By Kevan Garvey
Apparently, there are precise and exacting instructions for the perfect cup of tea. Whittard’s, The Yorkshire Tea Company, Typhoo, and even Jamie Oliver, all have step by step guides on how to successfully blend tea’s exhaustive list of ingredients. Tea, water and milk in case you didn’t know. And this is genuine, Twinning’s contribution includes, starting at 12 O’ clock when stirring, and softly folding in the milk.
We’re told tea is quintessentially British. Having a recipe to make tea, our weather obsession, and being the only European nation with a sense of humour, regally sit on top of the tea chest marked “Typically and uniquely British”.
So, let’s talk about tea. The Nottingham store of Bird and Blend, a specialist tea company, has nominated the Will Garvey Trust Foundation as their charity of the year. Hence, me kicking off about the glorious, hot and wet brown stuff. A percentage of sales of Bird and Blend’s “Candy Floss at the Fayre” flavour of black tea is kindly being donated to WTF. They’ve also allowed us into their store so we can engage with customers, give out leaflets and have conversations. Tea and a chat, what a combination.
You see, the thing about Tea is, it isn’t just about the breakfast, Early Grey or Darjeeling. Like people, tea comes in many varieties, flavours and styles. Bird and Blend specialise in Matcha, the ground up leaves from green tea, they sell Chai, Black and fruit teas too. You just can’t neatly box and package tea as one, just like you can’t with people struggling with their mental health, or even a whole country for that matter.
It turns out, that as a nation we like to drink, are overly pessimistic, and gorge ourselves on our poor food. Are we therefore quintessentially a nation of malnourished, alcoholic, whiners? No. Like tea, people are more complex, nuanced and wide ranging in diversity. They don’t come with prescriptive manuals, instructions and recipes. Tea brings us together, facilitates conversations, breaks down barriers. Bird and Blend and WTF are coming together to help with those conversations.
