WILMINGTON, N.C. — Meet Adrienne Kenion, a Black female entrepreneur. She’s the face behind Queen Esther Teas and uses her position of power to promote health and wellness in her community.

What You Need To Know

  • Adrienne Kenion creates all-natural and organic loose-leaf tea blends

  • She combines different ingredients to make batches for specific needs such as immunity, anti-anxiety and sleeping

  • Kenion uses social media to promote her products and other small businesses

Tea can be an incredibly useful drink. It’s been used for centuries as an herbal remedy, even dating back to ancient Egypt and China.  

Adrienne Kenion mixes up her ImmuniTea. (Spectrum News/Natalie Mooney)

When Kenion was having some digestive issues, she turned to tea, and it aided her in her healing process. Now she’s perfected her craft and is busy sharing her herbal blends with her community.

“Each of the herbs serve a different purpose,” Kenion said. “But they all work together to make some pretty incredible blends.”

She creates her own special blends for her business, Queen Esther Teas.  

Adrienne Kenion is owner of Queen Esther Teas. (Spectrum News/Natalie Mooney)

“My grandmother’s name was Esther, so I named the business after her because she always carried herself with so much grace and she was always so kind and she always made me feel like I was very special,” Kenion said. “So I just wanted to honor her in that way.”

And she does honor that kindness. In addition to selling teas, Kenion also promotes other Black-owned businesses on her social media and collaborates with different movers and shakers in her community so that everyone can feel the support that she felt when she got started.

“Having that presence in the community and being able to interact with the people has made such a huge difference,” Kenion said. “They have embraced me and helped my business grow — so much love and kindness. So it’s been an amazing experience, a great journey. Even though I’m new to entrepreneurship, it’s just still been a great learning experience."

Adrienne Kenion mixes a special blend of tea. (Spectrum News/Natalie Mooney)

For Kenion, owning her own business has been an incredible journey and one that she’s proud of. Although it can be intimidating as a Black female to start a business, she’s glad that she did.

“Don’t stop yourself from trying. You’ve got to get out there, put yourself out there. The community is definitely going to embrace you, and love you, and support you, and it will be a good thing,” Kenion said. “I just want to motivate anyone that’s out there that’s thinking about it to do it. Just take that first step.”

You can learn more about Kenion and her tea here.