How She Brewed This: Morning Glory Chai
[Writer’s Note: This is the second founder feature of the Gender Vender’s series, “How She Built This,” which focuses on womxn-owned businesses in the Greater Seattle Area.]
When Jessica Vidican-Neisius founded Morning Glory Chai, she promised that she would never use an artificial ingredient. Over 20 years later, this still rings true. Now, Morning Glory Chai is available in 265 coffee shops, co-ops, and apothecaries across the West Coast.
The seed for this idea was planted a long time ago, and it’s rooted in Jessica’s long-time interest in herbs.
“I had been interested in herbal medicine since childhood,” Jessica said. “In second grade, I used to take plants from the playground, scrunch them up, and rub them on my friends’ scratches and bruises.”
When Jessica was on her way to earning her teaching certificate, she felt like her coursework and student teaching left her feeling stressed. She needed something that would give her more energy. Since she didn’t have great medical insurance, she decided to see Michael Tierra, an herbalist in Santa Cruz and founder of the East-West School of Herbal Medicine.
His main piece of advice? Drink less coffee.
“I thought, ‘how am I supposed to do that?’” Jessica said as she laughed. “At the time, I’m riding motorcycles and going to school. I switched away from coffee and tried to bring in more tea and more herbal teas as well so that I could try and mitigate this issue.”
She eventually discovered a blend of chai that was made with traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, and tonics. Although she wasn’t too fond of the taste, it gave her a lot of energy. However, she felt like she could make something better. This opportunity became more evident during her frequent visits to Seattle to visit her cousin. Jessica quickly realized that there was a strong coffee culture, but not much chai. This planted the seed for her desire to create a unique chai brew that would warm the soul of the city.
“The weather was cold and drizzly, and I felt like this place needed some ginger,” Jessica said. “I decided that I would move up in Seattle, work at the Tibetan herb shop in Pike Place Market, and make chai. That was my plan.”
Perfecting the Morning Glory Chai blend
Jessica loaded her life, including her cello and little black pot for brewing chai, into her Datsun B210 art car, drove up to Seattle, and began working at Tenzing Momo in Pike Place, which is still the West Coast’s oldest and largest herbal apothecary and perfumery. She would use herbs from work to create different chai blends in her home kitchen.
“I had 1,000 herbs to experiment with and a team of herbalists and colleagues to experiment on. I was trying to create a gentle tonic that was delicious, good for people long-term, and provided some gentle support.”
Using herbs from Tenzing Momo, Jessica developed a dry mix of chai, which was sold at the herb shop. Jessica also brewed this dry mix into liquid chai and bottled it in big glass jugs, which were used to serve Morning Glory Chai at the Black Cat Cafe, Café Paradiso and a few other shops around Seattle.
“I’d leave samples, my phone number, and my paperwork and then come back in a few days to see what they thought,” Jessica said.
During this time, Jessica built out a brewing kitchen in her home, which she got WSDA-certified.
During her time working on and off at Tenzing Momo and developing Morning Glory Chai, she also decided to open Mr. Spot’s Chai House on Market St. in Ballard.
“Mr. Spot’s was a people’s tea house and cafe, with only vegetarian food, a full calendar of off the wall events, and the chai brewery in the kitchen,” Jessica says.
As an entrepreneur, Jessica found it helpful to maintain a cash flow from working at Tenzing Momo while building relationships with customers and local coffee shops.
“While it’s very difficult to hold down a job while you’re trying to start a business, those extra hours that you put into the business after you leave work are going to pay off. In the meantime, having a steady source of income will give you a longer runway to get established.”
Working on your business, not just in your business
Jessica reached a point where she had to outsource some of the brewing, processing, and shipping. She began to hire baristas and brewers. Jessica learned the importance of understanding how the business runs all-up, and what you need from your employees.
“That’s where the rubber really hits the road as an entrepreneur,” Jessica said. “You have to wear all the hats, especially in the beginning. Having a broad understanding of the whole apparatus was definitely something I learned the hard way.”
When she decided that she wanted to start a family, she pulled out of retail to focus on wholesale. At the time, she discovered that she had to focus on working on her business, rather than in a business. While she was pregnant, she had to learn how to delegate work and manage people to create her product. That way, she could step back and focus on being a mom.
“It’s OK to not be Fortune 500 bound. It’s OK to scale it back for a little bit and enjoy time with your littles. It’s OK if your career has to take a little bit of pause.”
Now that Jessica’s son is entering junior high, she’s thinking about where her business will go next. She sees herself traveling to Portland, Los Angeles, and other markets.
“I’ve learned so much during my parenting sabbatical about how to target my actions,” Jessica said. “I feel like I have a clearer vision.”
Creating and cultivating your community
Jessica’s advice to entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, is to seek out mentorship and community. She did this through the Goldman Sachs 10,0000 Small Business program, an investment to help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity. This program was a crash course MBA, and it connected Jessica to a larger community of small business owners, helped her learn more about bookkeeping, and gave her the skills to take her business to the next level.
“Entrepreneurship can be a lonely time, so there was a sense of solidarity that came with being in a room of 150 other bosses,” Jessica said.
Talking to other founders in the program was the catalyst for rebranding Morning Glory Chai’s packaging. In particular, she wanted to highlight the fact that her product has natural ingredients, which are all listed on the back of the product.
“Instead of using vanilla extract, we cut whole vanilla bean. We use real cinnamon, ginger, and cracked black pepper,” Jessica said. “The homebrew blend has sticks, twigs, seeds, and bark. When you put it in water, you make a real concoction with it.”
Throughout her work, Jessica has also been successful in creating a sense of community around her product and company.
“Building a community starts with being observant. The best way to build community is to listen to people talk about what they wish existed, how they want to connect, and what makes their lives easier.”
Jessica is excited to partner with Gender Vender for the Womxn of Color in STEM event at the Pacific Science Center. The event’s mission aligns with her own goals to support women in STEM and in business.
“I tell my son to look around his elementary school classroom and notice who’s sitting quietly, paying attention, and doing their homework,” Jessica says. “It’s often the girls, who have historically been denied an education for centuries.”
She believes that we should have more conversations about how we can support women of color in STEM and in business.
“It’s so important that we elevate women in business, women of color in STEM, and people of color in general,” Jessica said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
Find Morning Glory Chai online, in a retail store near you, and at the upcoming Womxn of Color in STEM event at the Pacific Science Center.
Like this post? Check out the other interviews in our Founder series, which focuses on womxn-owned businesses in the Greater Seattle Area.
