Rare Tea Co.
I discovered early on, that my power as a designer of tea ware is limited, when it comes to designing the tea experience. The single most important variable when it comes to making a perfect cup of tea is beyond my reach: the tea itself. I must trust the end user to use the best tea available to him or her. A tea set can be incredibly nice, but if the tea is of inferior quality, it will not make tea much better.
I therefore embarked on the quest to find the best tea available to me. I stumbled upon a company called Rare Tea Co. In my opinion, probably the best source of tea in London (if not the UK, if not Europe, if not the entire world). A description from the website reads:
"Rare Tea Company is small, independent company based in London. The company was founded in 2004, by Henrietta Lovell (known as the Tea-Lady) to source and supply the world's best tea - direct from farmers and their tea gardens. From humble beginnings with just a handful of devoted customers, we now collaborate with many of the world finest chefs. [...] Real relationships, both with the farms and our customers, are essential to Rare Tea. This is what we believe defines Direct Trade. We focus on quality, sampling the finest and only selecting the best. Our range is small but carefully chosen. We travel the world to seek out tea-gardens and farmers crafting the most delicious leaves we can find. We are extremely lucky and proud to work with unique farms producing extraordinary tea. Some of our tea is very rare, with only a few kilos produced each year. Others can be grown on a larger scale. All of our tea is crafted by skilled men and women on independent farms, not industrially processed by large agri-businesses. We buy harvests from farmers, not a commodity from brokers."
The company is devoted to sourcing the highest quality directly, and fairly from farmers round the world. Rare Tea Co sells loose tea leaves of the highest quality. The leaves can be used for several infusion, whilst each brew releases different subtleties of the tea’s flavor. Rare Tea Co’s supplies tea to various restaurants and cafés, but also sells tea to private people via online retailing and outlets through Waitrose and Selfrdiges.
I was really lucky to be able to meet up with Rare Tea Co's founder and chairwoman Henrietta Lovell. She gave me time and freedom to experiment and look around in her tea kichen. Finally we agreed to work together and collaborate on this project. Hence, I was given the following design brief.
I therefore embarked on the quest to find the best tea available to me. I stumbled upon a company called Rare Tea Co. In my opinion, probably the best source of tea in London (if not the UK, if not Europe, if not the entire world). A description from the website reads:
"Rare Tea Company is small, independent company based in London. The company was founded in 2004, by Henrietta Lovell (known as the Tea-Lady) to source and supply the world's best tea - direct from farmers and their tea gardens. From humble beginnings with just a handful of devoted customers, we now collaborate with many of the world finest chefs. [...] Real relationships, both with the farms and our customers, are essential to Rare Tea. This is what we believe defines Direct Trade. We focus on quality, sampling the finest and only selecting the best. Our range is small but carefully chosen. We travel the world to seek out tea-gardens and farmers crafting the most delicious leaves we can find. We are extremely lucky and proud to work with unique farms producing extraordinary tea. Some of our tea is very rare, with only a few kilos produced each year. Others can be grown on a larger scale. All of our tea is crafted by skilled men and women on independent farms, not industrially processed by large agri-businesses. We buy harvests from farmers, not a commodity from brokers."
The company is devoted to sourcing the highest quality directly, and fairly from farmers round the world. Rare Tea Co sells loose tea leaves of the highest quality. The leaves can be used for several infusion, whilst each brew releases different subtleties of the tea’s flavor. Rare Tea Co’s supplies tea to various restaurants and cafés, but also sells tea to private people via online retailing and outlets through Waitrose and Selfrdiges.
I was really lucky to be able to meet up with Rare Tea Co's founder and chairwoman Henrietta Lovell. She gave me time and freedom to experiment and look around in her tea kichen. Finally we agreed to work together and collaborate on this project. Hence, I was given the following design brief.
- The teapot should be designed for one person as most people today consume tea individually, both privately and in restaurants and cafés.
- The teapot should have a classic, "British" look in order for it to be marketable for UK customers and restaurants.
- The teapot should be optimised for brewing Rare Tea Co tea (loose tea leaves).