verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message this article may require cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . no cleanup reason has been specified . please help improve this article if you can . september 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message yogi tea type private industry beverage founded 1984 headquarters springfield oregon products tea number of employees 150 website yogi tea yogi tea is a manufacturer of tea products . yogi tea is part of the east west tea company llc ewtc formerly golden temple of oregon . the company employs about 150 people in the united states and europe 1 with offices in springfield and portland oregon and in hamburg germany . contents 1 origins 2 commerce 3 lawsuits 4 see also 5 references 6 external links origins edit yogi bhajan an indian spiritual teacher who brought the sikh religion to the west began teaching kundalini yoga in america in 1969 . after each yoga class he served a spiced tea to his students which they affectionately named yogi tea . the tea was a blend of five traditional ayurvedic spices cardamom cinnamon cloves ginger and black pepper . ayurvedic medicine holds that this combination of spices has unique healthful properties clarification needed so they are still included in many current yogi tea formulas . commerce edit in the 1970s students of yogi bhajan opened golden temple vegetarian restaurants in the united states canada and europe . through these restaurants yogi tea was sold to the public leading to the creation of the yogi tea company in 1984 . over the next couple of years the business developed a nationwide distribution network with finely ground spices packaged in teabags in three varieties . in 1988 yogi tea s team of herbalists expanded the line to include a number of formulas developed to address specific health needs . citation needed lawsuits edit in 2010 yogi tea was sued by yogi bhajan s widow bibiji inderjit kaur puri 1 and the state of oregon . 2 the suits alleged that trusted advisers of the yogi had forged documents relating to their take over of the company exclusion of the family from the board excessive compensation for the executives and the abandonment of what bibiji describes as orthodox sikh practices . 1 3 the 2007 sale spurred numerous other lawsuits including one against law firm schwabe williamson & wyatt as well as the parent company filing for bankruptcy protection . 4 the lawsuit was settled on november 6 2012 . 5 see also edit masala chai references edit a b c mcdonald sherri buri 14 december 2010 . yogi s widow sues managers . the register guard . springfield oregon . mcdonald sherri buri november 10 2010 . state targets golden temple . the register guard . records in lawsuit claim golden temple executives drew excessive compensation . statesman journal . the associated press . may 12 2011 . access date requires url help culverwell wendy february 24 2012 . schwabe williamson sued for 230m in yogi bhajan related suit . portland business journal . retrieved february 24 2012 . dispute over natural foods firm settled . the columbian . the register guard . november 6 2012 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title yogi tea & oldid 732239521 categories tea brands in united statesprivately held companies based in oregon1984 establishments in oregonhidden categories pages using citations with accessdate and no urlarticles needing additional references from july 2016all articles needing additional referencesarticles needing cleanup from september 2009all articles needing cleanupcleanup tagged articles without a reason field from september 2009wikipedia pages needing cleanup from september 2009wikipedia articles needing clarification from december 2014all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from december 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tinadeutschfran aissvenska edit links this page was last modified on 30 july 2016 at 15 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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