We pride ourselves on offering great customer service, and we do things old school. With Cusa, you will speak with a real human every time you email, text, call or chat with us. We’re open Monday through Friday (except national holidays), typically from 9am to 5pm Mountain Time. We check customer service inquiries about orders every morning before shipping them out, so don’t worry if you have contacted us after hours and need to wait for a reply.
FAQ
INGREDIENTS / TASTE
Drink it however you like! Our beverages are meant to be enjoyed hot or cold, and they taste great both ways. "Cold brewed" refers to how we brew the drinks, not how you're meant to consume them. Check out this article for more!
Yes! There is zero sugar in any Cusa Tea or Cusa Coffee product. They taste great that way, but if you prefer a sweeter taste to your tea or coffee, they also taste great with added honey, sugar, stevia or other sweeteners. If you are diabetic, you can absolutely drink Cusa Tea & Coffee.
We use dehydrated fruit, meaning no fruit juices make it into our teas. After we cold-brew our tea to perfection, we strain out the tea leaves and fruit before the tea undergoes our gentle dehydration process. So the taste and aroma of fruit remain in the finished product, but there are no juices in it that contribute calories or sugar.
Some do. Currently, all of our green and black teas have natural caffeine. They contain 42-76mg of caffeine per 12-14oz serving, depending on the flavor. For those who don’t or can’t drink caffeine, don’t despair! We sell a line of caffeine-free herbal teas.
Our herbal teas don’t contain actual tea leaves - instead they are tisanes containing herbs. Thus, they have no natural caffeine and are caffeine free. Although decaffeinated green and black teas are popular, they require chemical or artificial removal of the caffeine from the tea leaves. We haven’t yet found a process of doing this that we like.
Our English Breakfast Tea has 77mg of caffeine per 12-14oz serving, which is the highest caffeine content of all our teas at this time. Our coffees have 95-130mg of caffeine per serving.
Our entire herbal tea line has zero caffeine. From our green and black tea line, Mango Green Tea and Peach Green Tea both have 42mg of caffeine per 12-14oz serving. They have the least caffeine at this time.
No, the tea and coffee is not certified Kosher at this time. Surprising to most consumers is the fact that certifications, such as kosher, are extremely costly (yes, businesses have to pay for certifications and it is not cheap). As a very small business with limited resources we're often forced to pick and choose where we can and cannot allocate money. At this time we've decided that a kosher certification isn't worth the time or high cost of achieving such a certification.
The green and black tea leaves we use are USDA Certified-Organic. However, some of the Chai spices and the fruit and herbs in the Lemon Black, Earl Grey, Jasmine Green, Peach Green, Peach Black, Mango Black and Mango Green teas are not yet organic. Our herbal tea line is not organic at this time. Therefore, we can't say that 100% of our teas are organic. We're working on this. All of them are 87% organic or more. The ones that are 100% organic are our English Breakfast and Green teas. Our teas do undergo a triple filtration system that filters out any pesticides or heavy metals ingredients may have been exposed to at any time.
The green and black tea leaves we use are USDA Certified Organic. However, the fruit, herbs and spices we use are not yet organic. This means our herbal teas are not organic, and our green and black teas with added flavors are about 70%-90% or more organic. Our English Breakfast and Green teas are 100% organic. However, all our beverages undergo a quadruple filtration process that removes any residual pesticides, mold, bacteria or heavy metals, and we also test every batch for all four of these contaminants. We’re extremely proud to be the only brand that we’ve seen to publish test results on our website. This means that Cusa is likely cleaner than many certified organic teas on the market.
Not certified organic - yet. We understand the need for organic products, which is why our founder, Jim, personally went to dozens of coffee plantations before choosing the one we work with. They are fully Rainforest Alliance Certified and use zero pesticides or chemicals. In fact, they fertilize the coffee plants using a compost mixture of cow manure and the spent coffee fruit. The cow herd lives on the plantation, so they are also antibiotic free and 100% grass-fed. There are herds of wild elephants on the plantation too! It is truly a magical place. On top of all of that, all our beverages undergo a triple filtration process that removes any residual pesticides, mold, bacteria or heavy metals, and we also test every batch for all four of these contaminants. We’re extremely proud to be the only brand that we’ve seen to publish test results on our website. This means that Cusa is likely cleaner than many certified organic coffees on the market.
Our teas and coffees are 100% gluten-free. They contain only organic green or black tea, and real herbs, coffee, fruit and spices. We have had all of our tea products tested for gluten just in case, and they came back with zero parts per million for gluten. So, drink with confidence!
You may find comprehensive ingredient and nutritional information on every product listing. That means that we publish complete lists of all of our ingredients (yes, all of them!) because we're proud of what we put into our products.
Yes! 100% of our current line of products are vegan friendly! We do not use any animal products of any kind in any of our teas or coffees.
You may find comprehensive ingredient and nutritional information on every product listing. That means that we publish complete lists of all of our ingredients (yes, all of them!) because we're proud of what we put into our products.
Of course not! You just have a slightly different taste preference than our average customer. Add less water for stronger tea or coffee next time, or more water for weaker tea or coffee. We recommend 10-14oz of water for tea (check the package for instructions per flavor), or 6-10oz of water for coffee.
Yes, but this is a common and natural practice that's part of curing tea leaves, and there is nothing wrong with it. Basically, black tea leaves are fully oxidized and white tea leaves are not at all - they're all from the same type of plant, but the amount of oxidation the leaves undergo will determine the color and taste of the dried leaves and brewed tea.
Our green and black teas contain polyphenols, a type of EGCG, which are antioxidants. Good quality loose leaf tea typically contains about 60mg of polyphenols per serving, but our teas contain 144-456mg per serving, depending on the flavor. That’s because our unique process concentrates the polyphenols in our tea, meaning you get even more of the good stuff. They also contain L-theanine, a beneficial compound that helps to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation and wellbeing.
Yes you can! It has no sugar, calories or carbs and is compliant with both Keto and Paleo diets.
Our tea and coffee are not specifically designed to suppress appetite, but caffeine can suppress appetite for some people. Our teas and coffees contain natural caffeine. If you are fasting and can drink caffeine during your fast, you'll be just fine drinking our tea or coffee. There are no calories, fat, sugars or carbs in any of our beverages except for Mocha coffee, which contains a small amount of calories and carbs from the raw cacao in it.
PROUCT USE/ MIXING
The short answer is no - probably not. If you live in an extremely humid climate and leave the packet open and exposed to air, it may clump up in a day or two, or even a few hours. Don’t stress - even if you see some clumping, it will still dissolve in hot water. But for most climates if you tightly fold over the open edge of the packet, you should be able to use it a little at a time over a few days. This makes our Pitcher Packs a great bulk option for individuals.
Our coffees, herbal tea and green tea products dissolve completely and quickly in cold water. If you put them in a cold water bottle and shake, it will take about 5-45 seconds to dissolve then in cold water. Our black teas and Mocha coffee need a small amount of warm water to dissolve, then you can add cold water and ice to make iced tea.
Tea leaves contain proteins and amino acids. It is common for these to create bubbles or foam when they come into contact with water. You will notice that Cusa Tea can do this more than some other loose leaf teas, and this is because during the cold-brew step of production, we apply pressure to the water, which breaks open the cell walls of the tea and fruit to allow them to fully steep in room temperature water. The breakage of the cell wall also releases more proteins and amino acids into the water. The fact that you can see the bubbles tells you that your tea contains good amounts of denatured proteins, amino acids and fatty acids, which are all great and healthy things!
SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ORDERING ONLINE
If you set up a subscription order, you will be prompted to create an account with our website in order to view and manage the subscription later on. To create an account at any time, go to "SIGN IN" at the top of any page of our website, and then on the login page, click "Sign up" next to "New Customer". If you need to verify your email address during setup, check your spam/junk folder if you don’t see that email in your inbox.
Once you create an account, you can sign in to it to view and edit/manage your contact information, addresses and subscription by going to "SIGN IN" at the top of any page or by visiting: drinkcusa.com/account/login. Once signed in to your account, you'll see a place for managing your auto-ship subscription. If you need to reset your password and have a link emailed to you, check your spam/junk folder if you don’t see that email in your inbox.
There are two ways! You can order our 100-packs of tea or coffee to get a built-in discounted cost per serving. We also offer Pitcher Packs for most of our flavors - each one contains 5 pitcher servings, which contain 7 individual servings each. These are great for settings when more than one person is sharing a beverage, or for an individual who wants to open a packet and use just a little every day for about a week.
First of all, don’t sweat it. We may be a small business, but we have great customer service, and we’ll help you get to the bottom of any code issue at the end of the day. Your promo code SHOULD work, but check the context of the text, email or flier you got it with to see if it applies to one-time purchases only, or to a specific size or flavor, or has a time limit. If you accepted a pop-up promotion before checkout and that promotion included a discount, that discount will mean your code will not work for other products. That’s why we put a disclaimer on those deals for you to read before you accept them. If you prefer to use your code, remove the pop-up promotion item(s) from your cart and try again. If you’re still having issues, please contact us. We’re happy to help!
PACKAGING / TECHNOLOGY / SOURCE
Head to our Recycling Page to learn more about how each part of our product packaging can be recycled or composted.
We use single-serve packets because our tea and coffee powder is sensitive to moisture - even the moisture in the air. A jar with a scoop doesn’t work because the powder clumps up over time and becomes unscoopable. And we're still looking for a 100% sustainable, preferably compostable material that will stand up to the demands of backpacking, camping and active life while preventing even the smallest amount of humidity or moisture from interacting with our tea and coffee powder. We welcome suggestions on solutions we should consider - please email support@cusatea.com if you have one to share!
In the meantime, we help you recycle those empty tea and coffee packets so they don’t end up in landfills. Head on over to our Recycling Page to learn how you can do that.
We use single-serve packets because our tea and coffee powder is sensitive to moisture - even the moisture in the air. A jar with a scoop doesn’t work because the powder clumps up over time and becomes unscoopable. And we're still looking for a 100% sustainable, preferably compostable material that will stand up to the demands of backpacking, camping and active life while preventing even the smallest amount of humidity or moisture from interacting with our tea and coffee powder. We welcome suggestions on solutions we should consider - please email support@cusatea.com if you have one to share!
The reason that other brands can market their instant beverages in jars or tubs is twofold: 1) many types of chemical preservatives, stabilizers, and anti-caking agents are added to the product to help it last longer and not clump up and 2) the products are severely burned in either a freeze drying process or a heat spraying process. These two processes are how pretty much all instant beverages are made and the result is a burned or "instant" type taste because the product has been exposed to extreme temperatures. However, in burning the product in this way it is possible maintain it in powder form. Cusa products are made using a gentle botanical extraction process which never uses extreme heat and thus preserves all of the flavor notes and healthy benefits.
And, while a jar or tub seems like a better option on the surface, it actually produces even more plastic per serving than our little packets. We address this in greater depth in several of our blog posts.
When we founded Cusa Tea & Coffee, we had one goal: create an instant drink that doesn’t taste like an instant drink. However, the available technology behind existing instant beverage products damages the quality of teas and coffee either with too much heat (spray drying) or too extreme cold temperatures (freeze drying). Our patented Cold-brew technology uses room temperature water and pressure to extract all the flavor and maximum goodness from our hand-selected teas and coffees. From there, we vacuum dehydrate the cold brew, a much gentler method of dehydration, to concentrate the tea or coffee into crystals that instantly dissolve in hot or cold water. The result: a delicious, restorative, enjoyable cup of premium tea or coffee that can be made in seconds. It’s the next step in the evolution of a thousands-year-old tradition.
Our tea and coffee is sourced from Asia. Specifically, from USDA Organic-certified tea fields and a Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee farm that we selected in-person after examining their practices and facilities. We personally visit these farms multiple times a year. All of these farms are far from city centers (to avoid unintended contamination by toxins), and just to be sure, every batch of tea we make is tested for four contaminants: heavy metals, pesticides, mold and bacteria. To learn more about the benefits of sourcing from a Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee farm, check out this article.
GENERAL
Yes, but not often. We get dozens of donation requests each week and it is impossible for us to say "yes" to them all or even to respond to them all (but we do our best!). We are a very small, local business and we have very limited capability to give away free product and we therefor do so rarely and with discretion. When we do choose to donate product it is typically to those causes championed by our loyal customer base. We like to support our customers since they support us!