Sullivan County Tea Shop Owner Reflects During Black Business Month

New York Public News Network | By Elias Guerra, WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Kendra Payne’s road to opening her Sullivan County tea shop was winding. After years working in health and wellness, she opened her first brick and mortar store five years ago. As the nation marks Black Business Month, WAMC’s Lower Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Elias Guerra visited the store to learn more about Payne’s journey.

A café sign listing teas and lattes welcomes customers visiting the Herbal Scoop. The wall is filled with even more tea options from black to milky oolongs, as well as tulsi, ashwagandha, marshmallow root, and yerba mate.

The Narrowsburg shop was founded by Kendra Payne. She said she’s been a tea lover for many years. Vitamin Tea is one her favorites at the moment.

For years, Payne worked in the wellness field, often as a fitness or yoga instructor. All the while, her love of tea lurked in the background.

“In my yoga teaching and having clients, people were always asking me, like, What are you drinking? Why does your skin look so good? Why aren’t you ever sick?” Payne said. “And I was like, ‘this is like my ginger turmeric tea, or this is my chamomile,’ or whatever I was drinking at that time. And people were like, ‘well, share me the recipe, I wanna do what you’re doing.'”

Payne has been dabbling with herbalism since 2005 and went to school to formally study it in 2012. Finally, she opened her first brick and mortar store in 2021 in Callicoon, one town over from where she is now.

In addition to selling a variety of drinks, Payne also grows about one-third of the herbs on her farm nearby.

Guerra asked her about some of challenges of running a business in rural New York as a Black woman. She said it’s an honor, especially since Black-owned businesses often have an uphill battle.

“Historically our businesses have been underfunded,” she said. “It takes a long time to build trust, and that’s just the way that it’s been, especially for Black women-owned businesses. It is very, very difficult if ever, for our businesses to hit the ‘first milestone’ which we say in small businesses, $100,000. … We are getting turned down more times than any other demographic and that’s really hard to deal with.”

According to an analysis by Lending Tree, in 2024, the denial rate to lines of credit or cash advances for Black businesses with one to four employees was twice as high as white businesses.

According to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Black businesses make up only 3.5% of all small business owners in the state, even though New York’s population is more than 14% Black.

Payne says she’d like to see some of the barriers come down.

“I would like for it to be easier for us to open our doors,” she said. “It is quite a feat as a Black-owned business to get support, to get financial support. I would just like for it to be all a lot easier. I would like the trust building, the community building, if we make a mistake, let it not be at the detriment of our business, but to let us be able to learn and for our communities to be able to forgive us. I would like for us to have access to capital and mentorships. There’s just a lot of stuff that’s really hard and there’s a lot of barriers around as a Black-owned business and especially as a Black woman-owned businesses that we just don’t get.”

Payne is driven by her love for the products she sells. She said it’s important for her to keep herbalism accessible, which is why she loves tea so much.

Beyond the Vitamin Tea, she said it’s tough to pick some of her other favorite blends.

“That’s really difficult,” she said. “I would probably say ‘I’m sorry’ to all my other teas.”

She picked one called Wholy Chai, filled with tulsi, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, and cloves.

She opened a jar of bright red hibiscus and the smell filled the air.

“It does really well as both a hot or iced tea, and like is delicious on its own, but also has a ton of benefits, tons of antioxidants,” she said. “It’s really heart supportive and you think you’re getting a delicious cup of tea, which you are, but it also has tons of benefits and I love being able to bring herbs like that forward so that it’s easy for people to start an herbal ritual and not have to like choke something down that’s really disgusting. You can get there in your herbal journey, but if you’re first starting out, you might want something like hibiscus to be able to support your wellness goals.”

Beyond her shop on Main Street in Narrowsburg, Payne has a popup stand in Beacon every other Sunday, and at Barryville Farmers Market until October.

Image: Kendra Payne, owner of The Herbal Scoop in Narrowsburg, NY. (Elias Guerra)