Man sells tea to plant trees
Mark Sotomayor sells specialty teas to help plant trees in Haiti. • Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Mark sits in the back of a van carrying trees to be planted in Haiti.
Mark Sotomayor started a business selling specialty tea blends and ended up helping fight deforestation in a Caribbean country.
Treecup Tea sales already have resulted in the planting of 19,000 trees in Haiti, where 80 percent of the nation is deforested. Mark, 23, said the goal is to fully reforest Haiti by 2030.
“I am blessed to be able to help the most in-need country in the Western Hemisphere,” he said.
Treecup is partnered with the nonprofit Haiti Friends, a Pittbsurgh-based organization which facilitates permacultural agroforestry, which is tree planting on farmland.
The idea of what would become Treecup was sparked by Mark discovering his Peruvian grandmother’s homemade tea recipe. A few years ago, he tasted Chair tea his mother, Vitalia Hemphill, made from his grandmother’s recipe. To say he liked it would be an understatement.
“I literally downed the whole pitcher,” Mark said.
He suggested his mother sell the tea.
“She said ‘You’re the one going to school for entrepreneurship,’” Mark said, referring to his mother’s reply.
Mother and son started the business, originally named Te Amo, in 2017. Mark was seeking a worthy cause to link the business to when he met David Brauer, a member of the Haiti Friends Board of Directors. The fateful encounter was at an outdoor vendor event in the Western Pennsylvania town Evans City, where Mark lives.
Mark and his mother, Vitalia Hemphill, brew the tea, which is shown above after being bottled.
“It was a very serendipitous meeting,” Mark said.
Brauer subsequently introduced Mark to Haiti Friends Executive Director Edward Rawson, leading to the partnership between the nonprofit and Treecup.
Treecup realizes Mark’s vision of reversing environmental degradation through the production of healing teas. Proceeds from Treecup sales, 20 cents per bottle, goes toward Haiti Friends’ Haiti Timber Reintroduction Program in the country’s Artibonite Valley.
The program includes educating Haitian mountain farmers about land conservation practices, including techniques to properly grow trees and improve water retention in soil.
“Haitians are some of the jolliest people I’ve ever met,” Mark said. “It makes it easy and pleasurable to meet with them to get our tree-planting work done.”
Treecup brews four blends, none of which have two of the same ingredients: Peruvian Chai, Ginsyin & Yang, Lumberjack Black and Berry Jasmine.
“They’re all loose ingredients,” Mark said about the lack of packaged goods in what comprises the teas. “They’re all organic through the source.”
Mark talks at a Grove City College entrepreneurship presentation.
The Peruvian Chai, which started Mark’s entrepreneurial journey, is a black tea spiced with cinnamon, cloves and anise. Ginsyin & Yang, a play on words for ginseng and Yin & Yang, draws on Oriental flavors such as green tea, ginseng, lemon and spearmint. Lumberjack Black is a southern Indian tea flavored with juniper berries and cedar firs. Berry Jasmine boasts a mix of four different berries - jasmine, goji, cherries and blueberries - along with rose petals.
Along with online sales, Treecup teas are sold in 15 stores, including Pittsburgh Whole Foods Markets. When Mark started, he hit the pavement seeking outlets to carry the teas.
“I went around to all these shops,” he said.
Mark explained that each store relationship began with him walking into the store, calling them or messaging them on social media beforehand. He eventually began receiving positive responses to his cold-contacting.
Mark travels to Haiti to aid in the planting process.
Mark sells the tea at a Zelienople Farmer's Market in Western Pennsylvania.
“I try to go once a year,” he said. “I couldn’t go in 2020, but am planning to the next opportunity I get.”
In the meantime, Mark is busy mapping out Treecup’s future.
“My plans are to continue to grow and work on making our process more efficient, that is, the production and distribution side of things,” he said. “And also raise demand to be able to scale the two together.”
In addition to working at a job unrelated to Treecup, Mark is writing a novel.
“The book is about a fictional idea that came to mind about a newly graduated high schooler who takes a gap year, loses his innocence and finds the meaning of life/enlightenment,” he said.
Through any challenges Mark may face, he cited God as his source of motivation. He also advised others to follow suit if they are weathering tough times.
“And seek first the kingdom of God and all will be added unto you.”
The link to Treecup Tea is: https://treecuptea.com/