Why I started Merifemme

For years, I worked in HR leadership roles in Munich. I was dedicated, passionate, and committed to helping people. But over time, I began to feel that I couldn’t truly be there for others in the way I believed was right. I was missing the depth, the authenticity, the human connection I once felt so strongly. After many long, honest conversations — with myself and with the people who know me best — I made a decision that would change everything: I quit my job.

At first, like many of us do when faced with uncertainty, I started applying for the same types of roles I had just left. It felt safe. Familiar. But I quickly realised I was about to fall back into the very thing I had chosen to walk away from. That’s when I began asking myself the harder questions: What do I really want to do? How can I help people in the way I believe in?

I started volunteering with KinderHelden in Munich, mentoring children — something that still brings me deep joy. But it wasn’t a full-time calling. I felt the need to make something with my own hands.

Since moving to Munich five years ago, I had slowly started making marmalades, baking, experimenting with herbs and spices. It brought me peace. But it still wasn’t the thing.

And then something shifted.

A few years ago, I drove to visit my father’s aunt Meri in Croatia. It had been a difficult stretch — stressful months at work, personal exhaustion, emotional heaviness. I cried through almost the entire six-hour drive. By the time I arrived, I felt like a shadow of myself.

Meri didn’t ask questions. She simply welcomed me into her garden and offered to make me tea. At that point I was in the mood for anything but tea. But I said yes, just to please her.

She came back with a steaming, fragrant cup. The smell alone slowed me down. I sat in her garden, completely drained, and started sipping. Within fifteen minutes I was asleep in the chair, under one of Meri’s apple trees.

I didn’t think much of it at first. But the next time I visited, I asked for a little of that tea to take home. I wanted that quarter of an hour again. So I asked Meri to teach me. She showed me her plants — which ones she grew, when she cut them, how she dried and stored them. I started blending for myself. One for the morning. One for the long afternoons. One for the end of the day. It was the first thing in years that was entirely mine, made at my own pace.

The more I blended, the more I shared. Friends began asking for my teas. They told me they liked the taste — and that they liked the twenty minutes they took for themselves while drinking it. Slowly, the idea began to bloom.

That’s when Merifemme was born.

I created Merifemme for everyone who needs those fifteen or twenty minutes. That one small moment each day to sit down, to breathe, to let the world slow. I wanted to keep the feeling I had in Meri’s garden — that quiet — and pass it on.

Every Merifemme blend is made by hand. I grow the herbs myself, care for them, harvest them with intention, and combine them so their flavours meet well in the cup. This is not just tea. It’s a moment. It’s something you can taste and feel.

I hope Merifemme becomes part of your daily ritual, just as it became part of mine.

With love,
Rebeka