Drinks interview: Henrietta Lovell, founder of the Rare Tea Company

Henrietta Lovell, founder of the Rare Tea Company, says why ethically sourced tea is a great way for businesses to show their sustainability and taste credentials.

 

How did your journey into tea start?

 

I fell in love with tea in China. I was working for a corporate finance company and was taken out by a client for tea. It cost $50 (£37) a pot and I just couldn’t understand it – I mean this was 1998 or something. I tried it, it was an Oolong and a woman made it for me at the table and it blew my mind – it was worth every single penny we paid.

 

Tell me about how Rare Tea Company began.

 

We started in 2004 sourcing the tea across China and then from around the world. I had all the teas stored in my bedroom, sticking on labels, working out what barcodes were. I had to travel the world, but like the wine industry there are very famous regions and growers and once you start getting excited by the tea, you can go and taste and learn. We have a reputation in the world and are constantly finding new people who grow tea.

 

How have you seen tea use change in the restaurant industry?

 

Hilariously, at the beginning, people said tea wasn’t important, it was just an afterthought at the end of the meal.

 

I was just in LA in Venice and there is a restaurant called the Butcher’s Daughter and tea is served across every meal – as a hot tea and an iced tea. Iced tea is big in our business in America, and growing faster in the UK, there’s a huge uptick of people wanting to serve good non-alcoholic drinks. In some places the cocktails will be bigger for us too. For example, we sell tea to the London Edition hotel and even though Berners Tavern serves tea through breakfast, lunch and dinner, more tea goes through the bars because tea is the main drink lengthener in the Punch Room.

 

Why do you think restaurants should invest in good quality teas?

 

Everyone can make a 90% gross profit growth margin selling our teas. People used to look at me like “tea is tea and milk, fuck off” and say it is too expensive, that they can’t buy tea pots and I’d look at the glassware and fancy coffee machine… it was a hard sell.

 

Now though, they want to know what your sustainability credentials are and it is amazing because we’re working with hotels who were saying “we can’t do that” who now are saying “we need to do this”.

 

We’ve been supplying Hawksmoor since it opened – and their first one in NYC – and it has thrived because it always cared. All the meat is beautifully sourced, and that sits through their whole business. A lot of those old dinosaurs who were the purchasing guys, they are gone. There is a new cohort of people who want to do good in the world.

 

How do bar managers train their staff on tea infusions and service?

 

Every venue is different and luckily, having done things globally for some time, learnings are cumulative. Tea is so far behind where it needs to be. There is such an appetite for learning especially the guys who are into coffee who understand about water temperature and customer loyalty and applying those same principles to tea. We can also make connections with the farm and the places and the people – it keeps people engaged.

 

What does the future of tea look like in the restaurant world?

 

We have the infrastructure for growth, the problem is demand not supply. My job is really to champion the farms and make consumers aware of their own contribution to them. The flavour is also amazing, they aren’t being asked to be virtuous and hold their nose and drink something horrible. In 2004 people said the market didn’t exist and now the consumer is so much more sophisticated, if you put it on the shelf and it’s really good people will buy it again and again.

 

Seasonal food and drink pairing: Ama Brewery BAT pet-nat tea with shellfish

 

This Basque-based kombucha brewery uses some of the world’s finest teas (sourced from Rare Tea Co) to make its low-ABV pet-nat sparklers. Its BAT expression, which uses Yabukita sencha tea from Shizuoka, Japan, has beautiful umami, seaweed and saline notes that match perfectly with oysters, clams and other shellfish.