You’re probably wondering whether Steeped Tea is a scam. Well, why not read this third-party Steeped Tea review and find out?
An Overview of Steeped Tea
Even though this is going to be a short review, I completely understand that some people might just want to get quick details about the company and move along. If you are one of such people, please sit back for a minute and read a bullet-form summary of some important things to know about this company:
- Steeped Tea is a legit company that sells tea and tea products
- To become a consultant of the company, you need to pay $99 for a starter kit
- Consultants of this company do not have to pay a recurring monthly fee
- They do not need to keep inventory as well
- You can earn between 25%-39% commissions on personal sales
- To retain your ordering privileges, you must have a minimum of $100 over a six-month period
- They operate using a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) business model
- In order to be successful, you are going to have to learn how to get regular leads.
- This is not a work-from-home opportunity.
- If you would love to earn money from home, click on the link below.
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What is Steeped Tea?
Steeped Tea is a Canadian direct sales company that sells tea and tea-related products through their consultants. Founded by Tonia Jahshan in 2006, the company initially started out as a hobby where she would share her tea with friends and family.
This hobby grew into hosting lots of tea parties every month until the company’s big break in 2012. The Jahshans’ great presentation on CBC’s Dragons’ Den was enough to convince David Chilton and Jim Treliving to invest in this company.
The Products
I can strongly vouch for the products because I have tasted their tea. I drink regular tea sometimes but I’m not someone you would call an avid tea lover.
A while back, I went to visit a friend of mine and he offered me a cup of tea. I enjoyed the tea so much that I had to ask what brand of tea it was and where he got it from. This was the first time I ever heard about Steeped Tea.
My friend is not a consultant himself but he told me he bought it from a consultant friend of his who invited him to a tea party few weeks prior to my visit. Whenever I hear the words “consultant” and “party” in one sentence,
Whenever I hear the words “consultant” and “party” in one sentence, my first thought is always MLM. So I looked into the company and thought it was worthy of reviewing.
From my own personal experience, the products are awesome and you should have a good time promoting them. My friend also told me that the tea is not expensive, which is a good thing from a marketing point of view.
The only problem you might encounter with being a consultant is being able to find regular leads. The products are solid but in order to make any decent money as a consultant, getting leads is absolutely crucial. In fact, it’s the one thing you must do.
The company recommends you host a few tea parties every month and make sure you always have a catalog handy at all times to be able to give to people you meet. They also talk about using social media to reach as many friends as possible.
If you can invite people to your tea party, invite them. That way, they can actually taste the products themselves. For those that can’t attend a tea party, you can have them purchase via the website using your consultant ID.
Personally, I think the marketing techniques they recommend are traditional and out-dated. It’s basically a hit or miss situation and you could easily run out of leads. If you want to learn how to use the internet to get regular leads, check out this review.
The Business Opportunity
For years, I have been shouting how easy it is to start a completely legitimate MLM opportunity. Steeped Tea has been able to pull that off with so much simplicity.
There is nothing wrong with a company paying people to promote its products. In fact, it is so much cheaper to do this than pay for regular advertising.
I also do not mind the fact that MLMs pay commissions to distributors/consultants several levels down, provided the emphasis remains on the products rather than recruiting and the sales of people at the foot of the opportunity do not directly enrich the owner and others at the top of the opportunity.
Steeped Tea is big on their products. They talk products, products, products. At their tea parties, they are giving you the chance to taste their products. They are not gathering people to sell them false dreams – something that is rife among MLM companies.
Since it’s an MLM company, if someone decides to also become a consultant through your ID, you get compensated in some way. I could not find an exact number anywhere on their website but this says a lot about the standards of the company. They do not want people to join the company with the sole purpose of recruiting other people and so on just to earn downline commissions.
They trust in the quality of their products to sell themselves. I believe a lot of the consultants would recommend the products for free. My friend (not a consultant) offered to link me with the consultant that sold him the tea. I would also recommend the tea to anybody and I am not a consultant either.
To become a consultant, you need to purchase their starter kit for $99. This kit includes tea, some spices, a teaspoon, a teapot, tea filters, a catalog, some training materials and more stuff.
What I liked
- The products are top-notch and reasonably priced
- The company prides in the quality of its products rather than the business opportunity
- They are backed by reputable investors
- You don’t have to keep inventory
- It is cheap to become a consultant
- They incentivize consultants
- I read somewhere that the founders have a fixed salary. This automatically rules them out from being a pyramid scheme
What I didn’t like
- Regular customers who want tea cannot just go on their website and order. They must have a consultant ID first
- The product catalog is not even available for public viewing
- Limited training on how to get leads
- No income disclosure statement
Is Steeped Tea a Scam?
Absolutely not! I have reviewed a lot of MLMs and I can boldly say that Steeped Tea is up there with the most legitimate companies around.
Their strength is rooted deeply in their products. I do not have concrete numbers but my guess would be that most consultants do not even recruit people at all to join the opportunity.
On top of that, if what I read was true, the owners earn a fixed yearly salary. This means more sales and more consultants joining the company might not necessarily mean more money for the owners.
Closing Thoughts
Even though I would like to get some of their tea without the unnecessary hassle of looking for a consultant, I actually love most of what Steeped Tea is doing.
If you are a tea lover yourself and you are confident you have what it takes to find people you could sell tea and tea products to, you could do very well with this company. I don’t want to talk about downlines and all that stuff because you can just focus on promoting the products.
If you would like to learn how to get consistent leads or if you are interested in building your own online business from home without having to talk to anyone in person, check out the program that taught me.
Steeped Tea Review
Product Name: Steeped Tea
Price: $99 for Starter kit
Owner(s): Tonia Jahshan
Overall Ranking: 70/100
Lauren Giedgowd says
I love your positive review. I just signed on as a consultant one week ago! The product catalogue is in fact available now online and you can go directly to purchase teas if you have a link. Shameless promotional post, my link is:
[link removed]
I hope you try more teas out in the future!
Amedu says
Thanks Lauren for your input. I’m sorry I can’t approve your affiliate link on my site.
I clicked on your link though, so don’t be surprised if you earn some commissions from my purchase 😉
Lauren Giedgowd says
No problem! I didn’t see your purchase come through but i’m always here if you need me 🙂 Just search my name and it’ll come up.
Michelle Childers says
Thank you for this honest review. I joined Steeped Tea in June and have been so happy with it. I have not done direct sales before but I have seen others do it. It is nice to not have to carry inventory and they do not push you to purchase business supplies in order to be able to do your work. There are some that are necessary but from my own upline and others, I have been told not to hand out a catalog to everyone. I give people my business card with my site on it so they can look at the catalog more there. Most of the working materials you would need to use, if you really need to use them, are available to print from your own computer. I have not made any recruits under me because I have not tried. It is not important to me right now and I have never felt pushed to do so.
After speaking with other direct sales consultants, I learned this is not the same for everyone I am grateful to have found Steeped Tea when I did. I believe this is the best company I could have joined. I share the tea because of my love for it. I enjoy making the extra money on the side too. The new starter kit is amazing! The price has gone up to $135 but it is worth it. You really get everything you need to start doing Tea Tastings. (As they are called now)
This is an exciting time to get on board with Steeped Tea. I am the only one in the Pacific Northwest who is active. I would love to see others get on board because I am getting booked! I am going to start sponsoring others soon and hope to get some who are in the next state over because the inquiries for tea keep coming in and I can’t travel that far.
Thank you for this lovely review. You hit the nail on the head.
Michelle
Amedu says
Thanks for your comment, Michelle. I was impressed with both the tea and structure of the business opportunity.