Kai Organic Tea was founded in 2010 by Joshua Wheeler. Like many great opportunities, it started small. Joshua began blending tea in his home kitchen in central Texas to complement the scrumptious dinners made by his mom and sister. In 2010 a great business opportunity was presented when a chef from the local cafe phoned him after tasting a sample of his original Peach Assam. The most refreshing peach tea I have ever come across, do you make this stuff? How soon can we get our first order?" was the Chef's reply. The teas gained in popularity quickly, and soon were inquired about from various visiting chefs and gift shop owners. It only took a short time to get a blending kitchen set up and working, but a name for the tea just didn't come as quickly. In the Fall of 2010, with only 5 flavors and a very small kitchen, it was time to expand. By the spring of 2011 a name was chosen and the list of tea blends had grown to a grand total of twelve flavors. Shortly after, Joshua and his friend Clayton sketched the "Kai" logo from a bit of inspiration after visiting the stunningly beautiful Kenai Peninsula of Alaska! Now Joshua is blending specialty blends for chefs in the Austin, Dallas and Houston areas, as well as providing stunning retail presentations in several local grocery stores & gift shops in central Texas. What does Kai mean? Kai is an old Japanese transliteration meaning "community". In our humble beginnings we blended and packaged every batch by hand and delivered to neighbors, friends and family by car; the "community tea guy" - well, that name is too long... How about Kai? We deal strictly with certified organic tea growers in India, Sri-Lanka, New Zealand, USA, the Nile Valley, South Africa, and the Fujian Province in China.
