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Big Heart Tea Co. Launches Domestically-Grown Tulsi

Specialty Food Association

Big Heart Tea Co. has released certified organic, single-farm, domestically grown tulsi. Happy Tulsi is grown and late-summer harvested by Oshala Farm, a regenerative family farm in Jackson County, Oregon.

Since 2012, Big Heart Tea Co. has used tulsi, otherwise known as Holy Basil, as the primary herb base in its collection of herbal teas. Tulsi is sacred in India, which has a rich history of growing, cultivating, and celebrating the herb. In 2020, global supply of this tulsi ran short, forcing the company to rethink how and where its ingredients come from.

The biggest challenge in sourcing herbs domestically at scale is not finding a farm to partner with but finding a farm to partner that has expertise in drying and milling herbs for final consumption, according to Big Heart Tea Co.

In early 2021, Big Heart Tea Co. discovered Oshala Farm through social media and after a short conversation placed a contract for its first domestically grown herbal tea - Happy Tulsi.

Happy Tulsi is the latest addition to the Big Heart Tea Co. Farmer’s Collection, a growing catalog of teas and herbs sourced directly from small family farms around the world.

Related: Retailers Partner With Sustainable Foods for Earth Day; BIPOC, Women Farmers Reigned at Farm Grant Awards.