Stevie-winner The Tea Heaven is a women-run tea company built upon more than 60 years of experience in providing fresh, premium quality, 100% organic teas with a consistent taste.
More than a tea brand, The Tea Heaven is a community of professional contributors who have been involved in the tea business most of their lives. Founder Harshada Bansai is a fourth-generation tea producer who learned the art of blending teas from her father and grandfather.
Once Harshada started learning more about tea, she always had a dream of building a tea product that not only provided the freshest and healthiest tea to consumers but also helped underprivileged women who are an unseen part of the tea industry and environment.
With this vision in mind, she learned the basics of building a great brand by attending courses in brand management from business and fashion schools in Paris, London, and Shanghai. During her travels and studies, she spent hundreds of hours learning more about the tea industry and the gap between what tea is available in the market and how it can be improved.
Harshada then decided to start The Tea Heaven in 2018 and determined that it would employ only women and only use 100% sustainable packaging material for all products. She wanted to challenge the male-dominated tea industry with her determination to provide a product that is environment-friendly and 100% plastic-free. 
Tea Heaven’s product design and development includes tea bags that are handcrafted with muslin cloth without the use of any plastic, paper, glue, or staples. Along with this, the loose-leaf teas are packed in double-lid moisture, light-proof, food-grade tin caddies. The muslin cloth tea bags ensure a microplastic-free cup of tea, and they also employ underprivileged women in rural India to produce them since eight of 10 women in rural India know the art of stitching. With this approach, they seek to provide employment and enable financial independence for these women. All teas are grown and shipped from small estates, eliminating the need for middlemen.
By July 2020, The Tea Heaven had successfully expanded its presence on Amazon in India and the United States, achieving this milestone with no external investment. In its inaugural year, The Tea Heaven generated USD $100k in revenue, though the profit margin remained modest due to reinvesting all earnings into training employees and equipping them with modern tools and machines. Harshada led training sessions for women unfamiliar with computers or lacking opportunities to contribute as breadwinners in their families. Despite the modest revenue, the impact on individual workers was substantial.
Fueled by the motivation and dedication of its women workers, The Tea Heaven family labored diligently, resulting in a significant revenue surge to $200k in 2021. By early 2022, the brand began gaining visibility in other countries, attributed to its products, mission, vision, and packaging. Responding to heightened demand from global markets, a new entity, Tea Heaven Inc., was established, commencing operations in June 2022. Remarkably, within a short time, this new entity has already achieved a six-figure revenue.
The Tea Heaven won a Silver Stevie Award for Excellence in Innovation in Consumer Product & Service Industries - Up to 20 Employees in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards.
Interested in entering the 2024 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?
