2019: Another Tea-Riffic Year

“You live your life looking forward, you understand life looking backwards.” –  Soren Kierkegaard.

Do you find yourself reflecting on your past year every New Years Eve when the clock strikes midnight? For us, after another fantastically busy year, we are only just catching our breath! Finally we have a minute to reflect on the tea filled year we had. Indulge us in a trip down memory lane.

January – Tea Room Makeover

In January, we gave the Tea Room a makeover! We brought Renee Turner on board, a local interior designer. She completely understood our vision which was a space that people could go to enjoy a cup of tea and escape everyday life, even if only for five minutes. We love all the details and thought that was put into creating our new and improved Tea Room. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to create such a lovely space. Read more about our makeover here.

21st of February – Our 10th Birthday Par-Tea.

On the 21st of February we celebrated 10 years of eteaket! We hosted a par-tea in our Tea Room which had just had a makeover (thanks to Renee Turner). We had everything from tea cocktails to canapes seasoned with our Kombu Matcha. Our friends, Isle of Harris Gin popped along to serve some of their famous g&ts. We had speeches and lots of laughter! Our team worked extra hard to make sure everyone had a canape in hand and a drink to wash it down with. A big thank you to everyone who helped us with our 10th Par-Tea. We are now looking forward to the next 10!

We launched a new innovative tea, Kombu Matcha.

Shortly after our 10th Birthday Par-Tea we launched a tea that we had been working on in collaboration with Mara Seaweed. Mara are a Edinburgh based company who harvest Scottish Seaweed and turn it into products that can be incorporated into your everyday life. We produced Kombu Matcha, a blend of our ceremonial Matcha and Mara`s Kombu Kelp. Together we demonstrated that innovation in the drinks industry can come right from the heart of Scotland and can be brought to a worldwide audience. Erica said “Innovation is at the heart of our Leaf Tea Business,’eteaket’, and Celtic Kombu Matcha is an example of our force within the industry to collaborate and produce world-rivaled tea for both health and well being”. Fiona Houston, the co-founder of Mara said “Mara is excited to be collaborating with eteaket to fuse together two incredibly nourishing and delicious ingredients to bring something truly different into the drinks category”. Kombu Matcha can be found in our Concept Store (111 Rose Street), Tea Room (41 Frederick Street) and on our website here.

Our retail packaging became plastic free!

We have always been an environmentally conscious tea company and so naturally we wanted rid of Plastic. Our tea is now wrapped in a material called Nature Flex which is made of woodpulp and is biodegradable. This new packaging has allowed us to bring in all sorts of plastic free tea products but most importantly it is helping us to make a less native impact on the environment. You can read a blog on this new material here.

Summer in the City

As soon as Summer hit we launched our Limited Edition summer blends, Watermelon Burst and Rhubarb Rocks. Straight away we created cocktails and mocktails with them including a watermelon mojito which was very popular! We hosted events like Woman in Network Edinburgh in our Tea Room and Saturday Yoga with Sophie Emma Yoga in our store. We played with nitro tea and created a daily tea routine. We brought on board some new brilliant eteaket brand ambassadors and celebrated world Whisky month. What a summer.

Three Years in retail

We celebrated three years in retail. Our Concept Store opened three years ago and what a wonderful experience it has been. We have loved having a space that we can really interact with our customers in and supply you all with more information on all of our teas. Read our latest blog on the Concept Store here.

Collaborating with Civierinos Slice

In October we joined forces with Civerinos (Edinburgh’s best pizza) to create a Matcha Pizza! We brought the tea and they brought the pizza. Their pizza experts created a pizza called Marco Polo. A Grandma slice with a Matcha base, topped with their famous sugo,patatas bravo,  rocket and Asian garlic. The pizza was sold in Civerinos Slice for a Limited Time. We loved collaborating with another Edinburgh businesses to create an innovative and nutritious pizza. A huge thanks to the Civerinos team for running with our Matcha pizza idea!

Isle of Harris Gin, 56 North and eteaket – celebrating three years of collaboration.

Three years ago in collaboration with the Isle of Harris Gin company we made our Isle of Harris Gin tea and put our Isle of Harris click and collect system in place in our Concept Store. At the same time 56 North was the first trade account and click and collect account for Isle of Harris Gin. So we put three together to create two events celebrating collaboration. They followed three pillars, community (Isle of Harris), sustainability (us) and independence (56 North). The cocktail experts at 56 North developed 3 cocktails which matched one of the pillars. Each contained our tea and the Isle of Harris Gin. The first event was when we introduced everyone to the cocktails and the pillars. The second was when everyone got to get stuck in and make the cocktails. Both events really brought together the spirit of Christmas, coming together to share and connect. Keep an eye out in 2020 for more events between the three of us.

Looking forward to 2020!

We loved 2019 but we are even more excited for 2020! More innovative teas, par-teas and collaborations are coming our way! Watch this space and join our newsletter here to be the first to find out.

eteaket xx