The accident that inspired Janet Roach’s Raw Essentials tea range

Creating her own tea range has been one of the reality TV star’s most satisfying ventures, yet it was inspired by the most challenging of times.

In 2011, Janet Roach received the type of phone call every parent fears.

Her youngest son, Jake, then 22, had suffered horrific burns in an accident at a party.

He was flown to The Alfred hospital where it was revealed he had third degree burns to 70 per cent of his body and was given a 35 per cent chance of survival.

The months and years that followed were long and hard for Jake and his family.

He endured a seemingly relentless round of appointments, treatments and surgeries. But Jake was lucky his family was able to pay for expensive treatments to reduce the thickness of his scarring and to lessen the redness.

While his physical condition improved, it was the mental anguish that was more troubling.

“He lost the joy of life. He wasn’t interested in anything,” recalls Janet, a star of The Real Housewives of Melbourne.

Harnessing the healing properties of plants

Janet has long believed in the healing properties of plants and brewed her own teas from her home grown herbs.

She suggested he try to detox with some of her teas, and while Jake was reluctant at first, he eventually agreed. The reaction was dramatic, though not exactly what they expected.

“After about four-five days, his skin broke out into all these pustules. I said it might be the tea, so we stopped the tea and the pustules started to get a little bit better,” she says.

“A week later Jake tried it again and it happened again… but he said to me, ‘I actually feel like I’m coming out of a fog. I feel so much clearer mentally’.

He lost the joy of life. He wasn’t interested in anything.

“He started getting up off the couch, having a shower in the morning. He came to quite love the tea and would drink it all the time.”

Jake remained in touch with other burns victims he had met at The Alfred, and felt his condition looked noticeably better than some of his friends. He knew it was because he had been privy to exclusive treatment not everyone can afford.

“He came to me and said, ‘I want to start a foundation to assist other burn victims’,” Janet says. “Jake said: ‘You love your tea, why don’t we make a tea range? We’ll sell the tea and donate proceeds to the foundation’.”

They have created a range of organic therapeutic teas, Raw Essentials, with the help of experienced tea masters. Blends include Detox AM and Detox PM, Power, Digestive, Anti-Inflammatory, and Sleep. There’s also four new varieties – Slim, Immune, Aphrodisiac and Menopause.

“It’s been my passion for years, to be able to do it for work,” Janet says.

“My son says to me, ‘Isn’t it amazing? You used to be a property developer and I used to be in finance, now you’ve got a burns charity and we’ve got a tea company’. But they’re the things that really mean something to us, and you don’t usually get the opportunity to go and do that.”

The Raw Essentials tea range now includes four new blends Immune, Menopause, Slim, Aphrodisiac.

The range is available exclusively at Chemist Warehouse.