TYPO-ALERT!

The $12 perk says you will get six teabags.  I don't know what was going on in my head, but that should be EIGHT teabags, NOT six.  Indiegogo prevents me from editing the perk after people have pledged for it, but I promise, you'll get eight, not six.

Hey y'all!  Pleased to meet you!

I'm Frank and I'm a southern boy.  I grew up in Alabama and Tennessee, and graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama. [Only place in the world where they name a high school after a defeated general.] 

So anyway, you might say that having been raised in the deep south, iced tea runs in my veins.  I love it, and I've started a little business blending and flavoring premium organic teas from all over the world.

What Southern Boy Teas is about...

Years ago, when you went to the grocery store, you could get a few flavored iced teas:  lemon, peach, or raspberry.  That seemed to be about all there was.  I liked those well enough, but if they could do those flavors, why couldn't they do more?  Why couldn't they make a cotton candy flavored tea or a rootbeer float flavored tea?  So I sort of made it my mission to figure out how they did it and how to make other flavors.

Along the way, I've learned all kinds of stuff about teas, like what regions in the world produce the best teas for iced tea.  Did you know that elevation, soil conditions, annual precipitation and other climate factors contribute significantly to the quality and character of tea?  Well, you do now.  And our teas are made with the BEST organic teas I can find and the best organic flavors and no preservatives, sugar, or sweeteners of any kind.  Just premium organic teas and organic flavors:  Mother Nature would be proud.

Teas that are meant to be shared

In a lot of eastern cultures, it is a great honor to be offered tea.  Now I'm not one that goes for a lot of ceremony or rituals, but I figure there's a lot of truth in this:  Generally speaking, you don't bake a pie or a cake or a loaf of bread for yourself, and you don't make a pitcher of iced tea for yourself; there's some things that were just meant to be shared.  I want to make iced teas that you are proud to share with your friends and family.

What we want to do

So our teas are, as mentioned, meant to be shared, and I have a vision of sharing our teas with the world, but I need your help.  I've been at this for several years now and I feel like I've learned a ton about how the business world works and what it's going to take to make my vision come true.  Here's my road map:

$1000 Initial modest goal:

If we can raise $1000 here, I can get some eco-friendly Kraft stand-up pouches and new larger label stock to offer our teas in packages of 2- and 8-teabags each.  Each of our teabags will make 2-quarts of the best iced tea you've ever had, and if you re-steep them, you can get a full gallon out of each one.  The 2-teabag pouches will sell for $4 and the 8-packs will go for $12.  That's as little as $1.50/gallon of amazing organic iced tea!

$2000-2500 stretch goal:

We are building a new ecommerce website for southernboyteas.com.   I have some great ideas for the new site, including a mad scientist flavor lab, that will allow our customers the opportunity to submit new flavor ideas--and if enough people are interested in your flavor, we will create it.  To pull this off, I'm going to need some plugins and add-ons that cost a small amount each.  And if we can raise enough money, I would like to hire a designer to make our site look amazing.

If we surpass this goal, I'll be posting more goals on the road map right here, so stay tuned.

What teas can you get?

We'll start by offering these favorites:

Flavored Black Teas

Some examples of our packaging (please note, part of the reason for this campaign is to retool this packaging so we can offer pouches containing more than a single teabag, and the rewards will be larger pouches than these.)

All of our flavored black teas are made from organic Iyerpadi (See "Lunch Tea" below), the highest quality organic flavors, and nothing else.  They are designed to be tea first and a hint of flavor second, though you can certainly sugar them down and make the flavors more dominant.

• Watermelon
• Apple Cider
• Razzleberry (Raspberry & Blackberry)
• Georgia Peach
• Cotton Candy
• Rainbow Sherbet (Raspberry, Orange, & Lime)

Flavored Green Teas

All of our flavored green teas are made from organic Chinese sencha fannings (See "Greenbeans Tea" below), the highest quality organic flavors, and nothing else.  They are designed to be tea first and a hint of flavor second, though you can certainly sugar them down and make the flavors more dominant.

• Granny Smith Apple
• Pineapple Upside-down cake
• Banana Peach
• Lime Gelatin Salad (Lime, pineapple, marshmallow)
• Shamrock (Peppermint, Spearmint & a hint of vanilla)

Flavored White Teas

All of our flavored white teas are made from organic Chinese shou mei fannings (See "Haystack Tea" below), the highest quality organic flavors, and nothing else.  They are designed to be tea first and a hint of flavor second, though you can certainly sugar them down and make the flavors more dominant.

• Black Currant
• Pomegranate
• Cucumber Melon
• Cinnamon Pear
• Cotton Candy

Flavored Honeybush

All of our flavored honeybush blends are made from organic honeybush (See "Honeycomb Tea" below), the highest quality organic flavors, and nothing else.  They are designed to be tea first and a hint of flavor second, though you can certainly sugar them down and make the flavors more dominant.

• Cinnamon Roll
• Strawberry Pie
• Cinnamon Apricot
• Neapolitan Ice Cream

Bonus Flavors

For every $1,000 we raise, we will be adding a new flavor to choose from.  Be sure to post a comment offering your suggestions for the next bonus flavor.

Unflavored Teas

• Lunch Tea - don't let the name fool you, this here is our awesome organic Iyerpadi (pronounced: AYE-yer-pod-ee) black tea that serves as the base tea for all of our flavored teas.  Iyerpadi is the region in India it comes from.  This is a smooth, delicious tea that tastes like warm toast from fresh baked bread.  It goes down smooth and refreshing and will disappear from your icebox way quicker than you'd think.
• Dinner Tea - a counterpart to our Lunch Tea, this here is a rich malty organic tea from the lowlands of the Assam valley in India beneath the Himalayas.  This tea is bold and dark and will give you a nice caffeine boost.  This is a tea we formerly called "RadioactiviTEA" because it's very stout and highly caffeinated, but really it's just a great tea for enjoying with a nice dinner or anytime  you feel you want an iced tea you can really sink your teeth into.
• Greenbeans Tea - Continuing with our short list of unflavored teas, this is our excellent organic Chinese sencha fannings, the base for all of our flavored green teas.  Chinese green teas are known for being sweeter than other green teas which can range from seaweed-esque to nutty to grassy and more.  I personally think our Chinese sencha fannings tastes a little like sweet, buttered greenbeans.  And though I recon some folks might laugh at drinking iced buttered greenbeans, there are times when a nice iced green tea is the only thing that will quench a body's thirst and it does it in a way that just makes me feel good all over.
• Haystack Tea - Organic Shou (rhymes with "Ow!") Mei (rhymes with "day") fannings from China.  Shou Mei is a white tea, which simply means the leaves have been allowed less time to oxidize than green teas, which have oxidized less than black teas.  Remember in fifth grade when we learned about oxidation, and how the leaves change colors in the fall because of it?  Yup, same thing.  White tea is harvested and spread out in a room with only diffused light so it will wither, but not oxidize.  Anyway, these organic Shou Mei fannings are the base for all of our flavored white teas and the best white tea for iced tea I've ever tasted.  White teas are subtle, but very refreshing and sweet and hay-like, hence the name.
• Honeycomb Tea - This here is organic honeybush, not really technically "tea" cause it comes from a different plant.  It's an herbal "tea" and it has no caffeine.  What it does have is a sweet, honey-like flavor that slides down your neck like the Balm of Gilead for a parched throat.  This is the base tea for all of our flavored honeybush blends which are VERY popular amongst kids and folks who can't have caffeine, not to mention others of us who just find it delicious.  Honeybush comes from South Africa, along with it's better known cousin rooibos ("Roy - Boss").  We don't make teas with rooibos because it has a funky woody aftertaste that's even more pronounced in iced teas.  Honeybush is MUCH better.  If you've had rooibos or "red bush" tea, don't assume you know what honeybush will taste like.  It's similar, but honeybush is WAY better.

What do YOU get?

Trial size.  For a pledge of just $4, you get a single pouch containing two over-sized 2-quart teabags of our iced tea in any flavor we offer through this campaign.  Pledge more than $4 and you can get additional 2-teabag pouches for each additional $4  you pledge, or you can mix and match 2-teabag pouches ($4 each) and 8-teabag pouches ($12 each) to your heart's content.

Full size.  For a pledge of just $12, you get a single pouch containing eight over-sized 2-quart teabags of our iced tea in any flavor we offer through this campaign.  Pledge more than $12 and you can get additional 8-teabag pouches for each additional $12  you pledge, or you can mix and match 2-teabag pouches ($4 each) and 8-teabag pouches ($12 each) to your heart's content.

Grab Bag of five singles.  We'll pick five random teas from our current inventory of single teabag pouches, giving you a chance to try an assortment of our teas, and giving us a chance to clear out our inventory of single teabag pouches so we can move on to our 2-unit trial size pouches.  Your teas might be any one of these:  http://www.zoomdweebies.com/store/c/19-Southern-Boy-Teas-Iced-Teas.aspx

Feel free to add additional grab bags to any pledge by pledging $12 more for each extra grab bag you would like.

Trial Size Sampler.  Choose to receive one of our samplers containing a two teabag pouch each of five different varieties. Choose unflavored, best flavored black teas, or best mixed flavored teas. (See "NEW Sampler Packs!" update for details).

Add $18 to any pledge for each additional sampler you would like, regardless of what perk you pledge for.

Friend of Southern Boy Teas.  For every pledge of $50 or more, you will receive all of the 2-teabag pouches ($4 each) and 8-teabag pouches ($12 each) your pledge can buy, AND we will list you on our new website as a "Friend of Southern Boy Teas" and put you on a special mailing list:  You'll be the first to know about new  products and we'll offer special discounts just for backers at this level and above.

True Southern Boy (or Gal).  For every pledge of $100 or more, you will receive all of the 2-teabag pouches ($4 each) and 8-teabag pouches ($12 each) your pledge can buy, AND we will list you on our new website as a "True Southern Boy (or Gal)" and put you on a special mailing list:  You'll be the first to know about new  products and we'll offer special discounts just for backers at this level and above.

True Southern Gentleman (or Lady).  For every pledge of $250 or more, you will receive all of the 2-teabag pouches ($4 each) and 8-teabag pouches ($12 each) your pledge can buy, AND we will list you on our new website as a "True Southern Gentleman (or Lady" and put you on a special mailing list:  You'll be the first to know about new  products and we'll offer special discounts just for backers at this level and above.  Lastly, you will also be given the opportunity to work with me to create a brand new flavor which we will record on the tribute page on our website next to your name so everyone can see what flavor you contributed.

Impact

Every pledge made counts!  Your pledge today is fuel for my dream.  Even if you just pledge $4 and try our teas, that $4 will help me purchase the supplies I need to make more teas, and I just know that if you try our teas, you'll be back for more.  If everyone who saw this campaign pledged just $4, we could reach our goal in no time.

Risks & Challenges

Frankly speaking (get it? I love my name), we are like the crew that built the six-million-dollar-man.  We have the technology.  We can build it.  We have the production capabilities and the systems in place to blend, package, and ship our teas.  We've been doing it for a few years now, but we want to be able to expand our offering to make 2- and 8-teabag pouches and offer them in more eco-friendly packaging.  We just need a little capital to invest in new pouches and label stock and we'll be on our way.

Other Ways You Can Help

PLEASE, share our campaign with your friends, neighbors, random people you meet in the grocery store checkout line, any way you can.  Blog about us, tweet about us, post about us on Facebook.  If you are a member of the press, please contact me for an interview.  Thanks!