This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 94.

Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here.

Amy: 0:06

Welcome to Nirvana sisters podcast where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state your nirvana. We are sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman. And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation

Unknown: 0:28

Welcome back to the show Nirvana sisters family. It's Amy and Katie and we are here with Lisa Gauvreau, founder and CEO of big heart tea company and we are thrilled that she has joined us today to talk all about her company and her background and how her company started and the benefits of tea and how it affects our well being. So a bit about Lisa, she founded big heart Tea Company in 2012. And the company's mission is to help people feel good through healing herbs and tea. Lisa is trained in Ayurveda and combines her food medicine and culinary knowledge to create a growing line of herbal blends that taste good and make you feel that so Katie and I are drinking our big heart tea. I'm drinking the Rooibos if I'm saying that right. And Katie, what are you drinking? And I'm drinking the cup of sunshine, which is the golden tumeric and ginger and it is divine. Yeah, so we love it. And we love all the packaging. We have our little hearts hanging on our tea mugs. So I love that signature little branding moment. So anyway, welcome to the show. Lisa, thanks for being here.

Lisa: 1:35

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, we're excited to have you. So before we get started, we'd like to take a step back from our week and talk about what brought us joy this week, big or small, what made us happy we put a little smile on our face. So Katie, I will kick it to you to talk about your nirvana of the week. Well, thanks, Amy. I was trying to think about this earlier. And it was a very small moment that just made my heart sing so much and had to do with my five year old daughter she was sick last week she had strep throat and then this week, she started feeling better. And you can kind of really see when that like the sickness goes away, and there's they start to be themselves again. And we're just in the kitchen one day and the way she just asked me for something the way she said Mama and the way you know what I'm saying? Like it was it just kind of like made my heart sing she we have an Au Pair now who is amazing because she is she's like the MPP in this house, I wouldn't be able to go back to work and do all the things I'm doing without her but the kids adore her. That's a good thing. That's a really good thing. I'd much rather have that than the opposite. But so they want to be with her a lot. And they ask for her help a lot. So when I'm around and they come to me and you know, say mama like they did when they were littler. It makes me really happy. So that was my Nirvana this week. What about you, Amy? That's cute. Well, I have one home, one from the week. And then one future one. So the one from the week is similar to yours. My little one, Jules, he's 13. You know, he's like, in the teenage years, you know, like the drama, the school, all this stuff. And he's just not as like, you know, like, not that he's not loving towards me. But you know, he's not like a little kid anymore, where he like, wants to be around me that much. So the other morning he was like, he's like, Mom, can I have my morning hug? It was so small, like, Yes, I'm like you just made my day. So that was really sweet. So that was my little smile moment of the week. But tomorrow night, I'm also going to see Seinfeld and concert and I'm super excited because I've never seen his show. So we're going with friends and during dinner and going to see a show and love Seinfeld. So super excited about that. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, Lisa.

Unknown: 3:44

Let's see, um, I have been traveling a lot lately. So just since the year started, I've been at three different shows all over the country. I'm talking about big heart. And so I've been super homesick and missing my family, my little family at home. But I called in to the team here at Big Heart just to check in on things because we just have a lot going on. And the whole production team like shout it out and said hi to me. And it like made me cry a little. I don't. I just like I just felt so like, supported and like loved from afar by our teams like working so hard here in St. Louis. While I'm out. I was thinking I was in New York at the time at a at a show and I just was feeling like overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness about having just such an amazing team of humans that I'm lucky to work with every day. So I think that was my Nirvana moment. That's so special. I love that all three of our moments. Were all around, you know, the people that we love in our lives. That's really sweet. That's great. All right, well, let's kick it off. I am so excited to hear about Big Heart tea, and I'm really interested in your background with Ayurveda. We have talked to somebody with that. There's an Ayurvedic specialist before, but it's such a fascinating, huge world. So tell us a little bit about your food. And I'm sorry, your food medicine and culinary journey and everything that got you to where you are today.

Lisa: 5:18

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I'm not trained to like clinically evaluated just as a site. Like, just to put that out there. My training is more from a culinary perspective. But I got into it, I didn't even realize that is so funny. So I was studying yoga in Sedona, Arizona.

Unknown: 5:39

Yeah, same. I had just moved, I was in Seattle at the time, I'd been in Seattle for about 10 years, and just was over it like needed. So I just wanted to live someplace where it was sunny. And I moved to Sedona and I just unknowingly enrolled in this yoga teacher training program. And it ended up being absolutely life changing, it was very true and authentic. It was all HOFA a lot of lecture on sort of the esoteric parts of yoga, lots of mantra, and a lot of like our your Vedic cleanses, and the food component to the, the training was all REM Vedic and so every morning, the chef would come out, and she would talk about the medicinal benefits, or just like the health benefits are really just like the reasoning behind why you would eat your meal in a certain way. So we would always start with peeling almonds like soaked almonds, it would peel the skins off, because the skins were harder to digest. And you're just like kick starting your digestive system with your first meal of the day. And we'd always like have freshly made Chai, from fresh ingredients, also to help it's all about the gut and the digestion with that first meal. And anyway, so it was about a month long teacher training. And of course, like me, being me fell in love with the food part of the training more than anything else. So I decided to stay and I just decided to stay and live in Sedona and study under the chef. And so I did an apprenticeship. And that really got my wheels turning coming from Seattle, and just at that time it was 2012 actually was TSM 11, I believe. And health and wellness was like really sort of being held captive by the health and wellness industry like it was seemed like more exclusive sort of network and using like really like language, I feel I felt like that was like creating barriers from everyday people experiencing the healing power of herbs. And so I just started kind of playing with that idea, a little bit of like, how could we make it a little bit more accessible? How can we make it a little bit more fun? Because I originally I'm from the Midwest, where I have since moved back to St. Louis, no Midwest folks are just a little bit more conservative and trying new ideas, especially like we're talking 10 years ago, consumer consciousness has grown so much since we first started the company. But I just started testing some ideas. So I I found a little trailer. And I got it. It's a 1969 camper trailer. And I just started taking that around. And it really was just my way to like sort of like sort of like a venus flytrap in a lot of ways. Like I was attracting people with this like really cute kitschy trailer, they would come inside and then I'd pour them Tumeric tea and talk about healing the the healing power of herbs. And so it really all just started with like, as an art project more or less as a way to like, just talk simply about simple, everyday changes you could make to your lifestyle to improve your quality of health and well being. Yeah, I love that. And that's what then led you to growing your brand. Were you big Hardy at that time as well. No, so we had a name that didn't make any sense of week the name of the company was retailer because we were running out of a trailer. I don't know. That's bad. So we were retailing for about five years. And in 2017 I was sort of debating on if I was going to keep moving forward because we were so hyperlocal then and it was a struggle because the tea market nationally is pretty small. But just in our small community of St. Louis, it wasn't enough to support business or lifestyle. And so it's like man, how can we make this work? Like how could I keep doing this and that's when I just decided to kind of go all in I got a little loan from a family member to bison packaging, and we rebranded as the cart. But the first five years were pretty slow. Pretty quiet. Yeah. Very cool. And so what does direct trade t mean? This was I was reading this about the company. And I think most people probably don't know what that means. If you could explain that a little bit. That'd be great. Yeah, absolutely. So, as I mentioned, I got into the tea industry because of health and wellness and herbal healing. Over time, like we all do, I've changed. And I've learned new things about the industry about how commodities are traded. And so one of the things I learned is that herbs and tea just have a really dark and dusty history when it comes to trading and international importing, exporting. And there's a lot of mystery, a lot of questions couldn't be answered in those early days by the people I was buying herbs from, I decided I needed to like have a little bit more transparency, and the the value chain. So it was like if people are using these herbs to heal themselves, they have to come from a place of health. So rather than on a farm where workers are maybe underpaid or working longer hours working conditions, depending on what tea growing region we're talking about, we started working on our trade on our sourcing model, establish direct relationships with farmers. And that's what direct trade is. And so rather than buying our tea, or an herbs from an auction, or the marketplace, that's very like herbs or interior, and most commodities are sold traditionally at auction. And that dictates the price that the value and the price of the herbs are the tea isn't necessarily what it took to grow that it's what the customer is willing to pay. And so it oftentimes the farmer and the people at the bottom, like at the beginning of the value chain are the ones that are left, short cut short on compensation. And so when you do direct trade, we're paying the farmers what they need for the ingredient, rather than what the market pricing. And so, over market price, we also pay ahead of harvest. And so we'll put in orders, usually you're out before harvest season, and we'll pay for those upfront, they have the funds to do the work that they need to do. And so and then they're you know, we're able to have a better ear to the ground. And like what's happening with the harvest set years are a lot of rain isn't going to change the flavor profile. Because these are all like natural ingredients. So it's not natural for your tea or your herb just tastes the same year over year. And so that's that's what your trade means to us. It's just a way to have a relationship and have a direct line of communication to the people who are doing the hard work on the ground level. That's great. Yeah, let's get into the the organic certified organic herbs that you use and their healing benefits and why I know our listener is going to love your tea for so many reasons. And tell us a bit about the magic of the tea. Why isn't why are they so good? Well, like let's just take it one blend at a time. So our signature blend is the cup of sunshine, which you're drinking right now is tumeric, ginger, peppercorns, cinnamon and Tulsi. So every single ingredient in that tea is anti inflammatory. And it's really great for gut health and digestion. It's energizing, it's naturally energizing. There's no caffeine in the herbs, of course, but because they're so full of like healing power, like Tumeric has a ton of curcumin, which is just like curcumin just has like a that's what lends to the anti inflammatory aspects of tumeric. That's what gives us beautiful golden orange color. And makes it so energizing. And so and just hydrating. I mean tea is 99% water. And so for folks that are constantly trying to figure out how they can get that mandatory or whatever water intake that they need on a daily basis. Tea is a great option for that as well. But I mean, at the end of the day, it's a warm cup of love, like it just is the most nurturing thing you can do for yourself. Making a cup of tea is sort of meditative and a lot of ways because it's not instant. You have to heat your water and then you have to steep your tea and you have to wait. And then just like holding a warm cup of tea is is just so comforting. And so Oh, I mean, there's so many ways in which tea is good for you. I mean, just at a very basic level, it just can literally warm you from the inside out. Yeah, it's so true. I tried your Alright, so tell us how to say it correctly, ROI, ROI boosts ROI boosts. Roi goes and so I actually my pair that I mentioned earlier, she's from South Africa and she was the first person to introduce me to Roy Bose T. And I became obsessed with it. And then I found out we have a new on and use of yours and it's so good. I love it. I drink it every night. It helps me fall asleep. It helps me another really cool thing about I was kind of like digging into my own research and I read that it shuts off your IT HELPS shut down your hunger hormone, which and so like when you wake up in the morning, you're not as hungry maybe so like, for me, you know, like hormonal hunger happens all the time. I'm always hungry. So it's, I love the ribose love and you're drinking it right now. Me Right? Yeah, it's very good. It's very good. I'm definitely like, go in and out of drinking tea. Because I drink a lot of coffee. But I do every time I do have tea. I'm always like, why don't I drink this more? It's so good. Especially drinking this one. I love it. And I agree it does have that ritual feeling. And it is a good way to get water. I never thought about it that way. Because it's most a lot of your teas. It seems like our caffeine free so you can drink it throughout the day with no problem, which is great. You were talking about the preparation of tea and you sell the tea that we're drinking, which is in which are in the sachets, but I know you also sell loose tea, and never know how to make that. So for someone like me who's new to tea drinking to questions like hey, how do you make it and be like, what's the difference between the loose and the kind in the sachet? Yeah, absolutely. Well, loose tea is well, okay, so I have a lot of chips on my shoulder, right, like so I'm like health and wellness industry. And then there's like the specialty coffee industry that like has taught us that we need to have a piece of equipment to do a thing to brew something as simple as coffee or tea. And I do not subscribe to that I think we people have been drinking tea for generations and generations without having fancy bells and whistles. We tend to overcomplicate things anyway. So like, all you really need to make a good cup of loose tea is maybe a mason jar, and a wire mesh strainer. And in many cultures, they don't even have a strainer, they're just using their upper lip to like strain the tea. So it depends on how hard you are. But really, I mean, it could be as basic is that so you would sip your tea in your mason jar, strain it through a wire mesh strainer, and bam, there you go. The difference between the tea bag and like making it loose is generally the amount of space and room that the tea has to expand in the cup. Because essential oils are medicine, but they're also flavor. And that's what's were released when you're adding hot water to this organic substance. And so a tea bag can oftentimes be limiting and like how much flavor and how much medicine you're going to get. Because they're packing so much dry ingredient into this tiny little tea. And so we designed our tea bags extra bag so that the tea could expand and release all of its flavor. So it's kind of like as close to having a loose tea drinking experience you can have without the mess. So I like that and you also your product is 100% plastic free as well, which I found interesting. And I I did see something the other day that the tea cup tea companies that use plastics that can leach into your tea is that I assume that's the motivation behind it right? Yeah, well, there's a couple of motivations one, we're like avid about sustainability here. We reuse as much as we can. And we're always trying to reduce our carbon footprint and the amount of waste that we're putting out into the environment. Like we're moms here too. So we're just trying to create a company that we could sleep at night with. And so because of that we don't use any plastic in our packaging. Definitely our tea bags, so we don't use plastic in our packaging because we don't want to fill landfills with trash. We don't use plastic in our tea bags because it does have that potential to leach micro plastics and and plus it's just like the idea of having a nylon tea bag which is made from plastic. It just kind of in your pouring hot water on it. I mean, it just doesn't really make a ton of sense to us here. So our tea bags are made from non GMO sugarcane. We recently upgraded we weren't they were made from a corn product and we updated upgraded to a non GMO product and so we're even more proud of our tea bags now. But yeah, I just think there's been a lot of awareness and companies maybe portraying, or sustainability or more transparency. And we're actually, you know, showing that there's a reason why like these simple values of like doing the right thing in business are important for us to talk about because other people aren't doing it. So if they're not talking about their packaging, being plastic free, you're right to assume that there's a good deal of some sort of plastic happening in there. Yeah, and it's also really important to the younger generation, I think they are picking brands and you know, everything from food to beauty, etc, that are sustainable, that are doing the right thing for the environment. It's it's, it's impactful that you're doing that and notice that gap. You don't really hear it about a lot to your point around like coffee and tea brands doing that. So I noticed you have this good for you collection, which looks like it's a bunch of different teas that have what some have adaptogen some have anti inflammatory ingredients, which we talked about before calming and digestive effects I wanted to hear about gut health and tea I you sort of mentioned it before, but what ingredients are good for that and which teas you have for that specific condition when we first started so like we use Tulsi as the base of almost all of our teas, Tulsi and India and our Veda is known as holy basil are the queen of herbs. It's a sacred herb. It's a powerful healer. It's also an adaptogen, which is this like super sexy buzzword in health and wellness right now. We shied away from using the word adaptogen until probably about three years ago, when it started to become a little bit more common and consumer consciousness and vocabulary. Now I feel like most people have a general idea of what adaptogens are. But the good for you collection, it's just a way to sort of like highlight a couple health benefits of a few of our teas, so that we can give the drinker sort of a next level interaction with what they're drinking because like as you get our packaging, we don't make health claims on on our packaging. We don't even make health claims on the product page. And there's a reason for that. Mostly because of the FDA but also because we don't want to like confuse people or mislead people into like thinking that we're cure for anything. Like the good for you collection that we have for gut health and digestion. I mean, are you talking about kappa sunshine, but basically anything that's spicy, that's gonna like kick heart kickstart that digestive fire. So and I made it we talk about like the Agni or like the digestive fire, whatever it's like the energy that's helping you digest and process food, thoughts, emotions, like all of those things happen in the gut. And so another one that would be really good for I know you were saying that you're a big coffee drinker, we have our fake coffee. So coffee, like the coffee bean is amazing. It has caffeine, it's like got this beautiful, robust, rich flavor. But it also has a lot of acidity and can be really hard on your digestive track. And so we have a tea that we've blended called fake coffee, which is cherry cacao dandelion root and cinnamon. And not only does that coffee alternative have no acidity and no caffeine so it's easy in the digestive track. It also isn't blended with gluten. Gluten is like really common for coffee alternatives using barley as a blend in the blend for coffee alternative and we are an allergen free facility. So we don't use barley, we don't bring any gluten and anywhere near our facility. And so that's like another tea that's really great for the gut health generally, and like tea drinkers will tell you this an herbalist will tell you this, but like the little particulates that you get at the bottom of your tea cup, just that little dusting that like slips through the mesh of the bag, that is amazing food for your gut bacteria. And it's just like a nice little easy way to just sort of nourish all of the healthy bacteria that you have going on that's helping you process your stuff. I use your lavender mint I love for peppermint. I love that for when my stomach if I need to settle my stomach a little bit. So your lavender Mint is really nice, especially in the evenings as well because of the lavender and the relaxing properties behind it. What is the name of that one? That's our royal treat. Yeah. And we actually blended that tea for adaptogenic health. So each tea is blended for a certain thing. We have a certain thing in mind. In fact, we aligned our original T's to the the chakra system. And so that's something that We could go in totally different podcast and talk about that one that royal treatment was blended for, to help our little poor adrenal system sort of repair and restore. So yeah, it's great. I love it. Well, I want to know, what are your favorites out of your collections and it for someone that's new to tea, where would like what's a good starter kit or, you know, the best one to go for? Yeah, so my, I mean, our number one best selling tea, the first tea I ever blended, the only tea we sold for the first year of business is our cup of sunshine. And that's my go to still to this day, I was just on a business trip. And I drink like, probably four cups of tea that at night, just trying to relax. Just a really nice balance of tumeric and ginger, and it has told CNN, which Tulsi is my very favorite herb. And then my second favorite would be a cup of love, like another original from the collection. It's just two ingredients, is RoHS and Tulsi I say it's just like a hug from your grandma. I love that one at the end of the day with a big big spoon of honey and some milk and sugar. So, so nourishing, nurturing sounds so good. I love tolsey too. I'm definitely gonna try those ones later. So many good ones to try. And I love all the names of your teas. Like, just as a side note, I love all the packaging and the branding and the names because they're so like fun and upbeat. And I think tea feels sometimes to people like it's serious and like, you know, very, I don't know, sophisticated or something. There's no like fun kind of brands. So that was one of the things that we were really attracted to that it's like you're not taking yourself so seriously. And it's just like this great tea but with fun, bright packaging and cute names. So yeah, it's beautiful. The packaging is so great. It's beautiful. Yeah, yeah, it's just very vibrant and nice. So kudos, kudos. taglines is that we don't take ourselves too seriously. But we mean serious. So pretty and intentionality wrapped up in that like cute, funny, funky little package. But yeah, that was Thank you know, and I like I like that part at the ends. And it says you are awesome, which is super cute. Okay. That's just, it's just like a fun little surprise. So yeah, so yeah, we love it. So where can people buy this fabulous tea? Yeah, well, that's a great question. So the best place to buy it is on our website. So just calm. Otherwise, like your local independent specialty retailer on your main street. And we sell a lot a lot to mom and pops, gift retailers, and so much we don't have like a comprehensive list on our site. But if you if you are looking to find it someplace locally, just give us a call or an email and we'll we'll look, we'll look in our five different places where we keep that information and find it for you think just buying online is the best place right now or Amazon. Yeah. Okay. So on Amazon. Yeah, I was gonna say it's, um, it's a great gift. Because obviously the cheese, delicious, but the packaging is cute. It's just like a really nice gift to bring someone if you're going to their house for the first time or you know, something like that. So, and we are very grateful and appreciative of you because big heart T is going to offer our listeners 20% promotion. So listeners use big heart t 20. And get your big heart t as soon as possible because it's fantastic. And we love it. Yes. Thank you for that. That's exciting. All right. So let's get into our rap session. Lisa, what is your favorite wellness or beauty hack? Yes, I started doing this a few years ago, actually a long time ago. Like before, when I was like getting ready for a job interview or something like that. I would force myself to smile for five minutes. Before I would go into an interview or into like sort of a situation where I had a lot of anxiety or stress. And there's something that happens to your brain. When you force yourself to smile. It has to be like five minutes or more like it can't just be like a little bit. Like it has to be like uncomfortable like psycho smile. And I do it when I'm driving. I do it in the morning. And it really like it really puts me in a better mood just like just having a smile on my face. And then after what after a while I'm just authentically naturally smiling. And it's one way that I sort of like trick my brain into like taking me to a different state of mind. That's so cool. I've never heard that before. I need to try it. Yeah, it's funny because I have done something kind of like that where like you know how they say smiles are infectious. So you just like, if I'm ever like in a funk, I just I'll smile but I don't do like the whole five minute thing to try to like you know, shake me out of my phone. kind of thing. So it's true. It does work. It's really That's great. Yeah, I like that idea of zooming in in the car before you get to work. That's a great idea. Okay, the next one we call our five minute flow. So you just got out of the shower and dried off. Uber just alerted you. There are five minutes away. What is your quick beauty routine? Like? What are your go twos? What do you put on to get the car on time? Yeah, well, I mean, there's just a few things that I do. One, I have a rose water spray that I have to spray on my face, like I don't feel like I'm awake until like, I get that. And another thing I like to do is an iron rents. So I have this little iron Cup, where you like, put a little bit of water in it, and then you dip your put, like, throw your head back, and then you blink your eyes in the water. That's a really great way to get those like bright refresh dyes. It's something that we learned when I was doing my area of Vedic training. Just like a nice little I cleanse just was fresh, cold water, but you know, throw on a little mascara and a big heart t hat. And then I'm ready to try that. And then how do you maintain your daily nirvana? Well, gratitude. I'm really big into gratitude. Sometimes I call it procrastination meditation. Like if I don't want to get out of bed in the morning, I'll just lay there and send love and gratitude out. And also, don't forget to be like thankful to yourself for all of the hard work that you're doing every day. And all the things that you're doing that nobody sees that you see. But yeah, I think I think that is the number one thing that I practice every day, and I practice it with my family. My daughter hates it, she doesn't hate it. But one day, she'll love it just sending out love and appreciation to everyone that you can think of. I love that you said, Yeah, and it's so true. And it just puts everything into a positive perspective and fills you with positive light. And it's like Bruce shared that you said that because our closing mantra today happens to be about gratitude. And we'd like to close the show with a little reminder, affirmation mantra, call it whatever you will. But before we say goodbye to you, I'll wrap with this. Gratitude helps you see what is there instead of what isn't. Hmm, that's our wrap for today. So Lisa, thank you so much for being with us. We It was great to meet you. And we love big party. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for having me and I couldn't have been more perfect. So thank you and thank you for the code. We'll make sure to put it in our show notes for all of our listeners. Definitely. Yes. Thanks for listening to Nirvana sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes please subscribe and leave us a review. also find us on Instagram at Nirvana sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would please share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana sisters. We'll continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.