Third Street
Third Street Chai, founded in 1995 in Boulder, Colorado, produces organic, Fair Trade-certified chai concentrates, iced teas, and boba beverages for natural, specialty, grocery, and convenience retailers plus Amazon direct-to-consumer shoppers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1995
- HeadquartersLouisville, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Third Street does
Third Street Chai is a Boulder, Colorado-based beverage company founded in 1995 by tea master Barry Cooper that produces organic chai concentrates, iced teas, and a boba product line. Its portfolio is built around small-batch chai formulations sold in concentrate format, with flavor extensions including original, vanilla, decaf, chocolate, and seasonal pumpkin spice, supplemented by iced teas and the newer boba offering. The company's products carry a stacked credential set — Fair Trade Certified, USDA Organic, Kosher (EarthKosher), and Non-GMO Project Verified — which functions as both a sourcing standard and a positioning tool in the natural and specialty trade.
The business operates a dual-channel model. The primary channel is wholesale distribution across natural, specialty, grocery, and convenience retailers, giving the brand broad but distributor-mediated reach into U.S. retail. A secondary direct-to-consumer storefront on Amazon extends margin capture and consumer data access without requiring a first-party e-commerce buildout. Operations are anchored by zero-waste, wind-powered manufacturing in Colorado, paired with long-standing organic farming partnerships, which together serve as both a cost-structure lever and a sustainability narrative for buyers and consumers.
Revenue mechanics are typical of an independent specialty CPG brand: per-unit margin on concentrates and ready-to-drink beverages sold through retail and DTC, with growth dependent on shelf expansion, new flavor and format launches (e.g., the boba line), and channel mix. The company is privately held with no disclosed funding history, and there is no public information on headcount, revenue, or ownership structure, which limits external visibility into scale and capital position.
Third Street firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Third Street
- Legal name
- Third Street Chai
- Website
- https://drinkthirdstreet.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1995
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Third Street Chai, founded in 1995 in Boulder, Colorado, produces organic, Fair Trade-certified chai concentrates, iced teas, and boba beverages for natural, specialty, grocery, and convenience retailers plus Amazon direct-to-consumer shoppers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Third Street industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Specialty Tea & Chai Beverages
- NAICS
- Coffee and Tea Manufacturing (311920)
- SIC
- Beverages (2080)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Tea (Leaf, Bagged, Instant, Concentrates) (CRADAHAE)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Non-Carbonated Soft Drinks (Juice Drinks, Lemonades, Fruit Drinks) (CRADAHAB)
Keywords
Where Third Street is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Louisville
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Third Street business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Operations, Supply Chain, Personnel, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Wholesale Chai & Tea Products: Third Street sells chai concentrates and ready-to-drink (RTD) products to wholesale customers including cafes, restaurants, and retail stores. Products include 32oz concentrates and individual RTD bottles.
- Direct-to-Consumer E-commerce: Products sold directly to consumers through Amazon marketplace, including chai concentrates and iced teas.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels3 records
Third Street product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Third Street is a craft organic microbrewery that handcrafts chai concentrates, iced teas, lemonades, and ready-to-drink boba tea products in small batches using organic Fair Trade spices and premium tea leaves sourced globally. The company sells 32oz concentrates and RTD bottles through wholesale channels to cafes, restaurants, and retailers, as well as directly to consumers via Amazon.
Product overview
Third Street is a craft organic microbrewery founded in 1995, specializing in premium Fair Trade Certified tea beverages. The company operates as a single unified brand offering three main product lines: (1) Chai concentrates including Honey Vanilla Spice, Mystic Masala Spice, Dragon Tongue Ginger, and Yerba Maté Chai; (2) Iced teas and lemonades available in both concentrate and ready-to-drink formats, including unsweetened black tea, hibiscus mango ginger, pomegranate green, peach black tea, and half & half lemonade; and (3) Boba tea products featuring milk tea with classic tapioca boba, popping boba, and brown sugar varieties. All products are microbrewed in small batches using organic, aromatic spices and premium tea leaves, with a focus on sustainability, Fair Trade ingredients, and ethical sourcing from farmers in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Trinidad.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Honey Vanilla Spice Chai (Concentrate)
Quantifiable outcome
- 200K pounds of compost sent to organic farmers annually, saving 260 tons of greenhouse gases
Companies that use Third Street
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Third Street technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Third Street partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators4 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Third Street competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Stash Tea: Stash Tea is an Oregon-based specialty tea brand with premium bagged and loose-leaf teas plus a comparable private label and foodservice offering to Third Street.
- Celestial Seasonings: Celestial Seasonings is a specialty tea manufacturer also headquartered in Boulder, CO, with overlapping wellness-positioned tea SKUs, broad retail distribution, and category authority that makes it a direct local and product comparison.
- Oregon Chai: Oregon Chai is the closest direct competitor to Third Street — a chai tea concentrate brand with comparable wholesale-to-cafe distribution and ready-to-drink formats (now owned by Lipton/Unilever, giving Third Street a credible independent alternative for cafes).
- Adagio Teas: Adagio Teas is a direct-to-consumer specialty tea brand with strong e-commerce and wholesale arm, offering loose-leaf teas and chai blends aimed at premium, hobbyist consumers — overlapping Third Street's DTC plus specialty wholesale motion.
- Lollicup Fresh: Lollicup Fresh is a leading boba tea and Asian beverage supplier with RTD ready-to-drink boba SKUs, directly comparable to Third Street's newly launched boba product line in format and target customer (cafes, c-stores).
- Republic of Tea: Republic of Tea is a premium specialty tea brand offering loose-leaf teas, bagged teas, and tea-based concentrates/RTDs with similar premium, natural ingredient positioning targeting health-conscious consumers and foodservice accounts.
- Rishi Tea & Botanicals: Rishi Tea is a direct-trade, certified organic specialty tea and botanicals brand with comparable premium positioning, sustainability story, and specialty wholesale-to-cafe/retail distribution model to Third Street.
Broad incumbents
- Teavana: Teavana is a premium tea brand operated under Starbucks with comparable loose-leaf, RTD, and iced tea offerings distributed through foodservice and retail — a scaled incumbent in Third Street's premium tea territory.
- Bigelow Tea: Bigelow is a long-established, family-run specialty tea company with broad retail and foodservice distribution and a comparable premium/specialty orientation, but at meaningfully larger scale.
- Twinings: Twinings is a global tea brand with broad distribution across retail and foodservice, including chai and iced tea lines that compete for the same wholesale and shelf space as Third Street.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Third Street social profiles
Digital presenceThird Street compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance8 records
Third Street financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Third Street leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Third Street funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Third Street M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Third Street
What does Third Street do?
Third Street is a craft organic microbrewery that handcrafts chai concentrates, iced teas, lemonades, and ready-to-drink boba tea products in small batches using organic Fair Trade spices and premium tea leaves sourced globally. The company sells 32oz concentrates and RTD bottles through wholesale channels to cafes, restaurants, and retailers, as well as directly to consumers via Amazon.
Is Third Street a public or private company?
Third Street is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Third Street founded?
Third Street was founded in 1995. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Third Street based?
Third Street is headquartered in Louisville, United States, in the North America region.
How does Third Street make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Wholesale Chai & Tea Products are the primary driver. The others are direct-to-Consumer E-commerce.
Who are Third Street's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Stash Tea, Celestial Seasonings, Oregon Chai, Adagio Teas, Lollicup Fresh, Republic of Tea and Rishi Tea & Botanicals. Broad incumbents are Teavana, Bigelow Tea and Twinings.
Does Third Street have an API?
No public API is recorded for Third Street.
What industry is Third Street in?
Third Street's product category is Specialty Tea & Chai Beverages. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRADAHAE, Tea (Leaf, Bagged, Instant, Concentrates), with a secondary code of CRADAHAB, Non-Carbonated Soft Drinks (Juice Drinks, Lemonades, Fruit Drinks). Its NAICS code is 311920 and its SIC code is 2080.