Brew News - the Yorkshire Tea blog

Earlier this week, we took Little Urn on a journey to meet legendary cookery writer and baker Mary Berry at her home. Not only did we get to peek inside her kitchen but Mary was also joined by Wallace & Gromit for a brew and a slice of cake.

The ‘Great British Bake Off’ television series judge welcomed us in for a celebratory tea party to launch this year’s ‘Wallace & Gromit’s Great British Tea Party’.

From 1-10 December, we’re supporting Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation, once again helping them to raise thousands of pounds for sick children in hospitals and hospices across the UK. In support, Mary’s encouraging people to get baking for charity and take part in the Great British Tea Party: “This is a wonderful way for family, friends and work colleagues to get together for a traditional teatime celebration that raises money for a really important cause. It’s so easy to join in the fun, simply bake your favourite cakes, put the kettle on and enjoy. You could even rise to the occasion and organise your own Bake Off!” she said.

The fundraising event hopes to raise over £150,000. To register, or to find out more, click here.

Famous Yorkshireman Sir Jimmy may be no longer with us, but the idea of making people’s dreams come true lives on – when motorbike enthusiast Rachel Heath entered the Bennetts Biker Dream competition, she said her dream prize would be to have a cup of tea with bike-racing, barge-building, brew-drinking star Guy Martin. And we were only too happy to help Bennetts make Rachel’s dream into a reality…

We’ve long known that TT & TV star Guy is a big fan of tea, but we had no idea he drinks about 20 cups a day – so he was truly happy to get a tour of the factory then a session with our expert tea buyers.

Guy and Rachel spent the afternoon learning how the professionals taste and select teas, and then got a chance to make their own blends to take home.

We know he likes to have a brew during pitstops – wonder if it will be a cup of his own blend next time?

Not so long ago, Kawah Putih lake, high up Mount Patuha in Java, had a mysterious reputation. Locals took the fact that no birds flew over it as a sign, and the whole area was considered to be eerie.

Even without the spooky background, Kawah Putih is remarkable – a lake of acid sat atop a volcano, surrounded by rocks bleached white by sulphur. But what’s it got to do with tea?

Suzy from our tea buying team flew out to Java recently, and she explains:

“Kawah Putih gets its suphuric content from the volcano it sits on, which last erupted in the 12th century, and the soil in this area is rich in the kind of nutrients and acidity that tea bushes thrive on.”

“Conditions are so good that, while I was on my recent visit, I was able to present one of our suppliers with our first ever quality award for this part of the world.”

Suzy’s trip to the tea estates of Indonesia was remarkable in lots of ways, so look out for more stories from this part of the world in the near future.

We all like to think we make a decent cup of tea, but do you go to quite the same lengths as our lot?

In the sales room, our tea buyers taste up to a thousand teas each day, to sift through the samples and get a sense of where the best teas are coming from. To make sure this is done properly, each one has to be precision-brewed. But some of you have asked: what does that mean exactly?

To find out we spoke to Adrian, one of our tea sales room team. (It’s his birthday today too, so what better time for him to pop up on the blog?) Together with Mo, Neil, Helen, Katie and Damien they ensure all the tea samples are lined up ready to taste, on time, every time.

Adrian explains that first, a small amount of the dry tea leaf is displayed on the counter for inspection. Meanwhile, exactly 5.6g of tea is weighed out and put into a special cup, which is then filled with freshly drawn and boiled water. A quick stir and then the lid goes on for exactly 5 and a half minutes.

It’s worth noting that’s effectively double-strength, so this is some serious flavour we’re talking about. They do it this way because it amplifies any good or bad qualities in the tea, which really helps our buyers when tasting.

Also, although our tap water is soft, we have a regular delivery of hard water to brew with as well – soft water can often disguise imperfections in tea, so we like to taste samples in hard water too.

When the timer goes off, the special cups are tipped to one side so the ‘liquor’ can pour through a serrated space, filtering out the leaves. Once this is done, the leaves are tipped into the lid and displayed upright for another level of inspection.

The last step is adding milk, which is done using a soup spoon to make sure the amount is always the same. After that, it’s over to our buyers to start slurping!