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Koyo & Co.

We sell hand picked, organic, single origin teas from South Korea. We partner with anyone who shares our vision for stillness and respite, using traditional Korean tea as a medium.
koyoteas.com
June 5×5 Night at Start Garden
Voting Closes:

June 16, 2025 11:59 pm

About this idea
We partner with small, local farmers in South Korea to bring traditional Korean tea to the U.S market. We receive the loose leaf tea and package them in the Downtown Incubator Kitchen, with the hope to one day open a tea house in Grand Rapids where people can enjoy tea at any time. Given the rise in demand for alcoholic free "third places", we believe a late night gathering space offering tea and tea adjacent goods will become more and more popular, as indicated by market research done in major U.S cities such as Los Angeles and New York City. For now, we're focused on offering the finest quality teas to the U.S market through our online store.
Impact
Our focus is finding our inner peace, which is largely related to mental health and well being. Everybody feels the pressure of staying on top of things given the fast paced society we live in these days. Our goal is that Koyo teas will give people reason to break the momentum of a hurried life and in doing so, re-centering themselves so they can be more effective in accomplishing whatever goal they have. By providing a third place space eventually, we hope to bring people together through a medium that is healthy and delicious.
What I'll do with $5,000
We have received feedback that while loose leaf tea is the purest way to experience tea, there is a significant demand for tea bags, especially if we want to consider wholesale opportunities. Our first batch of tea bags is estimated to cost around $3500 for the three line of teas we offer. We are also interested in updating our packaging by moving away from tins, which dent easily during shipping. The cost of this re-packaging lift is around $2000, which includes hiring designers for the new packaging material, market testing the new bags/boxes, finding the new supplier for our packaging goods and the first batch of bags/boxes.
Quick Bio
My name is Daniel Joo, i'm 32 years old and currently live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Links
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