The Startup CPG Podcast

Willian Schneider
The jams are made with whole fruit, whereas the jellies is really going to be a lot of sugar and a lot of just juice and concentrates. That's why I wanted to make a jam is because it seemed weird to make a product just full of sugar. That's why our product has 40% less sugar and only organic whole fruit. That also allows you to just have more vitamins, nutrients, things like that.

00:35
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, everybody. This is Caitlin Bricker, editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature. Today we're talking with Heidi and William Schneider, co founders of Tea Jams, the world's first organic fruit jam infused with tea. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America and creating Earl Grey syrups for Mother's Day brunches that had quilting groups raving, chef William turned his syrup into a jam with 40% less sugar than traditional options. Meeting Haiti on hinge and growing their relationship alongside their business. These newlyweds have handcrafted nearly 20,000 jars between the two of them. While keeping their full time jobs from landing in Harney and Sons gift sets to transforming their jams into mocktails at farmer's markets. They're building a pantry staple that does way more than sit on toast. Their energy is absolutely infectious and I am so here for it. Enjoy.

01:33
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Heidi and William Schneider, co founders of T Jams. Welcome to the show.

01:42
Heidi
Thank you. So excited to be here.

01:44
Willian Schneider
Thank you for having us.

01:46
Caitlin Bricker
I'm so excited to have you. I don't think I've ever had guests who have just been so giddy and like, really truly, so excited to be here before. So I love the energy already. Yeah. Thank you.

01:57
Heidi
Thank you. We approach life like that.

01:59
Willian Schneider
We consume awkwardness.

02:04
Caitlin Bricker
It's infectious. Truly. I'm like, this is the best. Pick me up for 2pm Right?

02:09
Heidi
Okay, thanks.

02:11
Caitlin Bricker
All right, so I'm familiar with T Jams because you were Shelfie's finalist for 2025, so congratulations. It's a huge feat.

02:20
Heidi
Thank you, thank you. I know, we're so excited. Can't believe it.

02:23
Caitlin Bricker
We made it that far out of 1800 brands. It truly is impressive. It really is. So gotta give you guys huge props for that. Thanks.

02:33
Heidi
We didn't win, but there's always room for improvement. So we're. That's another thing to strive for next year. Always.

02:42
Caitlin Bricker
I love the attitude. Okay, so for anybody who's not familiar with Tea Jams, can you just give us A brief little description of what T Jams is, of course.

02:51
Willian Schneider
My name is Chef William, the owner and creator of Tea Jams, the world's first organic fruit jam infused with tea. We're fully dedicated to tea infusions. Our jams have 40% less sugar, 100% depth of flavor. We love it as a jam on pastries. Transform cakes. Also just add water and transform your drinks into mocktails, cocktails, lemonades, things like that. It's a CIA chef curated jam with a purpose. Full of taglines as well. I like to say I make everything beautiful inside the jar, and my wife here, Haiti, makes everything beautiful outside the jar.

03:28
Heidi
Dynamic tool. That is so cute.

03:35
Caitlin Bricker
Okay, so I'm hearing Chef William, am I gonna have to like, yes, Chef you throughout this episode?

03:43
Willian Schneider
No, I'm not really good with authority. Although I did graduate the Culinary America. I always was like, more friendly to deal with than your average stereotypical chef, that's for sure.

03:55
Caitlin Bricker
I could totally get that vibe about you. Okay, so Chef William, tell me about your background. You just mentioned you went to the Culinary Institute of America. What brought you to T jams. Give me the background story on you.

04:09
Willian Schneider
Well, after graduating the Culinary, I ended up doing some traveling down to Miami, then over to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands as well, stopping in Orlando and the Hawaiian islands of Maui and the Big Island. From there, I gained, like a vast knowledge of cultures and flavors, and that led me back to New England, where, steeped in heritage, surrounded by the Harney and Sons factory, which is located in our small town. There are teas everywhere. Everywhere you work, you're going to be surrounded by their tea. And there was one location at a local inn called the Interlaken. And I worked a breakfast program to breakfast with William. And we would get all these big groups in and I would make them wild breakfast creations and infuse syrups with the tea and just create memories and traditions with that.

05:05
Willian Schneider
And then from there, we kept adding fruit and more flavor. And then we just transformed ourselves into the tea infused jam line.

05:14
Heidi
And he likes to make it for Mother's Day brunches. So from the Interlekin breakfast, he got a lot of feedback. I didn't know him then just yet, but like a year or two afterwards, he made into a jam instead of just a syrup just because everyone loved the flavors and he wants to create that pantry staple. As a chef, he always seemed to use that. So over time, TJ's has like grown into what it is. But we've discovered so much of the Jam itself as we've gone on with like customer feedback and just our friends and family. So then now that's became from a syrup, now it's become a six line jam. The first dedicated line of infused jam.

05:56
Caitlin Bricker
You know, it hits different. I think from a consumer perspective, when you see something for the first time, a brand can tell me over and over they're the first to do anything. But when I hear it's like, yeah, just like the world's best cup of coffee. Like everyone has the world's best cup of coffee, right? But I had this experience with tea jams where I truly, when you tell me it's the first jam infused with tea, it was my first experience with a tea infused jam. So it hits, it hits different.

06:25
Heidi
Thanks for saying that.

06:27
Willian Schneider
It came a long way. You know, there's a lot of trial and error, but we like to say we take great products and make great products and when you started with the great product from there, you know, how bad could it be, right?

06:40
Heidi
But Eastern European countries and we've had a lot of our customers say that they've sweetened their tea with jam before, but it's never been the actual mixture of both. And with time we actually discovered together that, well, you discovered it, but discovered it with time. How to, you could just drink it, just add water and it becomes a tea again. So that's in itself he's like innovative, like disrupting the tea and jam industry, which is kind of been asleep for a little bit, I feel. I don't know, I'm just saying. And now taking your traditional grandma jam to something that you really use every day and are excited about. Put the quarter in, we could keep going.

07:19
Caitlin Bricker
I have more questions for you too, but I got to know about your background. Heidi, where do you come into this? What were you doing prior to tjams?

07:28
Heidi
Well, full time, I'm a special education teacher. I have my master's degree in the education field. But I've always dipped my toes into like blogging and content creating for like the makeup world. I'm more into. Well, I was into the social media marketing aspect. That was actually what I majored in college before I switched to being a teacher. So it's always been like a passion project of mine. On our first date actually, he showed me like his labels for the first three flavors. Talking about this business that is starting and my mind decided going a million miles an hour because I was just passionate about it. So I would blog in the wellness world. I've actually written for a CPG brand. Pulp pantry. I don't know if they're still around, but I.

08:12
Heidi
They were on Shark Tank, so my background is, like, a little bit of everything, but it's really into branding and the marketing aspect of stuff, so. So our relationship has kind of grown with tjams, I like to say. Like, when we got engaged, went to visit our first retailer in Miami. So that was fun. Everything is, like, connected with T Jams, so we're, like, growing with it. Hinge.

08:35
Caitlin Bricker
Okay. You are the third couple that I've spoken to that has met on Hinge and then either started a CPG brand together or came together and grew your CPG brand. So you're the third. We had Figa Foods first as a guest, then USO sparkling tea, and now you two. Pretty cool.

08:55
Heidi
Oh, we love them. Everywhere in the same section as them for fancy food. Look at that. Yes. We should host a Valentine. Valentine's thing. CPG thing.

09:05
Caitlin Bricker
Oh, you're so good. Thinking of ideas on the spot like that, you see?

09:10
Heidi
Yeah. So that's what I was doing. A whole relationship. You should do this. You should do this.

09:14
Caitlin Bricker
That is awesome. Okay, so you were talking about, like, the traditional grandma jams and jellies, and I have a question, maybe more geared towards chef William. What is the difference between a jam and a jelly? And why would I want to pick up a jam over a jelly from the store shelves?

09:33
Willian Schneider
Mainly the biggest difference is going to be juice. The jams are made with whole fruit, whereas the jellies is really going to be a lot of sugar and a lot of just juice and. And concentrates. That's why I wanted to make a jam, is because it seemed weird to make a product just full of sugar. That's why our product has 40% less sugar and only organic whole fruit. That also allows you to just have more vitamins, nutrients, things like that, and less just natural sugars, I guess. Right. We don't need to start our morning with so much sugar as much as everyone else thinks we should.

10:08
Heidi
Right.

10:08
Caitlin Bricker
That's a really great point. I feel like I've been seeing a lot more people leaning into having more savings, savory breakfast options. But it is nice to have, like, that little carb hit from some fruit. But if you can do it in a jam form without all that added sugar, it's a pretty nice balance. So when we're talking about added sugar, how much is somebody looking at in a serving size for tea jams?

10:32
Willian Schneider
Tea jams is just 5 grams added sugar for a Tablespoon of jam. Most other jams sometimes range from double to 10 to 17 grams of sugar per a tablespoon. They also had, like, a lot of other things, like the citric acid and the dextrose and things like that, where it's like, we just want to use organic lemon juice, organic cane sugar, organic fruit, and just real fruit pectin. So that's like most other. We're always surprised what else is in a jam, and it's like, wow, some.

11:04
Heidi
Weird things are in here without needing to be in there.

11:07
Caitlin Bricker
Yeah.

11:07
Heidi
Yeah.

11:08
Caitlin Bricker
So you mentioned that this kind of started out as a syrup and then turned into a jam. Can you talk to me about what the iterations looked like from when you started out as a syrup to landing on being a jam company and maybe the ingredients that you played around with along your journey?

11:25
Willian Schneider
Yeah. The original dish was like a French toast stuffed with cream cheese and strawberries. And then I made a Paris tea syrup to put on top, and my mother requested that every Mother's Day, that was, like, her staple dish. And when I brought that to breakfast with William in the morning at the hotel, I was making Earl Grey syrup or the Paris syrup, and all these quilter groups would come in and say, oh, my God, it's the best thing ever. And then from there, I was like, I was thinking it would be harder to sell a syrup than a jam. And then also researching, you know, like, what can I do with this? What route do I want to do? I've always wanted to create a product of my own since graduating the colonies of America.

12:10
Willian Schneider
My father once was like, you know, your lives would have been so much better if I followed in the family business. And I was like, well, our lives are pretty great, but it's good to know, you know, I have the ability to take the next level. And so, like, from there, the hunger started, and that's what started, like, okay, we have something here with the syrups. And then once I added in the fruits and made it into the jams, it was like, okay, now you can do things with this, because the depth of flavor was like something that other jams didn't have. So that really made it, like, the pantry staple opportunity from there, which is cool. Just so proud.

12:47
Heidi
He grew up through the Harney and Sons factory, so, like, he mentioned, the tea was all around, so that was, like, the natural route to go. And building that relationship naturally was. Was so fun to see from the outside. So that's a natural pairing.

13:01
Caitlin Bricker
Wow. Speaking of natural pairings, I think I've seen some cool collabs that have happened via Instagram. I think I saw all in the cake brand was chatting with you guys about the T jams. Tell me about some collaborations that you've done. Maybe Heidi, this is a better question for you. Some collabs that you've done for T jams with other small brands and some dream collabs that you might have in your brain.

13:31
Heidi
So first and foremost, getting into the Harnesson's website and having a, I guess unofficial but official collaboration with them where it's their tea and our jam. So they're selling it like for Mother's Day they started selling that and now holiday gift sets. Seeing such a established brand like that collaborate with such a small brand right now, starting like us was a dream come true. So that was really cool. But smaller brands that are at our, let's just say, level, I think startup CPG was the first resource we had to bridge us through that world. Him being a chef, of course he's in the food realm. But as a special education teacher, like hello, can anyone help me? I don't know what this means, what does SRP mean and all that stuff.

14:14
Heidi
So finding out that other people are in this space, just finding things out like us was amazing. So we've hosted our very first pop up with Baker Island Foods which is a granola brand and a cookie brand. Sour milk yogurt was there. Be olive oil was there. So discovering these brands that are just as passionate and like innovating their own industries in their own way has been really exciting. So that was our most recent one which we actually hosted on our one year anniversary. So that's just another.

14:45
Caitlin Bricker
Wow.

14:45
Heidi
We celebrate teams with our Congrats.

14:48
Caitlin Bricker
That's sweet.

14:50
Heidi
Let's see, who do we want to collaborate with? Oh well, our idea has always been to collaborate with other tea brands eventually. So Harney and Sons was the original set. But eventually we've spoken with Wild Orchid or Rossy T. Things of that nature. Different brands from all different types of demographics to kind of bring that world of Tea and John together.

15:11
Caitlin Bricker
You did make mention of small brands. Small businesses. When people throw around the term small business, what does that mean to you and how small are small businesses really? Go ahead.

15:26
Willian Schneider
We like to say we're pretty small. We are the two people in this tjams empire. We're always surprised when we go to small, say like banks or things like that and trying to get loans and they're like, well do you have $2 million in sales? And it's like that's your small business loan program.

15:45
Heidi
How to get there?

15:47
Willian Schneider
We feel like we have a pretty good concept to get there, but the moment we're not there yet. But we're still shocked at how many jars we've sold over the four years we've had in business and the amount of product that goes through Harney and Sons. We've even sold jars to Japan and things like that. We feel like we're pretty big, but not like to be not big enough to be registered as a small business is even shocking sometimes.

16:13
Heidi
Yeah. The limits or the standards is like you said, just shocking that we don't reach those standards just yet. When we feel like everyone is like such a huge win as a small business. So we feel like that term needs to be changed. Small business needs to be medium business. But start like bro. It's actually small because we could be making sales and getting traction, but it's still so much more to gain.

16:38
Willian Schneider
Yes.

16:39
Caitlin Bricker
Refresh my memory. Sorry if you've mentioned this already, but how long have you actually been in business selling products to customers?

16:47
Heidi
Yeah, officially four years. But were still working our full time jobs. So just this last year is the first year that Will was actually able to fully dedicate most of his time to tjams. So that's a win. Eventually we're working towards both of us being able to full time take on tjm. So that's the next step.

17:04
Willian Schneider
Four years strong, getting bigger every year, doubling in size, which is great. And it's still just been the two of us. You know, a lot of people have like co packers already and we're always surprised. Like we're surprised how much work we've done just the two of us. Whereas we feel like a lot of people would have maybe paid out another route and gotten a co packer, but we're doing it ourselves. And that's what the best part about Degens is.

17:27
Heidi
Yeah. And he handcrafts everything in small batches. So that's something else that's impressive. We've calculated and he's made almost 20,000 jars over time of jam. One man. So it's quality. We're in that space where, okay, when we scale up, how can we keep that same quality and love that he pours into each jar, Continue that quality, you know, handcraftmanship.

17:51
Caitlin Bricker
Talk to me about scaling. What does your retail strategy look like? Or what does your DTC strategy look like? Are you planning on getting into more retail stores? Are you wanting to stay dtc? I have no insight into this. So tell me what's going on in your sales world.

18:07
Willian Schneider
We're trying everything. You know, we don't like to limit ourselves. So at the moment it's a lot of trips to the kitchen to make jams and a lot of trips around the local area trying to get sales. And as well as online, we do a lot through Fair. Like I said, Arnie and Sons always buys a lot in their couple locations in Millerton, New York, as well as SoHo in Manhattan. But a lot of it is just keeping up and great. This order's bigger. Great. Adora's bigger. And like the next step, like, we're really taking every step on our way.

18:42
Heidi
To the top, nourishing the relationships we do have. We kind of went reverse backwards. We started with wholesale because we had that opportunity and relationship with Harney and Sons, but now we're really focusing on, like, farmer's markets. The education portion of tjams, the name in itself says what it is, but there's so much depth to tjams that the farmer's markets really helped us nail the education portion. We're selling our jams as lemonades to showcase how versatile they are. And it's just brainstorming how. What are the many different ways that we could showcase this one product, this one patchy staple? Because that's what it is, a staple. You could use it for dessert, you could use it for your morning yogurt. You could use it to marinate a fish or a ham. So the possibilities are endless with just one jar.

19:29
Heidi
So I think that is our biggest focus. Yes, we're different and unique, but we want everyone to just go grab that jar of jam. Like hot honey or. Yeah, like hot honey. You think of hot honey. Oh, you think of just one brand to throw on the pizza or to put on whatever you like.

19:45
Caitlin Bricker
Right.

19:45
Heidi
Cottage cheese, litter. But we want to be that one staple product. Yeah. That's not just a jam. It's so much more in that. So, yeah, getting the education portion out and community based, you know, farmers markets, getting that cult following that really understand our jam. And let's go from there.

20:01
Caitlin Bricker
I'm curious, have you had the opportunity to partner with any cafes or restaurants with T jams?

20:08
Willian Schneider
Yes, actually, we actually do. The farmer's markets and some local cafes in Beacon, New York have been stopping by a lot and being like, how do I get a part of tea jams? And it's awesome because they make, say, matcha lattes all the time and we're that new jam for their matcha. Lattes. They specialed us recently with the blueberry Earl Grey supreme and their matcha latte, which is really cool.

20:34
Heidi
Yeah. So a few local cafes shout out to Cafe Holly, shout out elixir. They took a chance and they actually were customers. And then they became retailers and put. Put us in their menu. And it works because it adds that extra different. Like, what is different about this matcha? A blend of tea in there just wouldn't it.

20:55
Willian Schneider
My next goals are to really get our tiny jars into a lot of hotel settings, like in their room amenities.

21:03
Heidi
Need a baby jar.

21:04
Willian Schneider
Those little baby jars are perfect and adorable. And then also we'd really love to get into, like, some cocktail recipes and things like that. Our mocktails are great at the farmers markets, but we also love cocktails.

21:16
Heidi
But we do drink it. Just throw in some mint leaves, add water, and we have a delicious mocktail. It's so fun. You just love it.

21:25
Caitlin Bricker
That is such a good point. It would be such a great way to elevate even just like a soda water. Instead of just getting like soda water with lemon, you could get soda water with lemon and tea jams and still feel fancy trick.

21:39
Heidi
And it's a whole new drink. Yeah. And with organic fruit, you're getting your antioxidants and your fruit intake there. Yeah. There you go.

21:46
Caitlin Bricker
And then if you have the tequila, you're getting whatever that's giving you too.

21:50
Heidi
Whatever you want.

21:51
Willian Schneider
A temporary good time that leads you.

21:55
Caitlin Bricker
There you go. There you go. All right, so I want to wrap this up, but before I need people to know how to find tea jams, we need to get more tea jams into people's hands. So where can they find you online? If you're still doing farmers markets, where can they find you? Let us know all the deets.

22:14
Heidi
Awesome. Well, we're in every Sunday Beacon Farmers Market. If you're around in New York, find us. It's always fun. A good time. We're on tjams.com. You can find us on Instagram, T underscore Jams, Harney and Son's websites, their flagship stores. Ooh. Harness on soho. If you're in New York. Soho, New York City. We're there. Oh, and we just got into Murray's Cheese. Grand Central Terminal, which is really big for us because that's where we would take the train to meet up.

22:45
Willian Schneider
That is true.

22:46
Caitlin Bricker
Very cool. Tea jams on a charcuterie board is just so good.

22:53
Willian Schneider
We just wanted to say that we're really excited about T Jams. Product has come a long way and we're so excited for all the many flavors that we have ahead, all the opportunity that's out there. We're really excited.

23:08
Caitlin Bricker
I am very excited for you guys. I think it's great that you're having so much fun doing this and especially as a two person team producing so much jam. I think it's great that you still have your sense of humor and can still be here laughing at almost 3:00pm.

23:25
Willian Schneider
That is the best part.

23:26
Heidi
Yeah, right. Thank you so much and thank you for always making us feel like we're so in this space. Sometimes it's hard starting out saying hey, the new Kids on the Block are welcomed here, but we feel so welcomed and appreciated and like we're doing something right. So thank you for that.

23:42
Caitlin Bricker
You are.

23:43
Heidi
Aww.

23:44
Caitlin Bricker
I'm so here for T jams. So thank you both so much. This has been a lot of fun. I'm excited to see where you're going to be at in a year.

23:52
Heidi
Well, us too.

23:54
Caitlin Bricker
I'll talk to you soon.

23:55
Willian Schneider
Every winner.

23:59
Caitlin Bricker
Speaker 1: 00:00
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