Today we’d like to introduce you to Julian Tcherassi
Julian, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It all started when I was playing guitar in a rockband around 10 years ago and the singer told me about this tea that he used to pass kidney stones and it’s just a wood that you boil in water and it turns blue in the light. He showed it to me and I thought it looked so interesting so I started reading about why it’s blue, why it’s fluorescent, what makes it healthy., etc. I learned that palo azul has fluorescent nutrients which are called polyphenols, and these nutrients are what make it antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-arthritic, liver-protective, renoprotective, and that’s why they use it in Mexico as a natural remedy for kidney & liver health, diabetes, and arthritis.
My bandmate and I both thought that it was crazy that so many people had never heard of this incredible tea, so around 4 years ago we both decided to start selling it online. We ended up deciding to split up, but I still felt the urge to continue sharing palo azul with others. So I quit my job and started working nonstop to start Magiktea. I spent about a year just learning everything I could about the food and beverage industry, marketing, sales, importing, manufacturing, etc. I read a bunch of books, articles, listened to podcasts and interviews from founders/CEOs of beverage companies and this helped me formulate a plan.
Then it was just a matter of getting started, going from 0 to 1, so we did our first product run and I went to all the health food stores and tea/coffee/herbal shops near me and showed them the magic. I offered free samples to the stores and I would do demos to promote the product so they had nothing to lose and this way I got our product into around 60 stores in the Tampa Bay area.
I decided to move to Los Angeles because I knew this was the best place to sell a blue fluorescent tea that’s made with tree bark. So I repeated the same process and we got into a lot of the health food stores in LA including Erewhon, Lassens, Lazy Acres, Bristol Farms, Gelsons, and Clark’s Nutrition. Now we’ve had 100s of people have tagged us on social media and our product was on The Kardashians, so the word spread and we’re in almost 300 locations all over the U.S.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the beginning the road was pretty rough, since people didn’t know about palo azul and most people have never made tea with wood before, let alone one that turns blue in the light…a lot of people were skeptical about it so it took a lot of education. We got a lot bad reviews and upset customers because their tea didn’t turn blue because they used the wrong water even though the instructions say to use alkaline water because palo azul only turns blue with alkaline water, but oh well. We still get bad reviews because of this but it’s just a part of the game.
Our first big bump in the road was when we had our food business inspection and the inspector saw that our tea was basically wood chips and he put a stop sale on our product because he assumed it wasn’t safe for human consumption. Even though we had imported the palo azul with all the right documentation and it was approved by the FDA upon entry into the U.S. Fortunately, I met a food business lawyer a few weeks before and she was literally an angel….she helped us through this entire process and after 2 months, the inspector gave me a call saying that our documentation was correct and he removed the stop sale.
I knew that we were right all along, but it was so frustrating to have all this bureaucracy hindering us in the beginning when we were just starting to get traction and during these 2 months we had a bunch of orders that we couldn’t fulfill. I didn’t expect that something like this would happen to us so early, but I had no doubt that we would get through it, specially since I was in good hands with my lawyer. I think we should all expect bumps on the road, so when they do come, we’re prepared to get through them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve always been an artist first and music is what led me to start Magiktea. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 14 years old and I studied guitar at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. That’s where I met the bandmate who introduced me to palo azul tea. We wrote a bunch of music that I would describe as psychedelic rock with hints of classical, kind of like Pink Floyd, Rush, Radiohead, or Muse. Since we broke up, I continued writing music on my own and I still play guitar almost everyday because if I don’t, I get crazy fingers.
I’m also planning to start releasing my first album hopefully around 1 year from now. It’s tough to juggle running Magiktea and producing an album simultaneously so it may take a bit longer than expected. Everytime I’ve showed my music to other people, they tell me that I need to record this and share it, so this is just something that I feel like I have to do.
People usually tell me that they’ve never heard music like mine before because I use classical finger style picking, I play the harmony/melody at the same time, I sing, and I write chord progressions and voicings that aren’t very common. I guess just naturally this is the type of music that wants to come out of me because I used to listen to a lot of classical music and classic rock bands. I’ve also been writing lyrics since I was around 18 years old, so I would just write a lot of poems about my thoughts about the world, philosophy, spirituality, love, and the mysteries of life.
What are your plans for the future?
One week from now we will be exhibiting at Newtopia Now (formerly Expo East), so my goal is to get into some of the bigger health food natural chains like Whole Foods or Sprouts. Once we get the opportunity to show our product to these chains, I think that they will see that they are missing the magic in their shelves. Because we already do well in many health food stores and we have 100s of people who have tagged us because they love palo azul’s blue color or health benefits. Once we’re on their shelves, the plan is to educate their customers by doing a bunch of demos and just sharing the magic with people.
We just recently got certified organic, so all our new packaging will have the USDA Organic seal. This is super exciting for me because I personally buy everything organic and our palo azul has always been organic, but to finally see Magiktea with the USDA seal is really surreal…it’s like seeing my baby grow up and now it’s got one of the seals that people look for the most.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.magiktea.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkmagik/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drinkmagik
- Twitter: https://x.com/drinkmagik
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@magiktea
Image Credits
Alexa Ashley @alexaashley
