Since 2019, Deshuni Sanders has had a hobby. It isn’t just any hobby though. It involves mixing and experimenting with different ingredients to make something new.

That something is the perfect cup of tea.

However, she wasn’t content to keep it to herself and friends and family. This led to her founding her own herbal tea company, Posh Posy.

“It’s an herbal company where I make my own proprietary blends of tea,” Sanders said. “I hand make it and I have been making tea, on my own, just for me and friends and family, since around 2019.”

Sanders said she enjoys experimenting with the different flavors and seeing what works and doesn’t.

“I like playing around with all of the different things you can do with tea like adding fruit and muddling the fruit and even using a French press for loose leaf blends,” she said. “I think it kind of grew from there because I was doing it so much that I just thought maybe I should make more so I could offer it to other people.”

Once Posh Posy was up and running, she had to find an outlet to reach the public. That is when a light switch clicked, the farmers’ market.

Sanders has begun setting up a booth at the Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market and she has seen a good response from the community.

“I’ve already had some repeat customers at the farmers’ market, which is great,” she said.

However, in the light of the “new age” teas, she finds herself having to explain her product to people more often.

Her tea is not for weight loss or anything like that. It is meant to calm the drinker down.

“I think with the new age and all of these detox teas and the ‘flat tummy’ teas, I get kind of a different response because people initially think that is what it is,” Sanders said. “… I think it’s more of an educational moment whenever they talk to me about my tea because it is more natural and organic than that. What my brand offers is more of a calming effect. It is more for people who have anxiety issues and such. It relaxes you and calms you down. I don’t think people are used to thinking you can drink tea for those types of issues.”

She prides herself on using all organic ingredients, but she has had trouble finding them locally. That is until she joined the farmers’ market.

She met a local farmer who grows many of the herbs she needs for the tea, and they have formed a sort of partnership. She also discovered a local health foods store, Hollydale, which sells the herbs.

The owner actually placed Posh Posy tea in the store for sale as well, allowing Sanders to reach an even larger audience.

“I think people just like it,” Sanders said.