Treecup Tea

How Tea Made in a Small-Town VFW Is Helping Rebuild Haiti’s Forests

How Tea Made in a Small-Town VFW Is Helping Rebuild Haiti’s Forests

Mark Sotomayor won’t get to walk at commencement this week, but it’s fair to say the Grove City College senior is a few steps ahead of most of his classmates when it comes to a post-college career.

Sotomayor is the CEO and founder of Treecup Tea, a small-batch tea company based in Evans City, a small town roughly 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

“The two main things, flavor-wise, that set us apart are unique global flavors as well as healthy, low-calorie brews,” he said in a phone interview.

Founded in 2017, while Sotomayor was a sophomore, Treecup’s motto is “buy a tea, plant a tree” — for every bottle of tea that is sold, Treecup plants one tree in Haiti’s deforested Artibonite Valley.

Sotomayor, an entrepreneurship major, said he was drawn to social entrepreneurship both as a way to differentiate the brand in the marketplace and as a way to motivate himself beyond the pursuit of profit.

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