The Story of Purple Mist

Purple Mist herbal tea came into being several years ago when my source of chamomile tea dried up. I set about trying to find a new source of good earthy tasting chamomile.

I found myself an importer of tea, a family company, and they said that they would be more than happy to supply me with
Chamomile.

They started to make up some herbal teas for me but I did have to buy quite large amounts. Even though there is a shelf life of two years I wasn’t able to use them all myself and as my friends discovered my wonderful herbal tea they asked if they could buy some of my surplus.

At that time I was counting out these tea bags and packing them in ordinary re-sealable
plastic bags.

Friends and acquaintances were buying yet more varieties of tea from me and I began packing them into kraft bags and sticking a very simple label on them. One of those people that originally bought way back then, as far back as the 1990’s, is still to this day one of my best customers, she was actually re-packing them herself and selling them on.

This continued for quite some time and I would chat with the ‘tea taster’ who would then create another blend of herbal tea or tisane, as we should rightly call them. Tea is made with leaves form the tea plant, an infusion made with anything other than tea is a tisane.

Somebody then had the idea that I should design a new label that would be very eye catching, so I spent a few weeks designing labels, I got registered with the council and on the 1st of April 2006 the very first tea bags in the current packaging went on sale at a fair in North Walsham.

We have since attended many fairs and served many cups of tea it has gone from strength to strength ever since. We have several shops in the area selling our tea and we also do mail order.

As many of you will know I’m also a therapist, late in 2006 I took the decision to separate the herbal teas from my therapy business and in November 2006 we actually incorporated and Purple Mist UK Ltd was born.

This truly is a family business with every member of the family helping in one way or another, they might be helping to pack the tea or making lunch.

We are based on the North Norfolk coast and can hear the sea but on the other side of us we have open countryside.

I have had so much help from family and friends getting to the shows and helping me at the shows especially in 2007 following my accident.

I am recovering from the accident but it is a slow process so this year we have decided to streamline the business to allow us to concentrate on the other aspects of the business. Purple Mist™ Herbal Tea will still be available in selected shops and via mail order and we will continue to appear at selected shows throughout the country but not on the previous scale.

Pauline will continue to work as a therapist offering Crystal Therapy, Reiki, Hypnotherapy and NLP along with Aqua DeTox and The Chi Machine. Also sales of The Chi Machine.


Pauline