Kōrero: My Story

Ko Pukenui-o-Raho te maunga
Ko Waiotahe te awa
Ko Mataatua te waka
Ko Tūhoe, ko Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, ko Whakatōhea ngā iwi o ōku tīpuna
Ko Ūpokorehe te hapū
Ko Maromahue te marae
Ko Annette Eggers tōku ingoa 

Where It All Began

Kia ora, I'm Annette Eggers, founder of Tī Ani.

My first memory of tea takes me back to when I was five years old, in my parents’ farm shed in the early 1970s. My parents owned a hop farm and employed around 20 people each harvest season. My job was to help Mum make the cups of tea.

The loose tea arrived in Choysa-branded wooden boxes with the lids nailed down. Those boxes were always reused. At one stage in my life I stored my tape collection in them, but mostly they became toolboxes for nuts and bolts on the farm.

It was always a thrill to crack the boxes open and inhale that first whiff of Earl Grey. I would scoop the tea into the huge teapots, and Mum would pour in hot water from the urns and let it steep. We’d line up all the different-shaped teacups on the formica tables and pour tea for the workers. I loved watching each person choose their cup. The tea had a sweet, aromatic scent, and to this day it carries a memory that has never left me.

Tī Ani is a small New Zealand tea brand focused on wild-harvested and thoughtfully sourced teas, made with respect for the land and the plants themselves.

Learning from the Ngahere

As I grew up, I spent much of my time hunting and fishing with whānau and friends, and with that came a real taste of nature. In the South Island, mānuka and kawakawa tea was the most common for me. But when I visited whānau in Ōpōtiki, it was often a different plant from the whenua.

Back then I did not always know what the plants were, but I would drink them anyway. Sometimes cousins or elders would say, “Don’t touch that,” and I never thought to ask why. Eventually, I did start asking questions. That was when I began to understand who I was. It was also part of how I healed my mind. I came to understand the importance of Papatūānuku and why we must treat her with care.

I later worked in Auckland city for several years, and on weekends I would head into the Waitākere Ranges. I hiked every track there and would sit for hours examining the plants in that incredible subtropical rainforest. I carried identification books and my modern Jetboil so I could heat water and drink tea in the bush. I would sometimes take plant samples home and carefully compare them with my books, making sure I had identified them correctly, often amazed by what I had found. When the Waitākere Ranges closed, I was sad, but also grateful for everything I had learned there, and hopeful that the forest would have time to recover and flourish again.

A World of Tea

I have spent time in different countries, learning from new cultures and experiencing remarkable teas, especially in the Amazon, throughout South America, and in India. Visiting China’s tea estates remains firmly on my bucket list, a dream that Covid put on hold and life has not yet allowed me to fulfil. One day. I cannot wait to hear their stories and be inspired by the masters of tea making.

Coming Home

I have since returned to Te Waipounamu, where the ngahere is bold and beautiful, with new plants to identify and new understandings of how carefully we need to tread as we work to protect our taonga species. I study te reo Māori, which gives me a deeper understanding of my own culture, and of others too. I have finally found who I am. It was always there; it just took a very long time to find me.

Why Tī Ani Exists

I am not a rongoā practitioner, but I am someone with a deep love for the ngahere, a strong respect for traditional plant knowledge and many years of learning through experience, observation and real time in the bush.

Tī Ani was born from curiosity, from time spent in the bush tramping and hunting, from conversations with elders, and from a genuine belief in the value of these remarkable plants. Over time, that curiosity grew into something much deeper, a desire to share what I had learnt, what I had tasted, and what I had come to appreciate so deeply.

It also came from frustration. I had grown tired of unnecessary packaging, added flavours, and ingredients that felt far removed from the plants themselves. I wanted tea to feel more honest, closer to nature, and closer to the way I experience it.

That is why I choose packaging that can be recycled or composted where possible, and why I do not add flavours or unnecessary additives to my blends. What you taste is the plant itself, handled with care and respect.

I have learnt a lot over the years and I am always still learning. While I do not claim to be something I am not, I can share from real experience and when needed, help guide people toward the right knowledge and the right people.

One of the things I love most is when people find Tī Ani through places like Riverside Pantry, not just discovering my teas, but discovering a collective of like-minded people who care deeply about what they make and how they make it.

Life, as it does, has pulled me in many directions. I am also Managing Director of another demanding business and the economy has brought its challenges, so Tī Ani has taken longer to grow than I had planned.

In between, I travel regularly to Australia and further north to spend time with my mokopuna. 

Tī Ani is my way of sharing that journey with you, one cup at a time.

You can find me on TikTok, where I share the real side of Tī Ani - in the bush, hiking, tea, hunting, learning and not to mention the odd chaotic moment in between. 

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. 🌿