About us
How we started
Handpicked herbal teas’ journey began in Rarotonga in 2014. While we were there on a family holiday we were exploring a Raro style botanical garden. In the sweltering heat we came across a fruit partially rotten on the ground that resembled our long since rivalled favourite, Cherimoya. My wife was excited enough to find a clean piece of fruit and lick it, after which she started digging out all of the seeds.
At that time we had no idea what type of fruit we were dealing with, so the next morning when we ate our breakfast at the resort we asked a beautiful local Rarotongan lady about it. She said it was the Soursop. Then she proceeded to tell us about her sister who had chemotherapy treatment in New Zealand and was told there was nothing more that could be done, she was terminal and told to go home and get her affairs in order. Traditionally in the tropics Soursop is known to fight cancer so she returned home to Rarotonga and got on the Soursop. That was five years earlier and she was in full remission. We got pretty excited as my Mum (Janet) had been given a similar diagnosis – 7 months to live from lung cancer. She declined chemotherapy and is the only one left alive that was under the Specialist care at the same time as her diagnosis. We decided this was no accidental find and began our journey on researching Soursop and all the studies and its amazing health benefits. We imported some tea initially for my Mums use but decided it was a good business idea that other people could also benefit from. Janet is also showing very promising progress having exceeded the Doctors terminal lifespan by 4 + years and counting, with recent tests showing no growth and a reduction in density of the tumours in her lungs, AMAZING!!. This began our search into other health enhancing teas. Handpicked is located on the beautiful Mahurangi Peninsular in Algies Bay were we have a wee slice of paradise (2.5acres) where we currently operate our business from.
We supply a small range of health enhancing, yummy tasting teas for New Zealanders and the surrounding Southern Hemisphere, with intentions of increasing the range further within the next year.
Sarah in Raro
Us both enjoying the beautiful Cook Islands
