Sei Mee Tea® signature products:
Edible Green® ground green tea, not bitter, easy
to fix, naturally more antioxidants.
Unforgettable™ tasty, gluten free coffee substitute
with detox. |
About Sei Mee Tea®
Sei Mee Tea® was created by its founder,
Kiyomi Koike, from "necessity" when her husband, Bill,
was diagnosed with cancer with only a 50% survival chance.
That was 3 months after Kiyomi's second child was born
and her mother called her from Japan and told her that
her father was in bed dying of cancer--her parents kept
it secret until her baby was born safely! With her mind
confused, Kiyomi needed to "do something" to keep her
going.
Being a native Japanese, Kiyomi told Bill to drink 10
cups of brewed green tea everyday to get health benefits
from brewed green tea, which is a well known fact in Japan.
Bill was not fond of the flavor of the brewed green tea
Kiyomi was buying at their local grocery store at that
time. He managed to gulp it down for her the first, and
the second day, and finally, on the third day, he said,
"I can't drink this anymore--I'd rather die." Kiyomi felt
totally helpless with her 3 month old baby and a 3 year
old boy in her arms--but with her friends' support and
encouragement, she recovered from her depression, and
she started to research about green tea and looked for
a better green tea.
Sei Mee Tea's signature product, Edible Green®, was found
during this intensive search. Edible Green® ground green
tea is easier to fix (every time you make "perfect tea"!),
not bitter, and much more beneficial (so you don't have
to drink 10 cups a day). Bill said, "I can drink this,"
and he started to drink Edible Green® everyday. After
5 years passed by, his oncologist said to him, "You are
clear--you don't have to come back to see me anymore,
but DON'T STOP DRINKING EDIBLE GREEN®!"
The
company name, Sei Mee Tea®, is pronounced as "Say
Me Tea." "Sei" in Kanji character
means "pure," and "Mee" in Kanji
character means "beauty." Green tea's health
benefits are amazingly versatile and the scientifically
proven health benefit list includes cancer, heart diseases,
flu, arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, aging,
weight loss, etc. Our promise is to bring health and quality
to your life by introducing premium foods that are real,
healthy, efficient for wellness, and delicious for our
taste buds.
The following article appeared shortly after Sei Mee Tea®
launched their business in the northeast corner of Oregon,
where green tea seemed quite "exotic."
A lot of local people now use Edible Green® ground
green tea and have found out the comfort and versatility
this deep green fine powder offers. And the circle of
those who use Edible Green to bring health and tasty comfort
to their lives is growing daily--spreading from state
to state across this nation.
Our vision is simple: Sei Mee Tea® products will become
a healthy and tasty staple in the pantry of every household
in this great country.
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a Fan of Sei Mee Tea!
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Sei
Mee Tea® LLC
P. O. Box 276
Enterprise, OR 97828
Toll Free 1-866-844-9448
info@groundgreentea.com
Email us
Fax 541-426-5938
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Thursday, December 23, 2004
It’s easy, being green
by Michael Lane of the Wallowa County Chieftain
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Enterprise
entrepreneur Kiyomi Oliver attractively packages
her healthful — and very flavorful — offerings.
Photo by Michael Lane
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Kiyomi Oliver is passionate about green tea.
Not the bitter, grass-clipping-flavored stuff sold in teabags in the United States, but real green tea.
“I couldn’t believe the green tea that is sold in America,” Oliver said. “I guess they thought people wouldn’t know the difference.” Oliver, born in the Kansai region near Osaka, Japan, does know.
And while quality green tea not only tastes far better than the grade seen by American consumers, Oliver is even more interested in its health benefits.
Sei Mee Tea (pronounced say me tea - sei mee being a play on one possible reading of the characters for Kiyomi in Japanese) began as a vague idea three years ago, when Bill Oliver, Kiyomi’s husband, was diagnosed with cancer. Holding their newborn daughter, with their son still a toddler, Oliver felt she had to do something, she said. Green tea is known for its antioxidants, and she decided to pursue it as a naturopathic remedy.
Oliver’s tea is a far different substance than the tea-bag variety many are familiar with in the states. It’s a powdered tea, with the leaves ground almost to a dust, then steeped in hot, but not boiling, water. There’s nothing thrown away, and that, she said, is what makes it special. “When you throw the leaves away you lose 90 or 95 percent of the antioxidants and vitamins,” Oliver pointed out. With the powdered tea, as easy to use as the instant stuff that comes in a jar at the store, you get all the benefits of nine cups of the mass-market green tea.
And you don’t just have to drink it, as her experiences prove.
“That was a real breakthrough that Kiyomi had,” Bill Oliver remembers. His wife decided to try including the powdered tea in classic American comfort foods and found that it was not only an alternate way to include it in his diet, it was also delicious.
Kiyomi Oliver first found a supplier, an organic farmer in the Miyazaki province of Japan, an area famous for its teas. After friends and family had shown appreciation for the product, she went through the many step necessary to turn her idea into a salable commodity. In its debut at the Handcrafter’s Guild bazaar in Enterprise, and the Joseph Holiday bazaar earlier this month — despite some initial skepticism by customers at the idea of green food — the tea did very well. “We had people coming back the next day to tell us how much they’d liked it,” Bill Oliver remembered. Both praised Wallowa County Business Facilitator Myron Kirkpatrick, whose advice, said Bill Oliver, helped them avoid the many blind alleys that people can go down while trying to put together a small business.
Starting this week, The Common Good Market in Enterprise, Lupine Annie’s in Lostine and To Zion in Joseph have begun carrying Sei Mee Tea, and Oliver has a Web site in the works, as well as hopeful plans to someday franchise sales to individuals. She will be on hand for a demonstration at The Common Good on Dec. 23. |
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