Hello, I'm Abby!
Leaf Logic was born out of a love for creating tea designed for wellness and delicious to sip.
Our story began around 17 years ago during my college years as a theatre major. My throat would hurt after long periods of singing, and I discovered I had developed vocal nodes. In the throes of performances and continuing my musical theatre education, I medicated myself with the only thing that soothed my sore throat - piping hot herbal tea. The problem was that the herbal teas I knew were good for me were also barely palatable. After months of trying to stomach the herbal teas I had purchased, I had enough. I knew there had to be a better way, so I bought ingredients and mixed tea leaves and dried herbs until the tea brew tasted good. And, that was it - the first Leaf Logic blend was born.
For the rest of my college experience and first years as a wife and mother, I studied about herbs, natural medicine, and tea constantly and began crafting tea blends with each ingredient serving an intentional healing purpose. As I experimented, friends and family began turning to my teas for wellness and relaxation. In 2009, I took the leap and opened up for business to the public.
Now, the Leaf Logic Collection has grown to over 32 unique blends, each designed for wellness and rich flavor. Our commitment to designing teas with purpose has helped our small business grow from an online shop to a regular natural grocery store option.
As an herbalist, business owner, mother, friend, and tea lover, nothing brings me more comfort during the bustle of everyday life than taking a moment and sipping a hot cup of tea. My teas are my labor of love created for you, designed for a moment of peace. Thank you for choosing Leaf Logic Wellness Teas and making our teas part of your every day story.
(Read more in this blog post about The Story of the Beginnings )
The start of Leaf Logic is something I’m asked about all the time. Why did I choose tea? What made me want to start a tea company?
The answer is simple: I wanted to drink tea that was good for me but also tasted good. As a music theater major in 2002, I found myself mid-semester on a strict vocal rest after developing vocal nodes. As a singer and performer, I knew I needed to heal quickly. My mom, who has always been pretty health conscious, sent me some herbal teas to help. They tasted HORRIBLE!!!! I could hardly choke them down! I wanted desperately to feel better but they were so awful. I started studying the plants and herbs in the tea I was drinking and how they all worked together. Then, I ordered my own raw ingredients and started blending them together myself. Little did I know that I had just created a base of recipes that would over a decade later become Leaf Logic. But, we’re jumping ahead of ourselves. . .
After college, I got married and had three kiddos. I hung up my theater hat and embraced the home life. I home-schooled my kids and cared for a huge garden and farm animals in our backyard. We had goats, chickens, bees, ducks, turkeys, pigs, rabbits, and whatever else wandered our way. Our garden was 2,000 square feet and brought in close to 1 ton of vegetables every year. It was good, simple living. I continued studying the art of tea blending during this time. I learned about how plants worked together and the importance of formulas for optimal brew flavor and health benefits. I had friends help test my formulas until they were the right mixture of healthy and delicious. Sometimes a blend came together as quickly as six weeks, other times it took over a year to source the best ingredients and find the perfect formula. But, after a decade of study and blending, I had a few dozen recipes ready.
In 2009, with encouragement from family and friends, I decided to open up an Etsy shop in with just $100 and a shelf in my house. I didn’t think it would be a big deal. But, in that first year, I had a couple thousand purchases. It dawned on me that maybe I had something special here… but I hadn’t even chosen a name! While brainstorming with my mom, she drew a little logo on a napkin for our favorite idea - Cozy Leaf. I loved it and Cozy Leaf was officially born. (** spoiler alert, we had to rebrand to Leaf Logic…but more on that later**)
In 2012, I started a website for Cozy Leaf and did a few expos throughout the year, as well as sell on Etsy. For several years, in continued to be a side hobby alongside being a stay at home mom with my kids and crazy farm animals.
In 2014, I was contacted by a local coffee shop entrepreneur in Wichita, Kansas (Andrew Gough with Reverie Coffee Roasters). He had heard about my tea blends and wanted to carry them in his local coffee shop. I said no because I wasn't licensed to sell wholesale and I wasn't interested in it at the time. But he was very persistent. Seriously - he called me once a week for months! It was about this same time, I received a phone call from a Whole Foods Market representative out of Colorado. He had got his hands on some of my tea blends (no doubt by the above mentioned and persistent Andrew Gough) and he encouraged me to pursue wholesale because he wanted to carry it in the local Whole Foods Market. He said he knew the market and he knew it would do well. I still wasn't sure if I was ready for it at this point. But, I had a friend very seriously say "When Whole Foods calls you, You say YES!"
So, I put on my entrepreneur hat and decided to leap for it. But, before I could start selling my tea blends in stores, I had to wade through months worth of paperwork and legal ick in just twelve weeks. Those days were riddled with stress - I was a THEATER major after all, not a business major! But, if theater taught me anything, it was how to pull everything together for opening night with limited money and a short timeline. So, I lost sleep and handled it with the utmost grace and dignity, I’m sure. Ha!
Just twelve weeks later, this small town Kansas girl turned business owner wrote her very first invoice and she was officially putting Cozy Leaf teas on the shelves of Whole Foods Market in Wichita, KS. I knew, even being a brand new business, that companies work for years before getting the opportunity to sell to Whole Foods, so it was a huge moment.
And that’s how it all started… how a Kansas girl’s obsession with tea became a company. That invoice was written over 5 years ago and we're still going strong today. The life of a business owner is often filled with new highs and lows, but I feel so blessed to be able to do what I love every day.
In the year 2018, a huge change had been brewing for Cozy Leaf tea and we were facing a Rebrand! During 2017, the growth of our company led to the need to trademark our company name. Long story short, we were ultimately denied the mark and were forced to change our name.
I’ll be the first to admit--this was tough news to swallow. The road of entrepreneurship has many ups and downs and this was definitely a DOWN. But, after some time and thought, I am actually totally ecstatic for this chance to redefine our direction as a company and I really look at those years with joy knowing that I was facing such a terribly difficult time, but it all worked out for the best!
So the next stage of my tea journey began as Leaf Logic!
This name not only captures my passion for intentionally using plants and herbs as potent and powerful healers, but encompasses my desire to move towards increased sustainability. Caring for the earth with it’s precious life-giving soil has been a long time goal for my personal life and now for Leaf Logic.
Despite such a huge change, the only thing that changed was the name. The blends stayed the same and all of our crew at Leaf Logic stayed the same. This crew was a fantastic support system for me during this time! I was overwhelmed with rebrand details and the crew helped maintain our quality and attention to detail.
The company values are still to this day, my favorite part about the rebrand. Establishing these pillars for the business has been the defining point that has brought about so much positive change. One of our values is Sustainability and holding true to that value has made me rethink a lot of things about our packaging.
Even though the previous bags had a natural feel and look, they still contained multiple layers of plastic. I knew immediately that those bags would have to go! I believe that one of the only solutions to the world’s waste problems is for people to reuse and refill. This is why I have created a product line that fully embodies the ability to refill and reuse the packaging. We are working with retailers to have refill stations where you can refill at your local grocery store or co-op. You can reuse your Leaf Logic jar or you can bring your own mason jar, anything to help bring awareness to the growing number of opportunities to refill!
If you can not find a refill station near you, you can always purchase our refill pouches. These refill pouches are available through LeafLogicTea.com and are 100% plant based cellophane that are fully compostable!!! They contain the exact amount to refill your amber glass tea jar or to purchase and refill your own container. We love the convenience and light weight aspect of these bags and are absolutely thrilled with the results of their speed to decompose in our home compost. In as little as 30 days these bags were fully returned to the earth in our compost bins. We also tested them in water and they will fully break down and disintegrate in less than 90 days.
With any of these compostable bag options we encourage you to compost these at home if you have the option along with tea leaves, coffee grounds, or any produce scraps. If you do not have that options give to local gardeners to add to their compost! And you can compost these along with the cardboard box it came in! Did you know we use only 100% plant based inks for our stamps and its totally safe for compost? (another effort to stay true to our values!)
There is a lot of info on our new website about our values and I am eager to add more as we build that site! LeafLogicTea.com/Values
I have enjoyed introducing you to the Tea Team family over the past 10 weeks. These are some of the best and smartest people I have ever met! For those of you who have missed those introductions, you can check out some of the past posts on any of our social media or even our website to get to know the Tea team. They are truly amazing! If you haven’t met me, Hi! I’m Abby! I am the founder and owner at Leaf Logic. I started this venture as a hobby in 2009, but over the last 10 years it has turned into a wonderful business that I am so proud to be apart of. My favorite part about Leaf Logic has been being able to meet so many amazing customers and friends over the past 10 years. When asked “What is your favorite tea?” it is so hard for me because I love them all! It’s like picking my favorite child! In the past 10 weeks, each member of the Tea Team’s favorite blends have been 30% off, but since I run this business, I am going to let you have 30% off of my top 7 favorites (Cottage Breakfast, Earl Grey, Sencha Mint, White Jasmine, Kansas Sunset Chai, Sleep Ease, and Winter Wonderland). Head on over to the website and enjoy 30% off of these blends because it’s always the perfect time for tea!