Brew News - the Yorkshire Tea blog

Okay, we’ll admit it. ‘Second flush’ isn’t exactly the most enticing phrase – but we’re not talking about plumbing issues, promise.

Read on to find out why these two words are quite so important to making a proper brew…

In Assam, in northeastern India, conditions are perfect for tea right now. During the cooler winter months, tea bushes lie dormant, waking in the warmth of spring to produce their ‘first flush’, or first harvest. But because they’re tired from winter it takes the spring to perk them up. It’s the ‘second flush’ that follows when you find Assam tea at its best.

Hotter weather, more humidity, and higher rainfall makes for stronger tea bushes. And the soil is richer too, so conditions are ideal for producing the best quality leaves.

As a result, this is also the time of year when our tea buyers look a little more flushed than usual – it’s an incredibly busy period for them back here in Harrogate, and they work long hours to ensure they secure the pick of the crop from the best Assam tea estates.

In Assam’s tea gardens on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra River (which incidentally feeds the Ganges and is not only the longest river in India, but is also the country’s only ‘male’ river due to its power and ferocity) temperatures are racing up and heavy humid rain pounds down in the evenings. The tea, however, is absolutely lapping it up because that’s what it needs – plenty of rain, followed by plenty of sunshine.

We know this, because Suzy, from our tea buying team, has just returned from there. To be honest, we’d been a little worried about the recent weather and how it might affect this year’s crop.

But don’t worry – as the lush, yellowy green leaves in Suzy’s photo from the Moran district of Assam demonstrate, it’s going to be an outstanding second flush harvest in Assam this year, which means there’ll be plenty of rich Assam tea to give Yorkshire Tea and Yorkshire Gold its ‘gutty’ strength and wonderfully malty notes.

So, next time you have a proper brew and get a malty kick, you’ll know where it came from and what it takes to make it happen.

You’ve got to hand it to some people when it comes to determination. Take Will Dixon, our wonderfully tall new trainee tea buyer who started on Tuesday – he gets 10/10. His is some story so let’s start at the beginning.

Will is a Yorkshire lad through and through and spent his first eight years on his father’s and uncle’s farm in Mirfield, Dewsbury, before upping sticks and moving up to a bigger farm near Duns in the Scottish Borders. Will then grew up looking after sheep, delivering lambs and growing wheat and barley. Proper man stuff. He later studied for a degree in Economics at Lancaster Uni then spent his next three years managing at Ladbrokes in Lancaster before returning to help his family out on the farm.

Now it gets a bit more glamorous. Will successfully applied to appear on the TV show ‘The National Lottery JetSet’ with his sister. Tasting fame, Will then went on to apply for others, and with some success. In fact you may recognise him from The Chase… Pointless… Total Wipeout… and even Countdown. Actually, he’s probably never off the telly.

“Total Wipeout was incredible. They picked me up, put me on a jet and I spent five days in Buenos Aires in Argentina, where it’s filmed. It was 40 degrees so I didn’t actually mind going in the water” revealed Will. We asked for a demonstration of his special moves but he declined. Another time maybe?

Will also competed on Countdown, hosted by Jeff Stelling, but narrowly lost on the conundrum. He did pick up the pen and dictionary but missed out on the top prize… a teapot.

In the Scottish Borders, half the TVs on Will’s farm picked up Scottish TV while the other half received English. This is important because two years ago, purely by chance, Will happened to be in a room with Look North on and there was a report featuring our expert tea buyer Suzy. Will’s ears pricked up when he heard Suzy say that they were looking for a new trainee tea buyer. Will thought: “I can do that – drink tea and travel the world”. So he applied and made it to interview but was just pipped to the teapot by our Henry, who you might know from ‘Henry’s Blind Tasting’ video. No hard feelings though.

Fast forward to February this year. Totally out of the blue, another trainee position became available at Yorkshire Tea and Will applied again. Straight after the hectic lambing season in April, Will and the other applicants each had individual interviews with all the tea buyers, group exercises and a tasting session involving a dozen different teas, all as before. Except on this occasion, Will was the successful candidate. He had finally landed his dream job and got his hands on the teapot he’d waited so many years for.

“They’re breaking me in easy. On my first day I attended a tea tasting hosted by Suzy at Bettys in Harrogate for fifty people that focused on the origins of tea and the various different factors that affect its taste and how tea is blended. It was fascinating stuff” said Will. He also went on to say “I’m really looking forward to working in a team and travelling to places I’ve never seen before – not your usual tourist destinations – where I’ll get insights into real countries.”

So that’s Will – do leave a message and say hi. He’s a cracking lad who has a bright tea buying future ahead of him here at Yorkshire Tea. And next time you have a proper brew, pop a bag in the pot, think of Will and make a wish. You never know, dreams do come true…

Henry, our trainee tea buyer, has been with Yorkshire Tea for eight months now. As part of his training, Suzy, one of our experienced tea buyers, decided to put his developing palate through its paces with a blind tasting. Play the video to see how our Henry, and his taste buds, got on…

Videoblog produced by simonand.com

Think you know how to taste tea? Of course you do. But would you like to know how our professional tea tasters do it? Watch this and our Suzy will explain all…

Our team of tea buyers taste up to a thousand different teas a day in order to pick out which are the best teas on offer at that moment in time – the teas selected then go on to be part of the Yorkshire Tea blends.

And when they’re tasting, Suzy and the team consider all sorts of different aspects of each tea, from how it tastes to the appearance of the dry tea leaves before they’ve been brewed. It all helps to identify which ones are the best quality.

Hope you enjoy the video – let us know what you think!

Tomorrow at 9am, we’re asking all our friends to log on to our Facebook page so we can all share a Christmas cuppa together. In preparation for that, we thought we’d share this little film of our tea expert Suzy’s guide to making a proper brew.

While we’re often asked how it should be done, we respect the fact that everyone has their own way of making tea. But just so you know, this is how we like to do it.

Do you do it the same way? Are you a miffy or a tiffy? Let us know – we’d love to hear what you think!

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!

We count ourselves very lucky. Not only do we have some of the loveliest customers in the world, but we also have some great partners in the tea world – our suppliers are just as dedicated to quality as we are, and over time we’ve built really strong, meaningful relationships with them.

But this year we decided to take things a stage further – we introduced a ‘Supplier of the Year’ award to recognise the incredible skill, commitment and passion displayed by the people who grow our tea. And this year’s winner is Kionyo Tea Factory from Kenya.

To celebrate, we flew the factory manager of Kionyo, George Mwangi, over here this week to collect the award on behalf of his team and their network of smallholder farmers. In fact, together with Agnes Muriuki from the Kenya Tea Development Agency, they’ve been with us for most of the week, touring our factory, meeting everyone, and learning more about what happens to the tea they produce once it reaches Yorkshire.

George told us: “It’s been a very humbling experience. The experience has been beyond my expectations. It’s a honour to be part of these blends and to see that quality is so important throughout. When I return we’ll have meetings with all the farmers, to show them our trophy – it is theirs more than it is mine. It will go a long way with them to know that their hard work and the quality of their tea is recognised.”

We’ve recently just added two new faces to our team of tea buying experts, so we though we’d introduce them to you.

On the left is Henry, our new trainee tea buyer. Henry applied for the job because of his brother, who spotted a piece on local news programme Look North. The news report revealed that we were looking for someone to come and taste tea all day and Henry’s brother thought that sounded perfect!

“I was really interested in how unique the job sounded,” says Henry,”and I liked the prospect of eventually getting to visit tea growing countries around the world.”

Simon, meanwhile, has been working in the tea business for five years already. He got into it when he started as an engineer at a beverages company and then got an opportunity to move across into the tea buying side.

“Being a tea buyer at Taylors appealed to me because of the quality of the products here, and the company’s ethical stance,” says Simon.

We hope you’ll join us in wishing them all the best here at Taylors. Welcome aboard gents!

28,000 miles over 3 continents to visit 84 factories in 7 countries… all in the name of tea!

To those of you who’ve not read my previous posts, I’ve just returned from the tea buying trip of a lifetime. I’m the first trainee Tea Buyer at Taylors to complete a 6 month training trip for several years, during which I travelled to major tea producing countries across the globe.

We have a very personal approach to tea buying at Taylors and the face-to-face relationships we build with our producers is a real advantage in the fast changing world of tea. My trip was an important opportunity for me to build on these relationships, as well as getting lots of first-hand experience of the tea growing process along the way.

The first leg of my journey covered Rwanda, Malawi, South Africa and Kenya, where I had the chance to experience the buzz of the Mombasa Tea Auction, which sells tea from East Africa to the rest of the globe. Each week there are between 90,000 and 120,000 packages of tea on offer and, in the fast-paced race for the best teas at the best price, you have to think very quickly!

My time in Africa was also a chance for me to see how we’re helping in Rwanda. I visited estates that are part of a project part-funded by us and the Department for International Development to support 10,000 Rwandan farmers in quality and sustainability improvements, in partnership with Rainforest Alliance. It was really encouraging to see that the will is there to boost the marketability of Rwandan tea and certification will really benefit the farmers and workers on the ground. The rolling hills of Rwanda’s tea estates are literally covered in lush green tea bushes, and the volcanic soils and high altitude make for unique growing conditions that really set their tea apart.

South Africa was the last destination on the African part of my trip, where I learned not only about the black tea industry but also Rooibos (or Redbush) tea – not technically a tea as it’s not from the camellia sinensis bush, but it has been enjoyed for hundreds of years by the local inhabitants of the Cape and is renowned for having tasty and healthy properties.

India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia formed the second leg of my trip and I arrived in India just in time for the peak quality Assam season, which only lasts for a short while. Here I visited 30 gardens in 30 days, flying in a 4-seater plane across the great Brahmaputra river.

The processing of the leaf in Assam is unique and requires much attention to detail. Each factory has a chief tea maker, known as the Head Tea House. Many have been making tea for 20 to 30 years – and really, what they don’t know about Assam tea manufacture is probably not worth knowing!

I have to say I felt very proud to be travelling as part of Taylors. Everywhere I went I was really well received and my reception reflected the good reputation and relationships that have been established over the years. As a business we are much closer to the industry than most as we travel directly to the factories, roll up our sleeves, and work alongside our suppliers rather than visiting a head office miles away from the action.

From all of this exposure to so many of our suppliers around the world I have learnt an awful lot, but I also realise that I’ve really just scratched the surface of the tea industry. There are 19 million people around the world who are involved in tea production so I’m returning to Taylors with a great sense of responsibility, knowing that Yorkshire Tea represents a huge, complex, fascinating and friendly industry – so my training trip might be at an end but, really, my journey’s just beginning!