STEEPED: Adventures of a Tea Entrepreneur

by Brook Eddy

Isolated, broke, and restless in a drafty mountain A-frame with colicky twins, Brook Eddy needed a path out. This is the story of one woman’s passionate spirit and how it transformed despair into entrepreneurial success.

Adventures Of A Tea Entrepreneur is the story of how Brook built a socially conscious multimillion-dollar tea company with a fierce devotion to sustainability. Part business memoir, part India travelogue, STEEPED is brimming with provocative prose, transcendent images of travel throughout India, and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, idealists, and travelers.

From forearms slashed with scalding burns to the unseen sting of stress, depression, and near bankruptcy, Brook’s story is one of love, loss, and unrelenting resilience.

STEEPED is a testament that while you don’t need an MBA, a trust fund, a husband, or a business plan to bring an idea to market, you do need to be able to withstand hot water, which, like tea, will make you stronger.

213 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 22, 2023

About the author

Brook Eddy is the founder and CEO of Bhakti, Inc., best known for award-winning chai and innovative iced tea beverages. Bhakti is a Certified B Corporation and only uses sustainable and fair trade ingredients and packaging. Brook also founded GITA Giving, a platform for supporting women and girls globally. She has a graduate degree from the University of Michigan and was a finalist for Entrepreneur of The Year Award by
Entrepreneur Magazine. Brook practices yoga, plays chess, hikes, and is a soccer enthusiast. She is the
mother of twins and lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Reviews

[Kate Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this from a giveaway, and I really enjoyed it! It was a mix of interesting travel stories from India and also the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. I learned a lot about the food and beverage business, and it was also interesting to hear about India and her experience there.

[Veda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my whole mind around reading, I was not only enjoying the book but I was drawn into every word this author Brook Eddy wrote. This book is a must read for everyone! I’m a college student and I could not put the book down. The passion she talks about with starting an amazing non-profit company while raising twins! Her travels to India to spark her idea for Bhakti Chai. Can’t stress this enough. READ IT!!

[Ryzen Weissman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I have ever read. Such an inspiring story and I couldn’t stop reading it. I can’t recommend this book enough!!

[Moe Weissman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steeped is nothing short of a masterpiece. From the first page, I was immediately captivated, my expectations beautifully surpassed. Brook showcases her writing brilliance by crafting a narrative that swings gracefully between moments of heartwarming humor and profound emotion. Her evocative writing style immerses readers in the rollercoaster of starting a business, her enchanting adventures in India, and the beautifully nuanced details of everything in between. To say I wholeheartedly recommend this book would be an understatement, Brook has truly given readers a treasure.

[Kristin Ransom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written

[Maruta Kalnins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful memoir is full of tragedy and laughter, wonderful travel stories anyone who has ever been in India can feel, taste, and smell, and hard life lessons painfully learned. It is an inspirational tale for anyone who has ever reached for a dream and struggled to bring it to life. Beyond that, the adversities overcome are staggering. There are the age old difficulties of being a woman, a single mother raising children with no help, and deep personal wounds that could so easily have turned this woman to bitterness, but instead, created a deeper love and desire to serve. Beautifully researched, this book is full of facts about the spiritual traditions of India, the struggles of women all over the world, and the history of tea. Full of warmth, humility, love stories, and the sensual enjoyment of the flavors and spices of India, the story also does not flinch from tragedy and the bitter arrows of the shabby meanness in our modern reality. And here, too, there are valuable lessons to be learned in the author's tale of overcoming these things. Her story is so much more than that of a brave woman bringing her vision to life as an entrepreneur in a male dominated world.

[Anne Boardman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read roughly a chapter a week with my tea group. The author’s adventures were interesting and I admire her business sense. However, in writing a memoir you can choose any part of your life to cover and yet there are parts of this book where the author tells on herself repeatedly. I ended up not liking her as a person after revealing behavior that can only objectively be frowned upon. And she talk many paragraphs to defend her bad behavior.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect if you are a fan of Bhakti Chai or even if you aren't! The author, the founder of Bhakti Chai, beautifully describes her travel adventures to India, being a single mom, fighting for good, fighting to find your purpose, the importance of community, starting and maintaining a business and more. It was a quick read for me because I could not put it down.

[Jon Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brook’s prose is very fluid and well done. It’s a fast read and full of adventures of entrepreneurship gone right and gone wrong and right again. She’s a very good writer. I would recommend this one.