We believe everyone deserves healing.

Rise & Ritual is Philadelphia's first tea house and apothecary, where plant medicine meets preventative care. We believe healing has never been a solitary act, it has always happened in community, around a table, a fire, or a shared pot of tea. Every blend we craft is an invitation back into that truth: a return to the roots, traditions, and ancestral wisdom that generations before us relied on, and that so many of us have simply drifted away from.

Sipping tea is a sensory ritual. It begins with the smell and feel of the herbs in your hands and ends with the experience of a more centered, grounded you. Through intentionally formulated herbal blends, immersive tea ceremonies, herbal foot baths, and a full apothecary of over 80 herbs, roots, and florals, we invite you to slow down, to go within, and to reclaim something simple but sacred: autonomy over your own health.

Rise & Ritual has been named Best Herbal Apothecary in Philadelphia Magazine's Best of Philly 2026, a winner of Simply Business's national Big Dreams Grant, and a recipient of CultureCon's Small Business Owners Grant. We've also been featured by Secret Philadelphia, Metro Philadelphia, Philadelphia Magazine, Success Is Us, Bright Post, Be Well Philly, Corner Incorporated, and University City District. But our proudest work happens quietly, one cup, one ceremony, one moment of stillness at a time, right here in West Philadelphia.

The Tea on Rise & Ritual

  • "Rise & Ritual's elevated herbal blends have been a game changer in managing my anxiety and adding more substance to my self care routine. Taylor helped me select the Valor tea and I've been a fan ever since."

    Anonymous

  • "As a tea lover and frequent consumer ethically sourced tea is a must with any brand I purchase from. Rise & Ritual tea's are the best blends on the market from quality to moral standard. My day starts with Rise & Ritual!"

    Anonymous

  • "When I started drinking tea I didn't know where to start but thanks to Rise & Ritual I have been able to step into the world of herbal healing with confidence and ease. I love the tea accessories that make brewing a breeze even on the go."

    Anonymous

Meet Our Founder

Taylor Nickens

Here Is The Tea About Our Founder

Taylor Nickens is the founder of Rise & Ritual, Philadelphia's first tea house and apothecary, and a certified herbalist and yoga teacher with over twelve years of study in plant medicine and holistic healing. Her path to plant medicine began in an unlikely place: research labs, during years spent on the physician track. Taylor conducted research at institutions including the National Institutes of Health, PCOM, Jefferson University, Rothman University, and Vancouver General Hospital, presenting her findings each spring and winter break and earning a publication for her work at the NIH and Vancouver General Hospital. That scientific grounding shaped how she now approaches plant medicine, not as folklore, but as a practice worth studying with the same rigor.

From there, her path shifted. Taylor's herbalism training took her to study directly under healers and teachers in Mexico, Peru, and across the United States, including Philadelphia, Arizona, and Massachusetts. Through these journeys, Taylor has built a deep, hands-on relationship with the land and its gifts, one she has made it her mission to share.

Rise & Ritual was born out of Taylor's own healing. During the isolation of Covid, faced with anxiety and depression, she began a daily practice of rising with a cup of tea and a journal, a small ritual that became a lifeline. Out of that lifeline came Rise & Ritual: a business built to hand people back the same simple, plant-based tools that helped her heal.

Since opening, that mission has been recognized far beyond her own kitchen table. Rise & Ritual was named Best Herbal Apothecary in Philadelphia Magazine's Best of Philly 2026, a winner of Simply Business's national Big Dreams Grant, and a recipient of CultureCon's Small Business Owners Grant. Taylor is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Black in Business program and completed the BSmart program through Vested In at Drexel University, where she first declared her intention to open a tea house rooted in community healing and was later named a "Grounded Entrepreneur" and selected as a Pitch Competition winner. She has also been recognized as a Mom Your Business "She Built It" Honoree and received Black History Month recognition from Philadelphia City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas. She currently serves as Board President of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA).

Taylor's goal has never changed: to help others align and ground their lives with nature, and to make holistic well-being feel less like a luxury and more like a daily, attainable ritual.