Histor-tea – The journey of Lincolnshire Tea so far

Jun-13

The Lincoln Tea and Coffee Company is born. With a passion for tea since childhood and a love of coffee, Susie dreamt of setting up the company.   With her families full support, including children – Sam 13 Years and Izzie 9 years, we registered The Lincoln Tea and Coffee Company.

27-Sep-13

The Lincoln Tea and Coffee Company attended their first event. The start of a long and exciting journey to find out what consumers wanted in their perfect cup of tea.

2013–2016

Alongside establishing and growing the company, we researched into producing a new tea to meet the needs of the consumers we met and talked to. Talking to customers and people about what they liked, what they didn’t. Feeling disappointed with tea made in hard water areas, tea strengths and personal preferences, we started to develop Lincolnshire Tea. Sourcing the right tea included talks with the tea plantation in Sri Lanka where our existing teas came from and other tea sources. Evaluating taste profiles of different origins and looking at different supplies.

Nov-13

First Food and Gift Fair

Jun-14

First Lincolnshire Show

Jan-17

We had a clear idea of the taste profile of the tea which would create Lincolnshire Tea and we were ready to proceed. Then a very well-timed introduction occurred!

Jan-17

Lucy Herring of Washingborough Hall introduced us to childhood friend and tea expert Will Battle, who had recently moved back to Lincolnshire.  Will trained as a tea taster in India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Malawi and had 20 years of experience in tea sourcing and blending. Will has well-established connections with proven suppliers in almost every tea origin and was just launching his book ‘The World Tea Encyclopaedia” when we met up with him. We met over a cup of tea at Washingborough Hall and told him of our plans to create Lincolnshire Tea.

Feb-17

A busy and exciting month. Will agreed to work with us. We started to look at different tea origins, their taste profiles and qualities, slurping our way through a number of blends.

Feb-17

With our final three blends ready, we set up a taste panel. It was time to taste the teas. Blind tasting, scoring and evaluating the panel had a clear favourite. The winner is…blend 2. Our blend chosen, the new Lincolnshire Tea was picked. After all of our research and passion to create a tea for the people, the panel had a very clear winner. It was a very exciting time.

Mar-17

We met with local artist Edward Waite to ask if he would create a painting we could use for the Lincolnshire Tea packaging. He loved the idea of the new tea and agreed to paint ‘Lincolnshire Icons’ for us.

Mar-Apr-17

Our next focus was to get the tea dressed in packaging suitable to supply to the commercial market. We knew it would take time to design and finalise the perfect branding and retail packaging reflective of the quality of Lincolnshire Tea, so we decided to launch the commercial line first.

May-17

The first news of Lincolnshire Tea was announced in the May 2017 edition of Lincolnshire Life. It was an exciting announcement after such a long time in the planning and creating stages. The response we received from people was fantastic!

May-17

We were invited by Amy Claridge to be a guest on BBC Lincolnshire Radio where we sampled Lincolnshire Tea live on air. She loved it!

May-17

First pack of Lincolnshire Tea in commercial packaging sold to Uncle Henry’s café for their loose leaf tea menu.

Jun-17

After working with Washingborough Hall on their afternoon tea menu, it was launched including the new Lincolnshire Tea.

Jun-17

Edward Waite finished the painting and the professional photographs were taken. These photographs would then be used by Andy Needham to create a unique and high quality packaging that would get people talking.

Jul-17

Lincolnshire Tea was sampled in the offices of Anglian Water. They released a statement – ‘The geology of the east of England makes our region a hard water area. So having a tea specially blended to take into account the minerals in the water is a great idea, and it tastes delicious!’

Aug-17

After months of meetings with our designer, Andy Needham, designing and reviewing the branding and packaging, the retail tubes of Lincolnshire Tea were signed off and ready to go into production.

Oct-17

Lincoln WI invited us to their 5th birthday celebration to serve Lincolnshire Tea to their members and guests for their feedback. We felt this was a great opportunity to have many tea lovers tasting our new Lincolnshire Tea prior to it being launched. Their feedback was fantastic and they loved the tea. One lady told us ‘Amazing, one of the best cups of tea I have ever tasted!’

14-Nov-17

The first 2000 tubes arrived from the manufacturers. A very exciting day indeed!

01-Nov-17

The Lincolnshire Tea website went live – www.lincolnshiretea.co.uk

23-Nov-17

The first tube of Lincolnshire Tea was packed very lovingly by hand.

Dec-17

Lincolnshire Tea in its retail form made its very first appearance at the Food and Gift Fair at the Lincolnshire Showground.  We gave out cup after cup of samples for people to try and we listened to their comments. People fell in love with the tubes and the feedback from the taste was incredible. Its smoothness, its freshness, how people enjoyed it without milk even though they always had milk in their tea. So many great comments, it was a very special weekend for us.

Jan-18

Dooper (our Mini) was given a signage makeover by Allen Signs, incorporating the new branding ready for the official launch of Lincolnshire Tea at Lincoln Castle.

Jan-18

The official launch of Lincolnshire Tea took place at Lincoln Castle. It was a fantastic evening of celebration and we were joined by many of the people who had shared our journey along the way.

Jan-18

The news of Lincolnshire Tea hit the media. From the news section of many local publications to Look North.

Feb-18

Orders and enquiries flooded in and the website stockist list started growing, including Co-op and many independent Lincolnshire businesses.

Feb-18

Lincolnshire Tea is now available in 1100 commercial bags and the first order was delivered to Pennells Restaurant, Lincoln.

Feb-18

Article published by Lincolnshire Live  ‘As the Lincolnshire Echo celebrates 125 years – here’s 125 reasons why Lincolnshire is brilliant’: Number 38 – Lincolnshire Tea – perfect for our hard water. https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/lincolnshire-echo-celebrates-125-years-1146630

Feb-18

The next order of 5000 tubes is delivered to Lincolnshire Tea HQ.

21-Apr-18

Although we celebrate tea everyday, we celebrated National Tea Day by offering tea tasting at Pennells Garden Centre, Lincoln. We received amazing feedback including that the blend can be enjoyed with or without sugar.

Today

Lincolnshire Tea is being enjoyed not only within Lincolnshire but is also starting to gain national interest. It is being used as ingredients by chefs including Darren Rogan Chef Solutions and Salted Orange. A Lincolnshire Tea Crème Brulee has even been created by chef Dan Wallis and introduced to the dessert menu at Cross Keys Restaurant, Stow.

We are listening to our customers and are planning other products. We are looking at making Lincolnshire Tea accessible to everyone, everywhere, with the addition of E-commerce to the website, by popular demand.

 

If you would like to see the rest of our journey, follow us on social media today!