Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Nowicki.
Hi Jennifer, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My story with tea began more than 30 years ago, when specialty tea in the United States looked very different than it does today. I was already working in the gourmet and natural foods industry, and I became fascinated by how much depth existed within tea: the differences created by origin, terroir, cultivar, processing, craftsmanship, and the people behind it.
That fascination eventually became expertise. I became a Certified Tea Specialist through the Specialty Tea Institute in New York and pursued advanced training in professional tea cupping. I’ve also had the opportunity to represent the U.S. tea industry at two world tea conferences in China. Over the years, I’ve built relationships within the industry and continued tasting, studying, sourcing, and learning because tea is one of those subjects where the more you know, the more you realize there is still to discover.
Cultivate Taste Tea grew out of that experience. I wanted to build a company around tea itself rather than trends surrounding tea. We specialize in pure, single-origin loose-leaf teas, with an emphasis on provenance, craftsmanship, terroir, and teas that offer something genuinely distinctive. I personally curate what we carry, and I’ve never believed that exceptional tea needs flavorings or other additions to make it interesting.
The business has evolved considerably over the years. I’ve operated a physical location, built an e-commerce business, developed wholesale relationships, worked with hospitality clients, and expanded into corporate gifting. Our teas have reached customers well beyond Wisconsin, including customers internationally. Through all of those changes, the underlying philosophy has remained remarkably consistent: quality comes first, and expertise should mean having the confidence to be selective.
Building Cultivate Taste Tea has also taught me lessons that extend far beyond tea. More than three decades as an entrepreneur means I’ve experienced growth, setbacks, changing markets, opportunities that looked better on paper than they performed in reality, and moments when the business needed something very different from what conventional advice said it needed. I’ve learned that working harder or adding another marketing tactic isn’t necessarily the answer. Sometimes the real challenge is identifying what is actually holding a business back.
That realization is part of what led me to create Founder Authority Advisory, where I bring the perspective I’ve developed as a longtime entrepreneur to established founders of premium businesses. It’s a natural extension of my entrepreneurial career: Cultivate Taste Tea has given me decades of firsthand experience building, adapting, positioning, and making difficult decisions inside a real business.
Today, I’m continuing to grow Cultivate Taste Tea while also using what those years have taught me to help other founders see their businesses differently. In many ways, both businesses are built around the same principle: depth matters. Whether I’m evaluating an exceptional tea or looking at a business, I’m interested in what’s beneath the surface, and in recognizing the qualities and distinctions that others may overlook.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, and after more than 30 years as an entrepreneur, I’m not sure I would trust anyone who said theirs was.
One of the ongoing challenges has been building a premium business in a category where consumers don’t always know what distinguishes an exceptional product from an ordinary one. Tea can look deceptively simple from the outside. But origin, terroir, cultivar, harvest, processing, craftsmanship, and storage can create extraordinary differences in the cup. Part of my work has always been helping people recognize why those differences matter without compromising the standards of Cultivate Taste Tea simply to appeal to a larger market.
There have also been the very real challenges of entrepreneurship: economic downturns, changing consumer behavior, increased competition, rising costs, marketing channels that continually change, and investments that didn’t deliver the return promised. I’ve had to make difficult decisions along the way, including closing my physical location and evolving the business toward e-commerce, wholesale, hospitality, and corporate gifting.
I’ve also learned that expertise and credentials don’t automatically translate into commercial success. You can know your industry exceptionally well, offer an outstanding product, and work incredibly hard, and still have to continually determine how to turn that value into visibility, demand, and sustainable revenue. That has probably been one of the most important lessons of my career.
At the same time, I’ve been very intentional about what I won’t do simply to make the road easier. I haven’t turned Cultivate Taste Tea into a mass-market brand. I haven’t abandoned pure loose-leaf tea for whatever happens to be easiest to sell, and I haven’t lowered my standards to compete primarily on price. Maintaining that discipline can make growth more challenging, but it is also why the brand has remained distinctive.
Those experiences have changed the way I think about business. They taught me that when growth slows, the answer isn’t automatically more marketing, more activity, or following the latest business playbook. Sometimes you have to understand what is actually happening beneath the surface before deciding what to change. That lesson has influenced not only how I continue to build Cultivate Taste Tea, but also the perspective I now bring to my work with other established founders through Founder Authority Advisory.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Cultivate Taste Tea is a premium loose-leaf tea company for people who want to experience tea with the same attention to origin, craftsmanship, and nuance that they might bring to fine wine, specialty coffee, or exceptional food.
We specialize in pure, single-origin loose-leaf teas sourced from respected tea-producing regions around the world. You won’t find flavored blends or tea bags in our collection. Instead, I personally curate teas for their quality, provenance, terroir, craftsmanship, and distinctive character; from exceptional everyday teas to rare and unusual teas for experienced collectors.
That selectivity is an important part of what sets Cultivate Taste Tea apart. I’ve worked in the tea industry for more than 30 years and have been a Certified Tea Specialist through the Specialty Tea Institute in New York since 2009, with advanced training in professional tea cupping. I’ve also had the privilege of representing the U.S. tea industry at two world tea conferences in China. That experience influences everything from what I source to what I decide not to carry.
I’m especially proud that we’ve built a reputation around expertise without losing the sense of discovery that makes tea so fascinating. Our customers range from people beginning to explore premium loose-leaf tea to serious tea enthusiasts, and our teas have been purchased by customers across the United States and internationally. We also work with specialty retailers, hospitality businesses, and organizations looking for distinctive corporate and executive gifts.
For gifting and exploration, we offer curated tea collections that allow someone to experience teas through origin, style, or craftsmanship, as well as Jennifer’s Private Tea Reserve for those who want an ongoing personally curated experience. For collectors and experienced tea drinkers, I also seek out teas with unusual provenance, production methods, heritage, or limited availability.
What I want people to understand about Cultivate Taste Tea is that luxury in tea doesn’t need to mean elaborate packaging, artificial flavors, or excess. For me, luxury is having access to an extraordinary product, knowing where it came from, appreciating the skill required to produce it, and being able to taste those distinctions for yourself.
After more than three decades in this industry, I’m still fascinated by what can come from a leaf, a place, a producer, and generations of knowledge. Cultivate Taste Tea is ultimately about giving more people the opportunity to experience that depth for themselves.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m looking forward to taking Cultivate Taste Tea into its next stage of growth while remaining very intentional about what that growth looks like. I don’t want to make the brand more mainstream; I want to make exceptional tea more accessible to the right people while preserving the standards and selectivity that have defined the company.
A major focus is expanding our wholesale and hospitality presence with specialty retailers, boutique and luxury hotels, fine-dining restaurants, wineries, and other businesses where provenance and quality genuinely matter. I’m also growing our corporate and executive gifting business. Tea has an incredible ability to create an experience and build relationships, which makes a thoughtfully curated collection very different from another conventional corporate gift.
On the consumer side, I’m continuing to develop our curated collections and Jennifer’s Private Tea Reserve, while seeking out exceptional and sometimes difficult-to-find teas from producers and regions around the world. I’m particularly excited about creating more opportunities for customers to move beyond simply buying tea and begin building their own knowledge, preferences, and collections over time.
I’m also building Founder Authority Advisory, which grew naturally out of more than three decades of entrepreneurship. That work allows me to use what I’ve learned from building, adapting, and continually evaluating my own business to work with established founders of premium brands who have reached a point where their next stage of growth requires more than another generic strategy.
Ultimately, I’m interested in building businesses with longevity. For Cultivate Taste Tea, that means continuing to elevate the way people experience and think about fine tea while growing its presence nationally and internationally. I’ve spent more than 30 years in this industry, and I still believe there is tremendous opportunity ahead, not by making tea less complex, but by helping more people discover just how extraordinary it can be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cultivatetaste.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cultivatetastetea
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/culitvatetaste
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cultivate-taste-tea
- Twitter: https://x.com/jennifernowicki
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cultivatetastetea
