The Origins of Healthy Kick: Why You Shouldn’t Have to Suffer for Wellness

When we founded Rise Yaupon, we knew one thing from the beginning: we wanted to create a tea that was good for you, but we also wanted it to taste really good.

That sounds simple enough. But when we started developing what would eventually become Healthy Kick, we learned a pretty important lesson: knowing what sounds healthy and knowing what actually belongs in a wellness-focused tea are two very different things.

And, as it turns out, our first attempt tasted terrible.

That was the beginning of Healthy Kick.

We Started With a Hypothesis

Yaupon holly was the foundation of everything we were doing at Rise Yaupon. We already knew there was something special about this native American plant. Yaupon naturally contains caffeine, polyphenols, flavonoids, theobromine and prebiotic compounds, among other components that make it an interesting addition to a healthy lifestyle.

So when we started developing our first wellness-focused blend, we began with what we thought made sense.

We selected ingredients based on our own hypotheses about what people would be looking for in a health and wellness tea.

Then we tasted it.

It was awful.

Not just something that needed a little tweaking. It was one of those recipes where you take a sip and immediately know you've missed the mark.

Fortunately, we had someone in the family who could help us figure out why.

Enter the Family Physician

My sister is a lifestyle medicine physician, so we asked her to try what we had created.

Her response was essentially, “Why did you put all of these ingredients in here?”

She challenged the assumptions we had made about what constituted a healthy tea. If we were going to position a blend around health and wellness, she wanted the ingredients to have more than just a reputation for being healthy. She wanted ingredients supported by medical research.

That changed the direction of the formulation.

Rather than starting with a list of ingredients that sounded healthy, we started looking at ingredients that had research behind their potential health and wellness properties.

My sister selected five ingredients to complement our yaupon base:

• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Rose hip
• Rose petal
• Hibiscus

Her role was to help determine what belonged in the blend from a health and wellness perspective.

Our role at Rise Yaupon was to figure out how to turn those ingredients into something people would actually want to drink.

Physician Formulated, Family Crafted

Healthy Kick is physician formulated, but it isn't something my sister simply handed us as a finished recipe.

She gave us the ingredients and the rationale behind them.

Our team took it from there.

We experimented with proportions and flavor profiles until we created something that balanced the characteristics of each ingredient with the naturally smooth flavor of yaupon.

That's really how we approach product development at Rise Yaupon.

We're a family business, and we're fortunate to have a lot of different expertise within our family and our team. We want to leverage that expertise to create products that people will genuinely enjoy.  Then we share it broadly with friends - and tweak and refine based off of what feedback we get.

But we also believe that every blend has to pass one very important test before it leaves our facility:

Do we actually like drinking it?  Does our team like it?  Our friends and family?

If the answer is no, it isn't ready and we go back to formulating.

The Flavor Had to Come First

There is a misconception that comes up again and again in the health and wellness space: if something is good for you, it doesn't necessarily have to taste good.

There are plenty of products that may have beneficial ingredients but taste unpleasant (apple cider vinegar comes to mind). And if you have to “suffer” through something every day, how likely are you really to stick with it?

At Rise Yaupon, we believe wellness should be something you can enjoy.

That's why the flavor of Healthy Kick matters just as much as the ingredients.

The first thing you'll notice is a subtle hint of spice from the cinnamon and ginger. Then you get the floral character from the rose and hibiscus. The result is a flavor profile that's distinctive without being overpowering.

And underneath it all is yaupon.

Because yaupon naturally lacks tannins, it doesn't develop the bitter, astringent finish that many people associate with tea. You can steep it without worrying about that bitterness taking over.

In fact, one of the most common comments we hear at our sampling events is, “Is this sweetened?”

It isn't.

People are simply surprised that a tea can taste this smooth without sugar.

Our Favorite Customer Reaction

This happens so often that we've almost come to expect it.

We'll be sampling our teas at an event, and someone will tell us they don't want to try Healthy Kick.

Why?

Because it says “Healthy Kick” on the package.

There's a perception that if something is labeled healthy, it's probably going to taste like something you have to force yourself to drink.

We usually challenge them to be brave.

“Just try it.”

And if they don't like it, we've got a plant at our booth that they can water.

The funny thing is, we rarely get anyone watering the plant.

Most people are surprised by how good it tastes.

That reaction is one of my favorite parts of introducing people to Healthy Kick because it reinforces something we believe very strongly: you shouldn't have to sacrifice enjoyment for wellness.

Why Healthy Kick Became Our Best Seller

Healthy Kick is now our number one selling tea.

At sampling events, people will often come in intending to try something completely different. They'll sample several of our blends, but once they try Healthy Kick, it frequently becomes the one they take home.

I think part of that is the story behind the formulation. Knowing that a lifestyle medicine physician helped identify the ingredients gives people confidence that there was real thought behind what went into the blend.

But honestly, I don't think that's what ultimately sells it.

The flavor does.

That's what keeps people coming back.

The cinnamon and ginger provide just enough spice to make it interesting, while the floral finish from the rose and hibiscus gives it something a little different from a traditional tea.

And it's incredibly versatile.

Drink it hot on a cool fall morning. Make it iced when you're sitting outside in the Florida heat. Add a little sweetener if that's how you normally drink your tea. Try it with creamer. Use it as a cocktail mixer...hot toddy.... whatever you want :)

We don't think Healthy Kick needs to be treated differently just because it was formulated with health and wellness in mind.

The Healthiest Tea Is the One You'll Actually Drink

One of the questions we get from customers is, “What's the healthiest tea you make?”

My answer may surprise them.

The healthiest tea is probably the one you like enough to drink regularly.

All of our blends start with yaupon holly, so there isn't really a “wrong” choice. If you love the flavor of Strawberry Zen, drink Strawberry Zen. If Florida Earl Grey is your favorite, drink that.

The point is consistency.

A tea can have an impressive ingredient list, but if you don't enjoy drinking it, you're probably not going to make it part of your daily routine.

That's one of the reasons I'm so proud of Healthy Kick.

It gives people another option: a tea with a thoughtful, physician-informed formulation that also happens to taste really good.

You don't have to suffer through it.

Try Healthy Kick Like You'd Try Any Other Tea

If you've never tried Healthy Kick, my recommendation is simple: don't overthink it.

Drink it the way you normally drink tea.

If you like hot tea, drink it hot.

If you prefer iced tea, make it iced.

If you normally add sugar, taste it first. You may find that you need much less than you expect because you're not trying to cover up a bitter aftertaste.

And if you're the person standing at a sampling event telling me that you don't want anything “healthy” because healthy things don't taste good? We dare you to try it.  You may surprise yourself.

Why We Created Healthy Kick

At the end of the day, Healthy Kick represents a lot of what we believe about building a business.

We're a family business. We have access to different kinds of expertise within our family, and we believe in using that expertise to make better products.

My sister brought her medical knowledge and helped us identify ingredients with research behind them.

Our Rise Yaupon team brought the product development and flavor expertise to turn those ingredients into a tea people actually want to drink.

And our customers have given us the ultimate validation by making Healthy Kick our number one seller.

For us, that's the sweet spot.

A product that is thoughtfully formulated, grounded in science, made by our family and team, and—most importantly—something you genuinely enjoy drinking.

Happy Steeping.