What if you could make a difference to a noble cause just by enjoying a tasty beverage? There is a way now with Generosita, a new tea company that donates a portion of every sale to the charity that is depicted on the bottle. Buying a bottle of Sweet tea gives a donation to the Humane Society of the United States, Raspberry tea gives a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and Green tea gives to Operation Homefront, an organization dedicated to helping veterans meet their urgent needs. If you can’t remember all those when you get to the store, don’t despair as the charities are on the labels of their respective flavors.
Stephen Wesley is a country music recording artist, signed to Black Sheep Label. Though he has found success on the Billboard charts with songs that feature Slash (Guns N Roses), Smash Mouth, T-Pain and more, his love for helping others has always been the “end goal”.
Wesley launched generosiTEA in 2020, a tea company that donates a portion of every sale to a cause that Wesley cares about. Each flavor of generosiTEA is dedicated to a different charity and whenever someone buys a 20 oz bottle, they will donate 10 cents to that charity. Many in the music business spend years grinding to get to the top, and once you get there, it can be easy to become complacent. Not Wesley though, whose goal was always to start this company.
Finding a way to give back was always Wesley’s ultimate goal. He first got the idea for generosiTEA back in 2010 when he signed his first record deal but didn’t have the funds to make it a reality. It wasn’t until 10 years later when he was able to launch the company, but starting a business during a pandemic came with challenges both personal and professional.
“My hope is that more companies in consumer packaged goods see how easy it is to integrate charity and giving into their everyday products and donating to good causes becomes a part of everything we buy,” says Wesley.
Wesley’s goal is to donate $2,000,000 this year as the company is expanding to more parts of the country like Colorado and Connecticut. Wesley says the company is gearing up to fill orders to Kroger and other retailers across the country. It wasn’t until 10 years after getting his first record deal that he was able to launch the company, but starting a business during a pandemic came with challenges both personal and professional.
“We had to change manufacturing facilities, we went from a 16 ounce aluminum can to 20 ounce plastic bottles due to timeline constraints and availability because of Covid. I was hospitalized for a few weeks and on oxygen at home for another few weeks. My mom passed away from Covid,” says Wesley. Despite the challenges in production and personal loss that Wesley experienced, he was determined to make sure his dream was realized. He was determined that “generosiTEA was always going to happen.”
His hope is that in five years, generosiTEA will be a household name and that it’s popularity will inspire other companies to incorporate charitable donations into their business models once they see just how easy and impactful it is. Beyond that, Wesley wants to inspire people to pursue their dreams through perseverance. His company took 10 years to get off the ground and immediately saw incredible adversity once it was launched, but he knew that it would be a success if he just kept working at it.
“I always say, never let others define your success. You have to be the one that quantifies what success means to you. We all have different dreams but none are bigger than someone else’s. I guess you can always aim higher but being happy with where you land is the definition of success to me,” says Wesley.
