Barry Cooper, owner of the international Cooper Tea Co., describes his childhood in Africa, the secrets to his success and the qualities unique to his company.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- The smell of burnt potatoes filled the quaint, yet sophisticated home of Barry Cooper, as the charming tea man began talking about his life and success. The charismatic, Sean Connery look alike, smiled widely as he wondered aloud if his wife would notice the strong burning aroma.
“You see I have this thing of cooking on high heat,” Cooper laughed. “My wife tells me not to, but I say that I have it under control. I guess today I didn’t.”
Cooper continues to smile and chuckle as he sits down in his study, a room complete with many books and two comfortable arm chairs. Quickly he delves into the many fascinating facets of his life that have led him to his international success.
The Beginnings of a Tea Master
Born in England, Cooper has the appearance and debonair of a gentleman. However, Cooper was raised in Africa, a nation that contrasts in decorum, as it is characterized as raw, dangerous and beautiful.
“I was living in one of the most natural places at that point,” Cooper said.“ Africa was a playing field of new discoveries and interactions with animals that most children never get.”
Cooper’s boyhood consisted of adventures that many children only read about in safari stories. His playground was the vast land of Africa and his playmates were the wild animals that inhabited the area.
One such adventure taught Cooper a lesson in the relentlessness of baboons.
Cooper was sent by his father to get some water. As he was walking, he spotted two baboons.
“Have you ever seen baboons?” Cooper asked excitedly. “They’re nasty creatures, with big red behinds, just truly angry animals.”
Upon approaching the baboons, Cooper threw a rock at them.
“I was being real macho throwing the rock,” Cooper said.
After Cooper got his water, he returned to see a large group of baboons waiting with rocks in hand. The animals chased him back to his campsite throwing rocks at him all the way. The baboons then posted a lookout, eventually causing Cooper and his family to move camp sites.
“My father was so angry,” Cooper chuckled.
Cooper’s father was a military man who trained troops on insurgency techniques and his mother was a spy for the MI6 secret intelligence agency. The family moved to Kenya when Cooper was 5.
Cooper’s childhood was stuck in the time of the Mau Mau rebellion. The Mau Mau, similar to freedom fighters, fought against laws that were considered patronizing to the native Kenyans. Since Kenya was a British colony, the native Africans were a ruled people.
“In Kenya, they talked about the rights of Africans to have the right to rule themselves,” said Cooper.
After Cooper graduated high school, he decided to pursue a career in his first passion of writing. He started reporting, but soon realized that journalism would not lead him to professional success.
“To be a journalist you need to be a reporter,” said Cooper. “I didn’t enjoy being a reporter and hearing all the sad stories of life.”
So Cooper resigned from the newspaper and considered joining the military.
“I went down to London and I didn’t have a clue what to do,” said Cooper. “So I guess I’ll go in the armed forces.”
However, his life and path was changed completely when he met his grandmother’s next door neighbor, Stevie Finch.
“She changed my life,” said Cooper. “I owe her everything because, by convincing me not to join the army, she changed my path. It’s like if you have a T in the road, one way was the military and the other was whatever else was out there for me.”
Cooper didn’t join the military and, with little money, took a job opening at Lipton.
“I never even thought of a tea profession,” said Cooper. “There was no passion at first, it was just applying to a job.”
However, this job would catapult a passion that would ultimately result in Cooper’s own tea company.
“I just know that when I walked into that tea room in Lipton I had come home,” said Cooper.
Once embedded in the tea profession, Cooper quickly found success. At the age of 23, he was given the opportunity to run a tea trading office in Uganda.
“They gave me a country, Uganda,” said Cooper.
Though to many, the task may seem daunting, Cooper accepted the challenge earnestly.
“I never thought to myself, ‘oh my gosh I can’t do this,’” said Cooper. “It was more like, ‘damn this is fun,’ and as soon as you say that, it stops being work.”
Though Cooper fearlessly traded tea, Uganda posed many threats to his safety while he was working.
“I had a German shepherd that used to protect me because Africans hated big dogs,” said Cooper. “It was dangerous for a white man out there alone. I imagine that she saved my life a couple times.”
Uganda was even more dangerous than Kenya, and, ultimately, these perils would lead Cooper away from the country. However, his time in the country would teach him to have fearlessness in pursuing his aspirations.
“There were nights when I was alone in the car at night when it was pitch black then I was scared shitless, but the job never scared me,” said Cooper. “I grew a huge amount but I learned not to be afraid of challenges of the mind.”
When Cooper did leave Uganda, Lipton quickly offered him a position as a tea taster in America.
In 1999, Cooper was asked by 7-Eleven to produce a bag-in-a-box concentrate that would allow consumers to have an all-natural tea as instantly as soda.
For four years, Cooper dedicated himself to creating this innovative product. In 2003, the concoction was perfected and Cooper Tea Co. was born.
Today, Cooper’s tea is sold across the nation as a healthy alternative to other fountain drinks.
“They (other fountain drinks) have 23 ingredients,” said Cooper. “Look at my label of ingredients. It’s tea and water.”
In 2010, Cooper’s tea received USDA Organic certification for their unsweetened, all-natural tea, further establishing his product as a healthy alternative to other teas.
“Cooper Tea Co. is the only tea company in North America, probably the world, that has a natural tea concentrate available nationally,” said Cooper. “That’s astonishing when you think of these companies like Coca-Cola, that the only company to have an FDA approved organic tea is Cooper Tea Co.”
Along with producing a 100 percent organic product, Cooper’s genius came when he created the teapod. This invention, which uses the same levels of heat and pressure as an espresso machine, allows tea, hot or cold, to be produced in seconds.
Cooper’s next focus is on producing a bottled tea and on an energy drink that contains the extra benefits of antioxidants and vitamins without the pitfalls of preservatives and artificial flavors.
Fear: Not Cooper’s Cup of Tea
Through all of Cooper’s failures and successes, he has learned the value of luck and risk. Every year, at the Entrepreneurial School of Business at CU, Cooper centers a lecture around two lessons important to him.
The first lesson is that luck is pinnacle to success in business.
“I’d rather be lucky than good,” said Cooper. “I truly believe that there is an element to business that involves luck.”
The second lesson is centered around accepting the risk of success and being able to live with that risk every day.
When he first sought out to form Cooper Tea Co., Cooper and his family took on a lot of risk.
“My wife is probably the most important person, because she had to accept all the risk,” said Cooper. “She just had to have the faith in me to do it, and if I failed everything then everything would be gone.”
Today, Cooper smiles broadly as he explains the potential outcome of the risk that he and his family assumed.
“The backup plan was to pile the kids in the car and go to Texas to mow lawns,” laughed Cooper. “Guess what? It’s still the backup plan.”
In his lecture, Cooper explains how, with more success, comes more risk and, consequently, more fear. However, this vicious cycle is viewed simply as part of the process by Cooper.
“Show me fear. It’s all up here,” said Cooper, as he points emphatically to his head. “It’s something that we manufacture.”
For those who know Cooper, they both admire and recognize the benefits that his fearless approach to business have provided for him.
“He has taken great risks, not only in working at Celestial Seasonings when it was a start-up company, but by then starting his own company,” said professional colleague and friend, Trip DeMuth. “He doesn’t settle for the safety of an established position, but rather continues to pursue his ambitions.”
When Cooper discusses risk and fear, he does so earnestly. He emphasizes the waste of fear, as risk is part of living. Further, he promotes living without regret.
“The last thing I want to do is look up at my death bed and say if it was that easy then I would do more,” said Cooper. “You can’t make willy nilly choices, but if you’re not risking, then you’re not living.”
Thus, fearlessly going through life, Cooper accepts challenges and embraces risks. He brings tea to the world without distributing preservatives and he continues to hone his skills in tea to bring even more healthful products to the public.
His ambition and charm make Cooper a likable success story. His twinkling smile, coupled with his rigorous courage, inspire respect, even if he does burn a potato or two.
Tea man, Barry Cooper, traveling around the world in search of teas and markets to supplement his company. (via Barry Cooper)
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