Wize Tea: Canada's Coffee Leaf Tea Pioneer

A doctor's order, a discarded coffee leaf, and one farm in Nicaragua

In late 2012, Max Rivest, then a business student at KEDGE Business School, was told by his doctor to quit coffee. On the first day of an entrepreneurship class in January 2013, he came across research describing coffee leaves as an infusion with a long history of use in Ethiopia and Indonesia, containing light caffeine and compounds like mangiferin and chlorogenic acids. He and classmate Arnaud Petitvallet noticed that most coffee farms discard the leaves as waste, and that a coffee harvest lasts only two to three months a year, leaving farm workers underemployed the rest of the year.

They flew to Nicaragua looking for a farm partner and connected with Enrique Ferrufino, a third-generation coffee farmer whose family has grown arabica in the Matagalpa cloudforest for decades. Enrique joined as an equal-equity co-founder, making the company vertically integrated from farm to cup. The Wize Monkey team launched with a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 that raised roughly $12,000 to fund the first batch of dry coffee leaf tea, and the brand shipped its first product later that year.

A decade on, the company describes the arrangement in numbers rather than adjectives. On its current homepage, Wize states that its work with Ferrufino's farm has generated "140,000+ work hours" for farmers who would otherwise be underemployed during the off-season. In a February 2021 founder profile of Enrique on the Wize blog, the same figure was reported at roughly 100,000 hours, giving a rough sense of how the program has grown.

What coffee leaf tea actually is

Coffee leaf tea is an infusion brewed from the leaves of the coffee plant, not the beans. On its FAQ page, Wize describes it as "an infusion made from the leaves of arabica coffee plants," harvested during the coffee crop's off-season so it does not interfere with bean production. The taste is "smooth" with a "lightly sweet finish" and, per the company, does not turn bitter over long steeping times. Caffeine content varies by format. Wize lists roughly 18 mg per 8 oz cup of its dry coffee-leaf tea, which the brand compares to a light green tea, and 35 mg per serving of its sparkling ready-to-drink line.

The category is small. Coffee leaf tea has existed as a folk infusion in coffee-growing regions for centuries, and it began appearing in Western retail in the mid-2010s alongside Wize Monkey's launch. Wize Tea is regularly cited in trade press as a category pioneer in North America, and any "first" or "only" framing in coverage of the brand traces back to that mid-2010s window rather than a contemporary superlative.

From Wize Monkey to Wize Tea

The name most legacy shoppers and search engines still know is Wize Monkey. On December 7, 2023, the company rebranded as Wize Tea under a refresh it called "Boldly Balanced," retiring the wizemonkey.com domain and moving its consumer storefront to drinkwize.com. Older SKUs on Amazon and some retail listings still carry the Wize Monkey name; the current line ships under the Wize brand.

The rebrand tracked a product shift as well. The original 2014 offering was a dry coffee leaf tea in loose leaf and teabag formats. Over time the brand added a coffee leaf powder and, by the early 2020s, a chilled iced tea line. The current lineup is anchored by a sparkling ready-to-drink range that the brand launched in Canada in the early 2020s and expanded in the US around the rebrand.

The current sparkling lineup

The homepage lineup at drinkwize.com, verified 2026-07-07, includes:

• Juicy Mango (sparkling coffee-leaf tea)
• Crisp Apple (sparkling coffee-leaf tea)
• Wild Raspberry (sparkling coffee-leaf tea)
• Classic Mango (iced coffee-leaf tea)
• Classic Lemon (iced coffee-leaf tea)
• Discovery Pack (sampler)
• Discovery Teabag Bundle (loose-leaf and teabag dry teas)

Wize describes the sparkling range on its homepage as containing "just 4 grams of real cane sugar," "no fake sweeteners," and "light caffeine for a controlled boost" at 35 mg per serving, with 20 calories per can. Those are product-label facts as stated by the brand. The dry teas run lower on caffeine at approximately 18 mg per 8 oz cup.

Sourcing and certification language

Wize sources its coffee leaves from Enrique Ferrufino's farm near Matagalpa, in the cloudforest region of northern Nicaragua. On its FAQ, the brand describes its sourcing arrangement as going "beyond fair trade" through a flat-rate purchasing model that pays a stable price year-round rather than exposing farmers to commodity-price swings. The farm is described as using biodynamic practices with no synthetic pesticides, and companion planting rather than chemical pest control.

Wize's public product pages describe the leaves as arabica and reference organic and fair-trade practices, but the company does not currently claim USDA Organic or Fairtrade International certification on its consumer-facing pages accessed on 2026-07-07. Readers weighing certified-organic or Fairtrade-certified beverages against Wize should read the sourcing language as description of practice rather than formal third-party certification, unless a cert body listing or an on-pack seal confirms otherwise.

The pivot home, and the US retail footprint

Wize Monkey's early growth ran through the US natural-products channel, and by October 2017 the brand had launched in over 330 US stores including Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods, and had picked up industry recognition including a World Tea Expo "Best New Product" award and a NEXTY "Best Mission-Driven Natural Product" award. Around 2020, according to the brand's own timeline, the company refocused on the Canadian market and began developing the ready-to-drink iced tea format that would become its current anchor product.

In 2026, Wize Tea is available in the United States at Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Gelson's, and Mother's Market, and in Canada at Vitarock, Community Natural Foods, and BHealthy, plus direct at drinkwize.com. Instacart carries older Wize Monkey coffee-leaf tea SKUs; drinkwize.com's own store locator should be treated as the current source of truth for retail availability.

Founders

Max Rivest, Co-Founder and CEO. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Rivest studied at KEDGE Business School (2012 to 2013), where the Wize Monkey business plan took second place in the school's Global Business Plan Competition. His public LinkedIn history documents Wize Monkey / Wize Tea as his company since 2013, and current-year trade press and podcast interviews continue to identify him as Co-Founder and CEO of Wize Tea.

Arnaud Petitvallet, Co-Founder and COO. Petitvallet met Rivest at KEDGE Business School (2012 to 2014, Master of Science in International Business) and co-developed the coffee-leaf-tea business plan there in 2013; he previously completed a Bachelor's in International Business Management at IECG La Rochelle (2008 to 2012). He was recognized in BC Business's 30 Under 30 in 2018 for the Wize Monkey work.

Enrique Ferrufino, Co-Founder and third-generation coffee farmer, based on his family's farm near Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Ferrufino joined Wize as an equal-equity partner within the first year after Rivest and Petitvallet visited Nicaragua looking for a farm partner. In the February 2021 profile on the Wize blog, Ferrufino describes managing a workforce of roughly 100 people beyond the field pickers and the challenge of stretching payment across families during the off-season.

Where to buy Wize Tea

Direct to consumer at drinkwize.com. Current lineup includes Juicy Mango, Crisp Apple, Wild Raspberry, Classic Mango, and Classic Lemon sparkling and iced teas, plus a Discovery Pack sampler, teabags, and loose leaf.

In the United States: Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Gelson's, and Mother's Market. Instacart carries Wize / Wize Monkey coffee leaf tea SKUs; current live product page URLs vary and should be verified through Wize's own store locator or a fresh Instacart search for "Wize coffee leaf tea."

In Canada: Vitarock, Community Natural Foods, and BHealthy, plus direct at drinkwize.com. Amazon still carries legacy Wize Monkey listings; some show as "currently unavailable," so drinkwize.com or a US natural-grocer PDP is the more reliable current-purchase link.

For a sibling beverage-lead pick from earlier in the Maple Made series, see Maple Made #012: Kicking Horse, the Invermere coffee roaster.

Bottom line

Wize Tea is a Vancouver beverage brand built on a single premise that has now survived more than a decade and a rebrand: the tea worth drinking comes from the part of the coffee plant everyone else discards, and paying one Nicaraguan farm a flat rate to harvest it year-round turns a seasonal crop into a durable business. If you want to taste what a coffee leaf actually turns into once you sparkle it, start with the Juicy Mango at drinkwize.com.