Say Hello - New Logo - New Website - New Mission

We want to thank you so much for your continued support of our growing tea company. 

In 2016 we started Yum Cha with the idea that we can bring some great tea to the masses. Starting a whole company let alone a tea company is very competitive. We slowly built up a retail customer base with some self created logos and bags we probably bought from Michaels. We had a little money coming in so we figured we’d splurge on a custom created logo, fashioned by a local artist in Jax Beach named Colleen Tanner. She’s so creative, we wanted to use that creativity to our advantage. I love the logo designs from Fedex that have the arrow hidden in it. I told her, I want something like that. A little hidden gem that ties things together. She gave us our current logo which immediately blew my mind. A teapot with the Y in Yum Cha following the pot. She added the text um cha tea company, creating the finished product. I absolutely loved it and so did the rest of the team. I got some stickers made and boom, there it was, a professional looking logo on some kraft bags we purchased from Michaels (yah we get them wholesale now lol). One of our good friends bought a pound of tea for a friend of hers for Christmas. That was the first ever bag the logo was displayed on so I hand delivered it. She loved the smell of the tea and said it was beautiful, then she said, oh I didn’t know the name of your company is Um Cha. Haha needless to say, she was the first in a long string of people confused (but loved) our logo.

That got us started on a quest to change the logo, but still keep that meaningful feeling.

A meaningful feeling. That means a lot when you think about it. What is meaningful to you? Would you and how on earth would you put that out for the world to see and just, get it. I think that’s completely impossible. So I just went with, what can we do to put out something that’s meaningful that we can connect to a mission. That was a rabbit hole.

What is a mission in the first place? Some guy somewhere said a thing, maybe on a Ted Talk or maybe it was a local organic grocery store owner. I don’t know, but what he said resonated with me and makes me judge every company I come into contact with. It goes as follows:

“A company is like a person. A person has to eat to live and a company has to make money to live. But does a person just live to eat? Does a company just have to live to make money? The answer is no. A business can be more than itself, it can have, purpose..a mission.” 

That’s what it’s all about really. We go through life, do our jobs and start families, but in our minds, we still strive for purpose. It’s those blessed few that find their purpose early that live their best lives.

Finding a purpose for our company. Doing that is kind of like finding a purpose for myself in a timely fashion. Luckily it happened. Years ago, when I was a kid, my dad got a couple bee hives. He said, you can help me if you want! I was all about it, but at that age I was filled with teen stuff, video games and hockey, so I never did. He eventually gave it up (because he was allergic), but I always had that nagging feeling that it might be a thing for me. 

At the end of 2007, my Dad passed away from a massive heart attack. All I can say is that I miss him intensely. Even as I’m writing this I am holding back tears. It was around that year, people started to talk about CCD. Colony Collapse Disorder. It’s basically the group of unknown issues killing bees worldwide.

The longer CCD has been talked about and the Save the Bee movement has quietly been growing, the more I have been interested in being a part of it.

In early 2019 (the year I’m writing this), I asked my wife if she would be good with me getting some bee hives. She just looked at me and said, um...what does that mean? Will the neighbors be ok with it? Won’t they sting us? Etc, etc...so basically that meant no, but she could see the glint in my eye so she didn’t say it. Later that month (january) I bought a couple hives online and found a local mentor and bought bees from him. When she saw the hives, she knew that I was all in and she still didn’t say no. I got my mentor to talk to her, we set up the hives and she loves them now. Needless to say I was hooked. So hooked I started to offer to split my hives and set them up for whoever was interested, they would just have to buy or make the boxes. Eventually I found a Church and partnered with them to start a bee yard on their property (yes all in one year haha). So now we have our bees, some hives we started for other folks and a bee yard starting in the spring. We’re going to train people who want to learn there and make splits from those for whoever wants to have some at home. Eventually I am going to turn that into a non profit or just keep doing it as a thing our company does. Either way, I want to promote beekeeping and help people create spaces that will help them thrive. 

Teas are what we do, Bees are our mission.

So now we have our mission, we collaborated with a designer and our friends at Word Revolt Art Gallery to create the new logo. 

What’s the new 1957 tea about? We were not established in 1957. That was the year my Dad was born and I wanted to honor him front and center. If it wasn’t for my Dad and who he was, I wouldn’t be the man I am. I may not have ever found my purpose. I thank him every day for what he has taught me, I guess this is another one to put up there on the ole ‘Hey Thanks Dad’ list. 

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Your Tea Magician,

Zac