SEATTLE, Wash.
Choice Organic Teas closed its blending operation and shuttered its Seattle headquarters Monday, Sept. 30, following its acquisition by Yogi Tea. Choice will re-locate to Eugene, Ore.
ChoiceOrganic Teas was founded 30 years ago as the first exclusively organic tealine. The company employed 30 people at the 18,000 square foot Seattle officewhere it produced 50 different varieties of tea. East West Tea Company LLC is aprivately held venture headquartered in Springfield, Ore. with offices andmanufacturing facilities in Eugene, Ore., Hamburg, Germany, and Imola, Italy.
East West Tea did not respond to a requestfor comment.
YogiTea was established by Yogi Bhajan, a Kundalini yoga instructor who served teaafter yoga workouts beginning in the 1960s. Students named the brew “Yogi Tea.”It was served in restaurants founded by the Sikh Dharma community beginning in1984. East West, founded in 1972 in Los Angeles, is owned by the Sikh Dharma religiouscommunity. The company relocated to Eugene in 1992 and added productionfacilities in 2008.
Yogi Teais the No. 1 selling tea in U.S. natural food channels. The company produces 60different teas.
Inrecent years East West Tea expanded its operations, constructing a 180,000-square-footfactory that opened in 2018, the largest new industrial building in Eugene innearly a decade. The 13-acre site can accommodate more growth, including a70,000-square-foot addition. The company named Giancarlo Marcaccini CEO in Januaryof that year. Yogi Tea employs 135 people in the U.S.
Choicewas founded 35 years ago by Blake Rankin, an importer of Japanese natural andmacrobiotic foods. The company specialized in fine tea in 1989 and by 2005 wasthe first tea company to be certified under the U.S. Department ofAgriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP).
GranumInc., founded by Rankin, established organic tea plantations in Sri Lanka andIndia to supply the company. Fifteen years later Rankin told The Puget Sound BusinessJournal the company was growing at 20% per year andgrossing $10 million in sales.
ChoiceOrganic Teas has been at the forefront of fine, eco-friendly tea ever since. It was first to offerFair Trade Certified™ teas, and the first tea company to be Non-GMO ProjectVerified. The Seattle facility had a small environmental footprint, with recycled board, and energy-conservingwind power.
Thecompany’s reputation for high quality ingredients and well-balanced blends wasbased on “discerning sourcing and close relationships with gardens around theworld makes it possible for us to offer a wide range of both unique andtraditional blends in tea bags and loose leaf.”
Thecompany’s Choice Tea’s Shiitake Oolong was awarded a sofi Award by theSpecialty Food Association in 2019. The company also produced a tea blendedwith the medicinal mushroom Reishi used by Shaolin monks to improveconcentration.
East West wasabsolutely respectful and understanding what the employees were going though andvery professional through the transition, according to workers.
“Our mission is to bringyou the most flavorful teas available while making a positive social andenvironmental impact,” writes the company. It did so until the end and promises tocontinue under East West.
Source: Choice OrganicTeas, The Puget Sound Business Journal