• 2 June 2021

  • Customers

Meet Our Customer: Two Spoons Tea

Meet our customer, Two Spoons Tea - a tea company headed up by Giles and Mark, dedicated to bringing high quality teas to the UK, from their base in Buckinghamshire, UK.

How did your business start?

We are Giles Oakley and Mark Lawson, the taste buds behind Two Spoons, a start-up tea company. We named it after the tools of our trade, the spoons we were presented with after 5 years of training. We met at one of the big brands way back in 1998 but decided to leave them behind to focus on our passion; slurping our favourite teas.

What is unique about your company?

We have over 5 decades of experience between us and in that time we have tasted over a million cups of tea.

Who and where are your customers?

We have customers all over the UK through our on-line presence (technically we are international - we accidentally sold some tea to the United States of America after a particularly positive social media review!). We are developing out of home and retail sales in and around Buckinghamshire which have resulted from our local marketing campaign.

How’s the future looking for you? What are your plans?

We are extremely excited about the future. We think there is a real opportunity for great quality ingredients with a story and solid provenance. Tea and botanical products fit this brief so well. We want to expose our customers to a range of different teas particularly when they come into season. For example, we are launching a limited edition Darjeeling First Flush tea in the next few weeks. It is grown in the foothills of the Himalayas and this particular quality is only manufactured during the first few weeks of the season. It has been fascinating interacting with the estate managers to hear how they approach this crucial growing period.

Why do you buy from Organic Herb Trading?

Having our own business means we have the luxury of being able to choose who to buy from. We chose Organic Herb Trading for two reasons. Number 1 for us is quality. We tasted a range of peppermints before selecting our current offering. It blew our socks off and our customers seem to love it too! Secondly, we buy from people we like, people who are passionate about what they do. That is Organic Herb Trading all over. 

Why is organic/provenance important to you?

Provenance is particularly important to us because great tasting tea and botanicals don’t just magically appear, they are made. Having traceability and transparency helps us understand what’s gone into making that product and, just as important, the environment in which it’s been made.

Do you have any heroes?

We feel that tea is an unsung hero. It is good for you; it tastes amazing; it brings people together and behind tea are some amazing people and their stories. We want to use our expertise of the trade to inspire curiosity in tea, tell those stories and in doing so offer up some really delicious teas.

Giles: Not so much a hero but someone I respect massively is an ex-colleague of mine. Tea expert, author, Marathon de Sable finisher, business owner; Will Battle of Fine Tea Merchants. He is inspirational in his ability to see out a Herculean task to its completion, whether it is writing a World Encyclopaedia of Tea or running 150 miles in under a week through the Sahara!

What is your favourite cup of tea, or long cool relaxing drink?

Giles: Tricky one because there is so much variety. I love an Assam 2nd flush, thick and malty! And when I’m in Kenya, obviously a Tusker beer!

Mark: The amazing spring green teas in various provinces in China, possibly a Mao Feng from Anhui with the fragrance of magnolias, though the possibilities are limitless!

You can find Two Spoons at ther website: twospoons.co.uk, on Instagram: @twospoonstea and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TwoSpoonsTea

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