April 20 marked the 8^th anniversary of Heartsong Chai, now the Heartsong Herbal Brewing Company and the Chai Hut.  Wow! Eight years of focusing my wit and spirit uninterrupted, into one project!  My parents have been participating in Heartsong a thousand ways for seven years.  Chad has been co-creating the Heartsong vision for four years.  Neal has been working with us for over a year now. Hundreds of friends and family have participated actively in countless ways.  The result of our collective grass roots effort is this beaming beacon of light known as the Heartsong Herbal Brewing Company. 

Heartsong is a mystical brand of strong and nourishing brews.  Hands down, our brews are the most healthful beverages on the market in the Pacific Northwest.  As we strive to raise the vibration of the nation through hydration, we continually grow into deeper understanding of this mission, allowing us to hone and enhance the ways we do it.  

Here's how we do it: We handcraft an incredible product line of certified organic bottled teas. We offer healthful alternatives to soda, alcohol and coffee.  We are an evolutionary eco-business governed by permaculture design principals.  We juice the citrus for the Heartsong Pepper Brews in house.  We grind Heartsong Chai's spices by bicycle.  We've got a reclaimed fast food dinosaur turned vibrant Chai Hut. Our mobile hydration stations are prayer-formance art installations. The Chai Hut and our business alliances are measurable community enhancement mechanisms.

And right now Heartsong is rocking the scene just like we said we would.  In December we identified the accounts we'd need to get for our sales to meet our break-even projections.   We launched them all in the first four months of 2008. 

In March, we launched into ten new accounts in Portland.  In April, we introduced ourselves to Seattle through exhibiting at the Seattle Green Fest and simultaneously launching into eight stores.  Also in April, we launched into Northern California through four stores in Chico and the Sacramento Co-Op.  Our first Whole Foods Account launched also, the downtown Portland store.  Our second Whole Foods, the Portland Bridgeport location, launches this week!

Last week, the Whole Foods buyer called to tell us he is really excited to carry our brews.  In Seattle, an impromptu sales call at Madison Market, revealed our brews already on the shelf there!  Our days are auspicious and profound like this.  Both the company and products have a powerful affect on people. With each of the above accounts activated now, these sales will soon sustain our company.

Launching this Chai Hut: formulating the concept, renovating the building, scaling up our production, building our microbrewery, launching our café and mobile hydration stations and growing our accounts in accordance with our abilities, has been demanding and expensive.  We dove in without funding and two years later, we are feeling it!  As sales settle into a reliable flow, we will soon meet and then exceed our break-even projections.  But there is a very real meanwhile and it has the potential to crush our brand new wings. 

With faith that this project will attract the heart and expertise of a solid investor we have done everything possible to keep producing, to keep opening the doors. For the past few months we have been going into debt by the day.  Meanwhile, we've been circulating and pitching our business plan, our brews and our story throughout the Rogue Valley, our family and friends networks and the food industry.  In this two years we've been building the Chai Hut and seeking an investor, Dagoba Chocolate sold to Hershey's, Burt's Bees sold to Clorox, Tom's of Maine sold to Colgate, Izze Soda sold to Pepsi, Honest Tea sold 40% of their company and two seats on their board to Coca Cola, our local Maranatha Nut Butter Company sold to Hain-Celestial and our local Pyramid Juice Company (established in 1971) folded.

Just in the nick of time in April, Heartsong was granted a loan from the Daedalus Foundation. To facilitate our success, this non-profit foundation has also agreed to accept donations earmarked for Heartsong. When the donation sum matches their $10,000 loan, they will write us a check. So, if you feel inspired to donate to this non-profit on Heartsong's behalf, please write a check to "The Daedalus Foundation".

Mail it to: The Daedalus Foundation PO Box 146 Boulder, CO 80306

Please include your address, so they can send you a receipt.  Please also contact Crystal Arnold the secretary at crystal1320@gmail.comto let her know the donation is en route. 

With several automatic loan payments and payroll due this Thursday, May 15, these donations are urgently required. Prompt action is appreciated!

While this $10,000 is immediately helpful, the sum we require to launch this thing right and proper is much greater. With working capital to plug our leaks and tighten our systems, we will be a solvent company within one fiscal quarter.  Each day that goes by without this working capital is dangerous, excruciating and miraculous. 

As the financial jerry-rigging that is constantly required to sustain this beast of a Chai Hut subsides, all of us at Heartsong will be able to focus more fully on our work.  I know that I will carry significantly less stress in my body, which has been managing a huge amount of stress for a long time now.  I have been working incessantly since we signed the lease at the Chai Hut exactly two years ago.  My willingness to creatively fund this project while we sought investors, has most recently led me to an uncomfortable place of impasse and reckoning.  The stress of our inability to pay the bills is taking an incredible toll on my body. To take time to be nourished and recharged is essential for me now.  I have got to take a break.  Both Heartsong and my self require this break to ensure beneficial forward movement.  I have an opportunity to go to Kauai in June, but I need help facilitating this dream into reality. If you'd like to help, please call me!

I speak for Neal, Chad and myself when I say that we love what we do and that's why we do it.  We love the affect that the Heartsong Herbal Brewing Company and the Heartsong Brews have on people.  We are actualizing the evolution of the food industry in the US and it pleases us to do so.  We feel we are onto something here and we want it to grow and grow and grow.  We have invested our selves on every level into co-creating this company, which is why it feels so darn good to so many people!  Clearly, we can't keep working this hard without financial stability. It is of the utmost importance that investors join us now.  With the great hope of aligning with someone who activates a participatory role in our company, we send this newsletter out into the cyber world.

We have a lot to offer an investor.  For a copy of our most recent prospectus, send an e-mail request to chaimama@heartsongchai.com.  Also, feel free to reply to this message with your perspective I'd appreciate it very much. If you feel moved to forward this along to others, please do so and thank you.

     Big LOVE,

     Elizabeth
     the Chai Mama