usa’s founder, Jim Lamancusa, discovered his passion for tea while exploring the traditional tea shops of Hong Kong as a study-abroad student. An avid outdoorsman, he was inspired to find a way to enjoy the fresh flavor of loose leaf tea while backpacking. So, he set out to make an instant tea that actually tastes good. The resulting technology worked so well, he tried it with coffee. The result is a beverage that tastes so good, it’s hard to believe it happens to be instant.