HumaniTea graduated from Cambridge Social Ventures in September 2020.
Idea
HumaniTea, tackling the problem of obesity-causing sugary soft drinks, crafts the UK’s first chilled ready-to-drink plant-based tea lattes available in Matcha and Earl Grey flavours. Brewed with actual tea leaves, oat milk, and Fairtrade, organic ingredients, the 100% natural tea lattes exclude artificial flavours and emulsifiers, contain low sugar and low calories, and provide boost of antioxidants and natural energy without the coffee caffeine crash.
HumaniTea offers a delicious, healthier alternative to current soft drinks on the market, such as sugary iced tea beverages, artificial energy drinks, overcaffeinated coffee lattes, and high calorie bubble teas. The NHS spends over £6 billion per year on obesity and overweight-related illnesses. The obesity problem is so huge that the UK government decided to take action and implemented a soft drinks industry levy, where companies pay a tax for having more than 5% sugar content in their soft drinks.
People
Chief Tea Officer Tina Chen, a Taiwanese-American living in London, was inspired by bubble tea concept and British tea drinking culture to develop a healthy, well-balanced tea latte beverage. With her love for a quality cuppa and her desire to make a positive impact on society, Tina made a career switch from IT to just tea, and HumaniTea was born! Prior to launching HumaniTea, Tina worked as a technology consultant at Accenture, performing project management activities for large-scale software implementations. After consulting for three years, Tina began her MBA journey at Imperial College Business School, where she focused on her passion for innovation, social impact, and sustainability. Tina enjoys giving back to her community by sharing her startup journey with students as well as acting as a mentor to budding entrepreneurs.
Alex Reed, an Imperial College Business School MSc Management graduate, supported HumaniTea as an advisor across a range of business activities.
Impact
HumaniTea creates impact on many levels: tackling obesity with low sugar, plant-based drinks; promoting mental wellbeing by encouraging everyone to take a tea break; and working to improve the environment through a commitment to recyclable packaging materials and quality ingredients.
One in six people in the UK suffer from mental health issues due to stress from work. Spreading “me time, tea time, any time,” HumaniTea encourages people to take tea breaks throughout the day and night to find mindfulness. Just a five-minute tea break can really help one achieve mindfulness.
Ethical sourcing and sustainability are at the heart of HumaniTea. HumaniTea uses oat milk instead of dairy, which is perfect for people who are vegan or lactose-intolerant, because oat milk is one of the most eco-friendly milks available in terms of both emissions and water usage.
Lead entrepreneur
Tina Chen
Get in touch
HumaniTea looks forward to connecting with fellow tea enthusiasts, sustainability fans, and wellbeing advocates. HumaniTea welcomes opportunities from interested stockists that desire a new, tasty line of plant-based tea lattes to add to their shelves, businesses looking for ethical beverage catering options, and customers who crave refreshing, energising oat milk tea drinks that they can consume on the go.
Tel: +44 (0)7428 107720
humanitea.co.uk
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