Emily Bowman: animal lover, artist, tea enthusiast, and the creator of The Goat Tea, took some time to speak with me about goats and tea.
Talk to me about your history with tea.
I grew up on Lipton Tea in New York with milk and sugar, and that’s what I thought was tea and then I met my husband who is actually from England. His parents, the first time they came to visit, brought me a traditional pot and a big bag of PG Tips.
Eventually, I started drinking Teavana because that was the new thing but then I went to Durango, Colorado and there’s this really quaint coffee shop that had loose tea that you could go and just fill your bags up. It was the most amazing tea and I thought oh my gosh this is nothing like Lipton or PG or Teavana … so that’s when my love of tea began and I just started researching it.
But on a side note, my husband is English, his parents drink PG Tips day and night – they don’t believe in flavored tea. But my husband does not drink tea (I think they may have kicked him out of England). So I’m trying to make up for his not drinking tea by drinking tea all of the time.
We have actually found some really great tea and coffee blends and my husband is okay with it… but I do carry whole bean coffee, just one flavor just for him.
How was “The Goat Tea” born?
I’m a huge fan of goats, I had goats in Arizona, I had a little heard of 7. They are like dogs. When my husband and I moved to Texas I wanted to honor them some way, so we tried “The Goat Tea.” And I needed a Goat with an actual goatee so I can have a play on words. And I called my old tattoo artist in Arizona and he was able to create my vision. And from there I just tried to find teas you wouldn’t find anywhere else and give them a name that’s fun and make people laugh and smile.
Tell me a little more about your history with Goats.
I was born and raised in Queens, New York. I went to John Bowne High school. It’s the only agricultural high school in all of New York City. The school had a little farm in the back of the school and we had all kinds of animals. One summer I worked on a goat dairy I fell in love. So my dream was to have goats and all through the years I’ve collected goat stuffed animals or goat trinkets and got a goat tattoo and when we moved to Arizona we finally got some goats.
What’s the story behind your logo?
The image behind the goat tea, was the one that I thought about, was named “Whitey,” and of course he was white, (I didn’t name him, my husband did) but he did have a goatee. I bottle fed him and his brother. I would go and sit in the goat pen and all 120 pounds of him and his brother – horns and everything- would jump in my lap and curl up because they wanted to hug and kiss me. So for me, this was a way to pay homage to it. We moved to Texas about a year ago for my husband’s job so unfortunately, we had to give up our entire heard, so this is my way of staying close and just being able to see them, you know just makes me smile.
I wanted to be able to tie into traditional teas from the 1800s in England (with pinkies up) but then have it relate to our time because I think tea is becoming more predominant in our culture and there’s this whole new generation of tea drinkers and I wanted to reach out to them as well. And when we have so many different tea drinkers- I wanted to say hey we have new flavors, there are things that are out there that you haven’t tried, and you may not like it but I wanted to be able to put a smile on peoples faces and have them try something completely different.
Staying on the topic of art: Is art something that’s been close to you?
Not only do I want to support tea, I also want to support different artists that are out there. I love to paint and I love to create. For about two years I was with Paint Night, a company that travels to different restaurants and has a little party where they teach you how to paint and that’s how I got to know a lot of different artists and I just want to be able to support them as well.
What’s your mission?
Just to be able to bring out new and inventful flavors to all generations of tea drinkers.
How about your vision for the future?
As for the future, I would love to be able to be in all different stores so people are able to go to the store and say, ‘ok here’s the traditional…oh.. what is this watermelon lime basil that’s crazy,’ and then just want to try it anyway. But I would love to have a brick and mortar as well. That way I can really focus on blending, I can focus on having artist displays in my store, and then eventually I would love to be able to bring art. I would love to have somebody sit down with a cup of tea an be able to create while they drink.
Discover all the fun, creative bends from The Goat Tea and the causes they support on their website.
*All photos were provided by The Goat Tea
