I’m the third generation daughter on my mother’s side to receive this name and I wear it proudly. I’ve grown into my own skin as well as my own culture. I am indebted to my parents and their hardships coming to this country from Laos and Thailand while their youth was surrounded by war. They remind me everyday to follow my ambitions whenever they present themselves. I hope to repay them one day, this brand was built off of the love for our culture and for the love of community. Mixing traditional practices with modern touches is exactly what growing up as a first generation Thai/Lao-American is all about.

When I started to really lean into creating a Tea Company, I did my best not to think about what other people would think about the idea, what people would do differently from what I was doing. I did my best to create something that I would want to see or have access to. This is confirmation that we should think less about what judgments we might have on ourselves or hear from each other. That’s just noise. We are capable of creating anything and everything we want. It’s been an incredibly humbling and vulnerable experience to put this together.