Lincolnshire’s tea traders are brewing up a sense of Lincolnshire pride.
Known for its iconic Cathedral and its famous sausages, Tea may not be the first thing on your mind when you picture Lincolnshire, but Lincoln’s local tea traders are leaving their mark as demand for tea skyrockets after Covid-19.
First opened in 1991, Imperial Teas is nestled at the top of Lincoln’s iconic ‘Steep-hill’. It offers the largest range of speciality tea and coffee under one roof.
Operating out of the Norman House, Imperial Teas occupies one of the oldest surviving domestic buildings in the UK. The stone building dates back to the 12th century.
Tea Merchants Will and Ollie said that at one time, the store stocked as many as 500 different teas on offer.
Will and Ollie offered some insight into what’s currently trending with Lincoln’s tea enthusiasts:
“We’ve had a lot of people coming in for yerba mate over the past few weeks. That’s gained a lot of cultural relevance because a lot of South American footballers have been seen drinking Yerba mate, so people have been coming in wanting to drink Yerba mate as well, for the health benefits.
“Similarly trends with things like cold brewing, making teas with lemonades, have also become quite popular.”
Tea isn’t just taking off in Lincoln. The Tea Merchants mentioned the success of brands like Bird and Blend, whom they credit with popularising the mixing of tea and lemonade across the country.
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With rumours circulating of a Lincoln branch opening, Lincolnshire’s local tea suppliers are finding ways to stand out.
They say that Imperial Teas are known for their ‘single-origin’ teas, which are only produced within a single region, typically due to that region’s specific qualities.
“Like the Da Yu Ling 1.7-mile-high Oolong tea is quite a rare one, because the height- the altitude- of the plantation it’s grown on is rare, it’s just very small. It’s the same with some of our coffees, like the Galapagos Christobal Island coffee, which is also rare because the Galapagos Islands are just so small.”
Tea enthusiasts seek single-origin teas because even slight variations in the soil or elevation at which the tea is grown can influence its flavour. Tea drinkers with more specific tastes are willing to go the extra mile to find the same tea again and again.
“Imperial Teas retains its customers because we’re quite a specialist. We make a lot of rare teas that are quite hard to come by within the market. There are people who order from all over the world. Not quite as many tea shops sell single-origin teas. We have quite a lot of return customers. We had one come in 30 years ago, and he could still track one of the teas he had.”
But Imperial Teas aren’t the only ones making an effort to stand out in Lincoln, with local brands emphasizing their unique Lincolnshire pride.
Pamela Merryweather is one of the co-owners of Teaspoon Tea Co., based in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Pamella and her husband, Lance, used to run a brick-and-mortar location on Grantham’s High Street but decided to take the company digital in 2019.
Their signature tea is Grantham’s very own ‘Grantham Loose Leaf’ blend.
The ‘Grantham blend’ is made with Ginger, apricot, and pineapple as a homage to Grantham’s Gingerbread Heritage, owing to Hawkens’ gingerbread’, which boasts the oldest biscuit recipe in the world.
“Our hometown of Grantham is famous for many things, including the gingerbread biscuit, which was first baked here in 1740,” Pamela said.
“That’s why we went for a tea-based with Ginger; it reflected the town’s history.”
While Teaspoon Tea Co may have started as a tea room, Pamela says they’ve seen success with their popular Grantham tea blend.
“It’s up there with the more well-known blends of teas.” Said Pamela.
“There is quite a lot of ‘café culture’ in Lincolnshire. Even in the more rural villages, there’s always a tea room or a tea shop, so even when people are travelling round, there’s always somewhere to stop off.” She said.
Another company leaving its mark is the Lincoln Tea and Coffee Co. Like Teaspoon Tea Co, it offers its own local ‘Lincolnshire Tea’ blend, which it says is designed to take into account the region’s hard water taste.
Their website mentions the company sent their Lincolnshire blend to be sampled in the offices of Anglian Water, who supply water in the East of England:
“They reported back – We love the tea!”
From the Lincoln Cathedral branding to their RAF sponsoring, Lincoln Tea and Coffee Co are undoubtedly leaving their local mark in the Lincolnshire tea landscape.
Imperial Teas also offers unique Lincoln blends sporting an iconic ‘Lincoln Imp’ design. Some of their most popular blends are, Will and Ollie say, their ‘Love from Lincoln’ blend, which has proven successful, too.
Will and Ollie report that both their more specialist tea enthusiasts and their more standard regulars have been receptive to the companies’ efforts to promote more sustainable practices.
“Sustainability is definitely part of the company’s values. We use bio-degradable plastics for the internal packaging, but all of the boxes are bio-degradable, and we encourage the customers to return the boxes when they want to buy more of the same tea so that we can just take the bag out of an existing box and give it to the customer in their old box so that we don’t have to manufacture loads of boxes.”
Imperial Teas offers a 10-stamp scheme to incentivize its loyal tea enthusiasts to return with the same boxes, creating a more sustainable business model.
“We’ve seen a rise in the idea- among customers- that things shouldn’t be single-use only and that we should be making use of things when we can get more than one use out of it. For example, with our oolongs, we like to remind our customers that you can ‘steep’ an oolong multiple times, so that not only do they get the most out of their tea, but so that we can work together to reduce wastage”
With Lincoln Tea and Coffee Co’s teas also coming in a recycled tube, it’s clear that Lincolnshire’s tea drinkers are on board with and moving towards sustainability.
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However, sustainability isn’t the only benefit of these trending beverages, as Imperial Tea merchants Will and Ollie also discuss some of their health benefits.
They point to claims that drinking tea could increase energy levels, reduce stress, improve alertness, boost metabolism, lower blood pressure, stabilise blood sugar and much more.
Although, they acknowledge that current research is still working to verify these claims.
Whilst the tea itself can be made quite affordable, more enthusiastic tea drinkers can find themselves spending a lot of money pursuing that perfect taste.
With “thousands of accessories” on offer, Imperial Tea provides equipment for those interested in “the art of drinking tea”, as Tea Merchant Will put it.
“The tea-ware looks nice; it’s got a good, aesthetic quality to it.”
But Lincolnshire has started offering some unique teaware of its own. Just last year, one Heckington local went viral for her disability-friendly artisan mugs.
Nicola Swann spoke to The Linc in November about the success of her brand “Digni-TEA” on TikTok.
The mugs are made to fit the customer’s needs, with options for extra handles or flared bases available.
As with any trade relying on imported goods, circumstances overseas can prove challenging at times. Tea merchants Will and Ollie speak to the effects of these challenges:
“With import costs going up over the last couple of years, international affairs tend to affect the shop a lot. For example, we used to stock Yemeni coffee, but we can no longer get it out due to the war in Yemen.
“Everything from global politics to how the economy is internally, within England, affects our prices, but we always try to get that balance between affordability and what’s realistic.”
Lincoln’s climate doesn’t allow for large quantities of tea to be grown. In fact, only a small portion of the southernmost parts of England have the right climate to grow the industrial quantities of tea drunk by Brits every day, so most of Lincolnshire’s tea is sourced from overseas.
“I know a lot of tea stops off at Felixstowe; from there, it’s just a case of couriers delivering it to us. I think the UK is generally good at importing dry goods like tea. I know that some countries like Australia are stricter about the import of any ‘botanical goods’. So, importing tea to the UK isn’t too bad.”
It’s not just the Lincoln locals who are enjoying Lincolnshire’s tea. Local tea stores are finding that students coming to Lincoln to study at the universities are enjoying their fair share, too.
“I think everyone can like drinking tea if they find the right kind of tea and the right kind of preparation for them. Because we have lots of flavoured teas, and teas at different price ranges, I think there’s something for everybody here, whether you are a really dedicated specialist who wants to sample something from a really specific plantation, or whether you are just in here looking for a standard lapsang souchong or a Darjeeling.”
According to a recent report by Statista, the tea trade brings nearly £660 million to the UK, and it’s only expected to grow over the next few years, as Brits reportedly drink around 165 million cups of tea every day.
With interest in speciality teas growing, Lincolnshire finds itself with an abundance of tea rooms.
Founded in 1902, Stokes operates out of a tearoom on High Bridge in the heart of Lincoln’s High Street. One of Stoke’s premier locations is the 12th-century house on the medieval bridge above the River Witham, a building as historic as the Norman House that Imperial Teas is based on.
Though Stokes places much more of its emphasis on Coffee, it also offers a selection of speciality teas.
The traditional setting of many of Lincoln’s tea rooms, like Stokes and Bunty’s Tea Rooms at the top of Steep Hill, provides tea drinkers with an experience steeped in history and heritage.
But tea merchants Will and Ollie speak to the popularity of the other ‘brew’ on offer, Coffee, in Lincoln:
“Coffee is very popular in Lincoln; there are lots of little coffee shops all over. There is an undercurrent of tea, but coffee more so. Coffee is really, really big in Lincoln at the moment. There are so many independent roasters.”
Coffee drinkers find themselves spoiled for choice in Lincoln, as local chain Stokes boasts “the world’s most eco-friendly roasting system,” the drive for a sustainable brew bridges the gap between tea and coffee drinkers alike.
But in a county already proud of its extensive food offerings to the rest of the country, perhaps the one thing uniting Lincolnshire’s biggest tea and coffee rooms is their personal approach as family-run businesses.
“Customer loyalty is a big part of how family businesses like Imperial Teas are able to thrive and build a following. Making sure that people are still able to come back is really important.” Said Tea Merchants Will and Ollie.
Imperial Teas, Stokes, Teaspoon Tea Co, Bunty’s Tea Room and Lincoln Tea and Coffee Co. are all family-run businesses at their core.
Lincolnshire enjoys a unique collection of thriving independent businesses, each bringing something unique to the tea industry in the county. Steeped in history and local pride, an exploration of Lincolnshire’s tea scene is an exploration of Lincolnshire’s heritage.