Over the weekend we sold out of yet another tea. Admittedly our stocks levels now somewhat resemble the shelves of a Soviet era supermarket so, I thought I should perhaps explain why our online tea shop seems to have so little tea!

The most honest would be that we're a small company that's growing rapidly. This will be our third springtime harvest and by now we have a far better idea of what our customers like, what sells, and how much we should order.

There are certain teas though, like our bestselling Silver Needle White Tea, which it would appear no matter how much we can buy, we sell. We sold out of this a couple of months ago and I frequently receive enquires as to when we're getting more back in stock. It's always possible to buy more tea however, I pride myself on the fact that our teas taste fantastic, and that I only buy our silver needle from one source (because it’s the best).

When it comes to young teas - which are at their finest when drunk fresh - rather than buying 10 month old stock I've always felt it better to hold off and wait for the new harvest. To me this seems preferable to buying teas that I know are likely to be improved upon in a couple of months time. The reviews, feedback and word of mouth endorsements we receive also seem to suggest that others think this is worth doing too.

It's around now that the springtime harvests take place. Already many new Indian teas have become available however, the majority of the tea we sell comes from China and Taiwan. This year, due to adverse weather conditions, many of these harvests have been delayed. Additionally heavy frosts have damaged many of the high mountain Chinese green teas that we buy, such as our Huang Shan Mao Feng. This will result in a smaller harvest and the price of these teas will rise. We deal with smaller farmers and family run suppliers so are happy to pay more to support them however, this will be a tough year for many farmers in China. Who knows how many may move on to more stable and profitable crops next year*?

Despite these delays I have started sampling some of the first of the new teas and this process will continue over the next month or so. This is without a doubt one the best part of what I do! The reality of my job is I spend a lot of time writing emails or on Skype with various people around the world (while drinking tea obviously).

I hope by early May we'll start to receive our first new harvest orders and get these on to the site, which should roughly coincide with the launch of our awesome new website!

James

*This is a real problem however, I’ll save that for another blog!

Tags: New Teas, New Harvest

As a small company, passionate about the teas we sell, we've always tried to be open and honest with our customers. If someone takes the time to write to us, we will always reply, even when that means recommending a competitor or explaining that white tea really does contain a lot of caffeine! (So, if you’ve been told to avoid caffeine, this really won’t help!)

Additionally, whenever we make major changes to the service we offer I am always happy to talk about the rational behind the decisions that we've taken.

Despite significant rises last year the Royal Mail today has once again raised the price of postage within the UK; increasing the cost of almost everything we post as a business. These price rises have brought with them a whole host of new dimensional restrictions that have also affected how we post our tea.

I have always tried to keep our postage as low as possible. We have never profited from our postage and packaging - even on international deliveries. Our offering free delivery on orders over £25 was also as competitive, if not better, than the majority of other loose leaf tea suppliers here in the UK.

Since these rises were announced a month or so ago we've looked at how these would affect driftwood tea. Fortunately - this year anyway - we seem to have escaped the worst of these rises. By replacing many of the tea boxes we use to send out small and medium orders - so that these can be sent as small parcels - we can avoid the worst of these new price increases.

I know from your feedback that you, like us, hate waiting for things (especially tea). We also know you have always appreciated that the majority of our orders are posted on the same day they're made - and received the following. Rather than switching to Second Class delivery, or a 48 Hour Courier service, we wish to continue using Royal Mail's First Class delivery.

Initially at least we've decided to retain our current UK P&P rate of £1.95 however, to cover the increase in postage we've decided to increase the free delivery threshold from £25 to £30. We think this is a fair compromise as it affects the least number of our customers, and none disproportionately. We also believe our postage remains competitive even in comparison to two very large online tea shops!

We hope to begin receiving the new harvest tea in the not too distant future so will look at how this change is working out and perhaps things may need to be altered again. We hope not though!

I know that any price rises are never welcome, and while we now expect year-on-year rises from the Royal Mail, their new size restrictions were somewhat surprising. They do seem to hit many small and medium online businesses the hardest though we're happy though that it seems we’re able to continue without having to make too many compromises.

James

Tags: Postage, Online Tea Shop

*The quick answer is none if you don't feel like reading the rest of this post!

This blog is a response to a question we were asked on Facebook however, despite my best efforts to keep my reply short, I ended up writing far too much (too much for Facebook anyway). Being an interesting topic, and one that we're asked frequently about, I though I would write a fuller answer here.

Caffeine in tea is a slightly complicated issue with a lot of conflicting information available online (much of which is based on speculation or research of dubious origin). This post however is a simple, non-scientific, response based upon what I've read, discovered for myself, or from discussions with experts over the course of my career.

All 'real tea' - anything derived from the Camellia Sinensis plant, as opposed to herbal infusions or tisanes - that have not undergone any major treatments, will contain caffeine. Therefore, everything we sell at driftwood tea should be considered to be caffeinated.

The Camellia Sinensis plant however also contains one of the highest natural sources of the amino acid, L-Theanine. Theanine, in combination with caffeine, promotes a sense of relaxation in humans as opposed to the strong jolt of caffeine one might expect from drinking a cup of strong coffee.

It's the presence of Theanine that means in moments of shock or distress, in Britain anyway, you are more likely to be offered a relaxing cup of tea as opposed to a shot of espresso!

So, while all tea is caffeinated if you are not overtly sensitive to caffeine, it can provide a relaxing drink which many can consume later at night without potentially upsetting sleeping patterns.

There are certain teas I personally find more relaxing than others. I regularly drink oolong at night without any detrimental effects to my sleep (especially if I'm using older leaves that I may have infused a couple of times earlier in the day).

Our Organic GABA Oolong from Taiwan and our Organic Ruby Oolong from Thailand (another GABA tea) are perhaps some of our most relaxing. There is evidence which shows that GABA Oolong may decrease anxiety while promoting a mindful state of relaxation due to its naturally elevated levels of Gamma Aminobutyric Acid along with Theanine.

While it is possible to buy decaffeinated teas, decaffeination generally takes place by soaking the leaves in some form of alcohol. While this leaches away most of the caffeine, it will also remove most of the flavour and benefits that would otherwise be found. For me this seems to defeat the purpose. Additionally I have never found, or been offered, a decaffeinated tea from any of the artisan producers or farmers we buy from.

We are frequently asked if Silver Needle White Tea contains low levels of caffeine? This seems to be a fairly common belief and one that is perpetuated by even the biggest tea manufacturers who have products in supermarkets here in the UK.

Most experts now agree that this is not the case.

Silver Needle, being the youngest of all teas, perhaps contains the most highly concentrated levels of caffeine however, this rise in caffeine is somewhat offset by an increased concentration of amino acids etc. Certainly in my own experience I'm most acutely aware of caffeine - tea drunkenness - when I've tasted a lot of Silver Needle however, others may find the opposite.

Overall, if you really want a caffeine free drink, your best choice is to avoid real tea! On occasions where I wish to limit my caffeine intake the hot drinks I go for are: Earl Grey Rooibos; Sleepy Time tea; or Chamomile - all which come in bags and contain no ‘real tea’ whatsoever - though lets just keep that last bit our secret!

James

Tags: Caffeine, Loose Leaf Tea, Brewing Tea

At driftwood we try to do things a little differently; like choosing to run our January Sale in February.

Rarely in the past have we ever found ourselves with an abundance of excess cash in January to take full advantage of all the great sale prices companies offered - and we suspected we probably weren’t alone in this - so this year we’d like to introduce you to our massive non-January, January Sale - Free Tea February!

Throughout the month of February we're offering you up to 50% extra free when you buy one of 18 of our fresh loose leaf teas.

Buy a 25g or 50g bag and receive 25% extra free. Buy a 100g or 150g bag and receive 33% extra free. Or when you buy a 250g or 500g bag you'll receive 50% more tea completely free of charge.

The loose leaf teas on offer in Free Tea February include some of our most popular and well received, including: Pre Rain Huang Shan Mao Feng from China; Dong Ding Oolong from Taiwan; Organic Ruby Oolong (GABA tea) from Thailand; as well as Doke's Organic Silver Needle White Tea (Second Flush) from India.

All of the above teas, and many others, come from the spring and summer 2012 harvest so remain incredibly fresh. (Additionally during 2012 we invested in a special vacuum storage system - sorry tea caddies, you just no longer cut it - which along with our new foil packaging has made a huge difference to the freshness of our products.)

2012, our first full year of trading, was a great year for driftwood and we hope 2013 is going to be even better. Our next big event will probably be the launch of our new website that we hope will simplify and improve the process of purchasing teas from us, especially for our international and wholesale customers.

As we're now slightly more established as a company, and no longer basically making everything up as we go along, there may even be slightly more frequently written blog posts from me which, I can only imagine will be met with the same degree of anticipation that previously only a new Harry Potter book received!

James

Tags: Online Tea Shop, Free Tea February, Free Tea, Sale

Here’s a copy of the interview I gave with Scotland On Sunday’s Spectrum Magazine.

I’m aware my face looks slightly pained in this image, there’s good reason for this, I am! What can’t be seen is that off to the side of the image are my crutches and my leg is enclosed in a brace having a week earlier had my knee reconstructed. This is the first time I had stood without support since the operation. Even the copious amounts of GABA Oolong I’d been drinking didn’t prevent me from feeling sore getting this picture taken!

James

Tags: James Henderson Robe, Interview, Press

When setting up driftwood tea our goal was simple: establish an online tea shop that featured everything we'd always hoped for when we were buying tea online ourselves; such a shop would sell fantastic tasting, fresh loose leaf teas, that were sold at a fair and affordable price.

driftwood's steady growth through word of mouth feedback, and positive reviews, suggest this is hopefully something we're managing to achieve.

At the time we started the near universal bag size loose leaf tea came in was 50g. We'd always considered this slightly too much - especially when wishing to try an unknown tea. In the past we'd found ourselves having to choose between paying more for a larger quantity - and running the risk that we may not like it - or having to pay (an often exorbitant) premium for a sample sized bag. It was at this point we decided to introduce 25g bags as our standard size which has proven to be extremely popular (and now frequently replicated).

Over the past couple of months we have begun giving our regular customers, and now all customers, a 5g sample bag from our range of teas with all online orders. Perhaps unsurprisingly this has proven to be extremely popular. Samples have been a great way to introduce people to teas they may otherwise not have tried. (Our exclusive and unique Sticky Rice Oolong has quickly become one of our best selling teas, and purchased by many customers whom otherwise tended to avoid scented or flavoured teas, having experienced it first as a sample.)

Since we started including samples we have received numerous requests to be able to buy more of these smaller quantities. As a small company we're able to listen to all your feedback and so I am delighted to announce that 5g quantities can now be purchased of every tea that we currently stock.

However, wishing to remain true to our initial promise of not 'charging a huge amount more simply for sending less, in less packaging' our 5g bags of tea costs the same, per gram, as one of our 25g bags.

We know we're not reinventing the wheel here yet, it was always these little things that we wished for ourselves that we hope makes buying tea online from driftwood just that little bit better. And we're always delighted to listen to any other feedback or suggestions you may have that could improve our service even further!

James

Tags: Online Tea Shop, Loose Leaf Tea, Tea Samples

Having listened to your feedback, over the forthcoming months we are beginning to introduce a lot of changes to driftwood tea. This will be happening while we work towards the launch of our exciting new website - coming early next year - which will provide you with clearer information on all 30 teas we currently stock, while also making ordering tea easier and faster - especially for our international customers.

However, begin today we are excited to announce the introduction of The Connoisseur’s Sample Box.

Featuring the same six teas that are included in with our popular Connoisseur’s Gift Box, The Connoisseur’s Sample Box contains six, 5g bags of what we consider to be some of the world's finest spring and summer 2012 harvest teas. The Connoisseur’s Sample Box cost only £5.95.

Your comments have let us know that you love when we include free samples with your orders - which we'll always continue to do - however, many of you also wanted the option to buy additional samples for yourself or to give to others.

Over the next week or so we will be adding the option to buy samples directly from our website and, as this was always something that frustrated us in the past, we won't charge a huge premium for buying sample sized bags of tea - five, 5g samples will cost around the same price as were you to buy a single 25g bag of tea from us. (We never understood why it others felt it necessary to charge so much more for sending less tea, in less packaging?!)

driftwood as a company has grown faster over the past year than we had ever hoped was possible. Occasionally this has meant we've gotten things wrong, or had to make sudden (or sometimes overdue) changes, but fundamentally we think we've managed to achieve what we've set out to do: sourcing and supplying the best tasting fresh loose leaf tea - and this will always remain what we’re committed to doing - no mater how fancy our new website!

James

Tags: Online Tea Shop, New Teas, New Products