Neek Tea Co. Relaunches With Organic Designation and New Blends

As a child growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, Monique Hibma has clear memories of sitting on the porch with her grandmother drinking peppermint tea.

Though not a “real tea” as it’s not from the Camellia Sinensis and lacks caffeine, the sweet treat still brought a young Hibma to a place where she could relate with her refined grandmother and feel like she was one of the adults.

“I remember feeling like it whisked me away to this elegant, sophisticated place, like, ‘Look at me with my tea cup and saucer,’” Hibma recalled. “I felt the sophistication … feeling that warmth of the steam billowing in your face and cupping your hands around it and the warmth of the cup, all those sensory details that make you feel comforted when you drink a cup of tea.”

As an adult, Hibma and her husband found a similar social quality in wine, but once she became a parent, she decided she would abstain. That left a certain void that needed to be filled, and a return to tea.

A Nightly Ritual Becomes a Charlotte-Based Tea Business

Using the ritual of steeping a cup of tea as a nightly connecting point during her husband’s hectic medical residency brought Hibma back into the warm embrace of the beverage and inspired her to launch a business upon moving to Charlotte in 2020.

On Nov. 5, after pausing the business to pursue a lengthy organic certification from the US Department of Agriculture, Hibma relaunched Neek Tea Co., introducing a slate of new flavors and offerings.

She’s also preparing to launch a new program called Tea for Teachers, a nod back to her previous career as a teacher, through which the company will gift a selection of its finest teas and a special ultimate gift bag to the teachers at a Charlotte-area elementary school each May.

Upon Neek Tea’s relaunch, we talked to Hibma about how her love for the ritual of tea launched her into entrepreneurship.

The Relaunch of Neek Tea Co.

Queen City Nerve: Tell me a little bit about what it was that inspired that nightly ritual with your husband and to be purposeful about that.

Monique Hibma: It started in the time when he was in residency. Those look like 80-hour weeks, and if you’re not carving out intentional time when you have a spouse in the medical profession that’s working seven days a week, you’ll miss it.

So we just found a way to have tea be that anchor for our time, because contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a lot of time to be able to select your leaves, boil your water, steep, sit and have conversation, enjoy an infusion if you have time for a second one.

So it created this kind of feeling like we’re pretending there’s nowhere for him to go in this 20-minute window, and we can just carve out this time where it’s just us catching up before all the whirlwind happens all over again.

So this was a really great anchor during such a busy time.

What made you move from enjoying tea into the idea of entrepreneurship?

Well, my background is in teaching, so I think that’s where that love of education came in. So my master’s is in teaching, my endorsements are in English and health.

And so being out of the classroom as a stay-at-home mom for many years, my kids are a lot older now, so whereas you’re in the classroom a lot more when they’re young and there’s still opportunities for that, but just a little bit less once they grow up.

And then thinking about, where does my love of education take me? It’s all things tea.

There’s so much to learn. There’s so many nuances to tea. And I just think it allowed me to slip back into an educator role with also curating my own schedule to show up for my kids in the way that I’m used to now.

What was the importance of the USDA organic designation for you?

It’s about compliance. We always had organic offerings, but we wanted to not only be offering the best, but also have the certification that we are offering the best. And so it was being able to show that we are offering the best and be in compliance with what it takes to be able to say that you’re organic, being able to put that on a label.

How involved are you and what does it look like when you are choosing sourcing for your tea?

I’m very involved. Mainly because I’m a solopreneur, I’m involved in everything — where it’s coming from, the ethical sourcing of it, the seasonality. What is it that we are looking for?

It’s different things that go into what our end goal for this cup of tea or this pot of tea is. I’m very hands on for every single piece of that. So it’s multiple tastings, multiple real encounters with that tea to be able to say, “Yes, I think our customers will definitely enjoy this for a lifetime.”

One of your mottos on the website is “Travel the world through tea.” Where have you found yourself going in this journey, beyond what you might have imagined when you were just simply doing a nightly ritual?

I think number one, it’s the people that I’ve connected to from all over the world, as well. Wherever I am, we’ll go have tea, and you connect with people, you’re social in the tea houses, you’re doing global expeditions.

One of my most fond travels was to Sri Lanka. And on that trip I met so many different people from Kenya to China, Japan, India. You meet people all over when you’re on a tea adventure.

And so I think it’s taken me very far from Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 7, and it’s made me definitely realize not only how vast tea is, but just how many people drink it in the different cultures and the different stories — just how rich the tradition really is.

And next year you’ll launch Tea for Teachers. How did that come about?

We’re really excited about that because, again, that goes back into the respect I have for educators, formerly being an educator, and just having that moment of you to see what the day of a teacher looks like. There’s planning periods, rarely are they actually getting to sit and do something, they’re on the move, going to a planning meeting or meeting with a parent or doing all these things. They wear so many hats and they pour into our students.

So to just have a moment to say, “Hey, we see you, and we hope that this cup of tea can just serve as a small token, a small gesture to say, ‘This not only is going to pour into your pause, but your well-being.’” Because there are so many health benefits to tea and we want to just give teachers the best.

So you do corporate events. What does that look like?

Think about team building and think about well-being days and how you can really elevate a team-building activity or just being able to have an employee appreciation day. Tea is a beautiful way to do that.

So we have a tea trolley where we can come into a business, we can set up for the day, we can offer different varieties of tea, we can do an educational portion, and really have a way for employees to step outside of the box for their wellness days or even or just a social gathering. We are so happy to be able to offer either private tea experiences or corporate activations.

And you will be going into stores, I believe, this holiday season?

Yes, that is the goal. So we want to be on the retail shelves. We want to be able to not only be able to have the website where customers can shop but also be able to be on the shelves where they can find us throughout Charlotte to shop in person.

I read on your website that you can tell a lot from somebody or learn a lot from somebody based on how they answer, “How do you take your tea?”

It’s an icebreaker, right? We all have these really great memories. I was just talking to someone before we connected about it; she was sharing these beautiful memories that she had with her mother. And again, that feeling of elegance that she had when her mom would bring out her grandmother’s tea set.

Talking about how you take your tea, it’s really about getting to listen to someone’s favorite memories. It’s watching people light up. It’s having people take a moment and think, like, “How do I take my tea?” It’s such a connecting moment to have with another person. And I really enjoy that, in that glimpse, I really do get to learn about someone, and that’s really great to be listened to these days.

So how do you take your tea?

I love a pure tea. I find that when you have a great tea, properly prepared, there isn’t anything else that you need with it. So just give me an excellent steep and I’m happy.

Is there a certain style that you all sell that is your favorite? One that’s either a top seller or that you personally recommend?

Well, I’m excited to see what that becomes. In the first generation of Neek Tea Co., it was a style of green tea called Be Rosy, and that had notes of grapefruit and rose and people really enjoyed that one. So I’m excited to see in this relaunch what that becomes.

For me, I like to say that telling someone what my favorite style of tea is would be like telling which one is my favorite child. And so I really love to think about where it’s meeting me, where a cup of tea is meeting me, and just really enjoying that particular cup at that particular time. So I don’t have a favorite.

Are there any tips you have for folks on the perfect steep, whichever style it is that they do choose?

Absolutely. I think consistency is where it’s at. So we’re big on, with loose tea, it’s about measuring grams. I think where you can have a great cup of tea is when you have precise grams and great water. And so with those two things, you’re always going to have a consistent cup of tea. And again, that’s where that education comes in and where we look forward to making sure people can have that consistent cup every time.

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