Mighty Leaf Tea Awarded Best New Green Packaging at SCAA Show
Press Release
April 11, 2006
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News Release
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Mighty Leaf Tea Awarded Best New Green Packaging at SCAA Show
Specialty Tea Company Demystifies and Unleashes the Goodness of Tea

Mighty Leaf Tea Awarded Best New Packaging at SCAA Show - April 11, 2006 (San Rafael, CA) — Mighty Leaf Tea continues to forge a new path in the specialty tea category as the Specialty Coffee Association of America awarded them “Best New Packaging” for their new biodegradable tea pouches. Made of polylactic corn that is GMO-free, the new silken biodegradable pouches show off the tea leaves even more than the original silken mesh pouches did. Once the tea pouch has been wet, it will begin its course of biodegrading, which takes about a year.
 
“It is most gratifying to be honored by our tea and coffee peers, as this recognition also reflects our communities’ increased focus on sustainability and ethical beverage products,” said Gary Shinner, CEO of Mighty Leaf Tea Company.
 
Eleven years ago, Mighty Leaf pioneered the silken mesh pouch filled with whole leaf tea. The concept emanated from their days in the teahouse and desire to find a solution to serving premium whole full tea leaves in a more foodservice friendly manner.
 
Today, there are many tea companies who have silken tetrahedron or rectangular bags with loose tea inside, but use glue or staples to seal their bags. Mighty Leaf’s signature pouches are stitched with an unbleached cotton string using a process that is proprietary. Again Mighty Leaf leads the pack.
 
Environmentally-conscious business owners, Gary Shinner and Jill Portman spent a year searching for the right biodegradable material, not giving in to key factors like compromising the flavor of the tea to be brewed or the aesthetic quality of being able to view the blends through the pouches.
 
“It’s a combination of our personal commitment to the environment as well as that of our retail partners and our end customers,” Shinner said. “Cultivating and selling delicious and healthy tea products goes hand in hand with mindful sustainability all the way throughout the chain, including the packaging. It’s another step in perfection.”
 
Taking care to print their retail boxes with soy-based ink and switching over from Styrofoam popcorn to corn-based popcorn and then recycled brown paper for packing materials in the warehouse are just several other ways they have found environmentally-friendly alternatives to the traditional means of business.
 
“The beverage of tea is one of the greatest gifts our earth gives us, and so it is only natural that we serve it in a package that is bio-friendly to Mother Nature,” Shinner said. “It is most satisfying that Mighty Leaf Tea products can now be enjoyed at another level of gratification as well as pleasure and health. Cheers!”

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Mighty Leaf Tea truly created the artisan-crafted blended tea category as it exists today.  The company was formed in 1996 when Gary Shinner and Jill Portman founded the couple’s teahouse on Fillmore Street in San Francisco.  Their quest to create the most incredible handcrafted whole-leaf tea blends from the finest, globally sourced ingredients led them to become the foremost tea company in the U.S. today. The company created the signature hand-stitched, translucent mesh Tea Pouch — since emulated throughout the industry — as the most effective way of delivering precision-portioned servings of its multi-dimensional whole-leaf tea blends filled with chunks of fruit, spices and flavors too big for ordinary tea bags. Mighty Leaf Tea, known for its artisan-blended, whole leaf teas in distinctively designed silken Tea Pouches, has become a familiar sight at tea bastions like Kimpton Hotels, Nordstrom Cafes, and health spas nationwide. In 2005, Mighty Leaf will be the first tea company to make its entire line of Tea Pouches available in retail, from biodegradable materials.
 
 
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