Tell us about Madame Flavour…
Madame Flavour is an Australian tea company I started 10 years ago in the spare room of my Melbourne home. At Madame Flavour we specialise in leaf teas, but we also offer them in biodegradable pyramids so tea drinkers can enjoy the pleasure of leaf blends without the mess often associated with loose-leaf tea.
I create the blends myself and love using Australian native ingredients to add a delicious local touch.
We are proud of how our business has grown and developed. We are stocked in major supermarkets, and our clients include iconic foodservice brands, such as Virgin Australia, Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, Brisbane and Gold Coast and The Hotel Windsor.
What inspired you to start Madame Flavour?
I started the brand because I believed passionately that consumers – people – deserve great quality and also deserve a level of care and respect from their brands. And at the time, 10 years ago, the tea offered here did not, reflect that.
Tea can be so rich in leaf, flavour, story and heritage, which led me to have a “people deserve better; I can do that” moment, and off I went.
It’s amazing to look at where we are now, ten years later, having delivered more than 100 million beautiful tea experiences to tea drinkers who truly appreciate it. The bond we have with our customers is very special.
Tell us about your career and background.
Professionally, before Madame Flavour, I worked in marketing for large companies such as Gilette and Simplot, where I looked after the Leggo’s brand. It was perfect training for creating the Madame Flavour brand, although I had to figure out how to do it without the resource safety net.
On a personal level, my mother is French and my father lived in India for many years, so I grew up with a love of food, travel and rich experiences. They met and married in Sri Lanka, so my frequent visits are a pleasure as it feels familiar, almost like family.
Describe a typical work day for you.
Each day is different, however I’ll usually start the day early and am straight onto my emails or using my early morning-efficient-brain to handle a piece of complex work with of course a cup of Australian Morning blend.
Or I may be in the office to meet with the team, review a new ad campaign, deliver tea training, work on a special new blend from my Gippsland retreat, fly to Colombo to oversee new production or visit the estates.
Many cups of tea later, I pick up my daughter Sienna from school three days a week and we go for a walk and hang out.
In the evening I’ll do a last check of what’s coming in with a cup of Deeply Relaxing before some yoga and stretching, and finish with a well-deserved night’s sleep.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Have a go but plan it. Understand what you are good at and what else might be vital to the success of your business – especially financial oversight – then get the best people you can afford to help you with other elements.
Try to be entrepreneurial in the way you do everything – think laterally – how you can do things faster, smarter and use your networks. There are so many resources for budding entrepreneurs these days, business groups and finding people willing to mentor are a great start.
For example, I didn’t have the funds to do large scale research to begin with, so I recruited people at the local shops to come to my house and talk about tea. It just took a bit of courage.
Overall, it’s essential you make the customer the centre of everything you do and remember to delight them.
What’s next for you, and Madame Flavour?
I’m excited to have just launched our Australian Morning black teas into Coles and independent supermarkets – now everyone who loves a classic cup of black tea can enjoy Madame Flavour quality.
I’m also really enjoying experimenting infusing alcohol with tea, then removing the tea to leave an interesting character in the alcohol. For example, our new Australian Afternoon Grey works well with brown spirits, such as Scotch. The end result is great as an Old Fashioned, I call it Madame’s Old Fashioned: grey infused Scotch on the rocks with a dash of sugar syrup, orange bitters and a maraschino cherry.
Then of course there is the batch of Kombucha I have brewing at the moment using our Australian Morning teabag blend – stay tuned!
