Bee-Loving Companies Partner To Promote Honey On National Honeybee Day

CLEARWATER, FL — Monin Americas and TeBella Tea Company will partner this National Honeybee Day for a one-week promotion in support of protecting bee populations.

From Aug. 19 through Aug. 26, the two Tampa Bay-based companies will join forces to feature signature beverages highlighting Monin products and TeBella tea, with a portion of proceeds going toward bee conservation efforts.

Monin and TeBella will offer customers sweet, spicy and herbaceous menu offerings including two specialty iced teas: the Strawberry Jalapeño Lemonade and Sweet Heat Peach. They will include lemonade and Monin’s Flavor of the Year: Hot Honey Syrup. The Strawberry Jalapeño Lemonade will have a black tea base and the Sweet Heat Peach will be made with a caffeine-free herbal tea.

For each drink sold, TeBella will donate 50 percent of the sales price to benefit fragile honeybee populations. Monin will provide a case of Hot Honey Syrup to each TeBella store free of charge and has pledged to match TeBella’s total donation amount.

“Our team is excited to roll out these limited-time menu additions benefitting pollinators on National Honeybee Day,” said Abigail StClair, founder and owner of TeBella Tea Company. “Through this partnership with Monin, we are able to offer our customers new, enticing flavors, raise awareness for an important cause and teach our customers how they too can play a role in saving the bees.”

Monin is no stranger to protecting the bees, the company has supported honeybee populations for
more than 15 years through its Syrup-to-Bees initiative. In 2022, Monin extended this commitment by partnering with Bee Downtown to join its Corporate Hive Program, a project dedicated to creating on-site experiences that offer employees unique opportunities to interact with bees, agriculture, each other and their workplace.

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Bee Downtown installs and maintains beehives on corporate campuses across the Southeast while simultaneously providing year-round employee engagement and leadership development programs to many of America’s leading corporations.

Through this program, Monin installed an apiary at its Clearwater headquarters, 2100 Range Road, in an effort to educate employees and the community about the environmental and economic impact of pollinators. Now, Monin and TeBella hope to reach and engage the local public through these festive beverages.

“This is our first collaboration with TeBella and we are excited to partner with a fellow Bay area
company. The TeBella team has created two fabulous drinks using our Hot Honey Syrup that are well balanced, refreshing and very on trend, all while supporting bee conservation efforts,” said Stasha Johnston, senior vice president of marketing at Monin. “This partnership not only delivers great drinks for the Tampa Bay area, but it also helps raise awareness about these fascinating and incredible pollinators that make a huge impact on our world and economy.”

The Strawberry Jalapeño Lemonade and Sweet Heat Peach will be available from Saturday, Aug. 19
through Saturday, Aug. 26 at all TeBella locations in the Tampa Bay area: Davis Islands, 227 E Davis Blvd.; Oxford Exchange, 420 W Kennedy Blvd., Tampa; St. Petersburg's EDGE District, 1445 Central Ave.; and The Mall at University Town Center, 140 University Town Center Drive S in Sarasota.

Monin Gourmet Flavorings was founded in Bourges, France, in 1912 by Georges Monin, a self-proclaimed flavor enthusiast and avid cook.

After years of trial and error, Monin developed a spectrum of bottled flavors and syrups. Three generations later, the family-owned company offers premium flavors in 140 companies.

In 1993, Monin's grandson, Olivier Monin, became president of the company and launched an ambitious plan to develop an international presence for the company, starting in Clearwater where Monin employs more than 150 people who oversee sales and operations throughout North America, South America and the Caribbean.

The Clearwater facility distributes its all-natural syrups and flavorings to restaurants, such as Outback Steakhouse, Au Bon Pain Cafe Bakery, The Melting Pot, Ruby Tuesday and Cheers, as well as beverage manufacturers.

The favors are used in coffee, flavored water, bubble teas, cocktails, frappes, smoothies, shakes, sangrias, sodas, rubs, sauces, dressings and dips.

Founded in 2010 in Tampa, TeBella Tea Company is a family-owned boutique tea retailer specializing in loose-leaf tea and tea accessories.

TeBella Tea’s collection of over 100 teas represents some of the highest-quality specialty teas from the finest gardens in the world. TeBella currently operates four locations in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, and provides tea to over 150 wholesale partners throughout the United States.