Tea is one of the most commonly consumed beverages in the world – due to its popularity, the health benefits of tea have been thoroughly researched, finding it to be: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial amongst other benefits.
White, green oolong, and black tea all come from the leaves of the same plant – camelia sinensis. White tea uses young leaves and buds that have not yet turned green, which are dried without processing. Green, oolong, and black teas all use the mature leaves of the same plant, with the difference between the three being the extent of fermentation of the leaves prior to drying: green tea leaves are dried without processing, oolong leaves are partially fermented, and black tea leaves are fully fermented.
“Many readily available iced teas have high sugar content – some even up to 11g per 100ml”
Here in the UK, we drink more than 100,000,000 cups of tea per day, but while iced tea is a popular alternative to carbonated soft drinks in the USA, especially in the hotter, more southern states, it has never appealed to the British audience in the same way.
Many readily available iced teas have high sugar content – some even up to 11g per 100ml (this is over 30% of the NHS recommended daily serving of free sugar for adults). There is also no hard limit to the amount of tea that a drink needs to contain to be considered an iced tea, meaning that some commercial iced teas use only fractional amounts of tea extracts in their products.
The overconsumption of added sugars has been linked to an increased risk of cardiometabolic disease development, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. In 2024, 59% of UK respondents to a poll by Stastista said they ‘actively try to eat healthy’, but for the health-conscious consumer, there are limited options for iced teas that are low in sugar, and delicious.
This issue was one of the main reasons why we created Marna. Following a road trip across the west coast of the US, I came back home to London craving a refreshing, authentic iced tea made with real tea, that wasn’t full of sugar or artificial ingredients. This proved difficult to find. Soon enough, I was squeezing lemons and cold-brewing tea overnight to make some for myself – the response from friends and family was incredible; friend, flatmate, and now my co-founder, Mauro, was one of the first to encourage him me take it seriously.
“We want to make it easier for people to make a healthier choice with regards to the drinks they consume, without sacrificing taste or quality.”
And so Marna began. Together we have set out to build a brand that would bring real iced tea, made from natural ingredients, to a home market known for its love of tea, but that was clearly missing an iced tea of its own.
Here at Marna, we want to make it easier for people to make a healthier choice with regards to the drinks they consume, without sacrificing taste or quality. There’s also a growing demand for products that are sustainably sourced and packaged. We want to show that it’s possible to be good for the planet, as well as the consumer – Marna is 100% recyclable across our entire supply chain, and we don’t use any plastic in our packaging. We’ve also built strong relationships with our tea suppliers, ensuring they’re paid fairly and have job security.
We think our customers appreciate having an iced tea that focuses entirely on the tea. We have two flavours at the moment, both made by brewing the highest grade of loose-leaf black tea we can find for 24 hours. We spent over two years perfecting our recipes before officially launching in January of this year, and the reception has been amazing.
The drinks industry is a whole new world for Marna – from managing supply chains, to approaching buyers, every day is a new challenge! But we are thankful that, as a young business, we have the opportunity right now to really solidify our focus and values, and make sure every decision we make is in line with our commitment to making a high quality product, without compromise.
Although it’s taken us huge amounts of time and effort to get to this point, it feels like the journey of Marna is still just beginning. At the moment, we’re just looking to share Marna with more people; having worked so hard to create an iced tea that we think people will love, it’s now up to us to find the right partners, locations, and shelves for Marna to sit on.
