Little Me Tea: The Mixologist

Is there anything more Southern than sweet tea?
Melinda Hicks, creator of Little Me Tea, is taking a cue from that tradition, but with a lot less sugar she sweetens the deal for health conscious parents.
Little Me Tea is an organic, non-GMO Project Verified mixture of herbal teas and whole fruits and vegetables that comes in four flavors. All drinks are no added sugar, low sugar, caffeine free, full of antioxidants and come in plastic- and BPA-free packaging.
Hicks began experimenting with juice and tea blends because she was unhappy with even “healthy” drinks she saw on grocery shelves.
“I was frustrated as a mom,” says Hicks, who realized the second ingredient in the juice she had been giving her daughter was organic cane sugar. “I thought, this is wrong. I felt duped.”
Hicks went from feeling duped to founding Big Time Tea, the company behind Little Me Tea, and selling her own drink products in more than 600 stores across the country and the Caribbean.
Little Me Tea recently won a prestigious award at Natural Products Expo East. In between, there was a lot of legwork for the Gwinnett County mom.
Hicks, who had no previous food industry experience, took her homemade drink recipes to a beverage developer and a manufacturer. There were problems, such as having to change manufacturers, and product launch delays. Hicks says sometimes she was lucky, other times she and her husband struggled.
Little Me Tea strives to be beneficial, from its environmentally sustainable Tetra Pak boxes to its use of herbal teas like chamomile, which reportedly helps fight colds, and white tea for protection against free radicals.
Whole Foods Market team manager Chris Massey remembers when Hicks petitioned to get her product into his store several years ago. He was immediately impressed.
“They brought a product that was low sugar, good ingredients,” Massey says, “something I would feel good about giving my own kids.”
Becoming a successful entrepreneur is a full time job “and then some” Hicks says. Bringing her family into the business helps with that balance, but also pays dividends of its own.
“There’re hardships too. My daughter doesn’t have me sometimes … it breaks my heart. But she now has a really good understanding of what it takes to be successful, the ups and downs.”
Find out more about Little Me Tea at littlemetea.com.

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