Hill & Holler Herbal Co. offers sustainably produced tea blends and bath and body products made in Morgantown.
Growing up in Duck, West Virginia—not quite two hours’ drive from Morgantown, on the border of Braxton and Clay counties—all of Caroline Nicholas’s best friends were elderly.
“I was incredibly close with my grandpa,” Nicholas says. “He was born in the ’20s, and he remembered going out in the woods with his family and getting the things that they needed out of the woods.” When the two of them walked in the woods, he would point and quiz his granddaughter: What’s that? What is it good for? What’s it bad for? “My grandma also taught me how to grow flowers, and a 92-year-old man down the road taught me to grow flowers and beautiful things so the birds and the bees will visit.”
With time to spare during COVID, Nicholas—who studied history at WVU and got interested in the history and culture of tea at that time—started experimenting and figured out how to combine that interest with traditional Appalachian knowledge of medicinals like stinging nettle and black haw and make something unique. Hill & Holler Herbal Co. was born.
Nicholas grows about a third of the ingredients for Hill & Holler’s teas, lotions, and balms, purchases other herbs as locally as possible, and forages what can be foraged. Keeping it local is not only good for the environment, but also supports sustainable agriculture in West Virginia. “My whole business is built on the idea of sustainability. That’s in the name of my company. Grandpa said, as long as we take care of these hills and hollers, they’ll always take care of us.” Tea leaves are imported from responsible producers, and the bags are fully compostable bio-plastic made out of soy beans. Packaging is designed by Nicholas and is also compostable, made of a by-product of the sugar cane industry.
Launched just four years ago, on Earth Day in April 2021, Hill & Holler Herbal has grown by word of mouth to attract a global following, with customers across the U.S. and as far away as Australia, Germany, and Ireland.
Want to give it a try? Nicholas recommends Hill & Holler’s Virgo Tea Blend as a good place to start. “It’s a blend of Chinese green tea and Kenyan purple tea—purple tea is kind of new and has more antioxidants than green or black tea—and it’s got red clover and lavender in it. Just enough lavender for a nice burst of floral flavor.”
Or treat yourself to a spring lip balm. “Coming out of winter, with the really dry skin, I have a calendula and lemon combination that’s clarifying and moisturizing, and that’s the Delight lip balm. My personal favorite is probably the Abundance, which is mint and basil.”
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