← Back to Crafts & Making
🎨 Crafts & Making

Herbal Tea Business

💰 £50–£200 ⏱ Ongoing 📊 Intermediate

🔒 This guide is free for members. Join free in 60 seconds →

What is it?

Starting a small herbal tea business is a brilliant, low-cost enterprise fundraiser. You create your own unique blends of dried herbs, flowers, and spices, package them beautifully in small bags or tins, and sell them at markets, online, or through local shops. Herbal teas are incredibly popular, the ingredients are cheap, and the profit margins are excellent. This is a fundraiser that can run continuously for months, providing a steady stream of income.

What you need

  • Dried herbs, flowers, and spices (buy in bulk online or from a health food shop — lavender, chamomile, peppermint, and rose petals are popular)
  • Small paper bags, tins, or glass jars for packaging
  • Labels designed on Canva
  • A kitchen scale for accurate measuring
  • A food hygiene certificate (free online from the Highfield e-Learning platform)
  • Optional: a market stall licence from your local council

Step-by-step plan

1
Research popular herbal tea blends. Good starter blends include: Sleep Well (chamomile, lavender, valerian), Calm & Relax (peppermint, lemon balm, chamomile), and Immune Boost (ginger, turmeric, lemon peel).
2
Buy your ingredients in bulk online. Buying in bulk significantly reduces the cost per serving.
3
Create your blends and package them in small bags or tins. Each bag should contain enough for 10–15 cups.
4
Design attractive labels on Canva. Include the blend name, ingredients, brewing instructions, and your fundraising cause.
5
Complete a free online food hygiene certificate before selling food products to the public.
6
Sell at local markets, through social media, and to friends and family. Price at £4–£8 per bag.

How to advertise it

  • Post photos of your teas on Instagram with beautiful flat-lay photography
  • Sell at local markets and craft fairs
  • Ask local independent cafés if they will stock your teas
  • Post in local Facebook groups and community buy/sell groups
  • Offer a "tasting pack" of 3 small sample bags for £5 to introduce new customers to your range

Realistic earnings

If you make 50 bags of tea at a cost of £1 each (£50 total) and sell them at £5 each, you raise £250 with a profit of £200. A popular stall at a local market can sell 20–30 bags in a single morning.

Top tips

✅ Create beautiful, professional-looking packaging — presentation is everything for a premium food product
✅ Offer a "subscription box" where customers receive a new blend every month
✅ Get a free food hygiene certificate before selling — it builds trust with customers and is legally required
✅ Ask local independent cafés if they will stock your teas — this provides a regular, reliable income stream

Common mistakes to avoid

⚠️ Not getting a food hygiene certificate before selling food products to the public
⚠️ Using low-quality ingredients — the taste of your tea is your most important selling point
⚠️ Not labelling allergens clearly — this is a legal requirement for food products
⚠️ Pricing too low — a beautifully packaged artisan tea blend is worth £5–£8 per bag