Teaspressa Expands Into Primal Kitchen and Beyond

Teaspressa, a tea-focused, Tempe, Arizona-based company, recently partnered with Primal Kitchen Restaurants, which are focused around clean eating. The two entities created a dining experience with inventive, healthy offerings that customers cannot find anywhere else. “We are excited to expand in partnership with Primal Kitchen” said Allison DeVane, Teaspressa’s founder. DeVane transitioned from her marketing career into entrepreneurship and brought her passion to connect with consumers. DeVane founded Teaspressa with the intention of Americanizing tea and offering customers a new product that is prepared in a similar manner to preparing espresso. She invented Teaspressa’s proprietary Tea Concentration Technology that produces a tea concentrate, which is used to make a tea latte. “It has caffeine like coffee, so it can get you up in the morning; and it has the robust flavor and the consistency of coffee, which I think Americans generally tend to crave,” said DeVane, and added that consumers are enjoying her tea concoction. DeVane went on the television show “Shark Tank” but didn’t leave with a deal. Subsequently, in October of 2016 through local press she caught the eye of Primal Kitchen founder and Paleo diet expert Mark Sisson, who promotes clean eating. Teaspressa tea bars are now inside of Primal Kitchen cafes. “Our long-term goal is for everyone to know what a tea latte is in five or 10 years,” DeVane said. DeVane modified her tea beverages for Primal Kitchen’s customers and came up with Paleo versions of her drinks by replacing sugar with honey. DeVane also developed elixirs, which are food grade essential oils of different flavors of that can be added to tea along with a sweetener. Primal Kitchen has signature cafes in South Bend, Indiana, and Culver City, California. Two more will open in Santa Cruz and Sacramento. Locations in Anchorage, Alaska, and West Valley, Los Angeles, are in the works. Prior to the Primal Kitchen partnership, Teaspressa’s business was primarily online and wholesale. DeVane also did Teaspressa pop-up shops and test stores. She will open two Teaspressa locations within the next month, one in Phoenix and the other in North Scottsdale. A third Teaspressa location will open in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March of 2018. “We’re finally catching up to demand,” said DeVane. “Having a brick and mortar is very capital intensive. We’ve been waiting to do it at the right time.” DeVane is also expanding her wholesale program to supply cafes and stores. “No order is too small or too large for us,” DeVane said.