In 2015, with a few hundred dollars, and a great idea, Darien Craig started his successful sweet tea enterprise. Buying jars, sugar, and tea at Walmart using his Nana’s recipe, he started pouring up some of the best tea around.

Pumpkin Patch Start

During the first few months, with a booth at the local Pumpkin Patch, he quickly sold hundreds of jars. Customers loved his tea. He realized he needed a way to share his delicious refreshment with more tea drinkers.

True southerners probably drink tea before any other soft drink, sweet, unsweet, lemon, or even added flavors like peach and raspberry. We all have a favorite way to savor this delightful drink.

A Southern Sweet Tea Start

Tea, as a hot drink, has been around for hundreds of years, but it took a creative southern cookbook back in 1879 to suggest adding ice. A new taste sensation was born.

Darien Craig knew he had a great recipe, but in the beginning, he was still purchasing tea and sugar at the store. He bought good tea bags but rarely stuck to just one brand.

Business, while good, had started to plateau. He was selling his product mostly at festivals, farmer’s markets, carnivals, craft fairs, and local get-togethers; his market was limited. 

Working with Red Diamond

Thinking of other ways to get his product out, he looked into shipping, but the expense and safety of shipping glass jars were an issue. Franchising crossed his mind, but instead, in 2017, he started a direct relationship with Red Diamond Tea, buying tea and sugar from them. 

Selling his tea and seeing the smile and love that his customers had for his product not only brought him joy but also encouraged him to be more determined and find a way to reach more people. 

Through innovative thinking, Darien sparked ideas for his products through fun colors, fun labels, and a delicious drink, and this allowed an opportunity for everyone to try Y’all Sweet Tea. 

Thinking outside the box or outside the glass jar, Y’all Sweet Tea is now available in half-gallon and gallon bags from their website, Amazon, and even Etsy. It is also available in stores at Piggly Wiggly, Walmart, and Foodland.

Nana’s recipe is printed on the back of each package, follow it with the tea provided; enjoy a crowd favorite, and you will definitely return for more. 

The Y’all Sweet Tea website also offers mugs, cups, hoodies, yellow straws, and various other brand merchandise.

This past April was the one-year anniversary of Darien’s creative tea.

The days are heating up in the south, yall. Grab some tea and relax like us at the North Jefferson Post.