Amy Scott

We're still waiting here for that federal aid to be dispersed, at least in the... Wow.

Yeah.

It's been longer, certainly, than I expected, even though we knew it would take a little bit.

But we're still waiting to find out how we can

access that capital.

Some of it has been specifically earmarked for the city of Asheville for small business grants because our regional economy is driven so much by small business that that's such a big

part of our recovery, but we have not yet seen that funding come through.

As someone who's been so directly impacted by a climate disaster, how are you thinking about the changing climate as part of the future of your business?

Are you adapting?

Are you planning for more disruptions?

I think it would be tough not to at this point.

You know, I think for the tea industry, I think anyone in this industry working with agricultural products in general is

means that there are going to be some changes within our supply chain.

And I do think that our model being focused on native plants and regional and domestic sourcing

and building those value chains, working with farmers.

My hope is that we'll be able to be nimble as we move forward around supply chain and look at using herbs like yaupon, which is our only native North American caffeinated plant, and it's native to the Southeast.

Hmm, say more about that.

What is yaupon?

Yeah, yaupon is such a cool plant.

It's in the holly family, which is the same family as yerba mate.