Thinking outside and inside the box

Numi Organic Tea’s brand refresh
Thinking outside and inside the box
In January 2011, Numi Organic Tea launched a brand refresh
to better showcase its unique product line. Through full-color
photography and artistry in its design, Numi’s new packaging
communicates the superior taste and quality of Numi Organic
Teas, which contain real fruits, flowers, and spices rather than
perfumes or flavorings used in most competitive products.
Using a new way to communicate the same beloved teas and
tea blends that the company has produced for more than a
decade, Numi’s unique artistry helps transport the tea drinker
into a world of exploration and transformation.
Celebrating people, planet and pure tea
People
Numi Organic Tea sources its teas and ingredients directly
from fair labor gardens that pay farmers and workers fair
wages that allow their families to thrive. Over half of Numi’s
teas (14 of 24 product SKUs) are sourced from Fair Trade
Certified gardens, which empower tea growers to invest
Fair Trade premiums back into their communities. Fair Trade
premiums earned on tea gardens have helped procure and
develop new roads, cooking stoves, mosquito nets, schools,
college scholarships, maternity benefits, onsite medical staff
and life insurance for farming families.
Planet
Numi Organic Tea is committed to minimizing impact on the
planet through thoughtful choices in sourcing, production
and packaging. Numi Organic Tea sources organic teas
and herbs, which helps protect the health of farmers, the
consumer and the planet. Numi Organic Tea uses natural,
biodegradable, filter-paper tea bags, rather than GMO corn
or plastic “silky” tea sachets. Numi’s tea boxes are made of
85% post-consumer waste, printed with soy-based inks and
without unneeded shrink-wrap. Numi Organic Tea partners
with programs that lower and offset carbon emissions,
including a solar-powered production facility.
Pure Tea
Numi Organic Tea blends premium, organic teas and herbs
with 100 percent real fruits, flowers and spices.. By using
real ingredients and not bitter-tasting tea dust or fannings,
it is not necessary to mask poor quality tea with “natural”
flavorings, oils or fragrances. Numi Organic Tea has utilized
the alchemy of careful blending to produce an award-winning
product line. Numi Organic Tea lets Nature speak for itself.
Numi Mission
Numi’s mission is to be the most innovative tea company
in the world dedicated to quality, sustainable values and a
commitment to community.
Numi Vision
Numi’s vision is to inspire well-being of mind, body and
spirit through the simple art of tea. Numi elevates the
tea experience through innovation and quality, as well
as a commitment to the environment and our global
community. Numi hopes to educate and influence others
to make a difference in their contribution to society. Numi
is an organization that celebrates difference and creativity;
the company occupies a vibrant office space and tea
garden that invites all to find their own thoughts and
visions and take the tea transformation.
Numi Flavors
Numi offers 26 teas and herbal teasans, a variety of
Flowering Tea, Organic Puerh Iced Teas, loose leaf tea, gifts
and tea chests. See www.numitea.com for full catalogue.
Where is Numi sold?
Numi is sold nationally in Whole Foods Markets, Safeway’s
Organic Marketplace, other premium independent natural
food stores and natural sets within conventional grocery
stores. Numi is sold internationally in more than 20
countries. Visit www.numitea.com for a store locator.
Numi Organic Tea’s brand refresh
Thinking outside the box
RE-POSITIONING: Through authenticity, creativity, and commitment to people and planet, we bring
you the purest best tasting organic tea.
Numi has shifted it’s messaging and communication to highlight the quality, purity and taste of its
ingredients; as well as focusing on being a company with sustainable values.
Logo remains same for continuity; Organic Tea addedd to highlight Brand differentiation
Brand Promise/Tagline: Celebrating people, planet and pure tea
Product Tagline: 100% Real Ingredients. Nothing Else.
Best Tasting Organic Tea:
Premium Organic Teas & Herbs
Real Fruits, Flowers & Spices
No “Natural” Flavorings or Fragrances
previous Packaging
Focus was on artistry & romance.
Product quality & Brand values not being communicated.
brand Refresh - new Packaging
Product quality & Brand values now being communicated.
Artistry maintained in painterly backgrounds & photos.
Primary focus on taste and real ingredients.
Flavor name and taste description more pronounced.
Organic and Fair Trade symbols more visible.
Non-GMO Biodegradable tea bags called out.
Numi Organic Tea’s brand refresh
Thinking around the boxe: entire box tells a story of Celebrating people, planet and pure tea
TO lEARN MORE ABOUT OUR COMMITMENT TO PEOPlE,
PlANET AND PURE TEA, vISIT US AT nUmitEA.COm.
FOUNDERS, Ahmed & Reem Rahim
we are artists, alchemists, world travelers, tea lovers
and above all, a brother and sister. Our dedicated
tea’m shares our mission to bring you the best
tasting organic tea, sourcing directly from fair trade
gardens that guarantee livable wages and better
opportunities for farmers and their families.
People Panel
includes a story on
people at garden
or on Numi Tea’m’s
sourcing efforts
pEOplE
~ we thank you for your support
In Southern India,
tea farmers in the hilly
tropical rainforests of
the Niligris District voted
to use Fair Trade funds
towards scholarships,
health programs and life
insurance.
Celebrating people, planet and pure tea
ORANGE
SPiCE
WhiTE TEA
lOwER CAFFEINE
prEmiUm OrgAniC tEAs & HErbs
rEAl FrUits, FlOwErs & spiCEs
nO “nAtUrAl” FlAVOrs Or FrAgrAnCEs
Planet Panel
left original paintings
& poetry for
continuity.
Highlight
eco-responsible
efforts
plAnEt
Ingredients: organic Cinnamon, organic Orange
Peel, organic Cloves, Fair Trade Certified™
organic White Tea, organic Hibiscus, organic
Allspice, organic Ginger, organic Lemongrass,
organic Schizandra Berry, organic Dried Lime
Through thoughtful choices, we are
committed to reducing our impact on
the planet.
Organic tea cultivation protects the health
of farmers, the planet and you
See Orange Spice Pancakes recipe using this tea on
inside flap
Recycled boxes made of 85% postconsumer waste, printed with soy-based
inks and without unneeded shrink wrap
Celebrating people, planet and pure tea
Natural biodegradable filter-paper tea
bags; not GMO or plastic “silky” bags
Programs that lower and offset our carbon
emissions including a solar-powered
production facility
ORANGE SPiCE
white tea, real orange peel & spice
Most elements of this package can be
recycled or composted!
16
NON-GmO
BiODEGRADABLE
TEA BAGS
Organic & Fair Trade Certified.
Certified B Corporation, meeting
standards in sustainability
DiSTRiBUTED By NUmi, iNC
PO Box 20420, Oakland, CA 94620
Certified Organic by QAi
Net Wt. 1.58 OZ. (44.8g)
ECO -rEspOnsibilit y AUDit
Halal
Through thoughtful choices, Numi annually conserves:
Kosher
Trees
Saved
Landfill
Reduced (lbs.)
Energy
Reduced
(000) BTU
Water
Reduced
(gallons)
Net
Greenhouse
Emissions
5,202
334,560
2,754 million
2,332,740
470,475
Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator.
For more information visit http://www.papercalculator.org
Please be Thoughtful
and Recycle!
®
PRINTED WITH
SOY INK
P.O. Box 20420, Oakland, CA 94620, USA
[email protected] www.numitea.com
888.404.6864
All Rights Reserved. © 2010, Numi, Inc.
131 x 83 x 68mm
Eco-Responsibility
Audit Panel
front panel
92240-C 08.15.10
Our sublime blend of organic smooth
white tea and real orange peel,
schizandra berries and lemongrass
balances complex citrus notes with
luxurious spice. All make for the most
divine cup.
EXPERIENCE NUMI’S ARTISTIC JOURNEY
ON INSIDE OF BOX & AT NUMITEA.COM
best before end (date (MMYY)-Lot)
OrAngE spiCE
Sipping thoughts of peace, hope floats my way
Pure Tea panel
Media Fact Sheet: Pu-erh
Pu-erh (pu-er) is an ancient healing tea picked from
500-year-old organic, wild tea trees in the mountains of
Yunnan, China. Pu-erh tea leaves are piled, dampened
and turned in a unique 60-day fermentation process. This
results in Black Pu-erh’s deep, earthy flavor and many health
benefits that have been touted for thousands of years.
Pu-erh contains more antioxidants than most green teas.
Pu-erh is the oldest known tea that travelled along one of the
five “Tea Horse Roads,” or Ancient Tea Route, that originated in
the village of Pu-erh and wound through the Yunnan Province
of China, comprising the Southern Silk Road. Merchants
discovered Pu-erh by accident, compressing the tea into
bricks for easier transport. They found that when aged in
damp conditions it developed a richer flavor and more healing
properties. It is said that the Last Emperor’s mother, known
as the “Beautiful Countenance,” was eased of her ailments
by drinking Pu-erh. This same process of compressing
and aging Pu-erh is used today, and Pu-erh improves with
age in terms of quality and value, much like a fine wine.
Numi Organic Tea produces Pu-erh tea in traditional
brick as well as teabag form. Numi also offers several
varieties of Pu-erh, including green Pu-erh, which is sundried immediately after harvest; and black Pu-erh, which
is fermented for 60 days to create a deep, earthy flavor.
Numi’s Organic Pu-erh is sourced from old-growth; wild
tea trees in the Yunnan Province of China that are said to
give forth “chi,” or life energy. Unlike common tea bushes
that are frequently replanted, Numi’s Pu-erh only comes
from broad-leaf trees with intricate roots that reach far
down into the earth. The deep root system of these Puerh trees makes them uniquely drought resistant and
sustainable without need for irrigation. The trees are
harvested by local villagers who pick the tea leaves for
their livelihood. These wild tea trees are carefully picked to
ensure that they continue to grow for generations to come.
A picture of sustainability, the Pu-erh tea trees, village and
nature all harmoniously live together for mutual benefit.
For centuries, Pu-erh has been celebrated in Chinese
culture to have myriad health benefits, but formal scientific
research is still in early stages. Clinical trials conducted
in China and France have found promising results that
substantiate cultural beliefs and anecdotal evidence
that Pu-erh can help improve digestion and circulation,
increase metabolism and energy, aid in the reduction
of cholesterol, support healthy weight loss and reduce
risk of cardiovascular disorder by dropping blood lipids.
A rich velvet, chocolaty aroma envelops this
enticing blend of deep, dark Puerh and organic
cocoa nibs. Numi’s Chocolate Puerh is made with
organic wild-harvested tea leaves fermented and
ripened into an earthy black tea. Whole vanilla
beans and sweet accents of orange peel enhance this
blend along with nutmeg and cinnamon rounding off a
spicy finish. Numi’s Chocolate Puerh is available at select
Whole Foods stores and in leading natural and independent
grocery outlets. SRP $9.99
Numi’s Emperor’s Puerh comes from China’s
majestic Yunnan Mountains where organic wildharvested tea trees are up to 500 years old. Handpicked broad leaves are fermented into black tea
then ripened, resulting in an earthy aroma and
dark sienna hue. Puerh boasts a deep bold body,
smooth and slightly sweet with hints of malt. This rich,
energizing tea is deeply satisfying as a coffee alternative.
Numi’s Emperor’s Puerh is available at select Whole Foods
stores and in leading natural and independent grocery
outlets. SRP $9.99
Numi’s Magnolia Puerh enraptures the senses
with sweet layers of floral scents. Rich and
aromatic, this blend of magnolia-scented green
tea and black Puerh is picked from wild-harvested
tea trees up to 500 years old. Magnolia Puerh
changes with every sip, taking you on a journey
of flavors from flowery vanillas and earthy notes to hints
of fruit. Numi’s Magnolia Puerh is available at select Whole
Foods stores and in leading natural and independent
grocery outlets. SRP $9.99
Accented by Numi’s signature organic Moroccan
Mint, Mint Puerh imparts a refreshing, vibrant
flavor with a smooth, mellow body and long,
sweet aftertaste. Sipping Mint Puerh, tea
drinkers will feel enlivened by a rich and
powerful wonder tonic. Numi’s Mint Puerh
is available at select Whole Foods stores and in leading
natural and independent grocery outlets. SRP $9.99
Unlike traditional teas that are oxidized for an
8 hour period, Puerh undergoes a unique 60day fermentation process resulting in a bold,
earthy flavor with hints of malt and elevated
levels of antioxidants. After fermentation, Puerh
tea leaves can be sun-dried, compressed into
bricks and aged. Like fine wine, a Puerh Brick can be aged
for months, years or even decades, increasing its value,
health benefits and premium taste. Numi’s Aged Puerh
Brick contains 12 portions. Each portion can be steeped 4
times; up to 48 pots/brick. Numi’s Puerh Brick is available
at select Whole Foods stores and in leading natural and
independent grocery outlets. SRP $12.99
From tea garden to tea cup: top efforts in sustainability
By supporting organic agriculture, paying an above average
wage and buying tea through Fair Trade Certified farming
cooperatives, Numi Organic Tea has provided health care,
housing and/or land on which to build and farm as well as
a chemical and pesticide-free work environment to farmers
and farm workers around the world.
Organic Agriculture
Numi Organic Tea is committed to sourcing USDA Certified
Organic teas and herbs. Conventional tea growing and
processing exposes workers to harmful chemicals, which are
sprayed directly onto the tea leaves. All but one of Numi’s 22
teas and teasans are USDA Certified Organic and Kosher, and
Numi is currently in the process of helping certify the orchard
where its Dry Desert Lime grows.
Fair Trade
Numi is highly committed to ethical sourcing that supports
the rights and livelihoods of farmers and farm workers. Numi
works with Fair Trade USA to source as many Fair Trade
Certified products as are currently available within Numi’s
innovation and quality standards. Numi also has worked
diligently to fill in the gaps where Fair Trade Certified is
not yet applicable, and has been instrumental in the launch
of the new Fair Labor Practices and Community Benefits
Certification developed by Scientific Certification Systems, a
leading U.S. standards developer and certifier in sectors such
as food, forestry, fisheries, and cut flowers.
Numi began purchasing Fair Trade Certified teas in April
2005 and is now one of the top importers of Fair Trade
Certified tea to the US. Since that time, the company has
purchased over 358,000 pounds of tea from 17 different
Fair Trade tea estates in six countries resulting in more than
$134,800 in social program funds benefitting tea workers all
over the world.
Communitea
A high percentage of Numi’s handmade bamboo gift and
packaging items are assembled by women. With the option
of working from home, these women are able to care for
their children and household while still earning income from
bamboo handicraft production.
In 2005, flooding took more than 600 lives and forced the
evacuation of about 333,000 people in the region where
Numi’s bamboo supplier is housed in China. Numi donated
more than $10,000 USD to the supplier to help with
replacement of equipment and the rebuilding of the factory.
Here in the U.S, Numi’s assorted packs and bamboo items are
assembled by people with disabilities. For more than 8 years,
Numi has worked with Community Gatepath for assembly
production needs. For each dollar of business we give to
Community Gatepath, the state of California matches that
dollar to support their programs.
Sustainability
All of Numi’s packaging materials are biodegradable and/or
recyclable, and its retail products are cello-wrap free. More
than 95% of our packaging materials incorporate the use of
post-consumer waste or bamboo. In the village of Guangxi,
China, bamboo producers converted from using petroleumbased lacquer to using 100% natural lacquer in 2004. In 2007,
Numi switched to soy-based inks for the printing of its retail
cartons and other printed materials. In 2009, Numi announced
its initiative toward minimizing impact: A partnership with Big
Tree Climate Fund on an offsetting program, including the
purchase of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon
offsets. Numi also reduced its overall packaging materials by
50 percent by replacing foil with a metalized, white lining in
its tea bag overwrap. Utilizing 100 percent post consumer
waste paper has reduced Numi’s landfill usage by more than
82 thousand pounds annually.
Eco-Audit
Numi’s Eco Audit, compiled through direct work with
Enviornmental Defense, appears on all of Numi’s cardboard
teaboxes.
Our boxes and marketing collateral are made from 100% recycled material made
of a minimum of 85% post-consumer waste. By using recycled materials in all
of our packaging, Numi annually conserves the below estimates:
ECO AUDIT
Trees
Saved
Landfill
Reduced (lbs)
Energy Reduced
(ooo) BTU
Water Reduced
(gallons)
Net Greenhouse
Emissions
5,202
334,560
2,754 million
2,332,740
470,475
Data research is provided by Environmental Defense at: www.environmentalsdefense.org
founding owner’s biographies
Reem Rahim
Numi’s Creative Director
and
co-founder
Reem
Rahim oversees Numi’s
brand identity, including
all
packaging
design
and marketing elements.
Reem
has
influenced
Numi’s commitment to
sustainability and speaks
regularly on the topic of
sustainable
packaging.
An artist by trade, Reem’s
original artwork has been
a major inspiration for
Numi’s
brand
vision.
Reem also shares with her
brother a passion for all
aspects of tea, including
its history and cultivation, and routinely leads tea tastings
and pairings.
After earning her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from
Case Western Reserve University, Reem shifted disciplines
and went on to pursue a Diploma d’Arte in Drawing and
Painting from Lorenzo di Medici Art Institute in Florence,
Italy and then a M.F.A. from John F. Kennedy University in
the department of Arts & Consciousness Studies. Reem
continues to create art in her studio in Oakland, California
and is fluent in English, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic.
Ahmed Rahim
Ahmed Rahim is the
master blender, CEO and
co-founder behind Numi
Organic Tea. Before starting
the Numi business in 1999
with his sister, Reem,
Ahmed spent a decade
living, working and traveling
throughout Europe as a
professional film maker
and photographer. Calling
home to Paris, the German
Alps and eventually Prague,
Ahmed began to help
create and design several
teahouses in Prague. He
became a partner in one of
them, helped expand and
grow the business and found his professional calling.
From this immersion into European teahouse culture evolved
a keen passion for blending teas, and ultimately resulted
in Ahmed developing the blends that have become Numi’s
distinctive product line. Ahmed remains Numi’s alchemist
today, seeking and sourcing the worlds most exotic and
premium teas and blending them into unique flavors that
awaken and inspire the American palate.
Ahmed is fluent in English, Arabic, French, German and
Czech. He holds a B.A. in Psychology and Theatre from New
York University, and has studied Film and Photography at
various universities in New York, Paris and Prague.
Travels & Transformations
1999
Brother and sister team Ahmed
and Reem Rahim create Numi Tea
in a 750-square-foot apartment in
Oakland, California. They launch 28
bagged and loose tea products, as well as introducing
Rooibos, Honeybush and Dry Desert Lime (the company’s
namesake) to the U.S. market
The History of Numi Organic Tea
2000
The first floor of Ahmed Rahim’s 1250-square-foot home
becomes Numi’s new headquarters.
2001
Ahmed and Reem move Numi to their first, 5000-squarefoot warehouse, near the Oakland Airport.
2002
Numi Tea launches 5 new flavors, including a revolutionary
Aged Earl Grey scented with real bergamot oranges.
2003
Numi converts all of its teas to USDA Certified Organic
and makes that an official commitment. They re-brand
the company as Numi Organic Tea.
2005
Numi’s Bamboo Flowering
Tea Gift Set becomes one
of Williams-Sonoma’s and
Amazon’s top sellers. Numi wins
several awards for packaging and innovation for the
Flowering Teas.
2008
Numi introduces a revolutionary
new tea category: organic Puerh
in four flavors: Chocolate, Mint,
Magnolia, and Emperor’s. Inc.
Magazine’s “Inner City 5000”
names Numi Organic Tea among
the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.
Numi converts its Flowering Tea line to USDA
Certified Organic.
2011
Numi Organic Tea makes a bold move to give a fresh,
new face to its entire packaging line. By incorporating
full-color photography, fresh copy and high design
standards, Numi focuses on greater awareness around
real ingredients and sustainability.
2004
Numi Organic Tea took the
tea world by storm with the
introduction of Flowering Tea to
the US retail and foodservice market.
Numi relocates to a 25,000-square-foot
warehouse in Oakland near Jack London Square.
2006
Five new tea flavors are added
to the Numi lineup: White Nectar,
White Rose, Toasted Rice Green,
Decaf Green Ginger, and Decaf
Black Vanilla.
2009
Numi launches an innovative line of organic, bottled iced
teas. Five flavors blend Numi’s best selling teas with
Puerh; the sixth is Honey Lemon, a blend of Rooibos and
Honeybush. Puerh product SKUs include Earl Grey, Peach
Nectar, Magnolia Jasmine, Mango Passion, & Moroccan Mint.
PRODUCT AWARDS
2010
Gold Medal, Beverage Category
Numi Organic Bottled Puerh Tea, Best of Expo
2008 Best New Educational Training Product
Journey Into Flowering Tea video
Specialty Coffee Association of America
2006 Best Flavored Iced Tea
Brrrgamot Black Iced Tea, World Tea Expo
Best Commercially Brewed Tea
Brrrgamot Black Iced Tea, World Tea Expo
2005 Outstanding Food Gift, “Gold Medal”
Bamboo Flowering Tea Gift Set
NASFT- The National Association for the
Specialty Food Trade
2004 Most Innovative Product
Flowering Tea
Natural Products Expo
Best Packaging
Flowering Tea
Natural Products Expo
cOMPANY AWARDS
2009
#3285 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America Inc. Magazine Inner 5000
2008
#75, 100 Fastest Growing
San Francisco Business Times
2008
Small Business of the Year
Oakland Chamber of Commerce
Socially Responsible Business Award
Socially Responsible Business Awards
#2,048 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America
Inc. Magazine Inner City 5000
2007 35th Fastest Growing Company between 2004-2006
San Francisco Business Times
#24 Fastest Growing Inner-City Companies in America
Inc. Magazine Inner City 100
#16, 50 Fastest Growing Private Companies List
East Bay Business Times
Top Minority Owned Companies
East Bay Business Times
#1,344 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America
Inc. Magazine Inner City 5000
#25, Fast 50
East Bay Business Times
#24, Fastest Growing Inner-City Companies in America Inc. Magazine Inner City 100
GREEN & COMMUNITY AWARDS
2010
Acterra Award for Sustainability
Small Company
Acterra Business Environmental Awards
Responsible Packaging Award
Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association (FTSLA) WRAP Award Recipient
Waste Reduction Awards Program of CA
2009
WRAP Award Recipient
Waste Reduction Awards Program of CA
CoolCalifornia Small Business of the Year Award
California Air Resources Board
2008 WRAP Award Recipient
Waste Reduction Awards Program of CA
2007 Impact Award
Inner City Advisors (ICA)
2006 WRAP of the Year
Waste Reduction Awards Program of CA
2005
WRAP Award Recipient
Waste Reduction Awards Program of CA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tisha Winters
(510) 533-8720 x 1140
[email protected]
Numi Organic Tea’s Rings in 2011 With New Packaging
Numi’s brand refresh to be featured at this month’s NASFT Winter Fancy Foods Show
Oakland, Calif. (January 5, 2011) -- Leading premium tea purveyor Numi Organic Tea will unveil a fresh
new look at the NASFT Winter Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, January
16-18, 2011. Numi’s new packaging showcases the 100 percent real ingredients used throughout Numi’s
product line, as well as Numi’s sustainable values and business practices.
Numi Organic Teas are produced with premium quality organic and fair trade teas and herbs, blended
with only real fruits, flowers and spices. Because Numi uses only 100 percent real ingredients, there
is no need to apply “natural” flavorings or fragrances to create flavor. Numi’s new packaging will
educate existing and new tea drinkers about the quality and importance of real ingredients in its teas.
“For more than a decade, Numi Organic Tea has elevated the tea drinker’s experience through the
alchemy of blending fine teas with real ingredients for pure flavor,” said Ahmed Rahim, co-founder
and CEO or Numi Organic Tea. “We feel this fresh new face to Numi’s beloved teas can better express
our celebration of people, the planet and pure tea.”
Numi Organic Tea has maintained its high standards as a leading importer of organic and Fair Trade
ingredients. Organic tea cultivation protects the health of farmers, the planet and the consumer. Fair
Trade guarantees workers a fair wage and empowers farming communities to improve their homes,
schools, medical access and village infrastructure. The back panel on Numi’s new packaging will
feature photographs and narrative that detail Numi’s farming partners and sourcing practices.
Numi Organic Tea will also continue to innovate its packaging, seeking new ways to minimize
environmental impact. The new packaging line will continue to use natural, biodegradable filter-paper
tea bags and recyclable boxes, which are made of 85 percent post-consumer waste and printed
with soy-based inks. The bottom panel of Numi’s box features an Eco-Audit that reflects the waste
reduced due to the company’s eco-responsibility efforts.
Visitors to the Numi Organic Tea booth # 429 will experience a sensorial display that showcases the
100 percent real ingredients used to blend Numi Organic Teas, compared with the “natural” flavorings
prevalent in most competitive tea products.
Numi Organic Tea’s new packaging will begin to ship to distributors on February 1, 2011. Numi Organic
Teas are available in boxes of 16-18 teabags for an SRP of $6.99-$9.99 as well as loose leaf tea
canisters for an SRP of $8.99-$14.99. They are also sold nationally at Whole Foods Markets, Safeway,
Wegmans, Kroger and other leading grocery and natural specialty stores as well as online at www.
numitea.com.
Numi Organic Tea blends premium organic teas and herbs with only 100 percent real ingredients,
allowing Nature to speak for itself. As a pioneering, quadruple-bottom line company (people, planet,
product, profit), Numi sources directly from fair labor gardens that guarantee a livable wage and
better opportunities for farmers and their families. Numi is a company committed to reducing its
impact on the planet through ecologically responsible choices in sourcing, production and recycled
and non-GMO packaging. www.numitea.com.
Numi Organic Tea blends premium organic teas and herbs with only 100 percent real ingredients, allowing Nature
to speak for itself. As a pioneering, quadruple-bottom line company (people, planet, product, profit), Numi sources
directly from fair labor gardens that guarantee a livable wage and better opportunities for farmers and their families.
Numi is a company committed to reducing its impact on the planet through ecologically responsible choices in sourcing,
production and recycled and non-GMO packaging. www.numitea.com.
Numi Organic Tea celebrates Fair Trade Month
Oakland-based tea purveyor converts its Organic Chamomile Lemon Teasan to Fair Trade Certified™
Oakland, Calif. (October 5, 2009) – Leading specialty tea purveyor Numi Organic Tea announced
today that Numi’s Organic Chamomile Lemon/Sweet Meadows Teasan is going Fair Trade. The longstanding product is now being produced and packaged with Fair Trade Certified Chamomile sourced
from a garden in Egypt. The product should begin to appear in stores as early as December 2009
with the Fair Trade Certified label on its packaging. The product conversion coincides with Fair Trade
Month this October.
To date, Numi Organic Tea’s commitment to Fair Trade products has resulted in close to $135,000 in
social projects that have benefitted tea growers and workers in the developing world. Tea producer
groups in India, China, Sri Lanka and other major tea producing countries are using social premium
funds to build schools, develop women’s empowerment programs, transition tea gardens to 100
percent organic production, provide meals for school children and much more. As of now, 17 of Numi’s
tea varieties are Fair Trade Certified, including loose leaf and bagged teas. Additional products are
slated for conversion in 2010.
“We maintain a strong commitment to sourcing practices that ensure both quality in the cup and a
high standard of sustainable business practices,” said Ahmed Rahim, CEO of Numi Organic Tea. “As
we continue to search for ways to raise our own bar for social and environmental standards, we are
delighted to present this long-standing product as part of our Fair Trade Certified product offerings,”
Rahim added.
A Fair Trade Certified label on a product ensures consumers that a fair price was paid for the product,
fair wages were paid to the workers who produced the item, and that the goods were produced in a
sustainable manner thereby protecting both the workers and the environment. Additionally, monies
were invested in the farming communities for much-needed community development projects such as
schools and health clinics.
Part of Numi’s core product line, Organic and Fair Trade Certified Chamomile Lemon/Sweet Meadows
contains premium-quality organic and Fair Trade Certified chamomile blossoms which are blended
with real organic lemon myrtle for a pleasant, lively flavor. As with all of Numi’s products, this herbal
teasan is made with 100 percent real ingredients for a pure taste. A box of 16 teabags has a SRP of
$6.99 and is available in leading grocery stores and natural food markets nationwide.
Numi Organic Tea blends premium organic teas and herbs with only 100 percent real ingredients, allowing Nature
to speak for itself. As a pioneering, quadruple-bottom line company (people, planet, product, profit), Numi sources
directly from fair labor gardens that guarantee a livable wage and better opportunities for farmers and their families.
Numi is a company committed to reducing its impact on the planet through ecologically responsible choices in sourcing,
production and recycled and non-GMO packaging. www.numitea.com.
Numi Organic Celebrates 10 Years in the Tea Business
Oakland-based organic beverage leader opened its doors one decade ago and still growing.
Oakland, Calif. (August 3, 2009) – When brother and sister team Ahmed and Reem Rahim began
blending teas in a one-bedroom apartment 10 years ago, neither of them had any idea where they
might be a decade later. But today, Numi Organic Tea is a leading purveyor of premium-quality, fullleaf Organic and Fair Trade Certified teas made with 100 percent real ingredients. The company has
managed to lead the charge in sustainable tea sourcing and packaging, and commits to philanthropic
causes in the interest of giving back to its “communitea” – all while remaining an independent, familyowned business and among the top 10 best-selling teas in the natural/specialty foods sector.
Iraqi-born brother and sister team Reem and Ahmed founded Numi in 1999 with the vision of bringing
a dried lime, known as “Numi,” from their homeland to America. This became the first official Numi
Tea, and Dry Desert Lime still exists in the company’s core product lineup. Today Numi has more than
100 different organic teas, herbs and related products with national and international distribution in
grocery, retail and specialty stores; as well as cafés, hotels, restaurants and spas; a Tea Garden open
to the public; and an online business.
“In 10 years it’s amazing that we’ve grown to become one of the leading tea companies in the U.S.,”
said Ahmed Rahim, co-founder and CEO of Numi. “We’ve strived to ensure that our values align with
the brand, and I think our line extensions and product innovation have been keys to our success.”
The founders, who both have backgrounds as artists, have also woven their artistry into their brand.
Ahmed, the Alchemist, leads product development and still hand-blends new teas for new products
and line extensions. Reem, the Artist, hand-paints original artwork that graces Numi’s boxes. They
have both combined their skills to create a handcrafted brand identity from product to packaging.
“From our initial days, we set out to create a product and a brand ethos that inspired reflection and
overall wellbeing through the art of tea,” said Reem Rahim, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer.
“We both still return to our artistry today, whether it’s discussing product strategy or company vision.
We’ve been able to remain true to ourselves as artists while still doing good business.”
In the past five years alone, Numi has seen a compounded growth of more than 300 percent; the
company’s staff has grown from 12 to 36 people; the company now occupies 30,000 square feet of
offices and warehouses; and distribution has expanded to Europe, delivering Numi Organic Tea to 28
countries around the world.
In addition, Numi has recently moved into more of a philanthropic phase of its business, setting aside
one percent of profits from the company’s new Puerh product line to give to social and environmental
causes. A new carbon offset program has been put into place, ensuring that emissions are offset
through donations to domestic wind energy and international water treatment projects. “We look
forward to bringing our focus toward more philanthropic work, both here in Oakland and overseas,”
Ahmed Rahim added.
(continued)
Numi’s 10-Year Anniversary Celebration
On August 7, 2009 from 8:00 pm-2:00 am, Numi Organic Tea will host its 10-year anniversary
celebration as an open house at the Numi Tea Garden, located at 2230 Livingston Street in Oakland,
CA. Tea-infused libations and refreshments will be served by Numi along with partnering Bay Areabased food and beverage companies,
Numi Organic Tea blends premium organic teas and herbs with only 100 percent real ingredients, allowing Nature
to speak for itself. As a pioneering, quadruple-bottom line company (people, planet, product, profit), Numi sources
directly from fair labor gardens that guarantee a livable wage and better opportunities for farmers and their families.
Numi is a company committed to reducing its impact on the planet through ecologically responsible choices in sourcing,
production and recycled and non-GMO packaging. www.numitea.com.
Numi Organic Tea offsets emissions in 2009
Leading organic tea purveyor partners with Big Tree Climate Fund to offset carbon output in 2009.
Oakland, Calif. (June 2, 2009) – Continuing a long-term commitment to sustainable and innovative
business practices, Oakland-based Numi Organic Tea announced today its latest initiative toward
minimizing impact: A partnership with Big Tree Climate Fund on a twofold offsetting program,
including the purchase of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets.
From its inception ten years ago, Numi Organic Tea has committed to operating a sustainable
business through ethical sourcing, ecological packaging and core values focused on protecting the
health of people and the planet.
“We are excited today to continue to raise the bar for corporate environmental practices by launching
this exciting new initiative,” said Ahmed Rahim, co-founder and CEO of Numi Organic Tea. “We
believe it’s the responsibility of all business owners to find new ways to care for people and the
planet while maintaining a bottom line. This is really one of the most innovative means to give back
while being more conscious of our overall environmental impact.”
Big Tree Climate Fund, founded in 2007 by Frederick Schilling, former CEO of Dagoba Chocolate,
provides carbon offsets, renewable energy certificates and tree-planting programs to companies that
want to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and lower their environmental impact. These
partnerships support projects that help combat climate change while benefiting communities and
protecting local environments.
“I am truly excited to be working with such a progressive company as Numi Organic Tea on their
continued commitment to environmental leadership and company excellence,” said Schilling. “By
offsetting their carbon footprint to the depth they are, it not only solidifies them as an environmental
leader in the food and beverage industry, but global industry at large.”
Big Tree assisted Numi in conducting an annual emissions audit through calculations of carbon output
in electricity and natural gas usage, employee air travel, use of company car, pounds of landfill use
and overall shipping for 2008. Big Tree then sources and supplies the equivalent amount of carbon
offsets and renewable energy certificates. These fund high-quality renewable energy and greenhouse
gas abatement projects. Numi has purchased enough carbon offsets and Renewable Energy
Certificates to offset its total estimated emissions for 2009. The emissions from electricity were offset
by buying Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs, and all other emissions were offset by buying
carbon offsets.
Big Tree Climate Fund certifies that Numi Organic Tea has purchased 515 metric tons of CO2
equivalent and 24 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to offset its emissions for 1 year from May
1, 2009. The REC purchases support the Wilton Wind Energy Center, a wind farm in North Dakota
that generates enough electricity to power 15,000 homes. The carbon offset purchases support the
Brazilian Methane Avoidance/Clean Water Initiative, which is certified under the Voluntary Carbon
Standard (VCS) and has been selected by the Environmental Defense Fund as a model project for
global carbon reductions. As a result, treated wastewater from the Irani Brazilian pulp and paper
(continued)
manufacturing company can now be directed to a river without containing harmful organic material,
thus maintaining a clean water supply for animals, plants and humans.
Numi’s additional sustainable initiatives include a recently implemented social 401K program and a
European-based distribution facility, allowing for Numi to reduce environmental impact by providing
manufacturing and distribution closer to the end buyer. Both Numi Organic Tea and Big Tree Climate
Fund are certified B Corporations, representing a high bar of corporate social and environmental
responsibility.
Big Tree Climate Fund is a vertically integrated provider of carbon offsets, renewable energy
certificates and tree-planting programs. The first B Corporation in its sector, Big Tree works
with companies that want to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and lower their
environmental impact. These partnerships support projects that help combat climate change while
benefiting communities and protecting local environments. As a developer, Big Tree designs its
projects to go beyond greenhouse gas reductions by also showing improvements in a variety of social
and environmental metrics. The offsets generated from these projects are called Fair Carbon™ and
10% of their proceeds support Big Tree’s Community Fund to further benefit local communities. www.
bigtreeclimatefund.com.
Numi Organic Tea blends premium organic teas and herbs with only 100 percent real ingredients, allowing Nature
to speak for itself. As a pioneering, quadruple-bottom line company (people, planet, product, profit), Numi sources
directly from fair labor gardens that guarantee a livable wage and better opportunities for farmers and their families.
Numi is a company committed to reducing its impact on the planet through ecologically responsible choices in sourcing,
production and recycled and non-GMO packaging. www.numitea.com.
Numi introduces World’s First Organic Puerh Tea,
in bags, brick and bottles!
Leading tea purveyor first-to-market with Puerh, a revolutionary new tea category.
Oakland, Calif. (February 23, 2009) – Premium-quality tea purveyor Numi Organic Tea today
announced six offerings of Ready-To-Drink (RTD) bottled tea blends, including five varieties of Puerh
Tea blends and one Rooibos Herbal blend, available in retail and foodservice channels. Numi Organic
Tea will offer samplings of its complete line of RTD Puerh and Rooibos blends, along with its current
offering of bagged Puerh teas and the pure compressed loose Puerh tea “brick”, at booth # 2728 at
Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California, March 5-8, 2009.
Puerh (pu-er), an ancient healing tea long revered in China for its medicinal properties and rich taste,
is a fermented tea that packs a heavy antioxidant punch. Numi is unique in that it sources from rare,
wild-harvested 500-year old tea trees from the Yunnan region of China, the leaves of which yield
a superior quality. Puerh’s broad leaves undergo a fermentation process whereby the leaves are
moistened and turned frequently for a period of 60 days. Puerh is then compressed into bricks and
aged, which increases its value, flavor and medicinal properties. The end result is a bold, earthyflavored tea with hints of malt.
Independent ORAC tests have shown that one serving of Numi’s Organic Puerh tea yields 32% higher
antioxidant capacity than one serving of hot green tea. Numi Organic Puerh Tea is the world’s first
complete product line of organic Puerh teas available for the national US market. Numi’s direct
relationship with small-scale, Chinese Puerh tea producers has enabled Numi to bring the finest,
rarest Puerh teas to American consumers.
True to Numi’s innovation, Numi has developed a functional beverage that also tastes delicious. Unlike
most RTD drinks currently on the market that use flavorings and extracts, Numi RTD blends use only
100% real ingredients for a refreshing pure taste. Numi Organic RTD Puerh teas will be available
in five SKUs: Mango Passion Puerh Black Tea, Earl Grey Puerh Black Tea, Magnolia Jasmine Puerh
Green Tea, Peach Nectar Puerh Green Tea, Moroccan Mint Puerh Green Tea. In addition, Honey Lemon
Rooibos Teasan is available as an herbal , caffeine-free option. Barely sweetened with honey, agave
nectar and/or organic cane sugar, the blended teas have a SRP of $2.79 per recyclable glass bottle.
In addition to Puerh having its own unique flavor profile, Numi Organic RTD blends bring some of
Numi’s most popular tea flavors into bottled form for a refreshing and healthful alternative to sodas.
“We wanted to bring the wonderful flavor and health benefits of Puerh to the U.S. market, and offer
enough product SKUs to appeal to a variety of taste preferences,” said Ahmed Rahim, CEO and
Alchemist of Numi Organic Tea. “We therefore decided to offer our Ready-to-Drink lineup as blended
teas, combining some of Numi’s most popular flavors – Moroccan Mint and Earl Grey, for example –
with Puerh to make it at once accessible and innovative,” Rahim added.
Numi Organic Tea blends premium organic teas and herbs with only 100 percent real ingredients, allowing Nature
to speak for itself. As a pioneering, quadruple-bottom line company (people, planet, product, profit), Numi sources
directly from fair labor gardens that guarantee a livable wage and better opportunities for farmers and their families.
Numi is a company committed to reducing its impact on the planet through ecologically responsible choices in sourcing,
production and recycled and non-GMO packaging. www.numitea.com.
D
uring the nine years after Ahmed
Rahim graduated from New
York University with degrees in
psychology and theater, he shot
fashion photography and studied
film in Paris; worked construction
in the German Alps; and refurbished a caravan
of junkyard Winnebagos to drive from Berlin to
Spain. He never made it to Spain, but landed in
Prague, where he worked in film and helped run
some tea houses.
His is not the typical resume of a CEO whose
company pulled in millions in revenues last
year. Nor is his company typical. Rahim is the
CEO and self-proclaimed alchemist of Numi Tea,
the company he started with his sister, Reem,
in her Oakland apartment in 1999. Since then,
Numi has elbowed its way into the top pack
of the gourmet tea market; its mostly organic,
Fair Trade Certified products finding their way
onto the shelves of Whole Foods, Safeway and
Trader Joe’s, among other stores. Outside the
United States, Numi is now sold in 22 countries,
including Spain, Holland, Australia, Japan and
China.
Despite the company’s rapid growth, much of
its character can be traced back to the brothersister duo of Ahmed and Reem Rahim, the children
of Iraqi immigrants who both spent more time
thinking about art than money before settling in
Oakland to try their hand at tea. Reem paints the
images on much of Numi’s packaging. Ahmed
has developed all of Numi’s flavors through a
process that is more art than science: he samples
teas and ingredients, mixes them together and
trusts his nose and mouth.
The Alchemist
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Ahmed was
in his tea lab in the Numi offices in Oakland’s
Embarcadero Cove experimenting with new
blends. He poured boiling water over eight
varieties of Peurh, a tea Ahmed says is popular
in China but has yet to be widely marketed in
the United States. Rows of teabags he’d filled
with everything from cranberries to hibiscus,
osmanthus to black pepper lay on the countertop.
Samples of even more herbs, spices, fruits and
flowers crowded the shelves along the wall. It
would be hard to find a better smelling lab in the
city of Oakland.
“When I’m tasting these,” Ahmed said,
pouring tea from each pot into a paper cup,
“I’m thinking, which one will handle the
lavender flowers, for example. Like if you
want to make a curry dish, you don’t put too
much cinnamon because it will destroy the
curry taste.”
Ahmed had come to work on Saturday so no
one would disturb him. His goal was to create
four new blends that will eventually join Numi’s
offerings of more than 100 teas and herbal teasans.
To find the right flavors, he would taste infusions
of all of his potential ingredients - 16 fruits, 20
herbs and 10 spices - in addition to nine varieties
of Puerh, one of which he’d use as a base.
Ahmed is 39 and olive-skinned. He wears
rectangular-framed glasses and sports a tuft of
beard under his lower lip. His pension for slip-on
shoes or sneakers, jeans and open collars makes
him look more like an independent filmmaker
than a businessman. He speaks softly and
calmly, like someone who has spent a lot of time
drinking tea.
“As an artist, I’ve always collected garbage
and used found materials,” he said. When he
lived in Europe, he’d retrieve chipped tiles
from junkyards and turn them into mosaics
and tabletops. “I was always interested in
sustainability, and if you could take public
transit rather than a car, I was into that.”
This philosophy of sustainability now
influences the way Ahmed runs Numi. All of
Numi’s packaging is recycled and recyclable,
he says; the company doesn’t wrap its boxes in
plastic. In 2006, the California Integrated Waste
Management Board gave Numi its “WRAP of the
Year” award for its waste-reduction activities.
All but one of Numi’s bag teas, and many its
loose teas, are certified organic, which Ahmed
sees as similar to making art with found materials.
The idea, he says, is “to do as much as possible
with the earth and what is already there.” This
also drives his use of only real ingredients to
flavor his teas, as opposed to the oils most tea
companies use. After he’d tasted all nine teas and
jotted notes on a sheet of paper, Ahmed rinsed
the pots, and poured water over 16 herbs.
“Reminds me of dandelion,” he said of the
safflower. “Very fragrant,” he said of the rose. “I
can see it with lavender and jasmine.”
He then did the same with fruits and spices,
steeping everything from Chinese gogi berries to
cardamom, licorice to allspice.
Using only real ingredients frees Ahmed
from having to depend on white-coat labs for
his flavors. But it also limits him, because some
tasty fruits - cranberries for instance - release
very little flavor in hot water.
“If you use cranberry oil you get more flavor,”
he said with a shrug. “So I just won’t use
cranberries.”
Luckily for Ahmed, the chocolate and cocoa
bean nibs he steeped for a new chocolate blend
actually made the water taste like chocolate. He
sipped the sample, looked over the rows of cups
and reached for the coconut.
“Mmm!” he said. He held one cup in each
hand and sipped back and forth. “I’d like to do
chocolate, coconut and vanilla. That’ll be a grand
slam, I can tell.”
The Artist
Reem Rahim held a small painting of a yellowhaired ballerina in her lap and smoothed out the
contours of the dancer’s arm with a fine brush. It
was Sunday evening, and she had ridden her bike
to the downtown Oakland loft studio she shares
with three others to make the art she rarely has
time for during the week.
She looked at home in her studio, wearing paintspecked pajama pants and a purple shirt, her black
hair pulled back to reveal lightly freckled cheeks
and warm brown eyes. Around her were numerous
projects in various stages of completion. Five-foot
canvasses from her thesis project for the master’s
in fine arts she got in 2002 leaned against the
wall. A pastoral scene painted for a future Numi
product rested on a nearby easel. In front of her on
the desk sat eight more ballerinas.
When the dancers are done, the 41-yearold artist said, she’ll hang them in her new
bathroom, adding that even when she was
in art school, she never liked the idea of
creating art to sell.
“I was like, that’s not my purpose for
making art,” she said. “And look at me now
- I’ve sold millions of paintings.”
More correctly, her paintings have helped
sell millions of boxes of tea.
The journey to get those teas to market
began in 1970, when the Rahims’ father, a
kidney doctor, moved from Iraq to Cleveland
because his refusal to join the ruling Baath
party impeded his Iraqi medical career. The
rest of the family joined him a year later.
Ahmed was 3; Reem was 5.
Life was a struggle for the Rahims in
Cleveland at first. They had been affluent in
Iraq, and had come to America by choice,
not as refugees, but their father had to redo
his residency so he could practice. He often
worked 14-hour days when Ahmed and
Reem were children, telling them they could
do anything in America if they worked hard
enough. Inside the home, life retained an
Iraqi character. The family spoke Arabic,
practiced Islam, ate Iraqi food and drank an
Iraqi lime tea called “Numi Basra” that the
kids talked about selling to Americans. They
visited Iraq every few years, and their mother
reached out to other Iraqi and Arab families
in Cleveland, turning their house into what
Reem calls a “de facto Iraqi community
center.”
“The house was everyone’s,” Ahmed says.
He was often asked to give up his bed so his
parents could host new immigrants, refugees
or foreign students who needed a place to
land when they reached the United States.
Ahmed often found the contrast between the
cultures in and outside the home jarring.
“The hardest part of growing up in
Cleveland was the mentality and the
mindset,” he says. “There was a lot of racism.
I was a dark-skinned kid with a different
name. I wasn’t Mike or Sam or John or
Joe.”
This changed during his two years at a
private, Christian high school, he says, where
he started “experimenting with substances,”
outgrew his childhood paunch and got
interested in philosophy and art. By the time
he transferred back to public school, he was
a different person, considered more exotic
than strange.
Reem loved art from a young age and
went to Case Western Reserve University,
in Cleveland, where she was captain of
the tennis team. She studied biomedical
engineering because her mother said she
was “too smart for art.”
The summer after her junior year, she was
in a car on its way to New York when the
driver lost control and rolled the car twice.
Both of her knees were dislocated, and she
had eight surgeries in the next month. She
turned 21 in the hospital. It took her more
than a year to recover, and she returned to
tennis practice the following spring in leg
braces.
She spent much of the next few
years “imploding psychologically and
emotionally,” she says. After the accident,
an insurance case won her about $400,000
because the driver had been uninsured, she
says, but the trial was so arduous that the
money provided only scant consolation.
After college, she moved to Boston, where
her best friend died in a car accident and her
boyfriend of two and a half years informed
her he was seeing someone else.
“Art was my savior,” she says of how she
survived that time, “the only way I could
sustain myself.”
She got fired from her job as a research
assistant after accidentally killing a lab
mouse, and her boss suggested she get an
automated job.
So she went to art school. Her studies took
her to Italy for two years, then to the Bay
Area, where she enrolled at John F. Kennedy
University. She worked odd jobs while in
school, and recalls driving home in tears
after a terrible day substitute teaching.
“I just thought, I have so much more
to give,” she says, “so much to offer. So I
thought, just choose one thing. And I chose
Numi.”
The birth of Numi
That summer, Ahmed retuned from his
European adventures for a Rahim family
vacation at the Grand Canyon, and Reem
told him she was going to import the lime
tea they had drunk as kids.
“So am I,” he said. And thus, Numi was
born.
They wrote up a rudimentary business
plan, and their father took out a home equity
loan to help them raise a quarter of a million
dollars. Ahmed joined his sister in Oakland,
where they developed their first products in
Reem’s kitchen.
“We were never business people, nor did
we even know what a business was,” Reem
recalls. “It was an art venture.”
She remembers painting their first box
covers in her kitchen while Ahmed crushed
herbs between two stones and steeped them
in glass vials. They both experimented with
tea stains, developing the rippled color
patterns that now adorn many of their
products.
Early on, they even considered writing “the
Alchemist” and “the Artist” on their business
cards.
“I think people who come from outside
the business world come in with a fresh
eye,” says Gayle Stansfield, a Numi sales
manager who was one of the Rahims’ early
employees. She gave the example of Numi’s
Flowering Tea, hand-sewn bulbs that unfurl
like blossoms in hot water. The company
had no idea if they’d sell, she says. They
now make up about 20 percent of Numi’s
business.
The Rahims realized they were onto
something when they released their first nine
teas in August, 1999, at the San Francisco
International Gift Show.
“All the other booths around us had three
or four customers,” Ahmed recalls. “We were
packed. Everyone came and was like, what
is this tea? How do you produce it? We
want this in our store.” They got more than
$10,000 in orders during the four-day show,
and did 15 more trade shows in their first
year. Much of their early growth, Reem says,
was sheer luck. In 1999, Starbucks bought the
Tazo Tea Company, sending specialty coffee
roasters looking for a new brand to sell with
their coffees. Many of them stumbled upon
Numi.
Numi’s launch also fell within a propitious
time for the tea industry.
“It used to be that the only people drinking
tea were little old ladies with blue hair,” said
Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Council
of the USA. But primarily due to increasing
health awareness, he said, the tea industry
has grown from under $2 billion in 1990 to
about $7 billion in 2007.
Ahmed Rahim says they never thought of
building a worldwide company.
“It was to do a Bay Area niche thing,” he
says. “Import some unique herbs and take
it day by day sort of thing. I had no idea it
would be this big this fast.”
At the office
By Wednesday morning - thanks to
two late nights in the tea lab - Ahmed’s
new blends had expanded and evolved.
He’d crafted two citrus blends with lemon
and orange peel, and spiced the chocolate
blends, which he’d decided to call “Aztec,”
with vanilla bean, nutmeg and chili powder.
That afternoon, he’d serve his 25 creations to
the Numi staff for feedback.
But before then, he had to tend to
the business side of things. At 10:15, he
entered the conference room to meet with
representatives from a corporate search firm.
Numi is planning to hire a president, he said,
someone to take over many of the daily
business operations so that he can focus on
new products and working with suppliers in
Asia. He’d brought Numi to this point, he
said. “Taking it to $50 million, someone else
can do that.”
Ahmed’s casual dress - V-neck T-shirt,
brown jean jacket, tennis shoes
They wrote up a rudimentary
- appeared at odds with the
business plan, and their father
two headhunters, who were all
took out a home equity loan to help
corporate starch and high heels.
them raise a quarter of a million
Tea was served. He told them the
dollars. Ahmed joined his sister
new president had to be good on
in Oakland, where they developed
finance, but that personality was
their first products in Reem’s
most important.
“If they’re not really breathing
kitchen. We were never business
the culture, we don’t want them in
people, nor did we even know what
here,” he said. “We’re not looking
a business was,” Reem recalls.“It
for a suit-and-tie personality.”
was an art venture.”
He also said the new president
should like tea.
were women who sew the Flowering Tea.
“If we had someone who drank
five cans of Coke a day....” He shook his “That was really unprecedented,” she says.
“They’d never been outside their villages.”
head.
After the meeting - Ahmed found the The office closed early that afternoon
firm’s fees too steep - he dropped by his and about two-thirds of Numi’s 40-some
office to check e-mail. There was a phone employees filed into the Tea Garden to
message from an ad man at Ode Magazine. taste Ahmed’s new blends. He passed out
They’re going to press, he said, and he can evaluation forms and told them to rate each
give Numi a full-page for $850. He called it a blend between one and nine in terms of
“win-win” and said they’re big fans. Ahmed color, aroma and flavor, then give an overall
score and jot comments. He told them to be
deleted the message.
as specific as possible.
“We don’t believe in advertising,” he said.
After lunch, Ahmed walked to the Numi The staff did not disappoint.
Tea Garden, the company’s new teahouse, “Grassy and earthy,” someone wrote of a
to meet with a group from TBL Capital, a chocolate blend. “Smells like honey, tastes
socially conscious venture capital fund that like rose,” someone else wrote of one of the
recently invested $1.8 million in Numi. He floral teas.
gave them a tour of the facility, and showed Perhaps because the alchemist is her
them photos he’d taken during business trips brother, Reem pulled no punches.
to Asia: here’s an organic farm we buy tea “Tastes like bad sewage water,” she wrote
from; here’s Reem with the women who of one of the straight Puerhs.
She liked floral #3 better, writing, “Puerh
hand-sew the Flowering Tea.
Mark Finser, general partner at TBL, jasmine heaven!”
said the group had invested in only six of The following week, Ahmed would be
the 200 companies it had considered since back in the lab, further tweaking his blends.
starting last September. It chose Numi based Two weeks later, he’d take another round to
on what he called “the authentic nature of the staff, then to a consumer focus group. In
the entrepreneurs and what they’re trying to the meantime, Reem would work with the
marketing team on the design for the new
do.”
“There are a lot of people jumping on the products, which will be released this week
green bandwagon or into sustainability and at the Fancy Food Show in New York. If all
organic,” he said. “But [the Rahims] do it goes well, Ahmed says, they’ll be on shelves
because they really believe they’re making a by October.
But none of this was on his mind as he
difference.”
Twelve of Numi’s products are fair trade flipped through the sheets after the tasting.
certified, a choice Ahmed says is due to his On one sheet, someone had drawn a heart
around Aztec #4 and written “LOVE!” in the
and his sister’s background.
“That came from being a minority and comments box. Rahim smiled.
being called names and traveling in places “Look, this one got a 10,” he said. “I don’t
where people don’t have the resources and even have a 10.”
abundance we have here,” he says. “I just
felt that treating people fairly was the most
important part.”
He and his sister agree that their parents’
willingness to help people out also played a
role.
“They always had open arms and open
hearts for other people,” Reem says. “We just
grew up with that lifestyle. It’s not about
Ben Hubbard likes tea, but drank more
you.”
Julie Beals of Fresh Cup Magazine, a trade coffee to get himself through the UC
publication, says Numi broke new ground Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism,
last year by bringing four of its Chinese from which he graduated last month. He is
partners to a U.S. trade show. Two of them interning at the Washington Post. E-mail
[email protected].