Kajun Loaded Tea: From Denham Springs to National Brand

From Kajun Loaded Tea

Kajun Loaded Tea began in 2018 when Nellie Lockhart, the founder and “flavor wizard” behind the brand, first experimented with her own loaded tea flavors at her home in Denham Springs. 

At the time, Lockhart worked long days as a medical administrator and was looking for lasting energy but without the sugar often found in coffee drinks. So, Lockhart began visiting local shops. 

For those unfamiliar with the drink, Molly Kimball, a registered sports and lifestyle dietitian for Ochsner Health and founder of the Eat Fit program, explained that a loaded tea is “a blend of caffeine and herbal stimulants, and contains most of the same ingredients in energy drinks: caffeine, guarana, ginseng, taurine, inositol and high levels of niacin, which can elicit a skin-tingling sensation.”

How Kajun Loaded Tea Began

While Lockhart first visited local loaded tea shops for the flavorful, sugar-free caffeine, she soon found herself at one every morning, enjoying the fun culture and community. 

“This interest and passion turned into me wanting to create my own version of loaded teas inspired by my home, culture and the energy I felt walking into a tea shop,” said Lockhart. 

By the following year, Lockhart had a product she was proud of and ready to share with others. 

While she initially experimented with a brick-and-mortar shop, Lockhart eventually created what Kajun Loaded Tea is today: an online brand with its own product line that keeps culture and community at the forefront by offering flexible job opportunities for women to work and care for their families. 

“We are an employee-focused company,” said Lockhart. “I love our product, but the reason we are where we are is not the products themselves, but the people behind the brand. Every team member is important to us, whether they’re working on the digital side, analog filing or scooping mixes in the back.”

Kajun Culture

Even as an online store, Kajun Loaded Tea still seeks to bring the fun culture of a local, loaded tea shop, mixed with Louisiana culture, to its product experience.

“People are drawn to our products, whether it’s the bold flavor profiles, the fun names we create, the colors and graphics or, for those outside of Louisiana, the curiosity of figuring out what those names mean,” said Lockhart.

A few of the conversation-starting, Louisiana-based product names include:

• Fais Dodo (Fay-DOH-DOH)
• Gumbo Yaya
• Crawdaddy Candy
• Rougarou Rush and more

Additionally, the brand’s packaging features a cartoon alligator as a jazz musician for the French Quarter Quencher, as a chef for the Banana Foster, as a float rider with Zulu coconuts for the Zulu Lemonade and more allusions to New Orleans and Louisiana culture.

What’s in the Cup? Blending Culture and Quality

Beyond locally-inspired product names and branding, Kajun Loaded Tea also ensures the product itself stands out among other loaded teas. 

“Working at my old brick-and-mortar tea shop, what feels like a lifetime ago now, I realized some of the products had extra stuff in them,” said Lockhart. “You’d get to the bottom of the cup and find sediment sitting there, which I was never a fan of. That’s how we ended up creating our own product line, because I started looking into ingredients and trying to figure out what was in the cup that no one was telling me.”

Kajun Loaded Teas not only rid the experience of sediment, but also any obvious vitamin smell or taste. 

“That’s what makes us different,” continued Lockhart. “You can dissolve them in water, not hot water, not warm water, just water, whatever source you have. So you can truly take us anywhere. That convenience is a real difference.”

Kajun Loaded Tea: Community, Culture, Care and “Chariteas”

Through Kajun Loaded Tea, Lockhart has created a community-based workforce, showcased local culture and implemented product care.

While building her own path in a competitively-loaded industry, Lockhart also utilizes Kajun Loaded Tea to support charitable organizations. 

“We choose organizations we feel could use an extra hand all over the country,” said Lockhart. “We love supporting smaller, grassroots groups that are working to gain a foothold, hopefully helping them at a time when they need it most.”

Every quarter, through The Kajun Loaded Tea Charitea Program, the team picks a charity,  creating a limited-edition set of two flavors in their honor, with 100% of net proceeds going directly to the organizations.

A National Success

What started as a one-woman passion in Denham Springs has become a national brand providing a unique and charitable twist on a popular product. 

According to company reports, Kajun Loaded Tea has had sales in every single state and even reached #1 for Food and Beverage on TikTok Shop at one point in 2025. 

While Louisiana has the brand’s highest sales, Texas, where Lockhart was born, is the second-biggest supporter. 

“I was raised in Louisiana my whole life, but I was born in Texas, and the rest of my family is based there,” said Lockhart. “So the fact that Texas is our number two is pretty awesome.”

Kajun Loaded Tea flavors are available in singles, packs and bundles on its website or in packs and bundles only on Amazon.

Lagniappe – Ahead of the holidays, Kajun Loaded Tea has new Christmas flavors: Elf Around and Find Out, Gangster Wrapper, Resting Grinch Face and Sleigh Queen Sleigh.

Also explore the New Orleans-made, award-winning amaro.