Yogi Tea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
Yogi Tea is the name of a range of herbal teas manufactured by the Golden Temple Company in Eugene, Oregon, United States. The recipes use cardamom seed, cinnamon bark, clove bud, ginger root and black pepper as the basic ingredients, and the packaging informs that the recipes were formulated along the principles of ayurvedic medicine.
[edit] History
The Yogi Tea Company was founded in 1982 as an outgrowth of the Golden Temple Vegetarian Restaurant in West Hollywood, California. Yogi Tea was founded by Ranbir Singh Bhai, Owner of Golden Temple Restaurant in W.Hollywood, California who is a son of Yogi Bhajan and his partners Guru Simiran Singh Khalsa and Sadasat Singh Khalsa ( former students of Yogi Bhajan). Their total investment was $185. The company reached over 1 million dollar sale with in 5 years. Restaurant would prepare a blend of tea containing cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger and black pepper (the basic ingredients found in chai a popular south-Asian tea) which the Bhajan's yoga students and Restaurant devotees dubbed “Yogi tea”. The tea was so popular at Golden Temple Vegetarian Restaurant that they started packaging it.
In 1987, Ranbir singh Bhai and his partners donated Yogi tea Company stocks for life time employment guarantee by Yogi Bhajan to Sikh Dharama, a Non Profit, Yogi Bhajan founded in New Mexico. Two of the partner were forced out from the Yogi Bhajan's company and his religious organization.
Over time the company introduced new blends and lines, such as Healing Formula teas in 1991. Also in 1991, the company started making its teas from organic ingredients. The company eventually expanded from herbal teas to include blends of black and green teas, too.
Since 2000, the boxes have featured illustrations by Seva Kaur. The illustrations are based on a devotional poem or prayer found on the inside of the box. The illustrations found on the Chai, Woman's, and Exotic Teas, are done by Latvian artist Anita Kreituse. The boxes use vegetable based inks and dyes, and non-irradiated recycled carton materials.
In 2000, U.S. publication In These Times tested several brands of organic tea for pesticides, and found Yogi Tea to contain DDT.
[edit] Product
The company produces over 50 blends of tea. These include 22 blends in their Healing Formulas line, 11 green teas, 9 exotic teas, 5 Women’s Healing Formulas, 3 organic chais, and 2 black teas. All the blends contain organic ingredients, but due to a lack of availability for some organic ingredients not all blends are entirely organic. The blends that are 95% organic have the USDA organic seal. Yogi Botanicals, who has a prohibition on GMOs, organizes the growing and distribution of the organic herbs and spices required for the teas and Quality Assurance International acts as a third party certifier. The tea bags are 100% oxygen bleached and recyclable.
Today Yogi Tea has sales of over 40 million dollars annually.
