WILLIAMSBURG — Whitney Auerbach is a dental hygienist and triplet mom. With two of her kids playing several sports, the Auerbach family would spend weekends at tournaments in places like South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, California, Florida, Alabama, and Virginia, where Whitney noticed how many sugary drinks were being served.
“In Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, there are these tea shops everywhere. We don’t have that here. At these tea shops, they kind of are referred to as loaded teas. People can load them up with caffeine and all different things,” Auerbach explained.
At the tournaments, the Auerbach’s would spend all day at the field, not wanting to lose their parking spot, and would rely on the concession stand to nourish their two athletes. Lacking many healthy options, Auerbach’s kids would often end up with stomach aches and feel nauseous as they continued playing after consuming soda and hot dogs.
“I’m a dental hygienist, and I’ve seen the effects of sodas and energy drinks on teeth. It is hard on the teeth, but these athletes are thirsty and in the heat, you take what you can get at these tournaments,” Auerbach explained.
After some thought, Auerbach launched Turn’t Teas, a new food truck business in the Historic Triangle.
“When I was traveling this summer with my daughter for tournaments, I told her that we need a better option,” Auerbach said.
After six months of playing around with recipes, Auerbach landed on a green tea-based drink that she could add flavors to.
“If you take an all-natural green tea, there are flavors you can add to the green tea so that you can’t really taste the tea itself. So many people don’t like the taste of green tea, but I really just wanted to give it a shot,” Auerbach said.
Turn’t Teas currently offers 30 flavors and each drink is fully customizable with options to add caffeine or electrolytes. Popular sellers include the Luke Bryan (peach and strawberry), Bomb Pop (cherry, limeade, and blue raspberry), and Tiger’s Blood (watermelon, strawberry, coconut). Each drink is $8.
“In this world we’re living in, everyone is just trying to do the best they can in moderation. But, when you don’t have many choices at a sporting event, you try to take the best option. The thing I love about this is that I have electrolytes that I can offer that are flavorless, odorless, and I can add them to these drinks. My goal is to have something for spectators, coaches, and athletes that are in this heat all day long that is truly refreshing,” Auerbach said.
Auerbach takes the Turn’t Teas trailer to local sports tournaments and festivals, and hopes to expand the business to local college campuses.
“There’s so many different ways you can go with this kind of business. We don’t have a storefront, yet but I’d love to see that down the road. I’d love to set up a certain day of the week to be at William & Mary for their sporting events. I will explore any option that is available to me,” Auerbach said.
Auerbach posts daily on Instagram where the trailer will be located. She also showcases new flavor combinations on the page. Overall, she is grateful for the community’s support.
“Everyone in the community has been truly so kind. I feel so blessed in so many different ways and I really honestly just took a chance on this. I never thought putting together something like this would be as hard as it was. It truly is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” Auerbach said.
For more information on Turn’t Teas, follow on Instagram.
