BALTIMORE — One Baltimore business is returning to Charm City and bringing a unique concept with it starting this weekend.
WMAR-2 News sat down with the owner of Equitea to learn more about how the business started and its upcoming matcha pop-up cafe.
What started out as a way for Quentin Vennie, co-founder and CEO of Equitea, to help his son, who was diagnosed with ADHD, has become a first-of-its-kind business in Baltimore City. Now Equitea is bringing a taste of its business to Baltimore City in a new and creative way.
Quentin Vennie says he needed to find a way to help his son focus in school, but he didn't want his son to have the experiences with medicine that he had.
"My own experiences of fighting through multiple mental health diagnoses, being addicted to anxiety pills for two years, surviving an accidental drug overdose, two failed suicide attempts, I didn't want him going down the traditional pill-for-every-ill kind of over-prescriptive nature of Western medicine," says Vennie.
Although the tea is not a cure, he says it did help his son in a major way.
In 2022 the family decided to turn the tea into a business.
"We should make available to other families what we created for our own, and that was the start of Equitea," says Quientin Vennie.
Shortly after launching, Vennie took the business to LA, where it grew. But he wants it to grow in his home state.
"We brought the business back home to Baltimore. We want to anchor ourselves in this city," he says.
Starting Saturday, Matcha lovers can experience the first-of-its-kind pop-up cafe inside the old JBGB building on North Howard Street.
He says other places may offer Matcha but not the same way Equitea will.
"You'll find Matcha on the menu as a single item. We are creating an entire experience around this incredible ingredient," says Vennie.
Not only will they have a menu full of different Matcha options, but he also plans to partner with other local businesses.
"It's going to be a pretty expansive menu, you know, and we're looking at potentially collaborating with chefs in the area to provide that food component," he says.
Vennie says he is proud of the growth in his business the last few years, but he says bringing it back to Baltimore is extra special.
"Our canned tea's are sold in over 600 stores in 28 states. With the canned teas we manufacture outside of Baltimore, one piece of it is I want to bring beverage manufacturing back to the city."
And although this event is a month long pop-up, vennie says he hopes to make the location a permanent home for the business.
"We launch this as a full-fledged Matcha cafe; Baltimore City is first and hopefully not the last Matcha cafe."
For now the Matcha pop-up will be in the JBGB location from February 22nd until March 22nd.
