Asheville Reboot

Brewing Resilience in Asheville: Cornerstone Tea’s Journey After Hurricane Helene

• Brian Hamrick • Season 1 • Episode 5

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What happens when a family tradition of tea-making collides with the challenges of entrepreneurship and the devastation of Hurricane Helene?

In this episode of Asheville Reboot, Alex Jarbo (owner of Engadine Inn & Cabins) sits down with Stephanie, owner of Cornerstone Tea Company, to share her story of resilience, faith, and creativity.

Stephanie explains how Cornerstone Tea began as her mother’s dream and has now grown into a thriving wholesale and retail business serving Western North Carolina. She opens up about the difficult days during and after Hurricane Helene—navigating road closures, losing power, worrying about loved ones, and watching fellow businesses suffer flooding and closures.

Despite setbacks, Stephanie pushed forward. She added more wholesale accounts, donated proceeds from a special “Mountain Strong” tea blend to hurricane relief efforts, and continues to support local vendors who were hardest hit.

Alex and Stephanie also talk about:

  • Why supporting local businesses in Asheville and Western North Carolina matters more than ever.
  • How Cornerstone Tea crafts custom blends (including Engadine’s signature tea).
  • The powerful role of faith, community, and divine appointments in rebuilding after disaster.
  • Why fall in the Blue Ridge Mountains promises to be a season of hope, color, and recovery.

👉 Learn more and shop teas: Cornerstone Tea Company

👉 Plan your mountain getaway: Engadine Inn & Cabins

Whether you’re a tea lover, a visitor planning your next Asheville trip, or simply inspired by stories of perseverance, this conversation will remind you how strong communities can be when people rally together.

Follow Engadine:
📸 Instagram: @engadineinnandcabins
📘 Facebook: @engadineinnandcabins
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AshevilleReboot

Alex:

Hey everyone. Welcome to Asheville Reboot, I am Alex Jarbo, the owner of Engadine Inn and Cabins. Today we are joined by Stephanie, the owner of Cornerstone Tea company.com or just Cornerstone Tea. Stephanie mixes all of our teas, that we have a part of our tea bar and then we sell here at Engadine what we're drinking is actually a blend. That, she mixed for us based off of the tasting notes of the wine that we mix here. so let's just kick off. Let's start about where you got started, where you're from, and then what exactly Cornerstone Tea is.

Speaker 3:

Sure. So my business began actually as my mother's business. In the wake of her mother's death, she received a. Little bit of money, like a few thousand dollars. And she invested it in, her entrepreneurial spirit as a way to honor her mother by taking a lot of her antique furniture and furnishings and repurposing them into a brick and mortar tea room in Garner, North Carolina. I am technically speaking a third generation, if not fourth generation entrepreneur, which is really cool to reflect on. we had a good time doing that, but due to some life circumstances, we had to shut it down and we moved up to the mountains because we figured if we were going to be poor, we may as well be poor somewhere that it's pretty,

Alex:

a good way to look at it.

Speaker 3:

I launched my career in horticulture and landscaping and, enjoyed it thoroughly. Once again, life throws you curve balls. I was fired from my last job, and decided I never wanted to be fired again. So I decided to draw on my ancestry, and go into business for myself. The. Cornerstone Tea as a business had laid dormant for almost a decade. When I asked my mom if I could have it, she let me. it has grown to what you see now over the course of, probably six or seven years. we do wholesale to fine businesses like yours. We, have a retail website, cornerstone tea company.com, and, we do small and large local events. I've previously had a larger footprint in my event schedule, but I have dialed back significantly because I'm focusing on businesses like you and serving my community well and the place I am. So that's where we are currently.

Alex:

How many varieties

Speaker 3:

we're burgeoning on? 50. Yeah. 50 plus. With seasonals it's probably closer to 60. and of course some of them are limited release. Some of them are, locked behind, certain walls. The vault. Yes. Because like, I'm not gonna just sell anyone Engadine. They gotta come to you for that. Yeah.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

some of them are still locked in my noggin. I'm receiving a shipment in the next couple of days of some new ingredients to play with. So you'll be seeing some limited releases from me. I love it.

Alex:

How has Hurricane Helene affected your business?

Speaker 3:

So I had a dramatic introduction to Helene. I was teaching one of my continuing education courses at AP Tech and, it was the evening, section and the rain started driving against the window, My classroom's typically a third or fourth story classroom. And it was just beating the window. And my husband texted me while I was in class, which he never does unless it's an emergency. And he's like, Hey, the water's rising and there's road closures starting. I need you to, you should consider dismissing early and coming home before it gets too bad. the class agreed. I'm very glad we did, because by the time I got home, 26 was nearly impassable.

Alex:

Yeah. The highway.

Speaker 3:

We, I actually had to turn around in a couple of spots, not to go through water, on my way home.'cause I live in Weaverville and I was teaching in Asheville.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

that night we fell asleep. The rain continued and it wasn't until we woke up the next day that we started to really grasp the gravity of what had happened. we realized communications were non-existent. We very quickly lost power. camping equipment, and we had camp stoves and a little bit of gas and, butane to run them. we managed, to keep our deep freeze going. A lot of people did not have that privilege,

Speaker 4:

right?

Speaker 3:

We did not suffer excessively, but the heartbreak of watching. Everyone around us whom we couldn't help. when the power got back and we started getting news people, we couldn't help and people trapped on mountains that's when it started to really sink in. This is a disaster when I actually got hold of my family and realized the scope of what they in Hendersonville were, struggling with. that's when it started to sink in it was. downhill from there. In a lot of ways

Alex:

see tearing up a little bit.

Speaker 3:

it's not a pleasant memory as I'm sure you can relate. being not able to talk to my family for almost three days was horrifying because my mother's elderly and Infirm. I was worried even in her second story apartment if she would be okay. Did she have water? Did she have a toilet flush? Did she have food? I was worried about my brother who tends to stay with various friends didn't know where he was at all. it was very stressful for a few days, but it's at that point where you have to have faith that while you may not be able to do anything, God's always working. you don't have to feel it. You don't have to see it for him to be working if he relied exclusively on our conscious awareness of his work, we would be very screwed indeed.

Alex:

That's a good way to put it.

Speaker 3:

All of my wholesale customers, in the area, suffered some closures and even some losses. Thanks to Helene's damage. many of them had flooding in their stores, lost product. I actually was part of a store in, Boone, North Carolina that was completely washed away. I, Lost quite a bit from that store because there was no way of them predicting where the water was gonna go. They couldn't save my product. They couldn't save anything in there. it is what it is, but at the same time, I'm of the mindset of I can't do anything about some things, but I can do something about some things. Yeah. And I tried to reorient myself and focus on what can I do? to serve my community, in the face of this devastation

Alex:

has your business grown during this time?

Speaker 3:

That's a valid question. Went into a feverish sort of growth mode.

Alex:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

To make up for the

Alex:

lost time.

Speaker 3:

Lost time, lost effort, lost product. some of my vendors went out of business. I had to make up for it somehow, and I went hard into the paint on gathering more wholesale customers very glad to note. I have added about 10 to the roster in the last. year. Which has helped move the needle considerably. I don't necessarily view the losses of Helene as something worth measuring against.

Speaker 4:

can't,

Speaker 3:

Do I have to measure my loss against someone else's? You know what I mean? so I instead focus on what I have. Doubled down on and gained in the interim. I personally, as I saw many businesses do, put forth a product that I donated every penny of the proceeds from. To hurricane relief effort. that tea is a tea blend that I use for various charities. I'll just rename it. According to the charity that I am supporting at that time. And I think I named it Mountain Strong, which there was a lot of Mountain Strong branding going around. so I initially donated to my church for their efforts Brookstone Church. Where I attend was letting, helicopters land on their property. They were a staging area for Samaritan's Purse. they were being a distribution site for various things. It was a worthy cause. when they dialed back their efforts at about the three or four month mark, I shifted to instead donating to Beloved Asheville, which is a 5 0 1 C3. That is still doing hurricane, relief effort and supporting people. I donated. A little over a grand. I thought that was a good round number at six months to put a bookend on. but the need is still there for continuous support. It's just now shifted in what kind of support?

Alex:

So now looking forward, say six months, a year, two years in the future, where do you see your business going after Hurricane Helene?

Stephanie:

I have no way of predicting two years from now, but I a year.

Speaker 3:

But my immediate, desire for growth is more into the wholesale end of things. increase my presence on my website so that I can serve more people indirectly. Supporting. My wholesale vendors who are directly impacted, is big on my list. I've made some exceptions to shipping rules and, commission rates to get good product in the hands of businesses that need good product to sell. They gotta have something for people to come and buy from them. I additionally always as a, believer in Jesus just looking for opportunity to assist people in whatever way I can. I firmly believe in divine appointments. the number of times I've been in a booth at a show and somebody's walked in and asked for prayer is actually awesome.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

it's always been a privilege to come alongside Holy Spirit in that, application. that's pretty much where I am at this time. the best way you could support someone like me is to support the people that I serve. You can go on my website and there's an entire page dedicated to the businesses that sell my tea for me. Pick one, go there, support them. Tell them you're thinking about'em and praying about'em. When you come to North Carolina, Western North Carolina in the fall, visit the places in the area, stay with people like Alex, at Engadine Inn reinvest yourself emotionally in this area. not just financially because we need both.

Alex:

What are you excited about, looking ahead?

Speaker 3:

Judging by the weather patterns we have had this summer, I anticipate an exceptionally bright and gorgeous fall color.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

as a tea business, I often, fall under the misconception of tea is exclusively for drinking hot. And ergo needs to be consumed in the cold months.

Alex:

Oh,

Speaker 3:

I know.

Alex:

some of the best teas that we have here that you mix for us are cold. Exactly. and it's south.

Speaker 3:

Come on.

Alex:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

it's hot, you drink cold stuff. regardless, my busiest season, it tends to be fall in winter. needless to say, the gifting months are also the holiday months. Gifting months are also quite busy for me. I make close to 30% of my income in quarter four of every year. just based on Christmas and everything else I do that time of year. I am excited to see on a personal level, just fall in the mountains.

Stephanie:

It's

Speaker 3:

one of the best shows on earth.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I'm excited to take advantage of the ground swell, I'm sensing occur. People missed their fall colors. There was no fall color to speak of. I think people are eager to return to their. Normal fall activities, and that means coming here. And investing in our economy with stays and touristy stuff and all the things. I'm excited to have Fall in the mountains as someone who lives here. I'm excited to see the business go through its usual peak this time of year. I'm excited to see my vendors. have a exceptional fall, which I sense will be coming prayerfully, to everybody. I have more hope now than I did a year ago. but I also think there is still some trepidation lingering from people who are still dealing with the repercussions of lost income, lost businesses, lost literal physical structures that housed their business. Your favorite brands don't stick around unless they're supported, right? As we learned during the pandemic, and this is no exception. So if you loved something you got from someone in this area, seek'em out. learn what happen to'em. And even if they aren't in technical business anymore, you might figure out a way to message'em anyway because there's a chance they could still use your support. that is where I am personally right now.

Alex:

So Steph, thanks for joining me here. Shameless plug, cornerstone tea company.com.

Stephanie:

That's me.

Alex:

if you guys are interested in grabbing some of her tea, enjoying it here at Engadine, feel free. and then we'll see everyone on the next podcast. Thank you. Bye.