When thinking about tea one would hardly put Pembrokeshire in the forefront of the industry but a new young company, Pembrokeshire Tea Co, has recently begun production of their own blends on a small scale and they are very, very, good!

The company is run by Michael and Tony who relocated from Rochester in North Kent bringing with them a love for blending herbal and fruit teas. The company staff consists of two people (both work full-time as well as running the tea business – Michael is a bicycle wheel builder and Tony is an artist/designer) and their two retired greyhounds Kim and Gem. Michael and Tony handle the tea production while King and Gem laze about on the lawn … occasionally they’ll go and investigate if a customer comes to buy tea, but lazing is what they do best! Best Cuppa interviewed Tony to ask why tea – and why Pembrokeshire?

Pembrokeshire Tea

Pembrokeshire is not particularly famous for tea growing – so where on earth did the idea come from?

We used to live in Rochester, North Kent, and started our first tree plants there; in fact it is also where I got interested in Teas. There is a wonderful company, Kentish Dawn, with the smallest shop imaginable hidden away down an alley way. I remember going there with my Mother as she liked their fruit teas – I got interested and the owner showed me how to produce and blend fruit teas. When we moved to Pembrokeshire (because we love the people and the area), we simply took the herbs, plants and tea making with us because we enjoy making our own tea.

How long ago did you start planning this business?

We didn’t really … friends and family kept asking us to make them some tea to take home, and in April 2009 some friends talked us into taking it more seriously. I would describe us as a ‘back garden producer’ rather than a mass-production company. We do it simply because we enjoy it as a hobby; we’ll have an honesty box outside the Cowshed here during the summer.

Can you talk us through the process of making leaf tea … from looking after the tea bushes, to picking, drying/processing etc?

We start with growing leaves. This is where it all comes from. These leaves are then dried in hung bags until they can crumble. ‘Black tea’ leaves will be posted off by us in foil for fermenting into black tea. Fruit, Herbs and other leaves will be simply dried. We do use additional black tea leaves from India to top up our stock as we use black tea as a base in all our teas. Once we have all the leaves ready, these are then sieved to a good size and then blended with the dried herbs, dried fruit and fruit leaves to create our teas.

The blending really is the artistic bit, and we do like to experiment with new ideas, trying to keep to what we can grow ourselves, but also sometimes adding dried lemon or orange to create new flavours. We’re quite proud of our Pembrokeshire Rose tea, which is a black tea with an after taste of roses, because it contains rose petals in just the right quantity. Our personal preference is for tea with milk, so we do try to ensure we have a good ‘any time tea’ our ‘Cartrefol te’ blend (‘home tea’ in Welsh), and our other teas, except the green tea are also suitable with milk.

How much equipment did you need in order to get the business off the ground (is it specialised/did you need to import it etc)?

The hardest part is growing the Camellia sinensis, they need a lot of work and are relatively rare in the UK. We don’t need them very large, but we do need them to produce leaves frequently. For this we use a hand-made polytunnel and additional heating on cold days. We don’t yet have the facility to ferment the leaves ourselves, but we do dry them here. So we have to post them off for fermenting. It really comes down to the knack of drying and blending.

How large is your plantation and how many plants do you grow?

Our vast plantation here in Pembrokeshire is two Camellia sinensis (Black tea leaves) and a lot of fruit and herb plants used to blend to make our teas. It all fits in a small polytunnel. Drying is also done in the tunnel. We make very, very, small amounts of tea at the moment, but hopefully will be able to fund new plants and equipment in the future so we rely less on additional Camellia leaves to top up (imported from India). At present 25% of all our Camellia leaves are grown in Pembrokeshire and all of our additional leaves blended with this are grown here together with most of the fruit.

We have just started to build a new polytunnel as our old one blew over in the wind last month! In our experience, the climate makes the Camellia leaves bigger with less fruit, which is ideal for tea making! Our Camellia plants take a lot, LOT, of effort to keep going here, but we do manage it.

In Wales we grow at present:

• 2 x Camellia sinensis plants (1 damaged after last month’s poly tunnel collapse, but should recover!)
• Tea Roses
• Jasmine
• Apple mint
• Chocolate Mint Hybrid
• English Mint
• Peppermint
• Strawberry plants
• Raspberry plants
• Blueberry plants
• Blackcurrant plants
• Orange-scented Thyme
• Lavender
• Chives
• Elderflower, blackberry and sloes all grow naturally in our garden hedges. We are always expanding our herb collection to try new flavours in our tea blends. We also grow a lot of our own vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes – we tried potato leaf tea and would not recommend it!

On what date did you officially launch your first batch of product?

We’re readying the first ‘public’ batches as we speak.

What reception has your product received so far?

Everyone that drinks it likes it. We’ve had such a fantastic following on Twitter because of our ‘emergency tea guidelines’ and our locality. For emergency tea guidelines see www.pembrokeshiretea.co.uk.

What ambitions do you have for the Pembrokeshire Tea Company?

We hope we can show people what real tea that is not mass produced can taste like, and also encourage people to have a go themselves.

Bessie

Tell us about your green tea?

Well, it is 100% grown here in Pembrokeshire. We part-dry the leaves or don’t dry them at all … it simply tastes fresh and clean. However it does mean we produce very, very, small amounts which need to be used within 3 weeks. Hopefully we’ll be able to make more.

Tell us about the Emergency Tea Response Unit?

Haha, Our Land Rover is a very honestly battered workhorse. We have equipped it with items to take to markets and events, across Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire – any further would be asking a bit too much of her! We branded it up as the County Emergency Tea Response Unit as a bit of fun. Everyone in the UK has a natural instinct to ‘put the kettle on’ in times of crisis so we thought why not include this as a nod to the importance of tea.

County Emergency Tea Response Unit

What events will you be at over the summer?

We will hopefully be at the Fishguard (fortnightly on Saturdays) and Haverfordwest (fortnightly on Fridays) Farmers markets during the summer and autumn. Other events will be posted on our website. We will also be organising a tea party in the summer here in the garden. [BestCuppa are looking forward to receiving their invite!]

Stop Press! Pembrokeshire Tea have just announced their “Adopt A Tea Plant Club”, where, for a small fee, they will care for your adopted plant for you in their garden in Pembrokeshire along with their own tea plants, watering it, talking to it and harvesting it. Twice a year you will receive around 1 kg of tea from your adopted plant, topped up a little from their other plants. You’ll be able to name the plant, visit it (on appointment), and will get photos throughout the year of the growing tea leaves …. What are you waiting for – we should all have our own tea plant! We’ve always fancied our own BestCuppa-branded brew!

Contact Pembrokeshire Tea Co at www.pembrokeshiretea.co.uk, and follow them on Twitter @Pembteaco