Press
Creative Brief
Tom Holmes' in-depth profile feature on tea lady Henrietta Lovell:
'When in 2004 [Henrietta] left behind a successful career in corporate finance to go and source fine teas across the world’s most remote estates, many of her friends thought that she was crazy.
'What they didn’t predict was that a few years later her unspoiled varieties imported to the UK from small farms in China and Africa, would serve to supply chefs like St John’s Fergus Henderson and The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal...'
The Daily Mail
Tom Parker Bowles writes:
'The Rare Tea Company sells some of the finest tea in the world. And its Royal Air Force Tea for Heroes is not only a wonderful, loose-leaf English Breakfast blend, but 50p from every tin goes to the RAF Wings Appeal. A sip that soothes the soul, and conscience too.'
Lucas Hollweg features Rare Tea in his Word of Mouth feature:
I recently tried some flowering silver tips from the Rare Tea Company, and a whole new world of tea drinking opened up... Lovell is gaining a reputation as the couturier of the tea world.
and again:
Henrietta Lovell's Rare Tea Co sells some of the world's most delicious teas. So delicious, in fact, that her jasmine silver tips have permanently changed my tea-drinking habits. The good news is you can now buy her teas in selected Waitrose. They cost more than your average char, but you not only get wonderful flavours (and rather a pretty tin), but several brews from each lot of leaves. As Lovell says: "Proper tea is not theft"
Siski Green recommends Green Silver tip tea from the Rare Tea Company as the decision of the tea connoisseurs:
Offer a green tea connoisseur a cuppa made from a tea bag and he or she will turn their nose up because if you really love your tea, you'll know that leaves are the only way to go.
But more than that, they also know that bog-standard green tea used bog-standard leaves, whereas the best, most delicate flavour comes from the unopened buds - and that's what silver tips are made from.
We cannot recommend this tea highly enough, it's the King of teas.
Conde Nast Traveller
Marinel FitzSimons reports on tea cocktails at the Mandarin Oriental Bar.
A clean, modern, luxury experience for travellers with sophisticated tastes.
Find the recipe here
Amanda Hesser, food writer, editor and cookbook author writes in New York Magazine:
I had Tregothnan Earl Grey tea, which I get online from Rare Tea Company. They're in England. I read about them a couple of years ago and I ordered some, and it was so much better than any tea that I've had before...I really like their silver tip and they have a great jasmine tip, which makes fantastic ice cream.
Henrietta Lovell, "tea lady" extraordinaire...is on a one -woman crusade to change the way we approach a brew. "People who care about taste should care about tea," she says. "Think you can't get out of bed without a cup of 'builder's'? That really is just psychological, as the strong bitter taste isn't caffeine, it's tannin. You'd get more of kick out of oolong...Lovell is offering a product of the highest quality, as her industry champions attest (Mark Hix and Heston Blumenthal are fans).
Henrietta features in Return to Splendour as The Elegant Tea Guru.
Henrietta says:
When tea is served in a teapot you know it's going to be good. It's very simple, it's going back to how things used to be done, but it makes all the difference. Fine leaf tea can be expensive but you will get more cups of tea out of it than a cheaper type, so it's actually thrifty.
Michelin starred chef Tom Aikens writes:
The Rare Tea Company imports the most beautiful teas I've ever tasted. We serve them in my restaurant and they are available at Waitrose. Some of my favourites are the Emperor's Breakfast Tea, a Chinese single-estate black tea; the unbelievably refreshing Jasmine Silver Tip, which has a heady aroma with a very soft flavour; and the Green Leaf Tea, which is hand-crafted in a wok and has the aroma of wood smoke and a clean, refreshing flavour.
Life in Scents
Life in Scents podcast interviews Henrietta Lovell:
'We hear of her memories of sitting by Lapsang Souchong smoking-huts and of swooning from the scent of jasmine flowers mingling with tea on Chinese mountain tops. Outside of tea, we hear about her love of all sorts of organic scents, of hidden bits of parks and of her grandmother prescribing her first perfume.'
Green, oolong and silver-tip teas, courtesy of Rare Tea Company. Rare, because their delicate leaves can be harvested only for a few days a year, at dawn, before the buds have opened.
These teas aren't any old bags (in fact, they come loose). Founder and chief cha lady Henrietta Lovell lovingly treks up Chinese mountains to source the best leaves; all are packaged without the bulky stalks used by some con artists.
They've been called miracle cures. The jasmine silver tip is packed with antioxidants, which help keep colds at bay. It has even been linked to cancer prevention by several objective slurpers.
Whether that's unfounded or true, you're still probably better off drinking these than a chemically charged mug of freeze-dried coffee; and you'll probably be calmer, too.
Well, I've just had my first two cups of White Silver Tip Tea. Being a fairly indiscriminate and infrequent tea drinker I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to tell it from my ordinary ****** tea bag. Fortunately this wasn't the case. It has a balance and purity of flavour that clearly sets it apart - like a fine Burgundy compared with a rustic table wine. Lovely stuff.
Tea lovers will adore the Rare Tea Company, which stocks unusual loose leaf teas, sourced in the Fujian Province of China.
The best choice for pregnant women is its White Silver Tip Tea. Why? It's made from tea buds rather than leaves, cutting down on the caffeine and tannin content.
White tea is also the least processed of all teas, which means it's packed with detoxifying, immune-boosting antixidants. All of which could justify the eating of a biscuit or two.