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We all love a good cuppa so who better to give us an insight in to a good brew than our chums at Brew Tea. Marketing Whizz (official title) Holly Bowden spends some time telling us all about it.
So, why tea?
Why not?! We wanted to plot the demise of rip off dusty tea and put a stop to the term “just a cup of tea”. All in all, because tea deserves better!
What was the light bulb moment to move from your shop to an online store?
Our first ever stockist - the Museums of Liverpool - asked us to help them with their tea range a long time ago and we realised then that by doing this, we could focus on tea instead of cakes, rotas, keeping track of loo roll holders and all the other trappings of a high street store. So we started there - and the irony is, since we do all of the manufacturing ourselves, Tea HQ is packed full of people needing rotas, timesheets and loo roll. Luckily, we only have to think about the cake we’re eating ourselves now.
How long does it take to create a new blend? Are there new blends in the pipeline?
How long is a piece of string? When we’re creating a new blend, we start with an ideal taste profile then source the best leaves used for classic formulations of the blend. Then it’s all about blending, tasting, re-blending, re-tasting and tasting again until we get the perfect flavour. So, how long it takes in total comes down to a whole lot of uncertain factors. Once we’ve got the best leaves and decided on the blend, it doesn’t stop there. Tea is natural so seasons bring surprises, taste testing is ongoing and happens for all new blends and new batches of tea.
Your products are now being sold in High Street supermarkets – do the heady heights of becoming a major supplier now beckon?
Since moving into our new HQ in December 2015, we’ve almost tripled in size in terms of people and we’re getting listed with more and more big names like Sainsbury’s. Things are heading in the right direction for us, but let’s wait and see!
Do you get to visit your raw ingredient suppliers? How do you decide who becomes a supplier to Brew Tea?
The tea market isn’t really set up for direct selling yet - most people still use brokers and head on research trips rather than sourcing directly.
We’ve recently become a B Corp certified organisation and they’ve helped us lay out key factors when it comes to auditing suppliers of all shapes and sizes. Now we look at their impact, accreditations and membership of not-for-profits when deciding whether to work with them - you can check our blog for loads more info on this, we’re geeking out about it now! At the moment, we’re struggling with finding a local tea supplier, hopefully global warming will give us a hand with that one.
You suggest your Fruit Tea is a good pairing with strong cheese. Any other tea/food pairings you can recommend?
Plenty. English Breakfast goes down a treat with milk chocolate, ginger biscuits or super buttery toast. A thick vanilla cheesecake is our go-to for Earl Grey. Also, our new blend, Jasmine Green, is delicious with coconut macaroons, or creamy cheese - you could say that we’re offsetting any potential health benefits of tea with a whole load of sugar and fat. Delicious.
Other than cocktails (big thumbs up from us) do you ever use your tea in recipes? Any that you can share with us?
For the most part, we drink tea as is, but you’ll occasionally find the folks at Tea HQ using tea in their recipes - we’ve had Chai spiced muffins and Earl Grey poached salmon before. We also make a bit of a meal out of Shrove Tuesday, we’ve made syrups with all of our black teas to put on our pancakes - Try English Breakfast syrup and lemon pancakes, you can thank us later.
We love your printed products. How did you come up with the brand and who came up with all the fabulous tea card ideas?
The tea came first, the branding came second. Way back when, we had foil bags labelled with sharpies, hardly photogenic! We forked out for some properly designed boxes almost two years after we started - at the time we wanted our boxes to look bold, different to most other things on the shelves and definitely a bit more ‘unisex’. Tea falls into the trap of being a bit pastels ‘n’ swirls sometimes. We’re aiming for approachable, so less pink and no victory rolls in sight.
Tea cards are as old as the hills - look up cigarette cards. PG Tips only stopped producing their tea cards in the 90s, and we thought it was such a shame to see something like that disappear. Also, our tea takes longer than your average dusty tea - we use large, whole rolled leaves, which means they need five minutes to brew. Rather than clock watching, it’s better to fill those minutes with something a little more productive - hence, Things To Do Whilst You Brew was born!
What are your plans for the future? Would you consider non-tea related products?
We’ve already got everything you need for your tea and then some {think pots, tote bags and badges}
As for the future, we’ve got some really awesome tea stuff coming out at the end of this year and the middle of next - but our lips are firmly sealed on that one…
Other than at Brew HQ, where would you find the perfect cuppa?
Thankfully we have loads of stockists up and down the country, from Manchester to Milton Keynes, Cleethropes to Cheltenham, Liverpool to London - all in all we have over 500 places serving awesome tea so look out for the yellow and you know you’re in good company.
Milk before, after or never?
The eternal debate! If you’ve already brewed your tea in a pot, then you can pour your milk in cup before adding brewed tea, but there’s not a chance in hell that you’d get away with adding milk to tea before it’s brewed. Black tea needs to brew in water at 100 degrees, so if you set it to brew in milky, cool water, you’re going to get something that tastes pretty lame. Even better, get the right tea and you won’t even have to add milk - a proper English Breakfast tastes great black.
Do you drink coffee?
When we’re on the road, you’ll sometimes catch us drinking coffee. The problem is that it’s hard to find places that have tea which is as good as their coffee. Really hard, actually. The same place that serves up single origin beans, handcrafted into a flat white with intricate latte art atop it is more than likely to be serving cups of dusty tea for a few pennies less. In that case, we’d much rather take the coffee - it’s just better value.
For more information about Brew Tea and the opportunity to purchase all the equipment you need for a proper pot or delicious cuppa head over to Brew Tea HQ and fill up on loose tea, tea bags, scoops, pots and much more besides!
