A chat with Titilé Niamké, co-founder of The Tea Bar by DIVINITY
Photo: Titilé Niamké (left) and Danielle Gipson (right)| ©The Tea Bar by DIVINITY
Titilé Niamké has been an herbalist since the age of 19 (she is 23 years old). She started her company with co-founder Danielle Gipson in 2016 while attending Middle Tennessee State University. I chatted with Niamké about her business strategies, holistic lifestyle, and her faith— three components that she considers to be interconnected.
Q: I read that you’re from Memphis, Tennessee. What was it like growing up there and is the food as good as people say it is?
A: [Laughs] I don’t really know if it’s as good as people say it is. My mom’s a cook, so her food is always good.
Q: You’re known as Tee, The Herbalist. Can you tell me a little bit about how that name came to be and about your background overall?
A: A lot of people, especially in business, would ask if they could call me “Tee.” I actually prefer my real name, Titilé, but I don’t mind Tee because the emphasis will go to my work and who I do it for— which in my case is God. So that’s where Tee came from. “The Herbalist” came because I’m an herbalist. I’ve been studying herbs since I was 19; I’m 23 now. Lots of books from all types of places: modern books, ancient books on Chinese medicine, and African books on herbalism from different cultures, and of course Google [laughs]. So, lots of research brought me to herbalism, just knowing what different herbs could do, and being thankful to God for giving those herbs to us. It gave me a mission or a purpose because I know a lot of people— especially in 2016 when I was in college— didn’t really know about herbs. The only herbs people knew about were weed [laughs]. So, it became my thing to tell people about all the health benefits, physically and mentally. So, I just took on that role and eventually people would start to come to me for help regarding herbs. That’s how Tee, The Herbalist came to be.
I read that you and your business partner studied over 100 herbs, plants, and spices in a period of four years. You guys covered a lot in a short period of time.
TN: I was in college when that happened. It was a good distraction and a bad distraction. The time that I was supposed to be in class and studying I was in books [laughs]. Yeah, we covered a lot in a little bit of time, and sometimes I wished I would have paced myself a little bit more. Overindulging in anything is never really good. I’m still studying herbalism and I recently went back to college to finish my degree when I got distracted with my business [laughs]. But yeah, I guess it was a lot in a little bit of time. I didn’t really think about it that way.
I’ve heard you talk a bit about your faith and struggling with anxiety. I was wondering if you could dive into that subject.
TN: For starters, even though I don’t consider myself to have anxiety anymore, anxious thoughts do creep in, especially before something really important. I don’t want to say that it never left, because it did leave, but sometimes there’s remnants of it. So, how do I deal with my remnants of anxiety? I heard a quote from a scientist who said that “Anxiety is scientifically irrational and does not exist.” I agree. If you’re about to do something great or anything, why are you afraid? I tell myself, “That’s ridiculous!” There is a very thin line between anxiousness and excitement. Do you want to tell yourself that you’re anxious or excited? If you’re anxious, you should lie to yourself until you believe it [laughs]. That helps me moderate the remnants of anxiety. In college I kind of noticed on elevators my heart would race. Or I would go to class late and I’d have to walk into a lecture hall and everyone and the professors just look at you, my heart would fall out— it was terrible. When I started my business, a lot more opportunities started to open up. I would have to go speak before this person, pitch before that person. It would be make my life easier if I wasn’t so afraid every time I wanted to do something new. It started with me identifying that this is not something that I want to be a part of my life. White tea really helped with that; it gives a boost of energy. Every time it [anxiety] came I would say, “No, we’re not about to do this right now.” So, over time, it really helped me, and of course God, too. If God said I could, it doesn’t matter what I think [laughs]. If you are having anxiety, don’t let it control you. Eventually, it will subdue.
Q: So, I know that you mentioned white tea. What are some other teas that are beneficial to the body?
A: Sure! I’ll pick three. White tea has a chemical called L-theanine that helps your brain go into a sort of meditative state. So, if you’re having trouble with your emotions, white tea can help with that. The second one I would say is sea moss. It’s really popular right now. I put sea moss in a flower vase a few weeks ago and the flowers lasted two weeks! Usually flowers last around five days. Sea moss is a sea plant that grows under the ocean and it has, I believe, 92 minerals— I believe our bodies are made up of 106. Almost every mineral that can be found in our body can be found in sea moss, which is insane. It’s really like this for a lot of plants that grow under the sea. This isn’t something I read, it is something that I inferred from all of my reading, but we’re like 75% water so it would kind of make sense that the plants that grow underwater would share those properties with us. And so, I just think that it [her flowers due to sea moss] lasted a long time because there’s a lot of minerals in it and our water sources have all those minerals in it. The third isn’t a tea, but a trifecta of spices: ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon. Those are my most worked with spices. Cinnamon is amazing for blood pressure, ginger is amazing for your immune system, and turmeric is the holy grail. My roommate had heat hives; she applied turmeric and it subdued the pain and the hives in less than one minute. So, yeah, and of course you can eat turmeric and it’s really good for inflammation. It’s also good for removing blemishes: pimples, bumps, and inflamed skin. Those three [spices] are good together and taste really good, too. So, white tea, sea, moss, and the big three: ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon.
Q: So, transitioning to the honey part of your business, is it true that plain honey never goes bad?
A: Yes, that’s true. Someone on Twitter mentioned an article to me and it said that they found honey in ancient Egyptian tombs and the honey was still good [laughs].
Q: When I visited your website, it showed the beekeeping process. I’ve always thought that was really interesting. What is that process like?
A: So, I’m actually under a mentor who has been doing beekeeping for years and he is about 70 years old now. I actually work at his hive. I don’t own my own yet— it’s a really big responsibility. It’s not too complicated. You feed them and kind of wait [laughs]. You want to be very gentle so that they don’t swarm. Some people don’t even wear protective gear when they go because they [bees] usually don’t sting unless they feel threatened. Some beekeepers are so good that they can tell whether or not a hive is dangerous, and they’ll gauge whether or not they have to put on their attire or not. I aspire to be one of those people. You want to keep them safe and learn when the honey is ready. You learn how to care for the bees like they’re your pets. The harvesting process isn’t that hard. I will tell you, one time my mentor went to harvest honey and the bees— hundreds of them— came to get their honey back [laughs]. But that’s only happened one time [laughs].
Q: One thing I noticed is that you guys go to local farmer’s markets and host events. I think that’s good for networking. Did you develop those strategies early on, or did you learn that along the way?
A: I would say take every opportunity, even if it didn’t seem like it would be beneficial. I took the opportunity to be a vendor early on and network. We sold maybe five items because nobody came [laughs]. We made exactly $60. But there were two representatives offering new office space, and of course, we won. It was a marketing tactic for them, but it was free office space for our business even though we didn’t make any money at that event. It was just from showing up. When you start, go to every event, every opportunity. That’s how you learn. Once you become established, it becomes very important to pick and choose. It’s something that you learn, but once you start out, go to every opportunity, every seminar, talk to every person, and then you’ll have the opportunity to gauge what you want to do and where you don’t need to be.
Q: I know that you do infusions for honey. How do you decide what infusions will pair well with honey, or is the process sort of trial and error?
A: I know I picked cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger because those are my big three. Strawberry ended up being one of my most popular flavors and then lavender because Twitter [users] recommended lavender— it ended up being my biggest seller. So, I highly recommend market research [laughs]. The Tea Bar was not supposed to be known for our honey, but the honey blew up so quickly that I literally had to stop selling tea to properly service the influx of people that God brought into my life.
Thank you so much for your time! I really enjoyed this interview and I certainly learned a lot.
To learn more about Titilé Niamké and her business, The Tea Bar by DIVINITY, check out her website here.
