Yorkshire therapist sees success at Harrogate food festival with vegan herbal tea brand Thankfully Healthy Tea

The therapist, who is originally from India and now lives and works in Harrogate, birthed the idea of the sustainable and plastic-free tea brand Thankfully Healthy Tea during Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

Her main focus throughout her career in business and her personal life has always been self-care; based on her knowledge and training in yoga and ayurveda, she created a variety of herbal teas, each specialising in immunity and digestive issues.

Since its conception, the business has become a huge success; three of the teas in particular have been best sellers. These teas are Immunity Tea, Digestive Tea and Relaxing Tea. Her teas have been sold at Harewood Holistics, the Yorkshire Centre for Wellbeing, as well as farm shops like Yolk Farm in Minskip and Crimple Food Hall.

More recently, Ms Arora set up a stall for Thankfully Healthy Tea at the Harrogate Food and Drink Festival on Sunday, June 25, 2023.

“The day has been going pretty well, we’ve just started doing local festivals this year and most of the festivals we sell out which is incredible,” she said.

“We have a strong customer base here in Yorkshire now, we also sell in local food shops now; we are in Crimple Food Hall, we sell with the farm shops, we’re trying to get more local presence because I think customers are your true fans.

“The whole concept of the brand is based on health and sustainability. We try to make flavours that help with daily lifestyle imbalances, gut healing, immunity which I think a lot of people struggle with.

“They don’t want to talk about digestive issues but that’s what we try to do; it’s a combination of different herbs, Indian spices and flowers that work and target the root cause of the problem.”

In Yorkshire, we pride ourselves on our tea and how to brew the perfect tea.

There are a variety of methods of brewing Thankfully Healthy Teas; some of the teas can be brewed hot and cold, and others even change colour when mixed with water.

The entire packaging is plastic-free, meaning they are eco-friendly and biodegradable and sustainable as they can be used over and over again.

“Since our tea bags are plastic free, our teas are quite versatile; they can be brewed as hot teas or cold teas depending on the weather and the mood,” Ms Arora said.

“In fact, three of our teas can be brewed in milk; our Cozy Tea turns into a beautiful Chai Latte, our Immunity Tea brews into a beautiful rose and turmeric latte and our Relaxing Tea can be brewed into a lavender latte.

“I’d say the first thing that would attract customers is that we are a very cost-effective brand; a box of tea sells for just £5 and it has 15 tea bags focussing on veganism and sustainability. Our brand is entirely vegan, it’s gluten free and sustainable as well.

“Our tea bags are made out of corn fibre, our films are made out of starch, so every single piece of our packaging is compostable or biodegradable, which I think at this cost sets us apart from other brands. In one single tea, you can find seven or eight different herbs, which I’ve never heard of, and I’m a certified therapist as well, so we are a small brand trying to make a difference.

“Our best sellers are the Immunity Tea, which has strong flavours of rose, cardamom, black pepper, it has turmeric, so it is loaded with antioxidants; our Digestion Tea has herbs like fennel, coriander, ginger, cumin, everything that is good for gut healing and for your digestion and one of our most popular sellers is our Relaxing Tea which turns blue when you brew it because of the flowers and is actually known as an antidepressant herb.

“The unique point is also that our tea never goes bitter; most of the people are quite worried that when they brew the tea, they go old immediately after three minutes, our tea bags can even be reused if you like because they have no plastic in them, so you can forget about throwing it out quickly. In fact, you can even top it up; continue to sip and get value out of that one tea bag.”