Good+Ready Provisions

Hello! I'm Tara. And this is the story of how a first generation college graduate became a CIA agent turned beekeeper turned...tea maker?! Ten years ago you might have found me anywhere from Germany to Pakistan to Kuwait to Afghanistan. Then, inspired by a chance beekeeping class, I left a job working for the federal government (and a passport full of some very interesting entry stamps and a lot of stories I'll never be able to tell) to learn the trade of beekeeping. One year later I started Two Hives Honey, a honey and beekeeping business in Austin, Texas. What I thought was just a chance to dip my toe into entrepreneurship turned into a total shift in how I viewed the world. Taking notice of the smallest creatures and their important work opened my eyes to the beauty and the importance of preserving our natural resources and native flora and fauna. Finding ways to live more sustainably became my most important personal core value. On this journey I was introduced to yaupon holly, the only caffeinated plant native to North America. I fell in love with the tea brewed from the leaves of this tree, which is naturally sweeter than conventional black tea. A tea lover (and coffee avoider), I have always been frustrated with the lack of options compared with those available for coffee drinkers. Fond memories of drinking ice tea with my Nana weren't replicated in my household, because frankly, iced tea takes too long to make. Though iced tea is the third most popular drink in the U.S., many only drink iced tea out at restaurants or shops because of the labor and time involved in making the drink at home. I wondered why tea lovers don't have our own version of the coffee concentrates I was seeing everywhere? My yearning for more sustainable tea options, coupled with my frustration for at-home convenience options for tea drinkers inspired Good+Ready: a cold brewed tea concentrate made from the leaves of the yaupon holly. We strive to make iced tea easy and good for the planet!