Tea-cycling tips to celebrate Bristol’s Big Green Week

On Saturday the 9th Lahloo Pantry will be on Corn Street for Bristol’s Big Green Week. All around St. Nicholas’ Market you’ll find the most inspiring and exciting independent businesses from the South West! There’ll be plenty of things to do, so come and say hello to the Pantry team if you’re around.

To celebrate Bristol’s Big Green week here are our favourite tea-cycling tips! 

1. Loose tea is greener: 

Brits consume 165 million cups of tea every day, according to The Guardian. Although teabags can be composted, some of them are partly made of a nasty-sounding material called polypropylene, which isn’t fully bio-degradable. Some teabags have staples that aren’t bio-degradable or environmentally-friendly either.

Drinking loose tea generates less waste, plus you can reinfuse your leaves up to 6 or 7 times depending on the type of tea! (Check our website if in doubt!). Each reinfusion will taste diferently to the previous one, and observing the subtle changes is a wonderful way of exploring tea.

2. Reinvent your old China:

- Use old cups and saucers to plant fresh culinary herbs and put them on your windowsill. Basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano or sage are always essential!

-Use teacups and saucers as a centrepiece, to display fresh flowers. They create a unique, vintage and very British touch.

Flowers in teacups by Flowers for Eddie at Lahloo Pantry

3. Re-imagine your old tea tins: 

 Use old tea tins to make candles, as planters or to display your flowers.

More display ideas by Flowers for Eddie 

A Tea Workshop for chocoholics

If you’re crazy about chocolate, you can’t miss our next Tea Workshop on Thursday the 26th of April! The food of the gods has been the inspiring force behind this month’s selection. Discover which tea enhances the flavour of dark chocolate, which has notes of cocoa nibs or which is perfect to use as an ingredient in a chocolate tart.

Founder Kate will guide you during the tea tasting, showing you the story behind our teas, their health benefits and how to pair them with food.

As usual, tickets are £15 but they’re 100% redeemable, so at the end of the workshop you’ll be able to choose your favourites and take them home to recreate the experience!

To book your place, call Lahloo Pantry on 0117 329 2029 or e-mail hello@lahloopantry.co.uk.

Sssh…here’s a sneak preview of our new store frontage!

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

Ssshh…Lahloo news

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)

Grafik Mag | Runway Route

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.

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Hot gossip: Lahloo tea will be at Glasto this year!

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

Lahloo Tea: real tea for real people ♥

This is me as a little girl. I’ve always loved nice things to eat and drink – especially jam on toast! In those days, tea wasn’t my thing like it is now! But people were. I have always been a real extrovert – I love people!  So, one of the things I love most about running my own business, Lahloo Tea, is meeting really interesting people.

With all the things we get involved in with Lahloo Tea throughout the year, we meet some wonderful people and make really great friends. It also means I get to do what I love most – talk about (and I can talk for England) truly fabulous tea! We even meet interesting folk on the 5th floor of our hub – this window cleaner recently dropped in for a cuppa. Real tea for real people!

At food festivals like Abergavenny, Dartmouth and The Real Food Festival the highlight for me is meeting gourmet-loving foodies, fellow food and drink producers, chefs and restaurateurs and retail buyers. And with a simple cup of tea, I can open their eyes up to this gourmet epiphany that is just waiting to be unearthed.

Not only is it great fun meeting people, it’s also fun to taste wonderful things (and take home swapsies)! My fav’s have been Orchard Pig, Pieminister, Rude Health, Yeo Valley and Hobbs House and Trethowan’s Dairy Gorwydd Caerphilly!

I’ve also enjoyed (and look forward to working with) other passionate producers to create something really unique.  Working with the Willy Wonka-like Damian Allsop to create our sensational tea chocolates was so much fun – not to mention tasty! And we love our bite-sized shortbread treats from Hart’s Bakery.

But one of the most interesting parts is meeting those people who take the plunge and choose to help me challenge people’s views on serving loose leaf tea. They’ve chosen to upgrade their tea offering by serving and/or retailing Lahloo Tea. Not only do I get to meet brilliantly talented chefs, like The Walnut Tree’s Shaun Hill (he is a great character and a real advocate of Lahloo Tea), The Seahorse and Rockfish Grill chef-owner Mitch Tonks and Gordon Ramsey’s Best Restaurant winners 2011 Jonray and Pete Sanchez, I also meet inspirational, fun entrepreneurs like James Layfield and Steve Pette at Central Working.

Thank you so much to all of you who have helped me spread the word that Lahloo Tea really is real tea for real people ♥! Long may we continue!

We challenge you, Britain! Drink loose tea everyday (not just when the Queen’s invited for tea)!

Here at Lahloo this spring, we’ve been challenging you and you’ve been great tea ‘guinea’ pigs. Take a look at some of the other challenges and how you got on: challenge no. 1 and challenge no. 2.

Now it’s that time again! We’re challenging you for one last time. Are you ready to give a new twist to an old favourite tea habit?

Think of loose leaf tea – what springs to mind? Don’t tell me, Lahloo! Of course! Now, joking aside, do you think of it as tea for ‘special occasions’? Posh tea? Something to drink in your twin sets and pearls (that includes all our male fans too)? Feel you need to get out Granny’s bone china and feel guilty at the idea of drinking it from your favourite mug?

Well…..there’s always a time and a place but we say unless you’re hosting a ‘Royal Wedding Will & Kate’ celebration street tea party, put away the delicate tea cups (although they are lovely), relax those pinkies and put those doilies away! Forget pomp and ceremony and learn to enjoy tea as it should be. This is what Lahloo is all about!

Simply put, we’re challenging you to enjoy our sensational tea as an everyday indulgence. We need volunteers who have decided loose tea is for Sundays,birthdays and special occasions only! We want volunteers who want to embrace the Lahloo way. We want you to develop your own way to enjoy our tea, your own routine and to discover Lahloo tea in your own way. You can even use your favourite old mug if you like!

If you’d like to take part, email Vicky here ➨

Old Tea Favourite: New Tea Twist. Challenge No. 2 Results

Old Tea Favourite: New Tea Twist. Did we manage to coax our volunteers out of their ‘tea-rut’?

Can they now confidently navigate their way through the exciting world of tea? Are they embracing change? Are they crying out for more delicious and new teas to discover?

You’ve guessed it! Of course they were! Read about our volunteers’ experiences here…

A) Georgia:

Self Confessed:  Breakfast tea and occasional herbal tea to make me feel virtuous! (usually when ‘over indulged’ aka: hung over!!)

Pre-Challenge: I drink loose leaf, but I mainly stick with the familiar as I have a ‘fear of failure’ which puts me off experimenting. I find temperature/infusion times a little daunting.

Experience: A lovely tea tasting experiment, thank you! Will definitely continue drinking the Dragon Pearls. I loved the tea…….mmmmmmmmmmmmm! Found the pearls ‘delicate and more-ish’ (didn’t know ‘posh’ tea could be). I could drink gallons of the stuff!

Also, I thought the English Peppermint was ‘Yowzah’! with a great minty taste and aroma. I like! I will continue with the English Peppermint.

☺

B) Ian:

Self Confessed: Have been drinking tea most of my life, and being of Yorkshire origin a ‘good brew’ is like my bread and butter (of which I have none being a vegan).

Pre-Challenge: Mixture of bagged teas-herbal/fruit and loose peppermint, fennel, rooibosh and chamomile.

Experience: The Lahloo Japanese green tea was a welcome change! Re-use the leaves several times and it tastes very natural/organic with a deep, fresh ‘after-taste’.  The spinach of the tea world – and I love spinach!

Confession: I had a Twinning’s green tea (which I had previously) but wasn’t impressed with the “staleness” compared to your green tea.

Good hint: Make sure you use the correct temperature of water, around 70C (cooled for 3 mins after boiling) for green tea rather than 20 seconds of tea bag dunking!!!

☺

C) Dan:

Pre-Challenge: An ex ‘coffee caffeine head’ who has turned to the green and herbal tea world to keep me on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, I’ve not found anything that gives me the kick I need to keep me going and give me focus. Nothing quite gets me in the zone. I miss the ‘buzz’ of coffee caffeine to get my head ‘wide awake’ but I don’t like the edgy feeling it give me physically. The caffeine jitters!

Experience: I tried Guricha green tea. It’s perfect. Tastes MAZERS! Perfect for mentally getting him going but physically keeping him nice and chilled. Really good balance of flavour. I love the taste. It reminds me of spring and freshly mown lawns. It’s lovely with a smooth, creamy texture and a calming, grounding effect. It made me want to do yoga”.

☺

D) Emily

Pre-Challenge: I’m not normally that adventurous when it comes to tea. When it comes to loose leaf tea, I’m even more unimaginative. I normally choose plain black or green tea, or add fresh mint leaves to boiling water.

Experience: When I make myself a cup of tea, it’s because I want something refreshing to drink – I’m not a big fan of plain water! Lahloo’s Orchid oolong loose leaf tea definitely hit the spot in this respect. It’s an amazingly fragrant, floral tea – but not overpowering, with a natural sweetness that I’m not used to from the teas that I normally drink.

Result: The tea won a gold Great Taste Award in 2010, and it’s easy to see why – it’s not only delicious and refreshing, but looks stunning too…now I just need to decide which one to try next!

☺

Watch out for the next opportunity to get involved in one of tea challenges…

Lahloo launches at the South West’s Chandos Delis

Here at Lahloo we have been celebrating! We are absolutely delighted to be supplying one of, not only our favourite but also, the South West’s favourite specialist food retailers Chandos Deli.

Most Saturday’s you’ll spot Kate popping in to Chandos on her way back from her morning run across Ashton Court for the ingredients to make her favourite weekend brunch – boiled eggs and toast and marmalade! Leaving Chandos with her arms full – a loaf of real bread, either Hobbs House Sherston loaf or Richard Bertinet’s delicious sourdough, local salted butter, free-range eggs and marmalade – and stopping to pick up the FT, Kate  finally makes her way home!

Not long after, Kate and partner Neil fight over the foodie pages by Jancis Robinson and Nick Lander, slurp  pots of nice strong breakfast tea, dunk toast soldiers into their runny eggs and hum along to BBC radio 6. Only then is Kate one very happy bunny!

Chandos’ deli was first set up in 1992 on Chandos Road in Bristol (hence the name). After humble beginnings, they went from strength to strength. The quality of their produce and exciting range (without forgetting their friendly and knowledgeable staff) meant that their business was an overnight success.

Chandos is a top spot for food lovers in Bristol (Whiteladies Road, Clifton Village, Henleaze and Quakers Friars), Bath and Exeter. So, when the opportunity arose we jumped at the chance to work alongside Iain and his passionate team, confident they would showcase Lahloo tea’s in all its glory and do us proud!

It’s easy to see why it’s gone from strength to strength, and become one of the South West’s favourites. Great food, pure & simple: their concept is very simple!  And it goes hand in hand with Lahloo’s. Iain’s passion and dedication to sourcing exciting/authentic produce is why he has chosen to stock Lahloo. Like Lahloo, Chandos is an independent, vibrant company that prides itself on its attention to detail and customer service. So, it would seem like the obvious partnership and a match made in foodie heaven!

So, this weekend why not head on down to your local Chandos?  Check out what’s going on, pick up some of your favourite ingredients for a lazy Sunday brunch and (it goes without saying) don’t forget to do them justice by picking up the perfect accompaniment to all that delicious food; Lahloo tea – real tea for real people!