From rural China to American entrepreneur

Persistence, and a belief born in rural China that people should think before they drink, leads to a new product from the kitchens of Warren's Hope & Main

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 3/28/17

As a young child in rural China, Lei Nichols learned early about the relationship between food and medicine. Her grandmother would prepare soups rich with all-natural ingredients that also have …

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From rural China to American entrepreneur

Persistence, and a belief born in rural China that people should think before they drink, leads to a new product from the kitchens of Warren's Hope & Main

Posted

As a young child in rural China, Lei Nichols learned early about the relationship between food and medicine. Her grandmother would prepare soups rich with all-natural ingredients that also have medicinal properties, like ginger. There was no tea culture in her small village — they did not even have electricity. "I was 7 or 8 years old before I saw my first car," Lei said.

Lei would be introduced to tea later, moving to live with her family in the city. Her mother would make tea, with dried chrysanthemum often a key ingredient. "For me it's like magic," Lei said. "This flower can fix any problem."

Marriage and family brought Lei to the United States, to her former husband's home state of Massachusetts, where she still lives in Attleboro. The mother of two daughters, a freshman in college and a junior in high school, taught Chinese in area schools for many years. It was there that she noticed that her students weren't always consuming healthy drinks, to put it mildly. She describes a day that she saw a student consume a large container of a brightly-colored liquid; a sweetened so-called sports drink.

"I asked my daughter what that was, and she told me," Lei said. "And I asked her why the students would drink that, and she said it was because they were thirsty."

To a woman who was raised believing that everything you put it your body should have a higher purpose, that wasn't a very good answer.

"There should be another reason," Lei said. "Does it help you stay strong? When I was growing you drank things for a reason, it was more about health benefits. What you drank was more important than what you ate.

"This bothered me every time I saw the kids with these drinks. I thought I should do something."

Lei's business plan began with a call to China. "With every big decision, first I asked my father. It's the Chinese way," Lei said with a laugh. "He told me to let it go, raise my kids, teach, find a new husband.

"But I couldn't let it go."

So Lei contacted state agencies to learn about the process of producing and selling beverages in Massachusetts. Those calls would have likely been confusing for native English speakers, but for Lei, they were exceptionally challenging. So she drove to Boston to have the conversations face to face — and then she drove all over the northeast looking for a place to produce her teas.

Finally, her persistence paid off. She was given some seed money to start up and she was directed to Hope & Main, Warren's food business incubator. For Lei, who admits to having no background in business, that was the deal-maker. She began producing in August 2016.

She calls her company Wise Mouth — an appropriate name that comes from four Chinese characters with two meanings: the act of being wise about the food and drink that goes in your mouth, as well as the words that come out. She put the characters into Google translate, and "Wise Mouth" was the result.

"I had a student who told me it has another, not-so-nice meaning," Lei says. "But by the time she told me I had already designed the label. That's okay, though — people seem to like it."

The recipes for the six flavors — Chrysanthemum Dragon Rose, Ginger Orange, Long Life Ginger, Chrysanthemum Romance, Cranberry Jasmine, and Pumpkin Spice Oolong — come from Lei's grandmother's soups, adapted to account for serving temperatures. "It's important that they are delicious so teens will drink them," said Lei.

And they are, of course, healthy. Wise Mouth tea uses real tea leaves and fresh fruit and vegetables, not powders like most teas on the market. They are available at over 30 retail locations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and 2 in Connecticut — locally at Tom's markets, Clements, The Green Grocer, Dave's and the East Side Market.

Lei gives much credit for the success of Wise Mouth to Hope & Main and her gratitude extends to the Warren community for their support of the food business incubator. "Hope and Main, and Warren, welcomed me and helped me," she said. "Without them, I'm not here today."



Wise Mouth, Lei Nichols, Hope & Main

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