They are made in the USA - currently in our production facility - a commercial kitchen in Reston Virginia and are produced, packed & labeled by hand  A truly artisan brand.

The products are my own original concept borne from the desire to make green tea specifically more flavorful and enjoyable to support my personal goals of incorporating this antioxidant rich beverage into my daily diet.   The vision began with a little idea for easy to shake in "Tasty Tea Enhancers" that would be good for me and great tasting when added to tea.  That idea eventually  evolved and became Catalyst Tea Enhancers after almost three years of sharing the products, various blends and ideas with consumers in various market events and tests.  Through this iterative process the products, while still named Catalyst Tea Enhancers, are used by consumers to enhance the flavors of more than just tea and bring a good for you gourmet infusion to almost every recipe we've tried adding our blends to or recipes I've developed.

I am Indian and grew up drinking very rich, flavorful, traditional "Chai" (the word Chai has so many meanings, but most Indian households have their own family recipe of sorts starting with hand ground or whole spices cooked on the stove along with milk, sweetener and tea).   So, as I looked to find ways to make green tea flavorful without the addition of milk or sugar, I turned back to my heritage and curry cabinet and began experimenting with various spices after researching ayurvedic medicine, alternative healing and other studies on the benefits of spices, including their high anti-oxidant properties.  My unique Enchanting Chai in green or oolong tea replaces my traditional cup of tea and suits my cravings for Chai latte style drinks as well in a more healthful way.  I then developed the other specific  blends for individual healing purposes and aromatheraphy benefits.

The products and recipes are not imported from or made in another country.   The all natural ingredients are sourced from various global vendors who offer what I view as the highest quality and fragrant spices after many rounds of recipe testing (and lots of tossing out of ingredients that didn't meet my standards) during the year and half of recipe development and refinement before deciding on final recipe formulations and sources for the initial 9 core spices in my blends.  In fall 2009 we'll be expanding our line to many new categories outside of the tea segment to continue to infuse healing beneficial spices in creative ways into your daily diet through new retail and ready to eat lines which are in development.

No.  We don't add any preservatives to our Catalyst Tea Enhancers or any of our new gourmet lines such as our Creative Curries, Gourmet Finishing Sugars or Baked Bites of Bliss.  The blends are packed and sealed for freshness and because we use high quality, mostly whole spices in our blends, you can expect the products to remain fragrant and tasty for up to 24 months after opening a bottle.  But I suspect you will run out much sooner.   Because we use no preservatives, the spices will not "dissolve" but will "infuse" into the tea, coffee, dessert or other ways that you use them.  We recommend consuming the spices but you may strain the Catalyst Tea Enhancers out of the "tea" or beverage if you prefer. 

No sugar is added to our original Catalyst Tea Enhancers line.  I specifically excluded any sweetners or sugars as my goal in creating Catalyst Tea Enhancers was to make my healthy Green Tea more tasteful and still retain the maximum health benefits as I was drinking the tea.  I certainly do add sweetner or honey or even granulated sugar once in a while when I want to indulge a little as I drink my tea, but I designed my blends to be aromatic and flavorful enough that even I (with my sweet tooth) can drink several cups of healthy, good for me tea, without sweetening the tea.  I encourage you to try to drink a cup or two a day without sugar when you can and add sugar when you feel like it.  They taste great either way.   We launched a line of specialty Catalyst Gourmet Finishing Sugars in 2010 that contain beautiful turbindado sugar and our core Tea Enhancers for decorating, baking and flavorful rimming options that are infused with our unique blends.

Details matter to me and I wanted the product packaging to reflect the beauty of the blends.   All the artwork on the packaging is an original piece of art that I painted on canvas first then digitized for use as my label design.  Each label was an original art on canvas and hand painted (fun trivia) from 4am one morning in October of 2007 till 11am that same morning and taken to the printers to be turned into digital artwork and labels for my first test round of live focus groups at a consumer event in DC to see if my kitchen table top idea had market potential.   The first test event went so well that I headed back to the drawing board to work for another year on product development and additional tests in various markets. 

The core vision and story behind the "Lotus of Life" emblem is about transforming our lives and our spirit.  More to come on the meaning of this visual that I painted and created for the packaging as I launch the brand.   My goal in painting original artwork and then digitizing it was to inspire and beautify daily experiences and enable you to keep them on the table or countertop as a reminder to use the Catalyst Tea Enhancer line in your daily routine for little moments of bliss!  The artwork will soon be available in accessories, bath collections, a stationary line and more.

They are hand-crafted, hand-blended and created by grinding fresh whole spices and some pre-ground spices into special "top secret" recipes that I created and developed using originally 9 core "super spices" as I like to call them that have been found by ayurvedic practioners and health professionals to have potential healing or health benefits but I chose them also because they help make my blends good tasting.  We currently batch products when needed at a commercial kitchen in VA.   

No.  There are no spices which have caffeine content that are used in my Catalyst Tea Enhancer blends.  And no tea in the blends either.  You can decide to drink whatever type of tea or coffee you would like and add the Catalyst Tea Enachers for added flavor as you like.  Some consumers enjoy starting their day with infusing the Catalyst Tea Enhancers is just hot water as another way to enjoy the aroma and flavor of the blends.

We use only whole spices and while some of our high quality, imported spices might be produced in a facility where there may have been wheat and breads being stored or made at some point but our spices do not contain any gluten and are gluten-free.  If you have severe allergies, please consult with a physician before using our Catalyst Tea Enhancers and review the ingredient list in detail on the products page before purchasing or sampling one of our blends as we do not recommend consuming any of our products if you have known or potential allergies to any of our spices used in our blends.   We use no nut based products in any of our blends. 

Side note as a mom: My son, who is allergy free, is 4 and has been drinking beverages and enjoying the Catalyst Tea Enhancers for almost two years on everything from fruits, pancakes, ice cream, in his yogurt, in smoothies, pound cake and more and I feel good as a mom knowing he is getting high antioxidant rich spices into his diet while enjoying the foods he already loves.   But some individuals have rare or known allergies to spices and should consult with physician before using our products.