While many across the world passed anxious and lonely hours early in the pandemic mastering sourdough starters and organizing closets, Kia Croom was studying tea leaves.
The nonprofit veteran faced a series of obstacles amid the chaos of Covid-19. The revelations that emerged as she overcame them eventually led to the creation of Prince William County’s Itutu Apothecary & Tea Room, purveyor of teas, herbs, herb baths, tinctures and “tea experiences.”
How it started: Croom’s herbology studies in the first half of 2020 led her to bush tea — a term to describe the sacred traditions and medicinal benefits of boiling leaves, stems and parts of native plants within African, Caribbean, and Southern Black communities.
Meanwhile, she was also plotting to grow her firm, Kia Croom Fundraising & Philanthropy. Croom, who had left the nonprofit sector due to the increasingly hostile environment she experienced as a Black woman, found herself battling severe anxiety and insomnia as the pandemic raged on and the stresses of entrepreneurship mounted.
Her doctor had prescribed a sleep aid to help manage symptoms. One night, she misplaced her prescription.
“In that moment, I said, ‘You know what?’ I got to figure something out. I do not want to be reliant on a drug to go to sleep,” said Croom. “That was the moment when I had to lean into my herbalism, and I began to formulate a tea that would help me get to sleep.”
Kia Croom
She got to work formulating her Slumber Time Tea and started building a home apothecary out of her Lake Ridge home in late 2021. Today, it is the home of Itutu Apothecary & Tea Room.
Itutu is an ancient Yoruba word that means being cool and calm, said Croom, but it also refers to a particular way of life that is composed, assured, unhurried, and unbothered that she hopes to spread with more than two dozen different formulations of tea, herb baths and tinctures.
Croom’s herbal creations include a “No’ O’Zempic” weight loss support tea, “You Glow Girl” womb, health and wellness tea, and “Ain’t Nobody Got Time” cold, allergy and sinus relief tea.
Itutu’s packaging is a particular source of pride for Croom, who designed the product packing with vibrant patterns and colors, that she hopes captures the luxury experience of drinking tea.
Kia Croom
“What’s really luxurious to me is that you’re pouring into yourself in a way that promotes wellness,” said Croom. “And what I want to do is democratize that, so that the average person can glean the medicinal benefits of a bush, but in a visually appealing package.”
The colors of packaging also represents the diversity of the herbs used to formulated it, Croom explained. The packaging on the detox tea, for example, represents the colors from milk thistle, burdock root, parsley root, nettle leave and alfalfa leaves as well as fruits from the drink’s flavor profile.
Croom officially launched the company in December 2024. She is its sole employee but aims to hire locally as the company scales.
The challenge today: Getting the product into consumers’ hands is Croom’s focus now after bootstrapping the company with almost $15,000 to date. Her tea is available through an online store and at a small number of retail locations that she’s forged partnerships with.
“When people find me, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great. The products are great. I love this, it’s helping me.’ But how do those people find me?” said Croom. “That’s the biggest challenge for me.”
What’s next: From formulation, to packaging and delivery, Croom runs the entire company out of her Prince William home. But the future she is planning for includes an expansion.
“In five years from now I know that we’re going to have our own warehouse – and we will have several,” said Croom, who hopes that the company will grow to support several warehouses across the country and internationally where she sources herbs, so that customers in the Caribbean and in the United Kingdom could get products swiftly without having to pay big shipping fees, she added.
The solopreneur has no plans for a brick-and-mortar location at this time, though she admits to “flirting” with the idea on occasion. Until then, she’s focusing her energy on growing partnerships for product placement in more stores and gift shops around the region. The company on April 1 will also roll out a mobile tea room experience that will offer pop-up events that pay homage to Black-owned tea houses.
Croom has also curated a roving art installation known as “Shayo” — which means “to have joy” in Yoruba — where individuals engage the five senses in a tea experience.
It’s all part of Croom’s ongoing efforts to help educate and orient people to the history and folklore of tea across cultures, a tradition that younger generations have been more hesitant to adopt, she said.
“There’s belonging, there’s preservation of culture,” in the act of drinking tea, said Croom. “I want people to think about that when they’re having tea, how they’re honoring culture and community and how they’re honoring themselves.”