Getting Bare With Kate From Mayde Tea
Not only is Kate Dalton our good friend and local to Byron Bay, she’s also the brain (and beauty) behind Mayde Tea.
These tea blends are organic and handmade in small batches. They’re also delicious and relaxing — a little slice of heaven in a teacup!
Give us a short character description of yourself.
I’m Kate, a 27-year-old naturopath/nutritionist and the owner of Mayde Tea! I’m originally from beautiful Jervis Bay and am currently living in (equally as beautiful) Byron Bay. I started my business 3 years ago while I was studying and now that I’m qualified, I practice as a naturopath as well as run my tea business.
Tell us about Mayde Tea and how it began.
Mayde Tea is an organic herbal tea company. I create all of my blends using naturopathic philosophy. This means that I formulate my tea blends similar to how would a herbal tincture for my clients in a naturopathic consultation. I create tea blends for minor, but common ailments like digestive issues, hence the Digest tea, and nervous system complaints (like anxiety/insomnia etc) with Serenity.
I started the company a few years ago without actually knowing I was starting a business to be honest! I never went into it for financial motives or anything — people thought I was crazy when I didn’t have anything that slightly resembled a ‘business plan,’ I just did (and still do) whatever feels right.
It all started because I wanted to be able to share my knowledge and passion for nutrition and herbal medicine, and have the ability to make experiencing the benefits easily available to everyone. I was making teas for myself at home and people were asking to try them. I ended up being a bit of a tea supplier by accident so then I was confident (as confident as you can be starting a business) that it would work as an actual business. I continued studying full-time and somehow managed to get the business off the ground. It was hard work and still is, but super fun and rewarding.
How important is it to eat organically to you? And why is it so important that your tea is organic?
Incredibly important! I know that it’s just reality that I will come in contact with some non-organic items and I won’t be hard on myself for eating them — I think the stress about consuming it would be worse for my body than the actual food. We are so lucky to have such beautiful organic produce so readily available so I shop completely organically, and do my best when I’m eating out to continue to. I’ve started having a big organic veggie box delivered from my friends Cam and Nic who own the Clunes Nursery! So that makes eating organically at home super easy (and delicious).
Tea, on the other hand I’m not so comfortable consuming if it isn’t organic. Tea crops are of the most heavily sprayed and the fact it’s going straight into boiling water means the chemicals will extract straight into the tea. Which then speedily enters the body and blood stream causing inflammation and all sorts of things. Organic tea is vital in my life!
What is your go-to tea blend?
The one I drink the most at the moment would be Restore. I created it to help support the immune system but I drink it mostly because it tastes so incredibly delicious! It’s lemon myrtle, marshmallow leaves, hibiscus, echinacea and rosehip. My immune system would be pretty happy too!
I’ve also just created a new sticky chai blend. It’s the first 100% organic sticky chai on the market so I’m pretty excited! It’s also vegan as it doesn’t contain honey — I’ve instead sweetened it with coconut nectar and brown rice syrup which is great for fructose sensitive people. I’ve been drinking this so much lately which has conveniently lessened the amount of chocolate I eat and coffee I drink ;)
What do you love most about what you do?
I love that I have no idea what it feels like to hate going to work. Every day the business is evolving and I don’t stop learning! I work long hours but these are flexible so that’s definitely a bonus about what I do! I feel the best when the people around me do, so receiving feedback about how much my tea helps my customers makes me certain that I’ve chosen the best thing for me.
I’ve always wanted to be working with nature in some way — and mixing tea blends and hand packaging them could not be closer to nature. It’s incredibly grounding an nurturing being surrounded by pretty plants all day!
Who have you collaborated with and who would you like to next, and why?
I think my collaboration with Pana Chocolate was my most favourite one, that felt like such a dream! It started when I was just starting out but the blends are still available for purchase! I was still finding my feet and all of a sudden I was having meetings with Pana (he’s a real person!) about creating Pana chocolate exclusive blends. That’s a pretty big collaboration and I feel pretty content with that being my biggest one yet!
I also provide my lovely friend Al from The Daily Bar with my Organic Chai blend and she makes her ‘yogi’ bar with it. I don’t think too much about who else I’d love to collaborate with or go out looking for them — I just wait until they come my way and they certainly do!
We’ve noticed you dabble in the modeling world too — how did you get into that?
Haha ah the modelling world! I’ve kind of stopped that now. Am I old enough to say I’m too old for it? When I was younger I was naturally quite tall and thin and I guess that seemed to do the trick.
I used to model as a more permanent thing when I was about 18–23 and I’ve had random things come in since then. I’m open to doing freelance-type modelling for the right brands, it’s pretty fun! The reason I’m not with an agent any more though is because I don’t want to have to think about what size/body shape I am or what I might look like if I was called into a casting tomorrow — so to save the stress I cancelled my agent and decided to focus on the naturopathy world. It’s much more ‘me’.
What are your favourite things about living in Byron Bay?
I never thought I’d learn to surf until I lived here! I think that’s been one of my favourite things — having perfect little point breaks to learn on, as well as a huge surfing culture to motivate me (definitely still learning though!). The community here has been so great for my business; I feel very lucky to have had most of the new cafes that open ask to stock my tea. The tight community, beautiful people and stunning coastline are my favourite things!
What is your guilty pleasure?
Dark chocolate and peanut butter (at the same time).
What is your idea of adventure?
Packing the car with camping gear, surfboards and picnic treats and heading south. We’ve been camping on weekends a lot lately and it feels so nice to get away and live simply amongst nature for two days. It’s the best way to return back to work on a Monday!
Favourite Bare Blends product/smoothie?
The green smoothie! I always buy this one from the smoothie bar so I thought I’d buy Bare Greens to try and replicate it. Mine tastes nowhere near as good so I’d rather go in and pay the experts!
I love the vegan Peruvian Power Protein too. I’m not vegan but I love the taste of this one! I always have both of these at home to make my own smoothies when I can’t get into the smoothie bar.
xx
Kate Dalton
katemaydalton@maydetea.com
www.maydetea.com
@maydetea
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