Owner And Operators
Dave And Jen Gough
Retea makes it easy for you to get delicious tea. We taste test hundreds of teas and herbs from across the world whittling it down to the most flavorful ingredients. We then curate and hand select our current menu based upon real world customer feedback. You get to enjoy full flavor teas, plus a portion of your sale does good for someone else.
Every Retea pouch we sell provides a refugee child with up to 10 hours of education. These purchases add up to make a life changing impact for someone in need.
Refugee education programs are severely underfunded leaving millions of children and young adults without access to an education. We partner with nonprofit organizations to help fund these programs. A safe, secure learning environment helps a child grow and lead a productive future.
Retea
Founders
Co-Founder
Saad Saad
I’m an adjunct professor, a conflict resolution professional, and a basketball enthusiast. At Retea I oversee the overall business strategy, product line and day to day operations. I enjoy our Vanilla Mallow tea most.
Co-Founder
Ali Bazzi
I am a business consultant, a technology enthusiast, husband, father, and an avid runner. At Retea I work on the overall business strategy with a primary focus on our marketing and product development. I’m partial to our Assam Black, sometimes with bit of milk and sugar.
How It works
Despite the dire and growing need, currently less than 2% of international aid goes to funding education during humanitarian crises. In times of displacement, education is crucial as it can provide stability, structure, and a safe environment, especially for young children.
To make this happen, the UN has set the following goal: Education should be a least 4% of the overall humanitarian budget. Each pouch of Retea will help make that a reality because we believe in #morethan2percent.
You can learn more about the UN Global Education First Initiative here.
Shop
You purchase a Retea blend. Whether it was the tea or an herb, the unique environmental conditions each plant lives in nurtures its distinct flavor characteristics. The farms way of withering and drying the leaf, the form and the packaging of the tea, and your handling and steeping of every cup, are all stages we carefully considered as we selected our menu.
Give
We make a monthly donation to our nonprofit partners, like IRC, based on the number of pouches sold. These funds are directed to refugee education programs. Each pouch funds up to 15 hours of education. As of December 2019 and together with our customers, we have helped to fund up to 75,700 hours of education for refugee children.
Educate
Our nonprofit partners utilize our donations to deliver school supplies, fund classrooms, teachers, and even transportation to school to ensure classroom time is made possible. At Retea, we believe that education is the foundation of positive social change. Every pouch helps make that happen.
Our Teas
We curate unique teas that deliver rich flavors with every cup.Sweet, spicy, citrusy, floral and more. From mellow to bold, we create loose leaf tea blends with one thing in mind: flavor.
We cut out the mysticism and the ancient mythology and deliver to you high quality ingredients in our signature blends made in small batches at our kitchen in Detroit.
We give a great deal of attention to the ingredients we select. Where the ingredients come from is important, because it impacts the flavor. Whether it was the tea or an herb, the unique environmental conditions each plant lives in nurtures its distinct flavor characteristics. The farms way of withering and drying the leaf, the form and the packaging of the tea, and your handling and steeping of every cup, are all stages we carefully considered as we selected our menu.
We want your experience with every cup to be focused on enjoying the flavor that our Retea blends provide, while also knowing that your purchase has helped a child achieve an education .
Want Retea in your store?
If you are interested in purchasing Retea at a store near you or would like to sell Retea in your store, please let us know here and we contact you.
Our Supporters
City Bird /Nest
460 W canfield St.
Detroit, MI 48201
(313) 831-9146
Les Cheneaux Coffee Roasters
33 E. Hodeck
Cedarville, Michigan 49719
(616) 212-7534
Metamora General Store
4015 S Oak Street
Metamora, MI 48455
(810) 212-1168
Old Town General Store
408 E César E. Chávez Ave
Lansing, MI 48906
(517) 487-6847