Two Australian women who have pioneered a tea beverage category in Australia plan to expand internationally – but not before they have helped make the world a better place.
Tania Stacey and Kym Cooper are the founders of East Forged Cold Brew Nitro Tea, a unique concept in which tea slowly brewed in cold water has nitrogen gas added at the canning stage – something not too dissimilar to canned Guinness Beer. After establishing the brand in Queensland in 2019 and successfully launching during the Covid pandemic using Australian-grown tea, the couple now aim for East Forged to become a leader in the global craft tea and liquid tea industry.
“We want to see it grow similar to the craft beer industry, and we want to see that grow globally because that will encourage people to value and appreciate tea,” Stacey told Amie Larter and Angeline Achariya during the second episode of the new podcast Women Transforming Food.
If people value the tea more, they will pay more for it, Stacey ventures. “And when they pay more for tea, the people that pick tea will have a better life. That’s our primary motivation: this beautiful industry with the perfect on-the-go tea that suits your lifestyle, that goes from lunch to dinner, from social events to taking time to yourself, and we’re helping the people that bring it to you along the way.
“So, globally, we have investigated expanding East Forged into East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the US, and we see big opportunities in the UK and Europe as well.”
Women Transforming Food is a monthly podcast produced by G100 and Inside FMCG that explores the stories of inspiring women shaping the food industry. Achariya is the Asia Pacific chair of G100’s food systems innovation & resilience wing. The mission focuses on empowering gender diversity and inclusion across the Australian Food System and industry, bringing together women leaders to transform the nation’s food system, creating influence and advocating to co-create thought leadership. Larter is CEO of Inside Small Business‘ publisher, Octomedia.
Beyond the passion for their product, Cooper and Stacey are committed to creating a better life for women who work in the tea industry around the world, an industry where the pair observe women bearing the hard work and the men generally sitting in management roles.
“It is really important to Kym and I,” Stacey shares. “Currently, we use tea sourced from Australia because we know it is grown ethically and sustainably. The only other white tea we source is from China. In countries like China, Taiwan and Japan, the tea workers are well treated. However, there are other parts of the world where the tea [plantation] workers don’t have a great lifestyle.” They are the ones making the tea consumers are paying two cents a tea bag for, she explains.
The pair have reached out to work with the International Alliance for Women in Tea (IAWT), which has a global focus on women in tea. Its mission is to unite, inspire and advance women at every level in the tea value chain and create a sustainable and equitable future for all.
East Forged is talking to IAWT about developing programs that can help women in these countries. Tea is a major contributor to the GDP in these countries, something Stacey says many tea shoppers do not understand.
“Those women are carrying the economy of many of those countries on their backs, and they need help, be it through education, needs for their children, sanitary needs, housing needs, all those things. There is so much work to do. But that is something that the women behind the IAWT can help with.”
Stacey says that while some larger tea companies have their own plantations and welfare or assistance programs, they do not always include the transparency and accountability she believes is necessary.
“Kym and I don’t have a huge background in countries like Kenya and India, and where these tea farms are growing in Indonesia. But the women at IAWT do, and they can guide us more in this area, so our future with East Forged is with them.”
On a local level, Stacey also recognises View Club (Voice, Interest and Education of Women), a female-led organisation established in 1960 whose focus is to raise funds for the Smith family for the education of disadvantaged children here in Australia.
“We both want to leave this world a little bit better. Those basic principles are very true to us, and that’s what binds us”.
Scepticism and doubt on the innovation path
Developing East Forged was something of a leap of faith for the pair. Stacey’s background was in sales with a major corporation, and she saw her passion for tea as an exit plan. Cooper was a chartered accountant specialising in risk and assessment with one of the Big Four accounting firms.
“Kym and I often laugh and say if we only knew what we were letting ourselves in for, we probably would never have started. So, naivety is actually a great asset to have at times. And then you get so far, and you go, well, I might as just keep going. I’ve gotten this far.”
When Stacey and Cooper were developing their product, they reached out to various mentors and Stacey recalls questioning whether they were doing things the right way.
“There are moments you do question yourself, and I shan’t name any, but in the early days, we went through different accelerators. The mentors often asked us where we came up with the concept – where had we seen the idea before? I thought it was interesting – that it was not possible that we had come up with the idea ourselves.
“I know there is a saying there’s never an original idea anywhere in the world; someone else has thought of it. And maybe other people have, but we are a world first in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. There is cold brew tea and there is some nitro tea out there, but the way we’re doing it is unique.”
The pair drew motivation from consumer feedback when they took products to markets like Finders Keepers and Big Design and let people taste the beverage. “They automatically believed in us, which was really reassuring.”
East Forged has also enjoyed recognition and support from within the tea industry. It has already earned more than 20 awards – including in the UK – and drawn the attention and support of both the UK and the Canadian Tea Associations, which recognise the company’s innovation.
To help keep the business on track, Cooper and Stacey keep 90-day goal plans to map out a long-term strategy and their individual goals – a process they say keeps them accountable. They report monthly to each other on how they are progressing against their respective goals, a process Stacey says keeps the business going forward all the time.
A primary focus has always been customer experience and helping to build a brand that people will remember. If you don’t remember the name East Forged, Stacey and Cooper hope you will recall the brand’s tea pets – “our little nod to the idiosyncrasies of the tea world”.
If a consumer walks into a stockist – many IGA supermarkets nationwide carry the products, which are also sold directly to consumers online – they will spot the monkey, cat, and pig on cans. The anime characters appear on East Forged’s Australian Black Tea & Yuzu, White Tea & Calamani, and Australian Green Tea & Pitaya, respectively.
Listen to the podcast to learn more about how the pair succeeded in launching a brand at the height of the Covid pandemic, how Stacey developed a passion for tea that took her to multiple brewing awards, and why she and Kym believe they have “the best business partner in the world”.
This article originally appeared in our sister publication Inside FMCG.
