Celebrating Our 9-Year Anniversary

This year, Lani and I decided to spend the day with our families and attended a Vietnamese tea ceremony. On the drive, I reflected on how far we’ve come and felt thankful we could take a moment to pause. Sharing a few thoughts and memories here:

Year one was really about figuring out the courage to start and share tea. Before San Diego, I had spent years moving up and down California for school and work, from operations at a fast-growing wellness food startup to working as a toll analyst consultant for the Golden Gate Bridge, breaking down traffic data during the shift toward electronic tolling. Funny enough, I probably spent as much time thinking about systems and flow back then as I do now with tea. I never imagined San Diego would become the city where I’d eventually build a business. I’m thankful to Lani for believing in us and giving us a reason to stay. For a long time, I thought we’d eventually move to Japan, but there were a few things keeping us here, especially our beloved dog, Benji. We’re glad we stayed.

Each business year gets more challenging than the one before it. Maintaining the systems, the team, the synergy, and the product takes a different kind of energy than the experimental, one-off things we shared in the beginning. We still do those things, but now there’s an entire structure behind making them happen. Over time, you also realize how much running a small business has nothing to do with the thing you originally started it for. Some days you’re solving maintenance issues, handling logistics, answering emails, or reviewing taxes. It’s easy for creatives to lose touch with the part that made them start in the first place if they don’t continue making space to create and play. I think there’s also an assumption that once a business reaches this point, you’ve somehow “made it,” but continued support matters more than ever. Over time, we’ve built real trust, and trust is something you have to continue cultivating.

In the early years, I think I was mostly focused on experimenting with a lot of variety. These days, I think more about sustainability and creating something people continue returning to over time. That shift probably feels subtle from the outside, but internally it’s changed almost everything about how I approach tea and business.

One of our biggest pivots came in years three and four, when we decided to close our Point Loma location and completely move away from serving drinks. It was a strategic decision in order to keep things human, focused, and consistent. There’s often this idea that growth has to mean more locations, but sometimes scaling back allows you to become more intentional with what you’re building. Closing that space gave us room to invest more deeply into team training, product development, and partnerships with incredible businesses in our community. Even operating from one location continues to be challenging in its own way.

It was a tough decision, but over time, it allowed us to invest in a larger private event space and a Japanese tea room, both still taking shape. I think there’s something meaningful about building carefully with what you have instead of rushing toward expansion. Things rarely happen overnight, especially with tea.

Something that surprised me recently was sitting down with almost 10 years of history and looking through our most popular tea blends throughout the years. Of course we know what’s popular day to day, but it felt different seeing the patterns over time. The blends I created in year one that I had no idea would stick around? They landed consistently in our top five: Blue Chamomile and Coconut Chai.

Blue Chamomile went through three or four revisions to get where it is today. It started with good whole chamomile, then I added rose, and eventually butterfly pea flower. I had no idea it would become our top-selling tea. I’d probably have to thank my family for that since it was a tea we always drank together, and also the fact that blue has always been my favorite color. Sometimes creativity starts from something that simple.

Coconut Chai was the complete opposite. I didn’t grow up drinking chai. In the early days, I did a lot of pop-ups and partnered with wellness and yoga events. A peer once asked if I’d ever thought about making a non-caffeinated chai. She mentioned trying something somewhere with coconut in it that “felt cozy,” but she had no other details. That was enough for me. I remember thinking I could probably make something work with rooibos, which has an earthy base that absorbs spices really well. I had no idea that blend would stay around the way it did, or that years later we’d be sourcing coconut directly from the Philippines and that it would become part of our story nearly a decade later.

If someone asked me for advice on starting a business, I’d probably say to try things out, stay true to your vision, and stay consistent. Some days require strength you already have, and other days reveal strength you didn’t know you were capable of. Either way, you keep showing up.

We truly couldn’t have done any of this without our PARU tea-m, our external partners who feel like family, and our growing communi-tea, past and present.

Next year we’ll reflect on a decade of tea and somehow, it still feels like just the beginning.

All the best,

Amy