending little baggies to labs experienced in measuring the catechins and polyphenols found in tea.
I remember the moment I knew we had to bring this product into the world. It was when we got the lab results that he convinced me.
We travelled to the highlands of Nandi Hills Kenya.
Then to the rainforest in Bitaco Colombia.
Then to the mountains of central Sri Lanka (where, coincidentally, we watched the tea pluckers chew on fresh tea leaves as they worked).
OUR VISION: find the most nutrient-rich plants on the planet and share them in their purest and most naturally-powerful format to help millions Live Better Longer.
Fast forward to today, we’ve got patents for our fresh-frozen processing method, a product in market across Canada, and a growing group of loyal customers who say our supercubes are benefiting their lives in ways they can see + feel.
And I can answer the question that stumped me back in 2016 when we started this journey… the why-isn’t-everyone-doing-this question?
It makes sense now. We are asking consumers to take the most consumed beverage in the world after water and to imagine it in a way they’ve never considered before, and can’t see in their mind’s eye. Then we ask them to find us in the FREEZER vs. the dried tea aisle.
It’s a struggle for sure. And it’s going to take some time to redefine an industry that’s been around for a millennia.
And I’m good with that.
We didn’t come here for a walk down Easy Street. We came to do something new and bold, and difficult, and SO worth it! Because the joy is in the journeying, and the process of bringing something new to life.
