About us

About Koala Tea Company

The rich soils of a plateau between lush old growth rainforests in Northern New South Wales, Australia, is the land of the koalas after whom we named our company.


Endless golden beaches of Byron Bay, prehistoric volcanic landforms, idyllic hinterlands – this is the home of the Koala Tea Company, the original Australian certified organic herbal tea company.

In The Beginning

The Koala Tea Story – In the years before 1993 – the year Howard Rubin & Elle Fikke founded The Koala Tea Company, Australia had no organised herb growing industry, and no Australian made or Australian owned herbal teas. The few herbal teas that were available were all imported.
 
Howard and Elle left Europe in 1986 when the Chernobyl disaster contaminated their herb farm in Wales, UK. where they had set up an alternative health clinic and a herbal tea company. They decided to start a new life and business in Oz. But embarking on their project with no supporting industry or assistance, Howard & Elle found they had some serious work to do.

Establishing An Australian Herb Growing Industry

Howard and Elle found there were many small and big growers interested in the idea of growing herbs, so they ran weekend seminars to educate them in the art of growing organic herbs. The result was that many of those growers started herb farms. How and Elle then started an organic certification program, Organic Herb Growers of Australia, which became a government recognised certification organisation.

To encourage their fledgling herb growers, Howard and Elle set up a new business, Herb Farms Australia, which marketed the fresh herbs. Over a relatively short time Herb Farms Australia grew with domestic and export markets, and when major herbal companies began showing interest in Australian grown medicinal herbs, they saw this as a signal that the time was right to start the Koala Tea Company.

The first Koala Teas were made

Once Howard & Elle had established a reliable source of herbs they set out to make a quality range of organic herbal teas. The teas, most importantly, had to be helpful in maintaining or bringing about good health and wellbeing, taste good, have wide appeal and be accessible to everybody. The first shipments were followed by more orders, and sales continued to climb as customers discovered these unique and truly Australian teas.

Koala Tea proves to be a Popular Choice

Consistent and growing sales of Koala Teas are indicative of the demand for organically grown herbal teas, both here in Australia and around the world. Distribution through national retail chains and health food and gourmet food stores has established Koala Teas as a popular choice for regular and new herbal tea drinkers. Koala Teas also attracted interest from the multinational tea makers.
 

Koala Tea has won many local and national awards and Howard was inducted into the Organic Hall of Fame some years ago. That is of course very nice, but most of all we cherish the praise and satisfaction of our customers as they are the people we make our teas for.

See the range of teas or go here for wholesale enquiries.