Longeviteas

Ran out of tea. Tried to order more. Couldn’t find the company name. Sound familiar? Just wait it gets better. The top of the canister says shoplongevitea.com. So I type in Longevitea and send a message. We are both confused. But we both love tea. In the end it’s a win-win. I found a great new tea company and she has a customer for life. Once you discover their blends I know you will be too!

Website: https://www.longeviteas.com/

Location : Los Angeles, CA

Company Focus: 

• We formulate and hand-blend evidence-based herbal teas for immunity, longevity, stress/anxiety, and memory/brain health using only ingredients that have been proven to work in peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Most popular company tea(s)? 

• Right now, our Immunity and Tranquility blends are in a tie for most popular. Given that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, it’s pretty easy to see why these two would be flying off the shelf.

Does the company name have a meaning?

• Longeviteas actually started as a holiday present! Wanting to give something handmade to my friends, I decided that I was going to combine my loves of tea and science to create a unique gift that no-one else could. I’d just finished reading an article in the New York Times called The Island Where People Forget to Die which follows a man diagnosed with terminal lung cancer who moves back to his ancestral island in the Mediterranean so he can die in peace. As he settles into the lifestyle of the island, he begins to feel better. He eats the food. He drinks the island tea. Years pass, and he doesn’t die. As a scientist with a PhD in pharmacology, I became fascinated.
• What the hell was in that tea?!
• I hit the research journals, diving not only into the herbs that made up this island tea, but all the substances consumed in all of the Blue Zones of the world (areas where more people live to over 100 years old). I decided that I was going to assemble these longevity substances to create the perfect tea. To be honest, I may have gotten a bit obsessive in my thoroughness. I ordered green tea from Japan, spices from the Mediterranean, and a special herb that only grows on the surface of rocks above 4000’ on the islands of Greece. After much taste-testing (for science!), I came up with the perfect blend, named it “Longevitea”, and gave it to my friends with a wish for long life.
• Things went great until people started running out.
• That spring was a constant stream of friends crying,“Noooo, I’m out of your tea! When are you going to make more?” After a dozen similar requests, followed by one friend following me around waving a wad of cash begging me to just make ONE batch, I decided that if I could make something this healthy taste good enough that everyone wanted more, maybe I was onto something. Thus, Longeviteas was born…

Do you participate in any charities?  

• As Dr. Jess the scientist, I contribute to a number of charities including International Rescue Committee, Doctors Without Borders, and various worldwide animal rescue organizations. I also make microloans through Kiva, focusing on funding young girls’ education and female-owned business ventures. However, Longeviteas the company is still too young to have formed any official charity partnerships yet.

What is your (or any of your other co-workers’) favorite tea? 

• Given that each has been created for a specific purpose, my favorite fluctuates depending on what I need at that moment. When I’m super stressed with grading and the drama of the daily news and having trouble unwinding, Tranquility is my favorite because all the GABA stimulants inside it (same as tranquilizers and alcohol) help me relax. When I’ve got the beginning of a sore throat and 3 classes to teach the next morning, Immunity is my favorite, because the 7 antibacterials inside it help kill whatever cooties I have trying to colonize my throat. It totally changes, depending on mood, needs, and even season (iced vs. hot).
• This would probably be a good point to mention that, although I designed my tea blends based on the science first, I then made many batches of different blends, each in different amounts and tested these blends on dozens of my friends, having them fill out a taste test survey for each one. Using this data, I adjusted every blend until it was not only scientifically effective, it also TASTED good, averaging at least a 4 out of 5 on the “yummy scale”. Can you tell I’m also a professor of research methodology? Yeah. My friends are used to it.

What are your thoughts on transparency in the tea industry? 

• The same as my thoughts on the transparency of everything in the “wellness” industry: Have some science behind your claims, or don’t make them. If I hear one more company throwing around terms like “detox” or “adaptogen”, with no idea what they actually mean, I will implode into a little science singularity. Actually, while I may not be able to stop companies from trying to fool people with science buzzwords, I do spend a considerable amount of time teaching my students how to be critical consumers of information, so that they will know to look behind the buzz and ask “But, how does it work?” 

What role does tea play in our lives? 

• The US has been behind much of the world in tea consumption, focusing mostly on coffee, but that’s starting to change. For me, coffee is to tea what fast food is to slow food. You have to slow down to make a cup of tea. It has to be brewed for X number of minutes, and there’s no making that happen any faster, no matter how big of a hurry you’re in. Tea is also slower in the chemical boost it gives you, with considerably less caffeine than coffee. When you add in the anti-inflammatory health benefits of tea, you get a whole picture of calm and health. So, I guess overall, I see coffee as something I drink, but tea is an experience.

Anything else you’d like to add? If you’re unsure which blend might be right for you, try our new “Which tea for me?” questionnaire on our website. I’m also always here to answer questions at jess@longeviteas.com.

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TeaTiff Picks: Sampler Set. All four blends are amazing. What I pick depends on how I’m feeling and time of day. This sampler is the perfect size for those who tend to go through tea a bit slower and like to sample a bit of everything.