Today we were looking back on the photographs from the HTA Conference, what a great day! 

On 5th and 6th June Tea From The Manor's proprietor, James Green attended the HTA Conference. He thought he was just exhibiting, but at the last minute (due to the unavailability of a speaker) James was asked to talk about Tea From the Manor at the conference. Ever the professional James took to the challenge and talked about his favourite subject, tea! He told the story of how Tea From the Manor began and how we have been client led since the start, following the needs of our customers.

It was our client Bents who introduced us to the garden centre side of the business and we have developed from there, now serving nurmerous garden centres. After the HTA stand at Glee this month we now have over 50 potential new clients booked in to visit us in the coming months, we look foward to meeting them all!

Tea From the Manor has now exhibited at HTA for four years and it is always a wonderful conference. We hope to see you next year! 

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All photos taken by Steve Burden

This month The Lowry Hotel launched a limited edition afternoon tea, beginning with the theme of Pride. The afternoon tea incldes some almost too good to eat glitter and rainbow coloured cakes.

For every Pride Tea sold, The Lowry will donate £1 to the Manchester Pride Charity. This charity organises the 'Big Weekend' held this bank holiday! Pride Tea is served from 1st to 31st August at The River Restuarnt at the Lowry Hotel.

ChrisWallis from Northern Soul Food Review was at The Lowry Hotel the day the Afternoon Tea lauched and has this to say about James Green and Tea From The Manor.

"His teas are delicious. We were given a box of different teas to nose which included inter alia an Earl Grey that knocked my socks off, a powerful green mint and The Lowry’s own blend."  Read the full review here

The interesting history of the origin of the company sparked the interest of The Lowry Hotel’s General Manager Adrian Ellis, who after visiting the tea tasting room in Denton resulted in a flourishing collaboration between the two.

James said: “Tea is central to a life of soldiering on in good times and in times of conflict, which gave me the drive and passion to set up Tea from the Manor.

“When Adrian visited our tea room, we couldn’t think of a more perfect fit than The Lowry Hotel as they are well known for supporting local suppliers. It’s an honour and privilege to start to work in partnership with such an iconic hotel, working alongside The Lowry Hotel team can only add to the success of Tea from the Manor.”  

As well as Tea from the Manor introducing an exquisite range of teas into the River Bar and Restaurant to compliment the bespoke range of limited-edition afternoon teas, The Lowry Hotel and Tea from The Manor are in talks to open a tea emporium within the hotel, making it one of the first hotels in Manchester to do so.

The Lowry Hotel

Darjeeling tea is struggling to grow recently due to climate change. With hotter weather and rainfall becoming sporadic it has been harder to grown Darjeeling tea in recent years. Sumon Majumder, a senior tea taster with Darjeeling Impex Ltd said “The production of Darjeeling tea has come down drastically…In 2012, the annual tea production stood at 10 million kg, which fell to 9 million kg in 2017.”

The bud is breaking earlier in the year due to the rise in temperature so tea plantation owners have been encouraged to grown ‘shade trees’ to protect the tea plants from the sun. However, the harsh rain has ruined some of the first flush. The root of the problem has been massive deforestation in addition to pollution in the area.

Tea garden owners are beginning to understand the damage that the tea plants are having to cope with and are being advised on how to combat this.

Tea From The Manor are still receiving Darjeeling tea, but at a reduced rate. Order soon to secure your delivery!

This week we attended the Northen Restaurant and Bar, the North's hospitality exhibition, held at Manchester Central. We had a stall last year and the exhibition centre is always so alive with all the different companies, each of whom have a stall to themselves. The Chef Live stand had leading chefs demonstrating their favourite dishes and the Market Kitchen Theatre, which was closer to us, had artisan skills and demonstrations. All the other stalls had different companies showing their businesses and making connections with others.

We saw some of our existing clients at the NRB and also met lots of brilliant new people! We are very excited to welcome them to our tea rooms in the next coming weeks to discuss their individual needs and which teas may suit their establishment.