Mighty Leaf was born out of a shared passion for whole leaf tea. Founders Gary Shinner and Jill Portman fell in love with whole leaf tea in the mid-90's over a pot of Chinese Oolong tea while shopping for engagement rings. A few years later, they made the bold decision to leave their jobs in investment banking and architecture to open a modern day tea house and share their love of whole leaf tea with others. In 1996, they packed up their lives in Chicago, moved to San Francisco, and opened “Tea & Company” on Fillmore Street. Tea and Co was the first of its kind in San Francisco and perhaps a little ahead of its time.

In 2000, after the dot-com crash, Jill and Gary decided to close their tea shop. However, they did not give up on their passion. They already had wholesale customers and knew that they could share the whole leaf tea experience with a broader audience by supplying upscale restaurants and hotels with Mighty Leaf’s signature and proprietary hand-stitched pouches. Over the next 10 years, they built an impressive clientele list including Michelin starred restaurants, five-star hotels and luxury cruise lines, most of whom Mighty Leaf continues to serve today.

In 2014, Mighty Leaf was sold to new owners, one of them being Peet's Coffee & Tea. Mighty Leaf chose to join the Peet's Coffee family because of their commitment to quality. Like Mighty Leaf, Peet's began as a small shop in the Bay Area with the vision to create incredible hand-crafted coffee & tea blends. Today, our tea team is led by Tea Master, Eliot Jordan who has over 30 years of experience sourcing the highest quality, whole leaf teas from around the world. Eliot shares Jill and Gary's passion to create artisan whole leaf tea blends by sourcing the finest ingredients available.

Eliot’s passion can be seen in all the new tea blends we introduce yearly and especially in the two new lines that launched in 2017.

Tea & Company, pays homage to our teahouse beginnings. The premium line of quality teas features 12 organic whole leaf teas sourced from renowned tea regions. The 3 black teas, 3 green teas, 3 herbal tisanes and 3 exotic blends are already turning heads, winning several awards at the prestigious 2017 World Tea Championships. Tea & Company carries on our founder’s legacy of reserve lot whole leaf teas.

The second new line is an assortment of Wellness teas. These teas were developed in conjunction with expert herbalist, Susan Blanc. Our wellness are great-tasting, imaginative blends with traditional benefits.