At the end of last year, I had a lovely visit from Jess Salter, a journalist for The Telegraph. Over afternoon tea and a pot or three of Mr Shao’s green tea we nattered about all kinds of things: growing up – unknowingly down the road from each other – in Yorkshire, tea, business, my love of flavour and aroma and more! And it was fantastic to read Jess’ article recently featured in The Telegraph’s weekend magazine regular Word of Mouth feature. Read more here >>>
Kate Gover: tea hunter
I hope you new year has got off to a cracking start! I love starting the year by reflecting on the last.
2012 was fun-filled and jam-packed to say the least! As a business, we grew by more than a whopping 200%! It was a year of fun, a little stress, not a lot of sleep, steep learning curves and quick thinking! This didn’t give me much time to enjoy some of the things I used to have plenty of time to do – traveling, tasting, discovering, relaxing!
But after a relaxing, friends and family filled Christmas break, I have enjoyed a lovely steady, slow paced venture back into the world of tea and fuelled by pots of nutty buckwheat tea Sobacha, as part of Lahloo’s herbal therapy month, I have been planning for what is going to be an exciting year ahead!
With a brilliant team helping me at both Lahloo Tea and at our tea store, Lahloo Pantry, I’m taking advantage of some space to rediscover those things that make me tick. And I’m starting with an exciting trip to southern Sri Lanka.
I’ve been flicking through my go-to (and fellow South West company) travel companion, i-escapes, for tips and I can’t wait! I’m so looking forward to the colours – the turquoise sea, blue sky, green tea hills, golden beaches, vibrant food markets and saris – the people, their culture, the tastes and the aromas! A feast for the senses!
The people (courtesy of http://www.i-escape.com/sri-lanka)
The tea (courtesy of http://www.i-escape.com/sri-lanka)
The culture (http://www.i-escape.com/sri-lanka)
Not only will I experience Sri Lanka’s gems, I will be visiting the garden who make our’s and Tom Herbert’s favourite cinnamon-smoked version of lapsang souchong tea – Smoky – and other amazing artisans to hunt out new herbal infusions and maybe another tea to bring back.
Now, that’s what I call a cracking start to 2013, here’s to more to come! What about you, I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to this year?
Kate
Unbelievably, it’s just under 3 weeks to go until we open the doors to our very unique tea rooms and store In Clifton Village, Bristol. Here’s our first image of what our store front will look like. It’s great to see Kate’s dreams coming to life. There’s still a lot to do but the builders assure Kate that they are right on track for us to open on Friday 7th October!
Very very exciting indeed!
PS don’t forget to enter our WIN TEA FOR A YEAR COMPETITION HERE
Hello!
So do you like our new logo? I hope you’re well and that you enjoyed a lovely summer. I’d like to thank you for your continued support of Lahloo Tea and for really getting behind what I have been trying to achieve. It makes a real difference to us to have such wonderfully supportive customers.
We’ve had a busy summer working on some very exciting developments here at Lahloo. This is your sneak preview of everything we’ve been beavering away on over the summer! Lucky people!
I remember September as a little girl. Lots of excitement because I got to choose new shoes (every girls dream)! Well, this September I feel strangely similar. But instead of new shoes for me, this year it’s a new look, fresh feel and even a new home for Lahloo!
This is 12 Kings Road, Clifton, Bristol - Lahloo’s new home. From the beginning of October (if those builders get cracking) we will be moving from our base in central Bristol to our first Lahloo concept tea store in Bristol’s beautiful Clifton village. The Lahloo Pantry is a huge, and very exciting, step for us and one I see as a real opportunity to bring the true artisanal side of Lahloo to life.
We have some really exciting new teas, producers and tea ware coming your way. This is one of our new producers – the oldest tea farmer in the world – 111 year old Arthur Njuguna Komo! If the tea is behind his youthful looks, I’m making it my daily cuppa!
Just think of us as the same old Lahloo just a little bit better! It’s like starting a new school; so exciting but also a little bit scary! I hope that you will follow our progress here and like the results of our labour when we’re done!
Thanks again and keep drinking Lahloo Tea,
Kate x x (Lahloo founder)
That got your attention! Well, we are recruiting. Come and join the good ship Lahloo!
As you may have seen in our latest blogs, newsletters and tweets, we are opening our very first tea store here in Bristol in October this year (2011). The Lahloo Pantry is a huge but very exciting step for us. And to help us make it a roaring success we are looking for fabulous people with a love of food retail and hospitality and a real understanding of exceptional customer service to join us.
If that’s you, email Kate by September 19th and tell her why you would like to join the team. Tell her what experience you have and also what you think you could bring to the team. We like to have fun and of course drink lots of tea but most of all we love sharing our infectious passion for amazing tea with everyone out there.
We have different positions available, both full-time and part-time, and in all sorts of areas. So if you think you’d make a cracking store manager, supervisor or indeed the best infusionist in the land (well, we don’t need baristas we do need people who will learn how to serve the finest cup of tea in Bristol), then please don’t delay.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
It’s no joke when we say we were literally inundated with responses to our recent ad for a new TEAm member. We’ve got to say there were some great candidates around and it was a very tough decision to make but Ben’s positive, fun attitude and enthusiasm really shone through. He’s only been here a short while but we know 100% we made a great decision by snapping Ben up and can’t wait to see how he develops and takes his role. Quite simply, he rocks!
When we first met him Ben, he was honest and admitted his usual tipple was builders tea and only ever the teabag variety but loved the sound of Lahloo as a company and couldn’t wait to try all the different teas we had to offer! To work for Lahloo it’s important to be passionate about our teas but most importantly to be open-minded and keen to discover the joy of good quality loose leaf tea!
Ben summed up his first few weeks for us;
” My favourites are Earl Grey (I can see why it won Great Taste Awards this year and last) and Guri-cha. Also, the Matcha totally rocks!!! It’s a super tea packed full of amazing antioxidants and it really keeps me going! It’s a pleasure to be surrounded by such tasty teas and knowing how much care has gone into producing them. I trust Lahloo as a company and this is really important to me. I never realised just how much better Lahloo tea could be than my old teabags, but you just can’t compare them! I’ve even converted my family, girlfriend and my best mate-and that’s after a couple of weeks! It’s easy to see why Kate and the team are so passionate about their teas. I can’t wait to find out more…..”
We are really proud to be serving the tea to go with biscuits from the Biscuiteers and juices from top juice mixologists Juiceology at Amelia Gregory’s wonderful #ACOFI Book Tour.
Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration *featuring the very best in ethical fashion design* was published at the end of 2010, and is the second publication from Amelia’s House, the book publishing wing of Amelia’s Magazine. It is a showcase for the work of thirty up and coming fashion illustrators who have interpreted the work of 45 exciting new ethical fashion designers, as well as plenty of good independent design that was first featured online at Amelia’s Magazine.
Find out more here: Grafik Mag | Runway Route.
Yes, you read that right! Lahloo Tea is going to be available at this years’ Glastonbury Festival! And we are uber excited!
More details to follow but in a nutshell, in our bid to make sure that everyone knows that Lahloo Tea is real tea for real people we jumped at the chance of serving festival goers cups and cups of delicious Lahloo Tea. As part of a Bristol conglomerate trading under the umbrella of EAT BRISTOL, we will bring all of you a welcome relief from the usual murky insipid cuppa available!
Check out our progress here on this blog under the tags, Glastonbury and Eat Bristol, or here @eatbristol
