Dry tea blends are a natural cottage food: loose-leaf black and green tea, herbal blends from dried flowers and leaves, chai spice mixes. California's approved list names dried tea; Michigan's law names dried herbs; Minnesota covers food that isn't potentially hazardous; and North Dakota allows sales straight to the customer. Brewed tea is a beverage. Bottled iced tea needs refrigeration, so it's out in Michigan, which excludes beverages, in California, whose list doesn't include it, and in Minnesota. And herbal blends that claim to treat anything become a drug question, not a food one, so the label says what's in the blend and how to brew it.
The short version
- Loose-leaf tea, herbal blends and dry chai mixes fit cottage food laws here.
- California names dried tea; Michigan names dried herbs.
- Brewed and bottled tea is a beverage that needs refrigeration.
- Michigan excludes beverages; California doesn't list them.
- Keep health claims off herbal labels.
- Label each pouch: ingredients, net weight, your name and address.
- TaroStack keeps each blend as a recipe and each batch's lot. More below.
Tea, state by state
| Product | Michigan | Minnesota | North Dakota | California |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loose-leaf black tea blend | Yes | Yes, registered | Yes | Yes, on the list |
| Chamomile and lavender herbal blend | Yes | Yes, registered | Yes | Yes, on the list |
| Dry chai spice mix | Yes | Yes, registered | Yes | Yes, on the list |
| Bottled sweet tea | No: beverages are excluded | No: potentially hazardous | Frozen, with labels | No: not on the list |
The licensed path is in tea business license, and the business year in tea business plan.
The rules
| State | Rule |
|---|---|
| Michigan | Food that isn't time/temperature control for safety, including jams, candy, dried fruit, granola, dry mixes, vinegar, dried herbs and baked goods; not meat or poultry, milk products, beverages, salsa, or canned foods other than standardized jams (MCL 289.1105(k)); prepackaged, labeled with the home kitchen statement, sold straight to the consumer (MCL 289.4102) |
| Minnesota | Food that isn't potentially hazardous, and home-canned pickles, vegetables or fruits at pH 4.6 or lower or water activity 0.85 or less; registration every year and approved food safety training (Minn. Stat. 28A.152) |
| North Dakota | No state license for cottage food sold directly to an informed end consumer; foods that need refrigeration labeled with safe handling instructions and as transported and maintained frozen; no uninspected meat, poultry only from the seller's own birds (N.D.C.C. 23-09.5-02) |
| California | Cottage foods are nonpotentially hazardous foods on the approved list, among them baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings, candy, chocolate-covered nonperishables, dried fruit, dried pasta, granola, herb blends, honey, standardized jams, nut butters, popcorn, vinegar and mustard, roasted coffee and dried tea (HSC 114365.5); Class A sells directly, Class B also through shops and restaurants (HSC 113758) |
This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a Minnesota tea blender
North Shore Tea Co., a made-up home tea blender in Duluth, Minnesota, registered as a cottage food producer and blends black teas and herbal tisanes in two-ounce pouches for a holiday market. A customer asked for bottled iced tea for summer; that's a beverage that needs refrigeration, outside Minnesota's law, so the blender sells a cold-brew pouch instead. An herbal blend's label once said it "eases anxiety"; it now lists the herbs and brewing time, and nothing about what it treats. Bottled tea as a licensed business is in iced tea business plan.
Get the checker
Download the home tea checker. Two sheets: your products, whether each needs refrigeration, is meat or poultry, a milk product, a canned food other than jam, or a drink, and whether it's on California's list; how Michigan's, Minnesota's, North Dakota's and California's cottage food laws treat it fill in; and each state's rules as read for this article. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Twelve blends from 25 herbs and teas, each bought in its own lot, is a shelf of tins. A recalled lot of chamomile means opening every blend's notes to find where it went.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each blend as a recipe and each batch's lot, back to the tea lots it used.
Blends as recipes. Each blend is a recipe by weight, costed from what its teas and herbs cost.
Batches by lot. Each batch records which lots it used and how many pouches it filled.
Recalls. If an herb lot is recalled, one report shows every blend and customer it reached.
| The job | Paper | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a pouch costs | A guess | True cost from the recipe |
| Which chamomile went into a batch | Not recorded | Batches by lot |
| Who got a recalled lot | Market memory | One recall report |
Recipes, batches and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.