Tea allows me to travel via slow sips of exotic blends that conjure images of foreign lands and cultures. Beyond the steep, I often find that I can take a journey through the words of tea enthusiasts, such as Kate Gover of Lahloo Tea located in Bristol, UK. After exchanging emails with Kate a few months ago, she agreed to answer some questions about her love of tea and the story behind Lahloo. I’m thrilled to share her words and beautiful images with you.
(p.s. I’ll be posting reviews of teas from Lahloo very soon!)
What are your top 5 favorite pieces of teaware?
Ooh a tough question, they are all so gorgeous! If I really have to choose then I would say my absolute favourite is the beautiful and skilful flower tea bowl. I love my teabowl especially with lovely frothy Matsukaze Matcha in it for breakfast! After that I’d always choose my Little Jade Teapot with a bamboo especially for a lovely Darjeeling Second Flush. Finally, the chatjans. My favourites are – Terracotta Travel Set, Six Cranes and Red Dot Peony. All fantastically simple to use to make loose leaf tea. Tactile, comforting and stunning to look a; they add a little ceremony to your tea drinking.
What are your top 5 favorite teas at the moment?
I am loving these teas at the moment: Wazuka Sencha, Mr Aoki and the delicious and very unusual Sobacha (roasted buckwheat ‘tea’). I am also drinking an awful lot of Mr Chun’s Grasshopper oolong – a buttery, floral high mountain oolong from Ren-Ai. Although not strictly a tea I have just launched fruity, sweet White Mulberry which is highly addictive. Here’s a little more about each one:
· WAZUKA SENCHA Beautiful deep jade-green leaf full of fresh, grassy aroma and bitter-sweet taste. Grown in full sunlight in row upon row of luscious tea trees in the Wazuka Hills, Uji, it has beautifully balanced flavours. This is thanks to the special care and attention, from harvest to delivery, of Hidekazu and the steaming rather than pan frying of the tea leaf.
· MR AOKI Robust and satisfying, naturally sweet and uplifting. Mr Aoki and his son, Tak, grow their ‘labour of love’ on a tiny tea farm in the beautiful Southern Japanese island of Kyushu, the coastal region of Oita. A genuine farmer’s tea, Mr Aoki’s steamed green tea or sencha is grown using their own natural fertilizers among mikan (small Satsumas) trees.
· SOBACHA Rich golden brown roasted nibs with a sweet, nutty taste. Unusual but very popular ‘tea’ from the Japanese Alps. It is naturally caffeine-free and high in B vitamins and ‘rutin’, a natural anti-oxidant that aids circulation and lowers blood pressure.
· GRASSHOPPER Imagine a bouquet of your favourite flowers! Pure elegance in a cup! Mr Chun’s deliciously buttery, high mountain oolong tea is farmed entirely organically in Ren-ai, Nantou County in Taiwan. When Tim went to see Mr Chun’s farm he was so amazed by the thousands of grasshoppers hopping about all over the tea trees that he named this oolong tea after the little critters!
· WHITE MULBERRY Silk worms love the anti-oxidant rich leaves of the white mulberry bush - maybe it’s the irresistible sweet, earthy fruitiness! In North Eastern Thailand a small group of ladies grow beautifully aromatic White Mulberry, or Morus Alba. They nurture the bushes without the use of any chemicals and then, using a method similar to producing green tea, turn the long, waxy leaves into this delicious naturally caffeine-free tea.
What inspired you and your husband to launch Lahloo 3 years ago?
Our shared passion for food and travel has fuelled a long held ambition to put both at the heart of what we do professionally. We felt baffled by the lack of knowledge and awareness when it comes to the nation’s favourite drink; tea. As a nation the UK drinks over 165 million cups every day but despite our relationship with tea, it seems that we were only experiencing the very tip of a fantastic epicurean iceberg! Embracing our love and enthusiasm for tea, we started to formulate a plan for our own tea business in 2005. We embarked on a journey of discovery.
We researched everything we could about the very best tea, where it was produced, who produced it and the history behind its production. Despite the UK’s long relationship with tea, it became clear that to experience truly great tea beyond fancy food halls such at Fortnum & Mason, you had to visit Europe. We did just that, visiting teahouses and boutiques across Europe sampling tea and speaking with tea enthusiasts. She drank very bad but expensive tea in teahouses which should have known better and truly great tea in places you wouldn’t expect to find it. Inspired by what we found, we launched Lahloo.
Lahloo is named after the 19th century tea clipper my great-great grandfather sailed on. In the 1800’s the demand by fashionable Londoners for the earliest spring crop tea created massive competition. The first ‘clipper’ that sailed into London would be met by an almost carnival atmosphere in the docks with its cargo of tea reaching the highest price. Built in 1867, the Lahloo was one of the most famous tea clippers of the 19th century. So-called because of the way they “clipped” miles, clippers were built for speed and raced to bring tea from China to London. Having grown up around dockside in London, my great-great grandfather George Hockaday was drawn into a career as a sailor and he worked on the Lahloo as she joined the clipper races.
The concept for Lahloo has been born out of the knowledge and passion gathered over a decade of research, travelling, sampling, smelling and tasting. This journey of discovery will continue for us. Our ultimate ambition is to open Lahloo tea bar & boutique offering the Lahloo experience: the very best artisan loose-leaf teas from around the world, served with the ceremony deserving of the world’s finest teas. We hope to encourage others to discover delicious artisan tea through Lahloo’s rare and unique collection of loose-leaf teas.
Considering that you visited several tea houses across Europe, can you mention a few of your favorites?
My first memory is years ago, I discovered Le Palais des Thes (http://www.palaisdesthes.com/en/) in Brussels and was amazed by the sheer quantity of different teas. For the pure feeling of travelling back in time, drinking tea and people watching, the Mariage Freres (http://www.mariagefreres.com) in Paris are a wonderful experience. One of my all time tea experience was the matcha ceremony at Toraya (http://www.toraya-group.co.jp/paris/salon/index.html). And last but not least, for the beauty of the design of the shop and the calming experience my all time favourite tea shop to hunt out if I’m in Paris is La Maison des Trois Thes (http://www.troisthes.com/). I could go on and on but apart from the tiniest tea shop of all, Kusmi Tea in Pairs (http://www.kusmitea.com/fr/), I will stop!
How long did it take you to find tea importers, Alex Fraser and Tim d’Offray?
It was through my own tea discovery and consumption really. I did lots of research to try and import directly myself but realised it would take years and years. Alex runs east teas and his teas blew me away so once I realised I wanted to work with a trusted importer I asked him if I could buy teas from him wholesale and brand them under the Lahloo name. east teas specialize in teas from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China so I went to their co-founder, Tim, who had set up a sister company Postcard Teas to be able to also offer fabulous Indian teas too. They have amazing teas and a real passion for the people behind them I have learned so much and I’m still learning so much from them!
Beyond your White Chocolate and Matsukaze Matcha Green Tea Truffles, in what other ways do enjoy incorporate tea with your food?
Matcha blended with coarse seasalt is great on poached eggs, green tea infused vodka martinis, oolong mojitos, Earl Grey granita, amazing Lapsang chocolate truffles, oolong poached prawns, the list goes on and on…
Tags: bristol · kate gover · lahloo tea · lapsang · matcha · oolong · tea · tea recipes · tea truffles · teaspoons & petals · teaware
