Inspiring Conversations with Raj Vable of Young Mountain Tea

Today we’d like to introduce you to Raj Vable

Hi Raj, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I founded Young Mountain Tea with a promise. If a co-operative of Himalayan farmers would grow tea, I’d start a company to sell it. Since then, our team has been on a mission to work with Indian and Nepali farmers to raise the quality of their tea, so they can earn more and raise the quality of their life. Today we’re launching a specialty tea factory that they will co-own with farmers, creating a new model for how tea can empower farmers.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Bootstrapping a business has been anything been easy. I had no business background, no capital to start the business, and knew nothing about tea. Building an international supply chain from scratch has been a journey with both triumphs and challenges. From almost running out of money, to failed harvests, to learning how to lead a team through windows of internal conflict, I’ve had to handle a bit of everything. At each step, I’ve always returned to two of my favorite quotes:

One came from a mentor, who told me “if you take the leap, 10,000 hands will reach out to catch you.” Trusting our network of supporters, and that we’ll figure out the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, has been critical.

The other is from Oscar Wilde, who said “An idea that’s not dangerous isn’t worthy of being called an idea at all.” Taking big risks has not come naturally to me, but there can’t be real change unless we take risks. And as they say, fortune favors the brave!

We’ve been impressed with Young Mountain Tea, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We’ve launched India’s first farmer-owned specialty tea factory, which will raise the quality of Indian tea so farmers can raise the quality of their life. We set up this as an international venture with shared ownership between rural Indian farmers and Young Mountain Tea. Creating the legal and financial systems to connect the remote Himalayas to LA has required growing into skill sets I never imagined — from navigating complex bureaucracy with lawyers and accountants; to building trust with illiterate woman on the other side of the world; to building relationships with funders like USAID, Frontier Co-op, and Acumen. No other US tea company has attempted this, and it took us 10 years to get to this point. I can’t wait to offer these teas to American tea drinkers later this year, which we’ll make available on our website, youngmountaintea.com

How do you define success?
My definition of success has changed over time. Initially, it was purely about creating a positive change in the world. However, in the first four years, I spent all my savings, had to get onto food stamps, and take part time jobs to make the change I sought in the world. So layered on top of that was personal financial security. As I built our company to the point where it could provide that for our team and myself, I also burned out. So more recently, it’s been feeling balanced.

Making a change in the world, while paying everyone involved enough to lead good lives, and staying healthy along the way — those are all the things that go into my definition of success.

Pricing:

• Tea bags: $15 for a tin of organic, zero waste, compostable tea bags
• Loose leaf tea: Starting at $16 for tins of 2oz of tea
• 1 lb of loose leaf: Starting at $45/lb
• Bulk tea bags of 100: Starting at $65

Contact Info:

• Website: https://youngmountaintea.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngmtntea/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YoungMountainTea/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@youngmountaintea