Australia currently ranks amongst the leading countries for start-ups. Considered to be one of the quickest countries in the world to establish a business, our start-up eco-system is now one of the fastest growing globally according to leading data platform Statista.

Approximately 5.8 per cent of all Australians – more than 1 in 20 people – are in the process of starting up their own business.

One of the strongest start-up categories is that of health and wellness. This year at Naturally Good 2023, start-ups will be a key focus.

“For all start-ups, this event is an ideal place to grow your retail presence and make invaluable industry contacts,” said Sinead Kavanagh, Naturally Good’s Event Manager. “There have been many success stories of new businesses who have kick started their retail boom through attending previous Naturally Good shows. We have already had a strong response from start-ups who have registered for this event, so we are excited to see what the event will yield for them.”

Teaesk Beverages, a first-time 2023 Exhibitor, shares with us their journey and what they are most excited about Naturally Good in June.

Teaesk’s new take on iced tea, a first for Australia

Considering that iced tea was popularised for the first time commercially at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, you might be wondering how such a beloved and time-honoured product could possibly be innovated.

However, Teaesk Beverages has risen to the challenge creating the only all-natural iced tea on the market, using organic ingredients that are also naturally preserved. Iced tea products including soda, iced tea alcohol and nitro iced tea mostly use chemicals like velocorin for preserving. Teaesk is the first iced tea producer in the country to use an edible fungi for preservation which has been approved by Food Standards ANZ.

Teaesk’s Head of Innovation & Marketing, Fabian Di Marco, says for their first Naturally Good event, the company is looking to build more relationships with not just potential buyers and distributors, but also potential partners. “We believe tea, and especially iced tea is an unrealised market,” he says. “Not that there isn’t a market, there are 9 million people in Australia who drink tea once per month, but rather, there’s a gap in it. To build market awareness we need to collaborate with partners and work together with stockists and peers.

“As we already treat our stockists like partners, it’s helped to build a great reputation and we have largely grown by word of mouth. We’ve also grown through community collaborations such as partnering with cafes to deliver seasonal iced tea flavours on tap and doing iced-tea tastings at our retailers like IGA. The month we launched, we were the exclusive iced tea for the three-day Wonderer Festival down in Marimbula, which hosted over 15,000 people; that also gave us a nice boost to our buzz and a degree of credibility to our brand.”

Teaesk Beverages formed in 2021, evolving from an initial loose leaf tea company founded by Fabian’s wife Australian Certified Tea Master, Melissa (Escribano) Di Marco in 2015. “The company was basically born out of a disdain for chemically flavoured tea and passion for an honest cup,” says Fabian. “We wanted to help Australia and beyond discover tea in new ways, to open tea up to people who don’t drink tea or tea often, and for tea lovers to get more of it.”

Since Teaesk launched their iced tea cans, their Black Tea with Lemon Iced Tea, which clocks in at only 6 calories has been their biggest seller. Fabian says varieties such as Lemongrass & Hibiscus have also been in demand. “Customers really resonate with the products as each tea has a story behind it – a spark of inspiration from a life experience. We are also big on transparency as to where the ingredients are sourced from which people really appreciate.”

Having started out in farmers markets selling loose leaf tea to market goers, Teaesk has since won numerous awards with products now stocked in over 50 locations across Australia. They have also expanded into ready-to-drink cans to make their drinks extra user friendly.

The company’s goal for the next 12 months is to expand their range of iced tea, and for it to stocked in more than 300 locations across Australia.

 

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