MELINDA HICKS, CEO Big Time Tea Co (Little Me Tea): Want something that looks and tastes like juice - minus the sugar?
Tea is an adult beverage, right? Wrong, says the entrepreneur behind Little Me Tea, who’s on a mission to replace the sugary juice box in your child’s lunchbox with an organic, caffeine-free tea sweetened with fruit and veg juice.
If you add a little juice to tea, what you end up with tastes more like juice than tea, but has a fraction of the sugar, according to Melinda Hicks, a former marketing executive based in Atlanta, GA, who came up with the Little Me Tea brand after trying in vain to fnd something less sugary than soda, flavored milk or 100% juice to give her daughter and her friends.
Her first two products, Julia's Tropical Tea and Zane's Grape Tea, feature a blend of four organic teas (White Tea, Rooibos Tea, Hibiscus flowers and Chamomile) and contain 6g of naturally occurring sugar (from juice) per 6.75 ounce juice box. A third flavor will hit stores next year.
Recent deals include partnerships with key distributors to the natural channel including Nature’s Best, KeHe, and Unique Foods Marketing, which together will give Little Mea Tea a nationwide presence.
Click here to read our interview with Melinda (pictured below with her husband Michael and daughter Julia).