TeaCology by Yaupon Brothers American Tea

Florida honey maven, Doug McGinnis, gives us the rundown on the local honey scene and how bee hives function as a singular organism. It's super cool! If you love sweet and delicious honey, you're gonna love this episode!

Kyle got roped into Yaupon at an early age. In many ways, he grew up in this wild business. Together, he and Bryon have some crazy stories about building a Yaupon supply chain from scratch, filling thousands of teabags painstakingly by hand, and driving 600 miles twice per month to process our leaves. Luckily, our business today looks very different--but we are still keeping our promise to preserve and protect the environment and bring honesty and transparency back to business. Hope you enjoy!

Jammie Treadwell joins us from Treadwell Farms, one of Florida's most innovative hemp growers and manufacturers. The Treadwell Family is leveraging generations of agricultural acumen to help shape the emerging hemp industry in Florida--and it's not what you think! Treadwell Farms products are all about wellness and sustainability. You're sure to enjoy this conversation and Kyle also finally says something enlightening. 

Split Oak Forest faces a fresh threat to its survival. Osceola County has passed a measure to preclude Orange County voters from voting to protect the forest from development interests and a high speed toll road. The forest just can't catch a break. Valerie Anderson joins us to talk about how you can help. 

Mackenzie Smith wears many hats: executive chef, food writer, blog maven, food stylist, and mom; and she makes balancing all of that look easy. Her new cookbook is filled with fun and easy recipes that even I can make. We talk about how MacKenzie got her business started and how she's built it into a successful enterprise while juggling responsibilities of being a chef at her family's acclaimed hotel, and a new mom. Lot's of cheesy fun in this one. You're gonna love it!

We're joined by our pal, Adina, who founded the well-known beauty brand, S.W. Basics. Adina is also the author of Skin Cleanse and Just the Essentials, two guides on how to care for your skin and keep it happy. I can relate to Adina on a lot of issues, so this episode is a lot of fun complaining but also a discussion on how we think business, and society in general, could be a little more fair. Some explicit language in this one, but it sure it fun!

The tables have turned! Shelly interviews Bryon in this episode and asks him about how he got started with Yaupon, struggles and triumphs of the business, and how we've aligned Yaupon Brothers values in being a force for good in the world. It's a pretty entertaining conversation and we hope you enjoy it!

In this episode we're joined by Staci Brinkman, founder of the personalized tea subscription box, SipsBy. We're also joined by Yaupon Brothers COO, Shelly Steele. SipsBy has grown to a subscription service with over 500,000 members since it was founded by Brinkman in 2017. We talk tea, entrepreneurial rewards and challenges, and Shelly and Staci briefly discuss their experiences as women business-owners. It's an inspiring conversation with a few sound quality issues, but there's a hurricane approaching our factory as we recorded the episode...did we mention that?

Dr. Jack Putz conducted research that informed and inspired us to start Yaupon Brothers, so we're excited to have him on the show! 

Jack is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Forestry at the University of Florida where he has been a faculty member since 1982. He also holds an honorary professorship at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, has a Ph.D. from Cornell University, was a NATO Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Tropical Forestry Institute at Oxford University, and was a Bullard Fellow at Harvard University. His research focuses on the ecological basis of environmentally sound and economically viable tropical forest management, but he also studies issues related to savanna ecology and restoration, non-timber forest products, and ethnobotany. Much of his work is based on market-based incentives for improved management; he started working on forest certification in the 1980s and ran a forest-based carbon offset project in Malaysia in the 1990s. His current research on landscape-level land-use planning for conservation and development is based mostly in Indonesia and Mexico, but he is also currently involved in projects in Guyana and Malaysia. Since receiving his undergraduate degree in education in 1973, he has actively promoted science-based approaches to pedagogy both at his university and with the institutions and individuals with whom he works around the world.  Along the way he’s published more than 300 research articles, essays, and reviews, and also popular magazine and newspaper articles on natural history and nature conservation issues.

In this episode, we're joined by Samuel Steinberger, creator the blog Give Me Weird Drinks.  Samuel Steinberger is a journalist based in New York City, and his interest in drinks evolved from a love of travel, culture and ice cream, with a side of gardening. His reporting has appeared in PBS, The New York Times, VinePair, among many others. We talk with Sam about bizarre beverages from Sri Lanka, Mongolia, and of course our very own Yaupon Holly. 

Things are about to get weird. 

Join us for an engaging conversation with Henrietta Lovell, founder of Rare Tea Company in London and author of Infused, Adventures in Tea. Henrietta has traveled the world in search of the finest teas, and is the go-to supplier for some of the most acclaimed restaurants on Earth, such as Rene Redzepi's Noma, Alain Ducasse, Claridge's, and many more. Henrietta is an advocate for small tea farmers throughout the world, and founded Rare Charity to help them have a better life. You don't want to miss this one!

Join us for a super interesting conversation with Dr. Anna Dixon, instructor of Anthropology at University of South Florida- St. Petersburg. Dr. Dixon is a medical anthropologist and ethnobotanist who has conducted fieldwork in Micronesia, Polynesia, and North America, with particular areas of interest in plant domestication in Eastern North America, the chemical evolution of medicinal plants, and the transformation of traditional medicines in the commercial market. Of course, she's a big fan of Yaupon. 

If you're a bit of a plant nerd like we are, you're gonna have a fun time. 

On Episode 1 of Tea Talk, we're joined by Valerie Anderson, co-founder of Friends of Split Oak Forest. The forest is a superb protected conservation area in Orange and Osceola Counties in Central Florida. But, it's threatened by a newly proposed toll road that could wipe out over one hundred acres of pristine wild habitat. Listen in on how Valerie is fighting back to save Split Oak. Also, a statement of support and congratulations for indigenous communities celebrating big legal victories this week!

We'll be posting weekly episodes of Tea Talk, discussing topics ranging from Tea, American-made products, sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and issues our customers and subscribers want to talk about. Have something you'd like to share? Drop us a line to bryon@yauponbrothers.com