St Claire’s Organics

In 1993, master herbalist Debra St. Claire co-founded and became the executive director of an international project to preserve the medicinal plant knowledge of indigenous cultures. The project was named The EthnoMedicine Preservation Project®. As executive director, it was her responsibility to fund the project.

Next, she looked for a product that could be sold to the same customer again and again, with little need for consumer education, in many different markets....a fun product that could carry the message about the EthnoMedicine Preservation Project® and capture the imagination and loyalty of her customers. Because her personal food choices were centered around the philosophy of whole, pure, and organic, she decided to create an organic product that she felt good about giving to her family and that she could sell to her customers with pride.

Debra St. Claire preserving ethno medicine

St. Claire permint tins

Drawing on her extensive experience in product development in the natural foods industry, she created an organic breath mint that was designed to be the natural alternative to an English breath mint named Altoids, a product that she personally liked for it’s strong taste, but did not like the ingredients it contained (refined white sugar and animal by-products).

She used Organic Molasses Granules to form a natural base for the Pure Peppermint Essential Oil that she used to flavor her new breath mint. (In the Ayurvedic healing arts, dehydrated molasses (also known as Jaggery) is used as a medicine to support the immune system!) Unlike Altoids, St. Claire’s Organic Peppermints are made with medicinal grade peppermint essential oil and have no animal by-products.

Debra painted a scene of the Rocky Mountains from her home in Boulder, Colorado and used it to decorate collectible tins to package the peppermints. Because she felt great personal and professional benefit from reading inspirational quotes from various great minds from history and in current times, she added a selection of these bits of wisdom to the insides of the peppermint tins. Her goal was to give each customer something uplifting to read each time they opened the package.The peppermints were launched in July, 1994, and became an instant success in the natural foods industry, attracting both national and international distribution and loyal customers.

St. Claire permint tins

OUR TINS NOW INCLUDE ORGANIC PEPPERMINTS, SPEARMINTS, WINTERMINTS, PREMIUM MINTS, GINGER PASTILLES, LICORICE PASTILLES, AND RASPBERRY AND LEMON TARTS.

ORGANIC FRUIT TARTS

All of us in the Natural Product Industry know that Peppermint, Licorice, and Ginger have great medicinal properties and can be used to help digestion and alleviate nausea, so these three products have a loyal following with the adults. What was missing was something fun for the kids. Our Lemon Tarts were very popular with children, but the price for a tin was a little high for the young folk, so the St. Claire's Organic Fruit Tarts line was born, now containing 6 fruit tart flavors: Raspberry, Lemon, Peach, Watermelon, Tangerine, and Lime. We call them “the natural alternative to SweeTARTS”. Funny thing is, they turned out to be just as popular with adults!

AROMATHERAPY PASTILLES

Unable to leave her love of herbal product formulation for very long, Debra St. Claire developed another line of products called St. Claire’s Aromatherapy Pastilles, a line of molasses based herbal lozenges. The first two products in that line were St. Claire’s Organic Tummy Soothers and Throat Soothers. The Tummy Soothers are formulated with herbs and essential oils traditionally used to alleviate gas, indigestion and nausea. The Throat Soothers are designed to alleviate sore, scratchy throats, and are also quite effective for speakers and singers who need to protect their voices.

St. Claire's Tummy and Throat Soothers

ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS ARE ALLERGEN-FREE AND PRODUCED IN A DEDICATED ALLERGEN-FREE FACILITY

THE ETHNOMEDICINE PRESERVATION PROJECT®

Debra St. Claire and the EthnoMedicine Preservation Project® are currently producing a new documentary film about the traditional healers and ethnobotany of the Q’ero people of the high Andes in Peru – original Incas who fled to high altitude 500 years ago to escape the Spanish. 145 plants have already been documented in the Q’ero villages.

Debra St. Claire's socially responsible business vision was featured in the PBS series, Small Business 2000, which described her fascinating 'ECOpreneurial' journey. This program, sponsored by IBM, the US Post Office and Traveler's Insurance, is still being broadcasted all across the US.

The relationship between St. Claire’s Organics brand and the EthnoMedicine Preservation Project® is a perfect example of socially responsible business. The for-profit organic product company supports the non-profit project.

We are currently supplying St. Claire’s Organic mints to the two largest national TED conferences in the U.S. because they are most particularly interested in the quality of our products AND our relationship to the EthnoMedicine Preservation Project®.

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