The circle of it: This upcycling company rescues coffee leaves that are typically neglected during coffee production and makes coffee-like beverages from it.
wize tea
Summary
Wize tea rescues coffee leaves that are typically thrown away in the mass production of coffee beans. The company is creating awareness and a new product category by making teas from discarded coffee leaves.
Story
Founders, Arnaud Petitvallet and Max Rivest were in a class project in which they came across a study about the coffee leaf that touted its health benefits and its long history of use as an herbal infusion in places like Ethiopia and Indonesia. It was also clear that coffee farms are very seasonal and farmers tended to suffer from extremely volatile market prices. The idea for a coffee leaf tea company began there. Further expounding on the idea, they took a trip to Nicaragua where they met their third founder Enrique Ferrufino who was excited about the idea and had been in the coffee industry and who had expertise in sourcing and crafting a new drink with the coffee leaf.
Pic Credit: Nutrition Insight (right) and Source (top)
“Beyond the actual product aspects, the real kicker for us, and what motivated us to create this business and this social venture, is the fact that we can use leaves that are harvested in the off-season. They are typically thrown away. Instead, we can process them like a traditional black tea. So, basically we are employing people year-round, and they are also learning how to make a new skill trade, a whole new product that they can design themselves and get creative with. “
Max Rivest in an interview
Founder(s)
Arnaud Petitvallet, Max Rivest, Enrique Ferrufino
Headquarters
Vancouver, Canada
In business since
2013
Business type
for profit
Impact
Providing more opportunities for farmers and workers to obtain year long work (Source)
Technology
creating a market for a new product, utilizing a leaf that is typically discarded, creating a supply chain around a new product
Website
The Circular People 
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