On the 23 July we arrived with excitement in Quito, Ecuador.

We'd spent a little time in Lima and Amazonian Peru before that, so we were already adjusted to the new timezone.

We had great meetings lined up both in Quito and in the region of the Ecuadorian Amazon where our Guayusa is grown, in and around Archidona and Tena.

These meetings were with our amazing suppliers, producers in the Amazon and with of course, the Guayusa tree itself.

We are super stoked to announce that we are now officially a 1% for the Planet member, helping to protect rivers in Guayusa heartland and here at home in London through donating to Ecuadorian Rivers Institute and Thames 21!

It's been a mega period of growth here at The Guayusa Co, not only have we welcomed four new members to the team, we've also had a load of fun at no less than three events in less than a month!

Here's some memories from the days which included two events at Excel London (International Food & Drink Event Europe and Natural & Organic Products Europe on the amazing Pro Ecuador's pavilion, and one local market with our fabulous local community here in our hometown of Beckenham).
 

From our general reading around the web, we’d seen a few people asking whether Guayusa tea would be allowed as part of the Paleo diet. This is a diet we didn’t really know much about, so we decided to look into things.

The Paleo diet is about eating like our ancestors. You may have heard it called the ‘prehistoric’, ‘caveman’ or ‘stone age’ diet, and for good reason. The argument goes that by cutting out modern foods, digestion is improved. The Paleo diet is built on the premise that newer agricultural foods put a strain on our digestive systems.

Hey all we hope you are all well.

We are long over due to post an update here, and if we ever had a lot to talk about it is now!

So, where to start - we'll try and chunk things out... read on and you'll learn how:

• We changed our name
• We attended a traditional Guayusa Tea Ceremony
• We received a new delivery of the most incredible guayusa
• We got hold of some guayusa chocolate bars
• We did our first market