- 8 months ago
Shop Essence Live is Back! On this episode, we talk to Amber Jackson founder of The Black Leaf on how she came up with her brand.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Shop Essence Live. I am Noni Donovan, your host,
00:07and this is a program we've been doing since 2020 to bring you new Black-owned businesses to shop
00:13with us here at Essence in partnership with the New Voices family. We've been gone for a little
00:19minute. We're working on some really, really great things over here at Essence, but, you know,
00:25I have been hearing from our Black-owned businesses that they really, really, really
00:29want this platform to come back, and I'm really, really excited about what we're bringing you guys
00:33today because we're bringing you not one, not two, but three Black-owned businesses. We know it's the
00:39holiday season, and you guys are buying, buying, buying really thoughtful gifts. Even if you're
00:44watching this after the holidays, you don't got to wait to say, you know, I appreciate you, I love you,
00:50or I love myself because these products are really, really great for us as well. So I am going to
00:56bring them in. First up, we have Amber Jackson from Black Leaf. Amber, welcome to the show.
01:05Hey, thank you for having me.
01:07Oh my goodness. First of all, I am so, so excited. I am all about tea. Tea, to me,
01:14there's something about it that really, really symbolizes, like, girl, take a second, slow down.
01:20Why? You can't rush through tea, right? It's like ultimate taking time to yourself. So there's
01:26something symbolic in that. I'd love to hear about how you got into this space. What's the story?
01:32Yeah. So again, thank you for having me. My name is Amber Jackson. I own Black Leaf,
01:36also known as the Black Leaf Tea and Culture Shop. And so I am born and raised Southside Chicago.
01:42I moved to Rhode Island for my job at Brown University in 2017. And as you can imagine,
01:49Rhode Island is not the most diverse place in the world.
01:52Absolutely beautiful place. But I did really struggle to find community here, especially because
01:58I was an undergrad in Tennessee. I went to grad school in Alabama. I went to HBCU for grad school.
02:03So I'm used to seeing me and having community. And so having been really frustrated with my job
02:11and desperately needing to find community for myself, I decided to go back to my roots of the
02:16kitchen where academically, my background's in food science and product development. I'm a flavor
02:22designer by trade. And I really use this as an avenue of like creativity where I don't draw, I don't
02:29paint, I don't sing. But I am a creative where being able to create a sense of a memory or a feeling
02:35through a sip or a smell or taste is such a powerful sense. And so I use that in the work that I do in
02:42developing my product, but also using the communal traditions of tea and herbs to create community
02:46also.
02:46Oh, I love that. I've always been fascinated by food science. Like sometimes you put recipes
02:53together and you're like, who thought of it? Even the flavor that I'm reviewing today, I was like,
03:00I never thought of putting notes together and I can't wait to taste it. I love that. And I love the
03:06thought of it. Creativity can show up in so many different ways, especially for the people at home that
03:11are watching. You don't have to be a musician or a painter or things like that. Creativity can show
03:15up in so many ways. And to your point, smell and taste is the thing that like can immediately change
03:21your mood.
03:22Yes. That's so powerful.
03:24So powerful. Okay. I want to get into the taste test, right? So you're probably going to go through
03:32more flavors, but for today, what I have to start us off, can you talk about how you came up with this
03:38particular? This is a chai and chocolate. First of all, I love chai. Awesome. Okay. I love chocolate.
03:48So I might be in sensory overload when I taste this, but I'm very excited. But yeah, can you talk about
03:54how you came up with this as I make myself a cup of tea? Tea party.
03:58So Chi Chai came a little after I started my business where I started with 14 blends, now there's 15.
04:03And I wanted to do something to honor my home in Chicago. And so when I think of home, it's like
04:09where Chicago is such a big city, but Chicago is black, very black. And so I wanted to do something
04:16that felt like home to me. So it's a black pepper chocolate chai where I love chai. And I also
04:21understand the Indian traditions of chai. And I wanted to do something that was kind of my tweak on it,
04:26which is why I do all my tea blends. A lot of them have just familiar feels and smells and ingredients,
04:30but it's my version of them. And so there's cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon. There's roasted
04:37cacao nibs. There's actually like chocolate in there also. And I do a ground black pepper also.
04:43It's just like a warming, a little bit of spice too, but not spicy, super aromatic, and just overall
04:48completely delicious. But it's also a hint of chocolate, so I don't use additional flavoring.
04:52It's just the cacao nibs. So it's not a chocolate bar in your mouth, but a really beautiful
04:56complement of that chocolate. Cacao. Can you talk about the benefit
05:00of doing a loose tea as opposed to like pre, like the pre-bagging? Do you get more of the flavor
05:07out that way or? Yeah. So it's better quality because you're using typically a larger piece
05:12of a herb or the whole piece of herb, the whole piece of the leaf or the whole leaf, excuse me.
05:17So it's better quality. Oftentimes with this, you are, you know, it's a better quality. You also get
05:26more steep side of it also. So you can steep the tea tea two to three times. I'll take you all the time.
05:30Get your money's worth. If you steep the process, take it out, put it back in and with fresh hot water,
05:35you can steep it again. So get your money's worth. Or if you look like a conventional
05:40bag tees, you cut it open, it looks like dust. That is very true.
05:45Where this, you're actually getting like the full particles. So the flavor is so much more robust.
05:49Ooh. I feel very fancy. With this, I love. And then you also have this Bailey, what, Bailey Beattie?
06:00Bailey Beattie Apiaries. Yes. So like I said, I'm in Rhode Island and Bailey Beattie Apiary is a local
06:06black beekeeper in Rhode Island. Very cool.
06:08By Calvin Alexander. He's actually from Trinidad. He lives in Rhode Island,
06:12in Rhode Island. He has- That's a Calvin.
06:16Yes. And so he is registered with the National Registry of Beekeepers. He is registered.
06:23He keeps his own bees in the back of his home and other places around Rhode Island also. He's very
06:29passionate about the education of beekeeping also. So you learn about the different seasonalities,
06:34how he marks the queen bee. I got to visit before. So I had my whole bee suit on and I got to go in the
06:40eye with him, but it was a great experience, but he's very passionate about what he does.
06:43I love that. So was it really important for you to partner with other local businesses there? And
06:51how did you kind of make that decision? Because I'm sure it might've been easier to just like go
06:56to a wholesale market and get some honey from them. Like, why was that important to you?
07:00I like to work with people that love what they do.
07:03I like, even for me, I'm aware that when I put something out, it's a reflection of myself
07:10and my passion and my love. And so for them, it's the exact same thing. And so I chose to work with
07:16Bailey Beekeepers because one, he's a black man living in Rhode Island like I am.
07:20Right, right.
07:21But also he's someone that's genuinely passionate about it. But also we talked to Calvin, he tells
07:27stories about his upbringing in Trinidad on the island and how he goes into the storytelling
07:33education of his product as well. So it's me working with people that love what they do.
07:39Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Okay.
07:46This right here, I don't know what it is. There's something about it that as soon as I sifted it
07:52and you could, all the love and the detail that you put into all of these pieces that went into it,
07:57you could, it takes you on a journey a little bit. Like I, I, I taste the hint of the chai and
08:05taste the hint of the cacao beans and the smell is just so, it's almost like just a spa in a cup
08:14a little bit. I don't know how to explain it, but it just like put me at ease and it tastes good.
08:19Thank you. That's a big piece of what I do also is understanding the extreme gatekeeping around the
08:23wellness industry where being able to take care of yourself and how this moment of self-care
08:28should not cost a billion dollars. And a lot of people don't know what a cumin snail black tea is
08:33or a Lapsang Souchong tea is, but you know, Kim and me. Wait, I'm sorry. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
08:38You can't just say stuff like that. Like I know what you just say that one more time.
08:42Lapsang Souchong is a Chinese smoked black tea. It's actually used it in my tea blend called Tennessee
08:47whiskey and it's a black tea apricot and vanilla and does taste like whiskey. And so there's different
08:53things you can do. So I do blends only because again, this is my creative avenue. So for me,
08:57just having a just green, just black, it's just, it's boring to me. It's beautiful, but it's boring,
09:02but having accessible and familiar, having names like Chi town, home, money, glow, these are,
09:12this is a brand that feels attainable and accessible, but it's the, within the wellness
09:17industry, even the pricing is $12 a bag. So you're getting between 75 cents per salary typically,
09:23but it's really important to me where it's like, you have a sense of wellness that's accessible,
09:28that's attainable, but also feels like it's free. It doesn't feel, uh, you know, this pretentious as
09:34loose leaf tea can most times feel. Right. So you mentioned a couple of the other flavor profiles
09:40that you have the names. Can you just go down the list? So as people go to your website,
09:45which tab can we put up the website? So they know all that you have available and I can't
09:49wait to order and try. Yeah. So as of now, I've designed 15
09:53tea blends in the five and a half years I've been in business, but there's some fruity, floral, spicy,
10:00smoky, only five of the 15 have caffeine. So there's a lot of options also. It's one thing I also learned
10:06during the pandemic, a lot of people become allergic to caffeine. Um, so I'm just saying,
10:11yes, I also have two coffee alternatives. So they look, taste, smell like coffee,
10:15but completely caffeine free. And I do not use mushroom either. Uh, but these are blends that
10:21are designed to be as a culinary experience and not just a remedy. So they can be used iced hot latte,
10:27cocktail, mocktail. I've had people use them in ice creams, cakes, uh, different syrups. So there's so
10:34much you can do with this where like, yes, traditionally, especially in black, uh, culture,
10:37African culture is a remedy. But like I mentioned before, having that feeling, that sense, that taste,
10:43that smell, it creates a feeling within you. And that is a culinary experience also.
10:47Oh, I love it. This is, first of all, this is such a thoughtful thing to do for yourself. If you're at
10:54home watching, um, and just having a whole, I have a whole box of different variety of tea that I have,
11:00depending on the day, maybe some days I want more energy. Some days I just want to relax,
11:03and calm down and unwind. So it's just a really, really great way to start your day and treat
11:09yourself and end your day as well. Um, and then just a thoughtful gift for somebody.
11:13If you're thinking of what do I get for this person? It seems like they have everything.
11:17This is a really, really thoughtful thing. They're going to think of you every single time they have
11:23this moment. Think of you. Come on. It's really, really great. Um, and I'm glad you mentioned the thing
11:28about mushrooms, because I'm allergic to mushrooms. I probably should have asked that first.
11:33So I'm glad. No mushrooms. Okay, good. Um, so this show is in partnership with the New Voices family,
11:39and you're a member of the New Voices family. Can you tell the viewers a little bit about what has
11:43been some major benefits of being a part of that community?
11:46Yeah, so I'm currently a participant in the Madam C.J. Walker Institute Pace Food Camp,
11:51and this has been such a transformative experience already, and we're only halfway through it.
11:56Um, this is my first time having coaches and not just mentors, and having an actual community around
12:03me, where again, like in New England, ain't too many of us, but even have this community virtually,
12:08and having people that are fully invested in us, and not just our business growing, but us as individuals.
12:14And really forming a community. I think that's something I've missed a lot being here in New
12:18England, compared to being at home in Chicago or down south, but really making you think critically
12:23about what your business is, where it's going, where you are going, but also as you grow that,
12:29and have more clarity in what your long-term goals are, making sure that your business benefits you
12:36throughout the entire process, and making sure that we know that they're there for us. Like,
12:40Art and Maria have been fantastic. Marie, everyone has been just fantastic to work with,
12:47and I'm truly blessed to be in this program. I love, love, love that. Yeah. So you guys at home,
12:52if you're thinking like, how do I get to where, you know, some of these businesses are on Shop Us
12:57Inside, go to newvoicesfamily.com and check it out. It's free to join. Ton of benefits. Um, Amber,
13:05thank you so much for joining us. And thank you so much for bringing the black leaf into my life.
13:11Thank you so much. Hey, you're a part of my every day now. So thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you so
13:17much.