Byline: Josephine Fairleys
Henrietta Lovell - aka the Tea Lady - wants to reintroduce us to the joys of real tea: rare, special (but not necessarily expensive), a delicious punctuation mark in a busy day and a world away from a stand-your-teaspoon-in-it mug of builder's. Preferably sipped from a vintage bone-china cup and enjoyed with a crunchy biscuit and a cucumber sarnie or two. 'The best trick with cucumber sandwiches is to roll them with a rolling pin,' is just one of Henrietta's many tea-enhancing insider tips. 'If you don't generally like black tea, try it with a cucumber sandwich. As the butter melts in your mouth, it makes the tea taste deliciously creamy.'
Right now, tea is indeed enjoying something of a revival as a gourmet 'experience'. Of course, in this country, we've always drunk gallons of the stuff - 165 million cups a day, in fact, according to the UK Tea Council. 'But the truth is,' reveals Henrietta, in her Celia Johnson clipped tones, 'that when it comes to selling tea to Britain, tea farmers palm us off with the worst quality, containing leaves from up to 60 different farms, ground up and mass-produced with no flavour. Most people don't know any better because the bog-standard builder's cup is all they've ever drunk. But fine tea is a revelation, a real experience - and one we can enjoy every day. And that's what I want this nation of tea drinkers to discover,' vows Henrietta, as she pours a steaming cup of the nation's favourite beverage into a delicate bone-china teacup.
Seven years ago, in her role as a high-flying project manager for a global packaging company (including several years spent in Manhattan), Henrietta found herself in China, the original home of Camellia sinensis, the plant that gives us tea. It was a dull job, as she puts it, but it took her to some interesting places. 'As I sat in restaurants I saw businessmen showing off by buying a [pounds sterling]75 pot of tea for lunch.'
She thought she'd better see what all the fuss was about - and at the first fragrant sip her mind was blown: 'I'd never tasted anything like it.'
The leaves in the tea Henrietta tasted in China were picked in small mountain gardens, at high altitudes, lightly fermented and of the finest quality in the world.
The catalyst for stepping out of what had become a 'fur-lined rut' and starting the Rare Tea Company, though, is more poignant. 'My father was about to retire. He had a host of plans and dreams that he'd saved up, but then he was diagnosed with cancer and died within three months. I realised that I had to seize the moment.'
And so in 2004 the Rare Tea Co was born.
'I spent two years sourcing, travelling, building relationships with tea farmers and learning everything I could about tea. I'm quite a sensible girl, so I had savings and hadn't yet invested in a flat - so it all went into the company. I wrote my business plan and was all set to go.'
Then by a twist of fate, just as she was poised to launch the company, Henrietta was diagnosed with breast cancer, aged just 32. After a year of intensive treatment, however, Henrietta recovered and has now been cancer-free for more than five years.
It was her fledgling business that gave Henrietta a reason to get out of bed each morning during her treatment, no matter how poorly she felt. 'I rewrote the business plan and started as a little internet company.'
What's more, she found that drinking tea helped pep her up - and the famous mega-antioxidant boost from teas such as White Silver Tip surely did no harm, either.
At the beginning, the internet business was pretty tiny and, 'for quite a long time I knew every single one of my customers by name,' says Henrietta. Then one night, while at dinner in a restaurant, Henrietta had a light bulb moment: to dispatch her teas to chefs and sommeliers, who (with their refined palates) might 'get' the delicate apricot notes of Malawi Antlers, the rich, caramel maltiness of Meghalaya Cloud Tea, or the clean, refreshing notes in Green Leaf Tea. She also submitted an entry to a gourmet competition being judged by chef Mark Hix who declared, 'That's the best tea I've ever had in my life,' and promptly put it on the menu in all his restaurants. Bingo! Heston Blumenthal, Angela Hartnett, Tom Aikens and The Dunhill Club all followed suit - and now Henrietta's teacup runneth over with devotees. Celebrity fans include Anjelica Huston (who declares the Rare Tea Co White Silver Tip - shipped to Hollywood - 'exquisite'), and novelist Alexander McCall Smith, who Henrietta serendipitously bumped into while sampling teas with the ladies of Belgravia in a supermarket; he was so taken with Henrietta and her tea that he name-checked both in his novel Corduroy Mansions.
Part of Henrietta's time is now spent offering tea -tastings to would-be connoisseurs. At the recent launch of an exceptional new collection of Jo Malone fragrances, for instance - each inspired by a different tea (from Assam to fresh mint leaf and grapefruit or earl grey and cucumber) - Henrietta (clad appropriately in tea dress and cardie) talked assembled guests through a selection of carefully chosen 'matching' teas that she'd specially selected for the occasion. Despite now having a couple of employees, she's totally hands-on and still treks up mountains to source supplies herself, buying only whole tips and leaves from artisans and tea masters. And - importantly - not haggling, either. 'We pay the farmers what they ask,' says Henrietta proudly, 'because we believe in fair trade.'
As well as 'everyday' teas, the Rare Tea Co offers some of the most exclusive varieties you can get your hands on - in some cases there are as few as 100 packs available (and one tea is daringly priced at [pounds sterling]1,000 for 100g). But the more affordable Rare Tea Co single estate teas are available in Waitrose - and now, with her Royal Air Force Tea, in Sainsbury's, too. Pricier than builder's, to be sure, but at just 27p a pot, or so, much less even than the KitKat you might crunch into at the same time.
The Royal Air Force Tea ('Calming in times of national peril. Fortifying when courage is required', so the slogan goes) is very close to Henrietta's heart. Since her breast cancer experience she's been keen to 'give back' and not simply by paying fair prices for her teas. After meeting a Battle of Britain veteran, Terry Clark, Henrietta decided to create for him a bespoke blend (from Malawi and Darjeeling), the kind of old-school British tea that pilots like Terry drank while waiting to be scrambled in the Second World War. Terry liked it, word got around, and before Henrietta knew it she was in a cab en route to Whitehall for a meeting with the Ministry of Defence. To commemorate last year's 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Henrietta packaged Terry Clark's special tea, proudly emblazoned with an RAF roundel, and currently donates ten per cent of the price to the RAF Association Wings Appeal. What's more, inside, there's the Rare Tea Co's own take on a 'golden ticket': tea-lovers could win a year's worth of free tea, or even a flight in a Spitfire. And even if not, they'll get to enjoy a darned good cuppa.
It's quite some goal, to change a nation's tea-drinking habits and blitz the tea bag once and for all. But nobody knows better than Henrietta that anything is possible after a cuppa: building an empire, winning a war, even helping to beat a life-threatening illness. As Eleanor Roosevelt once observed, 'Women are like tea bags: you never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.'
In her quest to debag Britain, Henrietta would prefer to be gently infused, loose-leaf-style, in not-quite-boiling water, and sipped reverently. But the Rare Tea Lady is living proof that Mrs Roosevelt definitely had a point.
rareteacompany.com
CAPTION(S):
Henrietta with her better class of cuppa and, below, visiting a tea garden in Malawi, southeast Africa
From top: tea picking in Malawi; the much-coveted silver tips; Henrietta's Royal Air Force Tea is 'fortifying when courage is required'
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