The tea ceremony is an argument made without words. In Taiwan, where rituals around tea can last several hours and require years to perform with any real fluency, the argument is that slowing down is not a luxury — it is the entire point. Clarissa Akakpo encountered this argument in Taiwan sometime before 2018, and it changed the direction of her career. She was a practising international tax consultant at the time, fluent in the language of legal frameworks and cross-border structures. She left Taiwan with something harder to quantify: a conviction that what she consumed, and how, shaped something fundamental about how she lived.
Back in Ghana, Akakpo began exploring herbal remedies alongside DIY skincare projects — a departure from tax law that was less eccentric than it appeared. She had always made things. She had always been drawn to the intersection of creativity and purpose. What she was discovering was that plant-based wellness carried a particular history in African contexts, one that had been pushed to the margins by decades of cultural dismissal and association with superstition. Powerful herbal remedies — knowledge carried across generations — were being overlooked, not because they lacked efficacy, but because no one had taken the time to position them differently. In 2018, she traded her law career for entrepreneurship and launched Aguma Tea.
The brand is built around sourcing from Ghana and across the African continent — herbs and fruit tree leaves selected for potency and purpose. These are not decorative tisanes. Akakpo applies the same analytical precision to her formulations that she once applied to legal briefs: what does this ingredient actually do, at what concentration, in combination with what else? Each blend reflects both traditional knowledge and her deepened understanding of herbalism, developed through years of serious study and practice. The result is product designed for people who understand that what they consume directly shapes how they feel.
The Vision
Akakpo’s creative life has always run alongside her analytical one — from childhood doll clothes to poetry, she has made things. In Aguma Tea, those two impulses have converged into something durable: a brand that thinks like a lawyer and feels like a gift, stewarding a cultural legacy one carefully blended cup at a time.
The Business
Aguma Tea represents a deliberate reimagining of herbal wellness. The collection features carefully curated blends sourced primarily from Ghana and across the African continent—herbs and fruit tree leaves selected for their potency and purpose. Each blend is grounded in both traditional knowledge and Akakpo’s refined understanding of herbalism and tea craftsmanship. This is not mass-market herbal tea; this is intentional formulation meets artisanal quality, designed for individuals who understand that what they consume directly shapes how they feel.
What distinguishes Aguma in a crowded wellness market is the founder’s insistence on authenticity without pretension. Akakpo brings her legal mind to sourcing and sustainability, her creative spirit to product development, and her genuine belief to every blend she releases. She’s not performing wellness; she’s practicing it, and inviting others into that practice. The brand speaks to a growing demographic of conscious consumers—particularly women—who want their wellness products to carry cultural significance, efficacy, and beauty in equal measure.
Where to find them: Aguma Tea works in Herbal tea wellness education & workshops. Shop and learn more at agumatea.com. Follow on Instagram: @agumatea.
