The Tea Life History Tree
The Story Behind Tea Life™
Hi! My name is Toby. Whether you're a first time customer wanting to learn more about Tea Life or a long time supporter, thank you for taking the time to read about this journey. It’s a simplified version of the highs, lows and milestones along the way.
Tea Life began in 2015 in my apartment in Hurstville, Sydney, where all orders were packed by hand using handwritten postage bags and a small label printer.
By 2017, growing orders led to a move into a shared warehouse in Kingsgrove, followed by my own space in Marrickville in 2019, where I began improving systems and trialling packing equipment.
Soon after, Covid saw online demand surge and Tea Life experienced strong growth. Building on this momentum into 2025 and 2026, we expanded into wholesale, launched into New Zealand, and introduced new collections beyond herbal tea including soursop, tea cakes, mushroom teas and modern teaware designed for today’s tea drinker. We also launched Tea Miles, our loyalty program, which quickly became a customer favourite, alongside the introduction of our sister brand, Scent Life.
After years of saving, this led to purchasing our own warehouse in St Marys, NSW in 2022, allowing proper investment in operations.
From hand packing tea in my apartment to becoming one of Australia’s leading tea companies, thank you for being part of the journey.
Milestones & Momentum
Key moments that shaped Tea Life™ from a small Sydney startup into one of Australia’s trusted herbal tea brands.
The Tea Life™ Journey
2015
Hurstville Origins
I should have taken more images at this time, but I never thought I would need them or be writing a history tree going this far back. So.. here is an image of the outside of the apartment instead.
I would walk daily with a large bag to drop to the post office in Westfield, these days all pickups are done by the courier which is much better!
2017
Kingsgrove Warehouse
The move, while scary, was a necessary one. Yet again, I have no images so here's another one from the outside via google maps. I'll have images soon, I promise.
Around this time, a proper business structure started to emerge and while still a bit messy, we still got orders out in time.
2021
Ultimo Cafe
I didn't have much room above to mention it, but I opened a cafe in Ultimo for a year or so. The design, vibe, and feedback was amazing but sadly the rent was a bit high, the space was too large, and was difficult to maintain a stable workflow between this and the online business so closed down after a year.
I learned a lot from this so may try again later if I feel it's safe! (stay tuned)
2022 to Present Day
St Marys Warehouse
Finally we have our own warehouse which opens the door (quite literally, we have a rollerdoor now) to a much larger scale and levels of organisation along with more stock.
Since this time we've installed air conditioning, a mezzanine, forklift, scissorlift and things I couldn't have dreamt we would be using less than 10 years ago.