SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Kola Goodies, a South Asian brand creating joyful wellness essentials, is bringing its all in one Tea Latte line to dozens of Whole Foods Market locations in the Bay Area and Northern California, in August 2024. This expansion is a proud step they’re taking toward reaching their mission of increasing cultural representation in wellness, from seed to shelf.
Kola Goodies’ premium, category-enhancing Tea Latte blends combine ingredients
directly sourced from farmer collectives and a delicious taste and texture, with an easy,
convenient process. Their soul-warming Masala Chai has been praised as “my new
favorite blend” by POPSUGAR and “delicious and super easy” for a “lazy day” by
Buzzfeed. Amna Nawaz noted that the Sri Lankan Milk Tea “tastes amazing” on The
Strategist’s ‘Can’t Live Without’ series.
The immigrant, Woman of Color founded brand blends South Asian generational
wisdom with modern day convenience to create delicious beverage blends. They offer a
line of superfood lattes and tea lattes that they believe are a joyful ritual for busy,
health-focused customers. These all in one blends are made with high quality
ingredients and can be ready in under five minutes by adding hot water.
“As a Sri Lankan immigrant, it means so much to see products that are from my home
country and based on my mom’s recipes on Whole Foods Market shelves,” Kola
Goodies founder Sajani Amarasiri said. “I’m proud that we’re creating access to a whole
new set of American consumers, to bring them easy and joyful wellness goodies, while
working to ensure everyone in the supply chain benefits from these products.”
From the beginning, Kola Goodies has built their supply chains from the ground up, in
order to support and directly source from farmers. Sajani has gone back to her roots to
source their world renowned ceylon tea from smallholder farmers and fresh spices that
are milled on demand from small farmer collectives in Sri Lanka.
All three products in their line of Tea Latte blends are available at select Whole Foods
Market locations in the Bay Area and Northern California:
- Sri Lankan Milk Tea Latte: This creamy and delicious Sri Lankan Milk Tea is a first to market product that defined the growth for this company, inspired by Sajani’s mom’s signature ceylon tea. Just add hot water, steep, and strain.
- Oat Mylk Tea Latte: Made with oat mylk powder in the mix, this tea blend is the plant-based counterpart to Kola Goodies’ Sri Lankan Milk Tea. Bon Appe´tit describes the Oat Mylk Tea Latte as “a sweet, creamy bev.”
- Masala Chai Latte: Inspired by home-style masala chai without the time-consuming process, this Masala Chai is an all-in-one blend made with ceylon black tea, zesty spices, creamy whole milk powder, and lightly sweetened.
Kola Goodies infuses South Asian and Sri Lankan elements into their brand identity. Their beautiful product packaging and brand assets are created by Sri Lankan illustrator Praveeni Chamathka and Sri Lankan graphic designer Janveeka Gunaratne.
Over the last few years, Kola Goodies’ story and products have been featured in
prestigious magazine outlets, such as Food Network, Bon Appetit, Refinery29, The
Strategist, and Forbes. Sajani was highlighted in Stacy’s Sundance Festival short film
titled RISE, as a resilient woman entrepreneur. Kola Goodies was excited to have a
local collaboration with Boba Guys, with a golden milk tea on their drink menu in 2022.
Kola Goodies is looking forward to expanding their product SKUs, reaching new
customers around America who are looking for culturally-rooted wellness goodies.
You can find out more about Kola Goodies on their website kolagoodies.com or their
Instagram @kolagoodies.
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