Heather Needleman admits she isn’t one to turn down a challenge. So, when the mother of two young adults with disabilities was challenged by her twin sister, Veronica Mellor, to make jelly out of tea, she learned everything she could and got busy experimenting at her home
in Derry.
“My sister is a tea snob and is allergic to alcohol. So when she noticed wine jelly was being made, she thought, ‘why not tea jelly?’ My sister loves tea and I love a good challenge,” Needleman says. That challenge has transformed what was once a hobby business started in 2003 focused on handcrafted ornaments, teacup teddy bears, and hand painted candy jars and wood projects, Needleman says. Twins 4 Life Creations now sells 17 flavors of tea jelly and is rapidly growing with a 25% increase in sales between 2022 and 2023.
“I did [crafting] as a way to de-stress, to help support my family, and raise Autism awareness,” says Needleman, who began a Special Olympics snow shoeing team sponsored by McIntyre Ski Area in Manchester several years ago for her children and others.
Getting the tea jelly venture off the ground in 2019 was no easy feat and took 22 attempts to develop her basic recipe, Needleman says. “I play with every batch to get the flavor right,” she says, adding this often depends on the concentration and the brand of herbal teas being used. “I’m very picky and it’s all about finding the right balance. If someone threw paint on a canvas, they might call it art, but
I don’t.”
Once the concentration is right, the process takes 20 minutes and produces eight 4-ounce jars per batch. Needleman says she has tried making her jelly in bigger batches, but the evaporation rate was too high. “It wasn’t setting right,” she says, explaining herbal tea contains no natural pectin needed to make the jelly set. All her products receive a formal FDA food processing review, she says.
Twins 4 Life flavors include Earl Grey Tea Jelly, Wild Berry Zinger, Strawberry Kiwi Apple, and a low-sugar blueberry sauce made from blueberries picked at Berry Good Farm in Goffstown and Bartlett Blueberry Farm in Newport. Needleman’s latest flavor is an orange Honeybush tea made with Mandarin oranges that she hopes to have ready for the Made In NH Expo on April 5, 6 and 7 (which is produced by Business NH Magazine’s parent company, Granite Media Group).
One thing she has learned running a small business is patience. “I knew nothing about business—QuickBooks, legal stuff, homestead laws—I have a homestead kitchen and there’s a lot that goes into that as opposed to a commercial kitchen,” she says, adding that her kids and others with disabilities help with cleaning, bagging, and labeling the jars. “I don’t do this for the money. I do it because I enjoy it and I’m putting a smile on people’s faces,” Needleman says. “And being a stay-at-home mom … this is something that’s mine.”
For more information, visit twins4lifecreations.com.