The Tea Factor
Anwar Warner has an aversion to coffee. “I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life, I’ve only ever had tea,” he says with pride on a sunny afternoon, beaming about his preferred potion. “But I do love the smell of coffee.”
He cites his mother’s lifelong addiction to coffee that began during her childhood as his reason for steering clear of it now. “Blue Mountain coffee is a big deal in Jamaica,” he says. “My mom used to prepare coffee for my grandfather at, like, 6, 7, and on her way to give it to him she always took a few sips. By the time she was a teenager, she was addicted and would get headaches if she didn’t have it. I didn’t want any part that.”
Growing up in Co-op City, to Jamaica-born parents, tea was also a major factor in Anwar’s upbringing. “I’m of Jamaican descent,” he says. “Tea is a huge part of the culture. You have tea when you aren’t feeling well, if you have a cold or upset stomach.” There is a bush tea cure (wild herbs and plants like dandelion, peppermint and fever grass, steeped as tea) for any common ailment.
From his love of tea, a new business was born, The Tea Factor, which launched this past January. According to Anwar, if you’re a tea drinker, you’d be hard-pressed to find a spot in the city that caters to serious tea drinkers the way the boundless array of coffee shops scattered on every city block satisfies coffee drinkers. “If you’re a tea drinker you often have to compromise if you’re out for a cup of tea, between a really good cup of tea and the environment that you’re in. It’s not necessarily an interactive experience. Whereas with coffee, there is a myriad of places you can go and get both,” he says, adding “Tea uniquely can elicit feelings of nostalgia. Tea can help to facilitate conversation because, if you think about it, there’s a waiting process in having tea. All these things speak to the tea factor.”
He realized that to create a brand that spoke to the masses dedicated to the artistry of tea, he had to expand his concept beyond just selling tea. So he set out to create proprietary blends unique to The Tea Factor.
“The first part was the research to see what these herbal teas do [in the body]. The next was to fine-tune palatability,” an important part of his research-and-development process. Coming from a marketing background, he says “it’s all about the consumer, and creating a dope experience.”
Most of his tea blends are organic, and those that aren’t come from sources around the world where the term “certified organic” doesn’t exist, pesticides aren’t commonly used and GMO isn’t an issue. All the blends have a dual purpose: to taste good and to improve body function. Some of his more popular teas are Think It, a combination of mugwort, ginkgo, ginseng, peppermint and lemon balm, which is designed to help dissolve brain fog and aid in mental clarity. Another customer favorite is Flush It, created to flush out toxins that pollute the body by way of “the food we eat, liquor we drink and the air we breathe,” a mixture of burdock, clove, dandelion root and sarsaparilla.
Since launching the tea business and learning about herbal remedies, Anwar has begun studying Ayurvedic healing, one of the world’s most ancient healing practices for body systems, with the goal to pro- mote overall health, not fight diseases. Wellness is a common thread that runs throughout Anwar’s business model and personal mindset.
Currently, The Tea Factor has 35 whole-leaf dry blends available for purchase on the website, and counting, and 10 iced teas which can be found at pop-ups throughout the city, local eateries and this summer at the Riverdale Y Farmers Market and at The Bronx Night Market, the last Saturday of every month at Fordham Plaza.
For tea drinkers like Anwar, tea is ceremonious—from the ritual of steeping to the consumption, there’s no instant gratification in tea drinking, but that makes it all the more special.
