Her Cup Of Tea

Motherhood Sparked Entrepreneurship For Miami’s Samah Bensalem

by Mary Thurman Yuhas

What began as a nightmare for a new Miami mother morphed into a successful online business that seeks to help others through the healing power of natural ingredients.
Samah Bensalem is CEO of SecretsOfTea.com, offering functional teas for lactation, colic, weight loss and more. She launched it in Miami in 2012.

It all started nine years ago, after she and her husband, Fatah, brought their first child home. The newborn’s colic was severe, and, after a month of trying everything, the couple was desperate.

“We went to the doctor every day. Nothing worked,” says Bensalem, 43. “We were concerned for her health and even took her to the ER a few times.”

With no options left, she turned to her now late grandmother, Chiba Zari, who practiced natural healing in Feriana, Tunisia, the small town where Bensalem lived until she was 21. Based on her grandmother’s instructions, she created the same mixture of tea and herbs that her family has used to treat colic for generations. Then she fed it to her baby.

“As soon as we gave it to her, all of that [colic] was history,” says Bensalem. “Our baby was happy, and we all started sleeping through the night.”

For the next two years, she gave the tea to anyone with a colicky baby – with great results. Soon, although the prospect was daunting, Bensalem decided to launch a small business.

She returned to Tunisia to absorb her grandmother’s knowledge of natural healing, learning how to combine teas and herbs to treat a variety of issues. Next, Bensalem listed her product on Amazon.

“There is no sugar, alcohol or chemicals in it,” she says. “The tea bags are unbleached. Everything is natural, and my teas are delicious and healing. I knew the demand was there, and we got a sale the first day.”

Word-of-mouth from relieved mothers worldwide was all the advertising Bensalem needed to grow her business. Today, she has four full-time employees and remains committed to helping other women, whether through charity initiatives or providing remote work to mothers in Third World countries.

“I knew I had a calling to help babies and people,” Bensalem says. “I’m not in business just for the money.”