Learn about Caroline MacDougal's background and how she was able to connect with the ramón seed.
For Caroline MacDougal, the long time CEO of the herbal based company, Teeccino, her entire life and career has been devoted to finding natural foods. She has been a vegetarian most of her life and today she continues her work traveling the world to promote her herbal tea line and coffee substitutes which has sold millions.
Caroline grew up on the east coast in New Jersey. She credits her active and healthy lifestyle to her childhood which was spent exploring her surroundings. “I loved exploring! It was my favorite game. If it was a game (laugh), it was my past time if you want to call it that. We used to go on boats on the long island sound and go to different coves, and the kids would row a shore, while the parents sat on the boats and drank. And we went exploring. And it’s been in my blood.”
Coincidentally while in her early 20s where she worked in a natural food store selling healthy lifestyle books, Caroline would meet the owners of Celestial Seasonings where her passion for exploring would lead her into a role of a lifetime where she traveled the world looking for herbs to import to the US. In her role, Caroline spent a lot of her time abroad finding sources for these herbs because there wasn’t a niche for these sorts of products yet.
One of the many places she spent time was in Central America, particularly in Costa Rica and the Petén in Guatemala where she found many non-timber forest products could be brought to the US that were harvested straight from the rainforest. Caroline believed that the best place to connect these non-timber forest products was with nonprofits or NGOs who could best source the products all over the world because these organizations could benefit the communities and their livelihood beyond just financially.
Why did Caroline want to work with the ramón seed specifically? “The story of the ramón seed came out of this dream that I had where I was telling myself the next product I create is a caffeine free cappuccino and the name of that product was Teeccino.” In addition to her sourcing gig, Caroline spent time creating herbal beverages for other companies and had been wanting to branch out on her own to create her own line of products. Her connections to Central America would lead her to research further on the ramón seed’s nutritional benefits and its history with the Mayans. “This (ramón) is a great product. It’s going to waste on the forest floor. It’s growing throughout the Petén. We should get involved. I roasted this and tasted it and decided that I wanted it for Teeccino.” The roasted taste of ramon left a great impression on Caroline to eventually create what is known now as the Mayan Line, all caffeine free herbal products.
“The story of the ramón seed came out of this dream that I had where I was telling myself the next product I create is a caffeine free cappuccino and the name of that product was Teeccino.”
It would take several years before Caroline could get her own harvest line for the Mayan Line which would eventually come in 2006. For this to all happen, Caroline had to work with government officials to get through some regulations on harvesting so that it would not harm the environment, and in order for the ramón to be imported, she would have to get safety and dietary certification as well.
Several of Caroline’s partners in the Reserve are CONAP and the concessions of Uaxctún.
The Maya line of Teeccino products have sold very well in the United States and buyers may purchase flavors from places such as Costco and Whole Foods. She credits the NGOs she has worked with such as the Rainforest Alliance for making the collections of Ramon much easier for her.
Beyond her work, she knows that there are some environmental concerns that she needs to be aware of. “One of the big factors is that these are wild trees we are working with and there is climate change affecting Central America more dramatically than we exceeded here in North America. We can’t count on when we can get a crop and thus it has been hard lately to increase our usage of the ramón seeds. However we have stuck with them and will still do so.” There are currently 9 flavors of the Maya line which are all caffeine free.
Beyond the Mayan flavors, Caroline has worked with allspice from the Reserve. Her son who also works for Teeccino has experimented with a ramón beer creation.
Going forward, Caroline will not slow down any time soon. She plans on continuing her work for the foreseeable future. “I’m not your classic business person, I am somebody who comes from a mission based orientation versus ‘I want to make a bunch of money!’ I’ve had my company for over 25 years. I want to keep it going.”
Caroline has a great perspective on her work and her advice for potential buyers is simple .“I started this work before the internet! That’s how long I have been in the game. But word of mouth is still a great network.”
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