Please welcome, Ellenda Tea Co.

As some of you may know, I received a cease and desist this summer. Thus began the hardest and longest month of my life.

TL;DR: A rebrand was inevitable. And it had to happen fast.

I worked for weeks in silence, not telling any of my followers or customers what was going on. Most nights I was knee deep in legal researching, figuring out what my options were, setting up consults with trademark attorneys.

I hired lawyers. I figured out a rebranding timeline. Only problem? What the heck was I going to rebrand to?

After many hours of brainstorming, research, playing around with different combinations of letters, and several emails back and forth with my lawyers, I landed on Ellenda.

While it has been hard to let go of Eden Leaf, I've reached a point of true excitement to rebrand. Eden Leaf was such a meaningful name that matched the spirit and purpose of my businesses. At first I thought I would never be able to come up with something that would have the same feel, meaning, or aesthetic qualities as Eden Leaf. But I think we landed on something perfect. Here's how and why I chose Ellenda:

1. Phonetically, it is the same as the street I moved to in North Carolina where I invested in and grew this business. Prior to that, it had been a stagnant Etsy shop with a few blends and a handful of sales per year, mostly from friends and family.
   

2. It's a made up word. Turns out, that's nearly essential to avoid trademark conflicts. Think of all the brands that are globally recognized but completely made up words: Nike, Reebok, Kodak, Leica, Pentax, Nikon, Adidas, Nalgene, Kleenex, to name a few. These brands have become so ubiquitous and recognizable that we view them as brand identities, rather than strange, fabricated words.
   

3. No one else is using it, making it a low-risk mark. Had I consulted a lawyer when filing a trademark application for Eden Leaf, they would have told me that it was a very "high risk" application, and would likely be contested. They would have been right, and I probably would have had to consider changing the brand name at that point regardless. The fact that Ellenda is not being used in any class makes it unique and unlikely to be contested.
   

4. "Ellenda" is comprised of the same letters as Eden Leaf, and is visually and phonetically similar. I loved the mix of tall and short characters in Eden Leaf, which created a visual cadence, like rolling hills. I loved the way the syllables rolled off the tongue. It was a soft name, with no hard letters or sounds (such as R, V, X, or K). I wanted to create a sort of remix of Eden Leaf that would keep "E" as the first letter and retain the softness and audible qualities.
   

5. It's feminine without being girly. In many ways, that's a reflection of me as a person. I created many of my blends specifically for women, but it's not an exclusively female brand.
   

6. The abbreviation changes from ELTC to ETC, a slight change that preserves brand identity. Plus, there's so much room to play with the abbreviation "ETC." Herbs. Roots. Flowers. etc.

So there you have it. Starting on October 1, our new name will be official. All website traffic will be directed to ellendatea.com, and our Instagram handle will change to @ellenda.tea.co

Thanks for your continued support as we've made this transition. I love our new name and am dreaming of how it will enable us to grow in ways that Eden Leaf would not have been able to.

Cheers to new beginnings,

Rachel