It’s Always Tea Time…

Normally I love nothing more than brewing a cup of tea before sitting down to read through my favourite blogs. But if that’s your routine too, don’t do it today. Trust me, you’re going to be gagging for a cuppa once this post is over – but maybe a slightly different brew than you’re used to.

Last week I caught up with Sam from Teabelly Teas, we started messaging over Twitter (the link to her twitter is here) and met up for a chat and, unsurprisingly, a cup of tea at the new Great Cornish Food Store in Truro.

Please excuse the photo quality (who’d have known a phone front camera wasn’t that great huh?)

The fist thing I wanted to know was, why would you start a tea company in Cornwall? And, like all artisan makers, there was an interesting story.

Sam began blending tea for herself a while ago as she couldn’t find what she liked in teas on the market but as a busy mum with a full time job there just wasn’t time to do anything more than blend brews for herself, family and friends. Unfortunately (or fortunately for tea lovers in Cornwall) she was made redundant. This lead to an increase in time and, taking the advice of her fanbase of tea drinkers, she decided to launch Teabelly Teas.

Why loose leaf teas?

Sam wants to create an experience and a treat element to her teas. As she told me, coffee is so decorated and you can get so many different types but there just doesn’t seem to be that excitement about tea. I have to agree. I’ll always order a cup of tea and absolutely love it when I got a pot of loose leaf tea (finally I’m the one getting jealous looks from the coffee drinkers!) She also has a practical reason for not bagging her tea. Herbal teas have ingredients that come out very strong if left in hot water for too long – tea bags reduce the infusion of the ingredients into the water meaning you have to leave them in longer. This can mean some of the more subtle notes are lost to the stronger flavours. With loose leaf tea the verity of flavours is increased.

How do you create a tea?

Through a lot of research it turns out! Each tea has been carefully designed by Sam for the benefits she wants from it. One of those benefits though is taste – it has to take good or else you won’t want to drink it and won’t get any of the benefits. Her most popular tea is the ‘Sleepy Brew’ (if you want to see her whole range check out the Teabelly Tea Etsy page here). Which she designed to, you guessed it, help to relax before bed and increase quality of sleep. Sam kindly gave me some samples of her teas to try at home so I decided to test this one out.

There is something exciting about brewing loose leaf tea it has to be said. It really doesn’t take any longer than normal tea but you can see all the ingredients. Instead of peering though paper gauze at what looks like brown dust I could actually pick out things I recognised. Things like rose petals!

I am a fan of the taste. Finally a herbal tea that tastes better than it smells! Please tell me it’s not just me who salivates at the smell of some herbal teas but is disappointed by the taste nine times out of ten? This however, was very soothing but also refreshing. We’ll just have to see how my sleep goes tonight but I have to admit I am feeling very relaxed.

Most of Sam’s ingredients are bought in from suppliers outside of Cornwall but as a new business (she only started in November) she plans to grow the business and hopefully find more Cornish suppliers. Already all her ingredients are organic so here’s hoping for a fully Cornish tea sometime!

I can’t wait to try out the rest of the flavours. I hope you found this post informative, now go and brew that tea I’ve been denying you!