McKinney Couple Working Hard To Make Iced Tea Venture A Sweet Success

The Dallas Morning News:

For Jemetra Fisher of McKinney, it all started with mom’s iced tea.

“When I was a teenager, my friends used to come over and want my mom to make iced tea because it was so good,” said Ms. Fisher, who recently started up a beverage company with her husband, Bryan.

For years, everyone who tasted her tea thought Jemetra’s mom, Jean Marshall, ought to go into business selling the concoction. But it was Bryan, who worked in restaurants for 15 years, who finally got the kettle boiling.

In January, the Fishers decided to sink a savings of about $45,000 into manufacturing, bottling and distributing iced tea. In February, after Mr. Fisher was laid off from a technology help desk job, the pair went full force with their company, GG’s Southern Sweet Tea.

Water, lemonade, sugar, tea, orange juice, cinnamon and cloves make up the ingredients for the company’s Lemon Tea. It contains no preservatives and has a 60-day shelf life, which requires careful balance between manufacturing and sales. But the taste is worth it, Mr. Fisher said.

“It took some time to develop the recipe for mass production,” Mr. Fisher said. “It was a trial-and-error process. We stuck to the original ingredients, but made adjustments to the process.”

GG’s tea is very sweet, with savory undertones from the cinnamon and cloves. But the tea flavor comes through, said Angela Preston of DeSoto, who got hooked on the tea a few months ago.

“This is something different,” she said. “It’s tea with style, tea with flavor.”

Mr. Fisher’s restaurant experience helped in learning the bottling process, purchasing supplies and managing the business. The product is selling in five Dallas-area Minyard Food Stores, seven Terry’s Supermarkets and other grocers and restaurants for about $1.19 a bottle.

Since most grocery store delivery docks are open from 6 a.m. to noon, Mr. Fisher’s days often start at 5 a.m. Ms. Fisher works at a school and cares for the couple’s children. She also helps with production and management at the small office/warehouse they lease in McKinney.

Image from Stock.xchng.