Case Study: Cat Spring Tea

Austin Foodshed Investors provided funding of $75,000 on Friday, 1/21/16, to Cat Spring Tea.

Cat Spring Tea harvests yaupon, the only native source of caffeine in North America. Led and owned by sisters Abianne Falla and Jenna Dee Detro, the company identified an opportunity to create a business from what some ranchers consider a weed. ​​

​Cat Spring Tea is committed to sustainable agriculture and second chance employment.  They epitomize the values AFI seeks to support, including:

• harvesting and production demands are used as a platform for second chance employment, fulfilled through partnerships with organizations supporting and equipping marginalized individuals overcoming criminal histories and generational poverty
• commitment to sustainable wild harvesting, Cat Springs creates an new business opportunity for what has been overlooked for centuries as a "weed"
• in addition to sustainably wild harvesting, the process itself is an incredibly sustainable method for caffeine sourcing. When you consider the staggering amount of water needed for coffee (2,500 gallons for 1 pound of coffee), yaupon is grown using natural rainfall and no water is used during the production process.

AFI assisted the win of a $250,000 USDA grant in 2015. AFI coordinated six individual lender/investors to fund this $75,000 loan for expenses approved as reimbursable by the grant.  For an overview of the deal, and AFI's other Portfolio companies, please see the Deals section of our website.

Cat Spring has been all over the news.  Here are a couple of the best:

• Edible Austin:  "Stubborn gets a second chance"
• Texas Monthly:  "How the drought led to a revival of America’s only native caffeinated drink"
• NPR:  "Here's The Buzz On America's Forgotten Native 'Tea_' Plant"​