James Hood was always an entrepreneur, but when he caught wind of a revolutionary tea lid, he found his lifelong calling. Hood worked in the office coffee service business for 20 years; before that he was among the first Cincinnatians to sell Apple computers in the 1980s. Now, almost 40 years later, he’s the CEO of soon-to-launch startup Bruetta.
The concept behind Bruetta is simple: They produce to-go cup lids (the BruLid) with built-in filters that steep tea. Hood first heard about the company when his accountant casually mentioned the startup in December 2016. Hood understood the hot-beverage landscape, so there was nothing casual about his reaction.
“As my accountant filed my taxes, I looked at the lids online and went nuts,” he said. “I knew what it could do in offices, so I reached out and connected with the founder.”
Hood met with founder Robert Stease and joined the company as a consultant, then CEO. His wife, Yasna, and son, Matthew, joined the team soon after. They’ve spent the past three years running proof-of-concept trials in local offices like Dunnhumby and Projetech, as well as 20 different colleges. The results have been resoundingly positive. That’s why they’re planning for a full-scale rollout soon.
“Robert Morris College took 48 units as a trial,” Hood said. “I shipped them, didn’t really give them marketing materials and hoped they could sell them. They called me back and said all 48 units were gone in 48 hours. That’s one lid per hour!”
As Hood and the team perfected their BruLids, which are available as bulk plastic lids or as reusable to-go tumblers, they decided to focus specifically on tea instead of both tea and coffee. That’s largely because tea is growing in popularity, especially among millennials. According to research from the Tea Association, four out of five Americans drink tea, and 87 percent of millennials are tea drinkers. That’s why Bruetta’s simple tea-filtering lid is poised to shake up the industry.
“The lid is patented now, which means nobody else in the world has it,” Hood said. “It’s a simple solution, not this whole new complicated system, and when we show it trade shows people are astounded, like “oh, duh, put a filter in the lid that makes it easier.””
Beyond filtering tea, the BruLid also has a proprietary perk that any hot-beverage drinker fantasizes about: no sloshing. A video on the website compares sloshing of the BruLid with an average lid; the results would make any to-go drinker giddy:
The Blue Ash-based company, which has five employees, is preparing to launch as soon as spring 2020. They’re working with office coffee service companies to make sure their products can reach as many people as possible across the country. In the meantime, individuals can also purchase their own tumblers, teas, cups and the company's site.
