My Story
How it started, what goes into it, and why I make it this way.
It started with an orange.
Sun & Peel started as a single product: hand-sliced dried orange rounds. The idea was simple. Take good fruit, cut it by hand, dry it slowly, and see if people wanted it. They did.
It grew from there. The tea kits came from a family member's suggestion: pair citrus slices with organic loose leaf tea, wrap it in muslin, price it so anyone can try one. They answered the question people kept asking me: "These are beautiful, but what do I do with them?"
The vinegar came from not wanting to throw anything away. After slicing dozens of oranges, lemons, and limes, I had a pile of peels and ends, and that is where most of the fragrance lives. I steeped them into citrus vinegar. The whole line grew out of the same idea: everything gets used.
Every material is a choice.
Most products are optimized for margin. Find the cheapest material, take the fastest shortcut, get it out the door. People can feel the difference even when they don't say so.
I went the other way. The tea comes in an unbleached muslin bag. The labels are kraft paper, so they read like they were written by hand. Everything is something I would want to be handed myself.
"You can care about every detail and still build something that works."
None of it is complicated. It just takes the willingness to choose the better option at every step, even when nobody would notice if you didn't.
Four products.
Dried Citrus Slices
Organic orange, lemon, and lime, delicately sliced and dried by hand. Use them in cocktails, bake with them, steep them in water, or just set them on a shelf because they look good there. This is the foundation everything else builds on.
Handcrafted Tea Kits
Dried organic citrus paired with organic loose leaf tea, tucked into an unbleached muslin bag. Priced at $5 so it is easy to try one. Start here: a slow morning, hot water, and a few quiet minutes to yourself.
Citrus Vinegar
Made from the peels and ends left after slicing. I started making it because throwing good fruit away felt wrong, and steeping the peels leaves the vinegar bright with a citrus edge.
Gift Sets
Several tea kits in one giftable box, so someone can try every flavor before picking a favorite.
Small batch is not a label.
This is a one-person operation. I slice each fruit by hand. I rotate every dehydrator rack by hand. I assemble every tea kit by hand. When the bag says small batch, that is just what it is.
Sun & Peel is a Florida cottage food brand. Everything is made in my home kitchen under Florida cottage food law. No factory, no warehouse, no production line. Just good fruit, good materials, and the time to get every detail right.