155 – Hot Tea Mama Bethan Thomas

This week I am joined by Bethan from Hot Tea Mama, we talk about what she learned as a tea buyer and blender, and how that helps her formulate her teas for women.

About Bethan

” Having worked as a tea buyer and blender for over 18 years, and becoming the first non-Chinese person to get a degree in Tea Science at the University of Forestry and Agriculture in Fujian, Bethan was inspired to set up HotTea Mama after having children in 2017. With her best friend Kate, they developed a tea range to support women’s wellness. From periods to pregnancy, motherhood to menopause – there is a tea for you.”

There are different qualities of tea.

Unfortunately in the UK we tend to drink the most rubbish form of tea there is, it’s the dust that collects in the troughs that is added to bags. Bethan sourced and bought the finest tea leaves in her previous jobs and wishes we understood how poor quality much of what we drink is.

Whilst she also enjoys a good cup of tea with milk she makes sure it’s better quality and encourages us all to try fresh leaf tea to help us understand the difference.

Best friends in business

Both Bethan and her best friend Kate were pregnant at similar times and a creating the teas together was part of their personal journey through pregnancy and breastfeeding their children. Bethan describes Kate as the creative genius, and it seems like a great match of skills.

They initially created 6 teas for various parts of that journey: Get up and Glow to help with energy as it’s not advised to drink more than 4 cups of caffeine a day when pregnant or breastfeeding. Morning Rescue to help with morning sickness. The Final Push with raspberry leaf that has been shown to help with womb tone and birth when taken in the final trimester. Night Owl to help with sleep, important for us. Milk’s up with fennel and fenugreek to support milk production. Newborn Wonder, with caffeine for when you really need it, but a gentler form along with soothing rosebuds to ease cramps.

After working in the tea industry and understanding taste profiles the hardest part of the blending process was getting suppliers to stop adding extra ingredients that weren’t suitable or appropriate. Their final blends are made from high quality whole herbs in plastic free compostable bags for ease of use.

The menopause blends

After being asked about a menopause blend by her husband’s aunt Roz when she first started Bethan admits that she had so much else on her plate it had been put on the back burner.

But when she started to realise that she was herself experiencing some of the early signs of perimenopause she realised it was time to act. The Take a Pause blend was created with lots of ingredients including gingko biloba and ginseng which have positive results in relieving symptoms.

Bag or loose leaf

As a purist Bethan would love us all to drink pure leaf tea but admits that people, especially new moms, don’t want the added hassle of it so their bags are organic, plastic free and compostable. And whilst it’s really important that the ingredients support health, they have to taste good too!

What we drink out of and how we treat our teabag is more important and here are her tips:

Mug – choose a china or glass mug or teapot. It won’t absorb the flavour of the tea and therefore contaminate the taste of your next cup, and will keep it warm
Temperature – most herbal teas should be brewed at around 70-80c so allow the boiling water time to cool or decant into another jug which reduces temperatures by about 10c
Bag – don’t squish! Allow it time to brew and let the flavour develop

And her top tip is to reuse the bags, whilst choosing a natural herbal tea might be a bit more expensive, you can use many of the bags several times and she uses their night owl four times, just let it brew a bit longer.

Woman centric business

Bethan and Kate are passionate about creating a work environment that is supportive of females at any stage of life. Having flexible working hours around school pickup or supporting reduced hours during menopause.

They firmly believe that they have a happier business, which is just as productive as a result. And they actively seek out suppliers who do the same.