SPILL tea

Cheers, Jeet. When you buy tea from our site, you can tip the farmers who grew it at the checkout. A function suggested by Jeet, right before we turned the website on. The 11th hour idea is the one you want. We’re matching all tips this month so farmers receive double. Cheers Jeet - the most understatedly good web guy. So understated, he's not here to tag. * ?? Photo shows SPILL website built for us by Lauren Bissett and Jeet at Brand Hackers. * #rwanda #rwandantea #startup #smallholderfarmers #womenbuilt

We’ll spill - Tea is too cheap and farmers receive too little. Everyone knows that. But no-one seems to talk about what the farmer IS paid. So we’ll start. Link in comments. Photo shows - Smallholder farmers, Gianpierre and Cartas with their son, Happy in their front room. Rugabano, Rwanda, 2023. ?? Dave Imms #tea #rwanda #rwandantea #startup

Know any Rachels? Or Bens?

The big secret in tea. Light Sunday reading. Story in comments. ?? Dave Imms

We like it when people we like, say what we think.

A recommendation is always better when you rate the recommender. Chuffed to find SPILL tea on the Hiut Denim Co 'Do One Thing Well' list. Because they know how to do exactly that. Their list was put together to celebrate those who decide to 'Do One Thing Well' - 100 truly special products, services and experiences. Take a look.

Louise gets through 10 a day. How about you? Photo shows Lou's arm. On about cup 6. Cheers. SPILL tin. Sofia's hand. ?? Dave Imms. #tea #rwandantea #womenbuilt #startup

Who are we anyway? And what do we know about tea? Louise can’t function until she’s had 2 cups of tea in the morning. ? Two. Made and drunk at the same time. Before 8am. ? Lou started teapigs in 2006 and Sofia joined just after. We worked together to grow it into a much-loved brand. And Lou was a taster for Tetley before that so we’ve been in tea longer than we like to remember. ? But we’ve never been as excited about tea as we are now. ? Because this time, we’re focusing on the tea we drink every day. It’s the tea we drink the most, by far. But rather than getting better over the years, its got cheaper. This means it’s come to taste “meh” and the smallholder farmers who grow it live in poverty… bad all round. ? So we’re starting again. We hope you will come with us. ? Link to story in comments. Photo shows The two of us in GAIL's bakery, Cambridge, where we pretty much built SPILL. #tea #rwandantea #startup #womenbuilt

The short route can be just as scenic. Most of the world’s tea is bought through auctions, and/or brokers and/or traders. You can’t buy tea directly from a smallholder farmer - their fresh green leaf has to be dried and processed by the factory before it can be bought. So, buying from the factory is as direct as you get in the world of tea. So that’s what we do. Photo shows: Freshly picked tea leaves arriving at the factory to be processed. See? Scenic. ?? Dave Imms

You can't buy tea from a smallholder tea farmer * The fresh green leaf grown and plucked by tea farmers has to be dried and processed by the factory before it can be bought.? ? Traditionally, tea brands buy teas from multiple countries and blend them all together. And the tea can be bought in a mixture of ways... Some direct from the factory, some via auction, some via brokers or traders. Often, a mixture. This can make things murky. And means that the smallholder farmers, and what they're paid, is often out of sight. So we’ve taken a short route. SPILL is > Grown by smallholder farmers > From one area > Bought direct from the factory > And we'll tell you what we paid Sometimes, it's ok to skip a few steps. ?? Link to learn how tea is made in comments. Graphic shows some of the people who can be involved in getting tea from smallholder farmer to us. #rwandantea #rwanda #startup #provenence