Good Food
2021 AWARD FINALIST
Sponsored by New World
Picker’s Pocket (formerly Thieves’ Tea) was created by Sally Miller and Alex Musgrave when they had to pivot from their sustainable tourism business due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Despite estimates that a simple teabag releases 1.6 billion microplastics, teabags are growing in popularity – there were 1.4 billion black teabags sold in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020. They decided to find an alternative that would give Kiwis their desired convenience, without the microplastics. They talked to friends and tea growers in Sri Lanka and to tea experts around the world as they searched for a solution.
Launched just 12 months ago, a Picker’s Pocket natural tea bag is made of tea leaves woven around a bud by women in a Sri Lankan village. Sally and Alex believe this innovation could change the tea industry – no plastic, no factories, just tea with fuller flavour without sacrificing the reason consumers choose teabags in the first place: convenience.