Competitive bodybuilder promotes wellness and mindfulness through online tea trade

By Megan Sayles, AFRO Business Writer
Report for America Corps Member
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Before starting her online tea business, Paula Shaw was a competitive bodybuilder who devoted herself to the sport to prevent generations of health problems such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Her passion for health quickly expanded to becoming a vegan, using herbs for holistic health and becoming a yoga instructor and breath master to help her with mindfulness and tranquility. But in 2017, Shaw had a severe anxiety attack. She was scared. Her heart was pounding and her blood pressure was higher than ever.

I didn’t know where it came from because I thought I was living this lifestyle that would sustain and sustain me through yoga, eating plant-based foods and taking herbs, Shaw said. For me it was a bit embarrassing because I almost felt a bit hypocritical that I was promoting conscious living, and now I suffer from anxiety.

The attack prompted Shaw to investigate more herbs, and she eventually encountered the camellia sinensis, better known as the tea plant. After studying its long history, Shaw discovered how people abroad relied on tea to support their mental health through mindfulness and decided to give it a try in the hopes it might ease her anxiety.

Fortunately, the tea plant helped. Shaw had several other anxiety attacks, but she turned to tea to get through them.

It helped me get through those times, and they weren’t as bad as the first, Shaw said. I’m really working on it now [and] every now and then, when those anxious feelings surface, I have tea to support.

Shaw sought to bring this source of relief and wellness to others, especially after witnessing the suffering caused by COVID-19, and in June she was finally ready to launch Cured Leaves Tea.

Before the launch, Shaw did extensive research into the origins of the tea plant and was surprised to discover that it grew in Africa. Now all Shaws tea comes from farms on the continent, including Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda. They range in flavor from East African berry to spearmint magic and last in their whole leaf form, giving drinkers antioxidants and other medicinal properties.

The company gets its name from the curation process and its logo is the tree of life, depicting the human experience. The roots in the tree are shaped like Africa.

The reason we did that is because our extra roots come from there as black Americans in the diaspora, and the origin of those roots is almost unknown, so our roots kind of dangle on their own, Shaw said. Because of that uncertainty and that ignorance we do develop, we still develop, we still grow, were still resilient and can still be that beautiful life that becomes a tree.

Shaw doesn’t want people to see her business as just a tea company. Instead, it is a movement to promote mindfulness and community through tea.

We want to be the force for people to have affordable tea, Shaw said. We want to provide equality in tea by going to different locations and different communities and telling them about this healing [and] telling them about this tool that they can access.

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