Speaker 1: Good evening, and welcome to my podcast. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about the conversation we're about to embark upon because I
Speaker 1: have been a tea drinker since I was very young.
Speaker 1: My grandma, my grandma and grandpa helped to raise me.
Speaker 1: My my parents had four children. And I know you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to have favorites or say that, but I
Speaker 1: truly was the favorite of my grandmother. I was the
Speaker 1: apple of her eye, and she was a tea drunker.
Speaker 1: And so when I would go stay with my grandma,
Speaker 1: and I stayed with her all summer long my whole
Speaker 1: life growing up, we would have a ritual of she
Speaker 1: would brew tea and she would actually boil the water
Speaker 1: on the stove, and she had the little uh screen
Speaker 1: and she would put the tea leaves in and she
Speaker 1: would make me a proper cup of tea. And so,
Speaker 1: while the rest of my family became coffee drinkers, my
Speaker 1: mom and dad drank copious amounts of nasty black coffee,
Speaker 1: I became a tea drinker. And so I am so
Speaker 1: honored to be able to sit here with Stephen Twining,
Speaker 1: who is from the Twining family Twinings of London, which
Speaker 1: is the best tea I've ever had in my entire life.
Speaker 1: And how many years has the Twinings of London tea
Speaker 1: been creating delightful tease for people? So it all goes
Speaker 1: back to Thomas Twining, who board a coffee house Shark
Speaker 1: Horror in seventeen o six and in London at the
Speaker 1: time there were over two thousand coffee houses. Obviously London
Speaker 1: was a much smaller place. So to differentiate, to offer
Speaker 1: something different to attract people to his coffee has, he
Speaker 1: chose to sell fine quality tea, and very quickly the
Speaker 1: tea took over seventeen what zero six, seventeen o six
Speaker 1: before America was founded, when we were fighting with y'all
Speaker 1: before evening that's right, aids Wow. So how many generations
Speaker 1: back is that from you? Ten ten generations back? So
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to go through the great great
Speaker 1: great great great great granddads, just ten generations back. And
Speaker 1: has the Twining tea business always like stayed within the family.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a generation that said we don't like tea,
Speaker 1: We're going to go become Starbucks or something. I know
Speaker 1: that lots of Twinings have gone off and done other
Speaker 1: things because the family tradition, which was actually started by
Speaker 1: the the second and third generation of the family. So Thomas'
Speaker 1: son Daniel, just imagine that his oldest son would have
Speaker 1: exactly the same passion that he did inherit it from
Speaker 1: Thomas the founder and brought him into the business. And
Speaker 1: Daniel's oldest son had no affinity but he hated it,
Speaker 1: really couldn't wait to get out of it. And Daniel
Speaker 1: was smart enough to say, actually, so off you go,
Speaker 1: go and do something that fulfills you that you're going
Speaker 1: to be good at. And he became a very good
Speaker 1: ecclesiastical scholar, which is very different from tea. But his
Speaker 1: younger brother couldn't wait to be in the business. And
Speaker 1: the fact his older brother was out of the way,
Speaker 1: obviously Ethor was great and came in at the first volunteer,
Speaker 1: so from then on the next generation volunteer. So that's
Speaker 1: really quite amazing remarkable for that time frame, because when
Speaker 1: even today, when a father has a successful business, he
Speaker 1: assumes that his children are going to follow in their footsteps.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes there's a little um business in my hometown that
Speaker 1: is Smith and Daughters. Because his sons had no interest
Speaker 1: in the building process of building houses, but his daughter,
Speaker 1: his two daughters did and so instead of smith and sons,
Speaker 1: it's smith and daughters. He had the wisdom to realize,
Speaker 1: as your great great grandfather, I'm teen times removed in
Speaker 1: that it's passion, not simply position. Yes, absolutely, twinings. We
Speaker 1: are so lucky that everyone who works for us has
Speaker 1: this passion for making great teath and that has got
Speaker 1: to be part of loss of sets. So it's in
Speaker 1: your DNA. You You, and how many siblings do you have?
Speaker 1: I have a big sister and little brother, but they're
Speaker 1: not in the business, not interested in tea. They drink
Speaker 1: a good quantity of tea, they don't have the same yes,
Speaker 1: the level of depth of knowledge or want to be
Speaker 1: in the tea business. Now wow, Now, how many cups
Speaker 1: of tea a day do you think, Stephen, you consume?
Speaker 1: I say that anything less than nine is a wasted
Speaker 1: tea drinking day. I may have met my match then
Speaker 1: I love. I love tea, but I specifically love your tea.
Speaker 1: And um, a couple of years ago, you signed a
Speaker 1: tea box for me. And I'm not a I'm not
Speaker 1: the kind of person that really values material possessions. You know,
Speaker 1: most of my furnishing in my house come from second
Speaker 1: hand stores. There's not a lot of things, physical things,
Speaker 1: material things that have any meaning for me. And I
Speaker 1: think part of that is my personality, and part of
Speaker 1: that is with so many kids, you can't get attached
Speaker 1: to material things because they get broken, they just get broken.
Speaker 1: Or as your older children leave, because I have several
Speaker 1: that have left, that your things walk with them. You know.
Speaker 1: I'll go into my son's house and go, wait a second,
Speaker 1: that's the bench tomorrow. I said this the other day.
Speaker 1: I walked into my older son's house. He's got four
Speaker 1: children and a foster child right now, so hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: be five soon. Um, And I went, that's that's the
Speaker 1: bench to my piano. You know. When he left, the
Speaker 1: bench walked with him. Um. But my tea box that
Speaker 1: you signed is one of my prize possessions. And I
Speaker 1: go through a lot of twinings tea, I mean a lot.
Speaker 1: I start my morning with your breakfast tea. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then four o'clock is my cut off for the black
Speaker 1: teas because you know, I have to sleep sometime, so
Speaker 1: after four or five o'clock when I'm doing my show
Speaker 1: at night, it's your herbal teas and you you sent
Speaker 1: some new herbal teas to my house the other day,
Speaker 1: the Lemon Lemon Light and the very Infusion, and the
Speaker 1: one that was the biggest surprise is the butter mint.
Speaker 1: It is a surprise, I think surprise a lot of people.
Speaker 1: It surprised me, and I'll be honest with you, Um,
Speaker 1: mint tea is probably my least favorite, not that I
Speaker 1: don't like it, but you know, in the level of favorites,
Speaker 1: I always go for your orange or your black teas
Speaker 1: are just fabulous, and I make before the day starts,
Speaker 1: I have to have a cup of your breakfast tea.
Speaker 1: But so when your butter mint arrived, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: this will go to my girlfriend Jan, because Jan runs
Speaker 1: my foundation or my ministry Point Hope, Um, and we
Speaker 1: work in West Africa and in West africause they're big
Speaker 1: tea drinkers, but we can't find twinings. They're not very often,
Speaker 1: you know, so whenever I go over, Jan always asked
Speaker 1: me to bring her your mint tea. When this box
Speaker 1: right here of the herbal tea peppermint showed up in
Speaker 1: my house, I thought, well, this will be something I
Speaker 1: will read gift to Jan, but I had to try
Speaker 1: it because I knew we were going to get together
Speaker 1: and talk about it. Stephen. It's so good, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's just the right It's like the edges off the mint,
Speaker 1: because usually the mint has that little bite to it
Speaker 1: that's a little too much for me. Yeah, but the
Speaker 1: edges off the mint and it's just got this little
Speaker 1: touch of sweetness that's wonderful. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: those very very Kinton compliments. I mean, we are delighted
Speaker 1: with it because yes, mint is usually quite a popular flavor,
Speaker 1: but just offering a different type of mint really isn't
Speaker 1: again to excite people, and we want to do something
Speaker 1: completely different. So by adding the vanilla, uh, it changes
Speaker 1: the text in your mouth. It changes, it adds to
Speaker 1: the peppermint and as you said, turns it down. It
Speaker 1: turns it also get this lovely creamy sensation, so it
Speaker 1: feels incredibly indulgent. Now, a cup of any herbal tea
Speaker 1: is less than five calories. So when I have it
Speaker 1: after dinner, because mint is meant to be good for
Speaker 1: you after dinner, uh, you're going to sleep because it's
Speaker 1: naturally caffeine free. But it feels like you're spoiling yourself
Speaker 1: with this really indulgent treat. And it's there are a
Speaker 1: couple of young women in my life that are expecting
Speaker 1: and for them it is a godsend because the mint
Speaker 1: calms their stomach and calms them down, and it's such
Speaker 1: like you said, it's such an indulgent little treat, and
Speaker 1: so so thank you for that. Now you've got nine
Speaker 1: master blenders at Twinings, and are you one of the
Speaker 1: master blenders? I always reasonably modest. Therefore I say that
Speaker 1: I'm an honorary master blender. I certainly worked with them
Speaker 1: over many many years. I do have a couple of
Speaker 1: blends out there that have been created by me, which
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of. Um. But most of the time
Speaker 1: I would leave the blending to the master blenders because
Speaker 1: I'm often lucky enough to be out and about s
Speaker 1: I m over here talking to you. So when you
Speaker 1: set upon deciding to create a blend of tea, do
Speaker 1: you actually go to the places the spices are from? Like?
Speaker 1: Do you go to where you get the peppermint? Do
Speaker 1: you go to where the cinnamon sticks are raised? I
Speaker 1: have not been to all the places where the ingredients
Speaker 1: come from because they are worldwide. So in the Lemon Delight,
Speaker 1: we're talking just on the lemons, we're getting lemons from
Speaker 1: Paraguay and from Senegal. Uh. Now I have been to Paraguay,
Speaker 1: but YESR master tea taster for the herbal teas will
Speaker 1: certainly get out and meet all the suppliers and once
Speaker 1: as much as he can about them and most of
Speaker 1: all about the taste when it's going to be perfect
Speaker 1: for harvesting, collecting, uh, and then he can use it.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that your your hands on
Speaker 1: and your people are feet on the ground. And actually
Speaker 1: I raised almost all of our food for my family.
Speaker 1: I have a fifty five acre farm and I have
Speaker 1: probably two or three hundred chickens, and my husband has
Speaker 1: an organic beef and pork farm. So we're kind of
Speaker 1: rabid about the things that go into our children's bodies
Speaker 1: and our bodies. I don't want my kids to be
Speaker 1: eating nasty things that's going to hurt them in the future.
Speaker 1: So when I started drinking Twinings tea long before you
Speaker 1: were part of my show, just because I love the
Speaker 1: flavor of it. But then as I've grown to to
Speaker 1: learn about the integrity of your company and the family
Speaker 1: history and the quality of the ingredients. I just fell
Speaker 1: more and more and more in love with the products.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you. It's the way we like
Speaker 1: to do business. We think it's the right way. It
Speaker 1: is the right way to do business. Family and friends
Speaker 1: and goodness and and honoring the ingredients. I love it all.
Speaker 1: So tell me about this building. There's a building that
Speaker 1: you're grandfather ten times back started in. And is it
Speaker 1: true that you still have that building today? We still
Speaker 1: have that building today. The coffee has got converted to
Speaker 1: what is now the office. But what Thomas did because
Speaker 1: in the early days in London it was the wealthy
Speaker 1: and aristocratic ladies who were his customers for tea, and
Speaker 1: a lady would never go into a coffee house. It
Speaker 1: was just socially taboo. So he realized that the services
Speaker 1: best customers, he needed to open a dry tea and
Speaker 1: coffee shop. So over eleven years he bought three very
Speaker 1: small neighboring properties, knocked at the end wall, put an
Speaker 1: address on the London Strand to post away his coffee
Speaker 1: has been in Devereux Court, and opened the world's first
Speaker 1: dry tea and coffee shop, which we absolutely still have
Speaker 1: to this day. So celebrating three birthday this year, Oh,
Speaker 1: I need to come to a birthday celebration there, I
Speaker 1: think anytime. I would love that. It's funny because I
Speaker 1: started I I consider myself a world traveler now, but
Speaker 1: the only place I've ever traveled in the world is
Speaker 1: West Africa. And I always imagined that I would someday
Speaker 1: get to go to London, and I've never I've never been.
Speaker 1: Let me know we have, So we'll go for for
Speaker 1: a tea excursion. All right, what are some of your
Speaker 1: favorite blends? But I know the Butterment, the Limon Delight,
Speaker 1: the very Fusion, or the new ones. But what are
Speaker 1: some of your will fall back like favorite when you
Speaker 1: just go, oh, I've had it. I just I want
Speaker 1: a cup of the perfect tea right now. Yes, so
Speaker 1: the first thing in the morning, like yourself, I'm going
Speaker 1: to reach for that English breakfast is just the right
Speaker 1: way to take. And every cup is so perfect, every cup,
Speaker 1: every cup is like a little a little dose of
Speaker 1: happiness in my morning. It's all that. And to the
Speaker 1: skill of our master tea tastes. Because as I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know, let's make a comparison, tea is like wine,
Speaker 1: and if you're a wine drinker, you go back to
Speaker 1: the saving vineyard every year. As the weather changes from
Speaker 1: year to year, the wine that the vineyard produces changes.
Speaker 1: Now tea has picked every ten to fourteen days. Every
Speaker 1: time the weather changes, the flavor from an individual tea
Speaker 1: garden is different to the time before. So our master
Speaker 1: tea tastes are always looking for different ingredients to make
Speaker 1: your cup of English breakfast always taste exactly the same,
Speaker 1: and that is the skill. Well. It always tastes like
Speaker 1: heaven to me. Thank you, And I love raw honey.
Speaker 1: My husband has honeybees, oh wow, and so we harvest
Speaker 1: honey and he knows just the right amount of honey
Speaker 1: because I don't like a lot of it. I don't
Speaker 1: like it to be overpowering. But just a smidgen of
Speaker 1: honey in the English breakfast tea is the perfect start
Speaker 1: to my day. Excellent, perfect start to day. I relate
Speaker 1: to this so well. I could I could work for
Speaker 1: Twine Tea I loved. Then you would have to do
Speaker 1: my radio show. That wouldn't be so good for your listeners, really,
Speaker 1: because I think they'd love your delightful accent. Well, that's
Speaker 1: very kind. They might last for five minutes. Really, I
Speaker 1: think you'll be a short honeymoon period. Do you do
Speaker 1: you know, like all the lyrics to a thousand love
Speaker 1: songs love songs. Yeah, that wouldn't work very well then,
Speaker 1: because when somebody calls and they're just falling in love
Speaker 1: for the first time, you have to know the perfect
Speaker 1: song that goes with that. Or if they've passed that
Speaker 1: first falling in love and now they've got something sparkly
Speaker 1: in their pocket that they want to share with their beloved,
Speaker 1: you've got to know the perfect song to play. I
Speaker 1: can match it to a t but not to a song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we could work together here and after I played
Speaker 1: you know, the Marrimi song, you could suggest what cup
Speaker 1: of tea they could celebrate the engagement with. I think
Speaker 1: engagement would be something like a lady gray, which is
Speaker 1: a lighted old right, and we've just added to our
Speaker 1: old gray collections that we could go with a lavender,
Speaker 1: which is a little blue, and we're thinking, yeah, it's gorgeous,
Speaker 1: but actually the lady gray with the citrus elements a
Speaker 1: little lighter, good for guys but great for girls. There
Speaker 1: we go so the engagement would see how this work.
Speaker 1: Or if somebody calls me and just found out she's expecting,
Speaker 1: all right, then we're probably not going to have a
Speaker 1: tea at all, because I think it would probably be
Speaker 1: the Buttom, and there are some of the some of
Speaker 1: the herbal teas that you should avoid when you're pregnant.
Speaker 1: But I'm not a doctor, so consult your doctor on that.
Speaker 1: But yes, I would have thought that would go perfectly well.
Speaker 1: That might be the one that I've suggested to the
Speaker 1: people that I know in that condition, because mint is
Speaker 1: so calming, so calming. So there's see, we could we
Speaker 1: could have a whole new show here where we do
Speaker 1: the dedication with the song, and then you could come
Speaker 1: in each night to the studio and suggest the tea
Speaker 1: that would go in and make it for you, of course,
Speaker 1: and make it for us perfect, perfect, because there is
Speaker 1: like a whole tradition, a whole element that goes into
Speaker 1: the making the brewing. So we we both agree, where
Speaker 1: do we not heat the water in the microwave? That
Speaker 1: is totally totally forbidden and bad for you and not
Speaker 1: good for you and horrable. So after year you were
Speaker 1: telling me about this experiment that you did in high school.
Speaker 1: I actually have to give the credit to a young
Speaker 1: lady who wrote the article up and it caught the
Speaker 1: attention of our national media. And the experiment was she
Speaker 1: took two identical jugs of water out of the same tap,
Speaker 1: of which one she put into the microwave and boiled it.
Speaker 1: She then had two identical plants and asked the plants
Speaker 1: needed watering. One got the fresh tap water out of
Speaker 1: the that jagon, one got the water that had been microwaved.
Speaker 1: And after three weeks, the plant that was meant to
Speaker 1: be rehydrated with the microwave water died dead, completely dead,
Speaker 1: was no longer. So I water that's been heated in
Speaker 1: the microwave and then cooled down is not good for
Speaker 1: a plant, probably not really good for us. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: the other danger is you can super heat things. It
Speaker 1: might so if you boil your water then you put
Speaker 1: your tea bag into it, it can turn to steam
Speaker 1: and that's not good for anybody exactly. So how do
Speaker 1: you heat the water when you make the perfect cup
Speaker 1: of twinings? Being very British, I have an electric kettle
Speaker 1: and what I do is I empty the cattle out
Speaker 1: of previously heated water and put in good fresh cold
Speaker 1: tap water because that has the most dissolved oxygen and
Speaker 1: it's the dissolved oxygen in the Okay, wait wait, wait,
Speaker 1: back up, back up. So you have the plug in cattle,
Speaker 1: which have just now become popular in the last two
Speaker 1: years here and available in most stores. So the plug
Speaker 1: in kettle, which I have on two of them on
Speaker 1: one on my countertop upstairs and one on my countertop
Speaker 1: in my studio. So dump the water out that's in there.
Speaker 1: I don't do that. I need to do that, and
Speaker 1: I knew not to use hot water, but always to
Speaker 1: put cold water in because it contains the dissolved oxygen.
Speaker 1: That's what it's all about. That's the bit of the
Speaker 1: water that gets the flavor off the tea. Okay, So
Speaker 1: dump out the old water, put in the fresh water,
Speaker 1: cold water, switch turn it on. How hot For the hubbles,
Speaker 1: we're going to go straight to boiling. For black teas,
Speaker 1: we're going to go straight to boiling. You can these
Speaker 1: days getting kettles. You can pre set the temperature right
Speaker 1: Mine has one eight, two twenty and boiling. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you would hit one eight if you were going to
Speaker 1: make a cup of green tea or white tea and
Speaker 1: oolan oh, I love the lan Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1: What I have to do is let it go to
Speaker 1: boiling and then walk away for five minutes. But when
Speaker 1: it gets to boiling. So you've got one that just
Speaker 1: has offered boil it, y okay, all right, well you
Speaker 1: should you should spoil yourself. Get the one that has
Speaker 1: the maybe I should. Yeah, okay, move into the century. Um.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, I'm perusing the tea cup and
Speaker 1: to see what I'm going to be drinking. You know,
Speaker 1: we know we're going to start our day with the English. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if it was this time of day, and perusing the
Speaker 1: herbals to see what I feel like. Um, and yes,
Speaker 1: bag into cup first. And then just as the cattle
Speaker 1: reaches boiling point. If it's an old fashioned cattle, it
Speaker 1: has what I call a safety device. In other words,
Speaker 1: if I get distracted, um, it will boil and actual
Speaker 1: builds up a head of steam. It will switch itself off,
Speaker 1: but that takes ten to fifteen seconds. We don't want
Speaker 1: that ten to fifteen seconds of boiling because it's pushing
Speaker 1: out that precious dissolved oxygen. So you supervise it cattle,
Speaker 1: switch it off, on, goes the water, and then it's
Speaker 1: I think the stage that people have most difficulty with.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of this sort chilling of the bag
Speaker 1: going on, or a spoon comes out and the poor
Speaker 1: bag gets beaten to death in the attempt to speed
Speaker 1: up the process. You can't. It takes for herbal teas
Speaker 1: four minutes to get the faver off. For black teas,
Speaker 1: yes it will come off in three, and green teas
Speaker 1: and two and a half is fine, but be patient. Frankly,
Speaker 1: the water is too hot to drink anyway. If you
Speaker 1: can drink water that's just come out of the cattle
Speaker 1: after thirty seconds, then wow. I don't advise you to
Speaker 1: do it, though, um So let it brew, let it steep,
Speaker 1: let the flavors come out. Then remove the bag, and
Speaker 1: then if you like, like you like honey in your
Speaker 1: English breakfast, I personally think the very fusion that the
Speaker 1: cherries and the blueberries have got enough sweetness there that
Speaker 1: they actually don't need it. But it's your cuvity. You
Speaker 1: must drink it the way you like it. And then yes,
Speaker 1: sit back, relax. If you're by yourself, you can read
Speaker 1: a book, tells you whatever you like. If you're with
Speaker 1: friends from family, maybe have one of these wonderful old
Speaker 1: fashioned things called a conversation. A conversation, well, I love
Speaker 1: the very fusion, and I don't put any sweetener in it,
Speaker 1: because you're right, it's very sweet, not overly sweet, but
Speaker 1: just that hint of sweetness that's delightful. And the conversation,
Speaker 1: the art of conversation is disappearing. Sadly. I just read
Speaker 1: a study the other day that said, the the average
Speaker 1: young person checks their phone for social media interaction. Guess
Speaker 1: how many times? Guess what the the what would you say?
Speaker 1: The length of time between checking your phone is for
Speaker 1: the average person three and a half minutes, every three
Speaker 1: and a half minutes. People between the ages they could
Speaker 1: in that three and a half minutes, but people between
Speaker 1: the ages, there was like ten thousand people studied between
Speaker 1: the ages of fourteen and thirty five three and a
Speaker 1: half minutes. They check their social media every three and
Speaker 1: a half minutes. And there's actually dopamine that's released in
Speaker 1: your brain when you've become addicted to social media, and
Speaker 1: that's replacing conversation. So we need to bring that back
Speaker 1: with a cup of tea and a conversation about family,
Speaker 1: about friends, about passions, about hobbies. So do you have
Speaker 1: a hobby besides blending tea? Steven, the good Lady has
Speaker 1: a horse, so that takes up quite a bit of time.
Speaker 1: We have a lovely little rescue dog, and so is
Speaker 1: he and I got out for long country walks when
Speaker 1: she's off with Johnny the horse, and we play a
Speaker 1: bit of tennis. We love our garden and yeah, so
Speaker 1: this is all goes perfect with tea everything. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you have like the mug that has the lid
Speaker 1: on it so you can take it on your walk
Speaker 1: with your dog? No? But part of the just going
Speaker 1: a little bit further is when I get back, when
Speaker 1: I get i's waiting, I get the tea. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: actually take mine with me with the dogs. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have a husband, got me a green tea cup that
Speaker 1: has the lid on it so when I walk the dirt,
Speaker 1: so I can take my tea with me. Yeah, very nice.
Speaker 1: And what kind of horse? It's an old race horse
Speaker 1: that she bread many years ago. More of a friend
Speaker 1: than an old racehorse. No such thing as an old
Speaker 1: racehorse doesn't matter. He's still a racehorse in and his
Speaker 1: head still a racehorse. So that tells me that your
Speaker 1: sweet lady must have a very strong will, because you
Speaker 1: do not ride a racehorse unless the racehorse knows that
Speaker 1: you are the boss absolutely otherwise you are quickly quickly dismounted. Yes,
Speaker 1: so she must have a very strong will. Do good
Speaker 1: for her. And this was she actually has had this
Speaker 1: horse from birth from she bred. Wow. So this is
Speaker 1: a long standing relationship. And I have to tell you
Speaker 1: that if if it ever came down to you or
Speaker 1: the horse, the horse would get preference. I know my place.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy. I don't have any aspirations. I know
Speaker 1: where I sit in the world, and that's good as
Speaker 1: as somebody who had to clean my boots before I
Speaker 1: came to this meeting today because I wrote them riding yesterday.
Speaker 1: I can tell you she has a very strong will,
Speaker 1: your beloved. What's her favorite cup of tea after she
Speaker 1: rides the horse. She likes the multiness you get out
Speaker 1: of an assam, which is a t Actually I can
Speaker 1: talk about it all day, but I'm afraid it's not
Speaker 1: available here in America. Why because we used to try
Speaker 1: and sell it to you and you said no, thank you,
Speaker 1: really knuckleheads that we are, I didn't say that. Well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to get me some so I can
Speaker 1: because as soon as I am off the horse and
Speaker 1: the horses groomed and put back, I literally run to
Speaker 1: the house for a cup of tea. They just go.
Speaker 1: They're just perfect. It's the perfect marriage brisk ride, especially
Speaker 1: this time of year. And then a cup of hot tea,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to introduce me to your your
Speaker 1: beloved's favorite certainly be my pleasure. Now what kind of
Speaker 1: dog you said? You have a rescued Uh In England
Speaker 1: we call them hens and otherwise say lots of contributions. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's a little little girl. Came from Portugal originally, and
Speaker 1: now I found a very happy home to be in,
Speaker 1: very good Well, it sounds like you have a blessed
Speaker 1: life and you have blessed us with tea, and I
Speaker 1: thank you. I think your father, your grandfather, your great grandfather,
Speaker 1: clear on back through the ten generations of twinings in London. Now,
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to share some tips with my
Speaker 1: listeners on how we can relax and restore truly be
Speaker 1: your best blend during this time of year, when let's
Speaker 1: face it, everything is going crazy, work schedules, holiday party,
Speaker 1: school plays, Christmas parties and so on. In the midst
Speaker 1: of all that, tell me share with my listeners, why
Speaker 1: is it the Twinings tea chest one sip, one savory
Speaker 1: sip has such a calming and relaxing effect on us.
Speaker 1: Going through the steps to make that perfect cavite is
Speaker 1: actually very therapeutic, and tea is meant to be savored definitely.
Speaker 1: Our seventeen varieties of Homal teas have an emphasis on flavor,
Speaker 1: especially the newest blends, the Buttermint, Lemon Delight and Berry Fusion.
Speaker 1: Our nine master blenders use the finest herbs, fruits and
Speaker 1: spices from around the world. I love a cover of
Speaker 1: Berry Fusion. It has the perfect touch of natural sweetness.
Speaker 1: It slows me down and keeps me going at the
Speaker 1: same time. At Twining, we call that being your best blend.
Speaker 1: By the way, everyone, I'm here with Stephen Twining of
Speaker 1: Twinings of London, sharing some tea time together in the
Speaker 1: studio and sharing herbal tea, talking about how to be
Speaker 1: your best blend, sharing some holiday season relaxation tips, and
Speaker 1: reminding you to treat yourself, because, as we all know
Speaker 1: all too well, there's almost no relaxation during the holidays. Stephen,
Speaker 1: do you treat yourself of every daily Lilah, and tea
Speaker 1: is always involved. Oh, I like a nice warm scone
Speaker 1: or a piece of homemade pie with some nice hot tea. Indeed,
Speaker 1: our herbal teas are blended to be a treat for
Speaker 1: the senses. That's the experience our nine master tea blenders
Speaker 1: work to create. We always use the finest herbs, fruits,
Speaker 1: and spices to create that perfect tea experience. I think
Speaker 1: there's a cup of Twinings Herbal Berry Fusion in my future.
Speaker 1: Now that's the spirit, Delilah. That's how you become your
Speaker 1: best blend. Speaking of being your best blends, I just
Speaker 1: love this butterment Twinings tea. Stephen. When we think about
Speaker 1: this holiday season, we always prepare to be too busy.
Speaker 1: Now I want to tell people to slow down, to reconnect,
Speaker 1: to take the time to just be be with the
Speaker 1: ones we love. But you, Stephen, you and your family,
Speaker 1: the Twinings family, have more than just a little expertise
Speaker 1: on how to get people to slow down and reconnect. Yes,
Speaker 1: my family is being people together over a cup of
Speaker 1: tea for over three hundred years. Three hundred years of
Speaker 1: tea is amazing, and sharing tea together is such a
Speaker 1: great way to slow down and have a conversation. I
Speaker 1: love your herbal teas. They're blended to be lingered over.
Speaker 1: Our nine master blenders use the finest herbs, fruits, and
Speaker 1: spices to create unique flavors in seventeen varieties. The newest
Speaker 1: blends include buttermint, berry Fusion and Lemon Delight. We're reconnecting.
Speaker 1: Did you bring me any tea? Stephen? I never walk
Speaker 1: out the door without some thank you. We need to
Speaker 1: get some more hot water, A little more hot water
Speaker 1: in the studio here so we can brew our next
Speaker 1: cup of Twinings tea and Stephen. During the holidays, it's
Speaker 1: always a good idea to schedule escape time. Escape time
Speaker 1: from the craziness and regroup. Where is your quick escape hideaway?
Speaker 1: I retreat to my study with a cup of herbal tea.
Speaker 1: Herbal tea is perfect for unwinding. Our nine master blenders
Speaker 1: crafts seventeen varieties of Twining's herbal tea to create the
Speaker 1: perfect balance of taste, flavor, and aroma. I just love
Speaker 1: sitting with a cup of your buttermin herbal tea. It
Speaker 1: is such a smooth peppermint and vanilla flavor. It's like
Speaker 1: many vacation At Twinings, we want to help create that
Speaker 1: moment of relaxation and use the tea break as an
Speaker 1: escape so you can be your best blend. I'm going
Speaker 1: to ask you to give us a holiday tip this week.
Speaker 1: How do you how do you handle the constant non
Speaker 1: staff of the holidays. Well, as you know, we the
Speaker 1: British take a break. That's what tea time is all about. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I do love relaxing with some tea. Twinings herbals are
Speaker 1: meant for relaxation. To Lilah, there about savoring the flavor.
Speaker 1: The aroma are nine master blenders use the finest herbs
Speaker 1: and fruits and spices to create that experience. When you
Speaker 1: can take a break and refresh yourself, you can be
Speaker 1: your best blend. I agree completely. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if you just joined us here on the podcast, I'm
Speaker 1: here in the studio with Stephen Twining of Twining of
Speaker 1: London Life with me right here. I love tea. I've
Speaker 1: been a tea drinker my whole life. I'm not a
Speaker 1: coffee drinker. I'm a tea drinker, and we've got cups
Speaker 1: of Twinings tea brewing here in the studio. We are
Speaker 1: enjoying wonderful conversation together. Now, Stephen, tell me who is
Speaker 1: interning under you? Who is who is now learning the
Speaker 1: secrets of tea from you at the moment? No one
Speaker 1: but we. I have my fingers recently family crossed because
Speaker 1: I have a couple of nephews as well as my
Speaker 1: son and my daughter, and it could well be my
Speaker 1: daughter we had I talked about Daniel's son of Thomas.
Speaker 1: He actually died quite young before his second son could
Speaker 1: join him in the business. And she ran our business
Speaker 1: for some twenty one years at the end of the
Speaker 1: eighteenth century, which was incredible. Wow, that was back before
Speaker 1: women were allowed to do such. Exactly now did she
Speaker 1: have to sign her name as her husband's name. She
Speaker 1: was respected for being in the business because she'd obviously
Speaker 1: been helping him husband before he died and had the knowledge,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I took the business forwards. Wow, that is wonderful.
Speaker 1: So strong women and family love and natural good, healthy,
Speaker 1: wonderful ingredients. Life doesn't get any better than that. Don't.
Speaker 1: So I will tell all my listeners all the time
Speaker 1: when they need to relax or in the morning, when
Speaker 1: you need to kick it in the high gear. Your
Speaker 1: English Breakfast does that for me, does it very well.
Speaker 1: The only time I don't drink English Breakfast in the
Speaker 1: morning is if I've been to a particularly good party
Speaker 1: the night before and might have to kick it up
Speaker 1: a gear to the Irish breakfast. Ah. Now that's something
Speaker 1: I will keep in mind. Not that I ever go
Speaker 1: to parties the night before, but my husband and I
Speaker 1: just recently got custody of a two year old foster child,
Speaker 1: so my parties the night before are screaming baby at
Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning. Yeah yeah, On those next mornings,
Speaker 1: the English Breakfast will be replacing the Irish Breakfast, will
Speaker 1: replace the English breakfast, or maybe I'll do a double bag.
Speaker 1: I've actually done that with some of your tease, because
Speaker 1: I love the very fusion. I love the flavor of it,
Speaker 1: but I need the caffeine from the English Breakfast, and
Speaker 1: I'll double bag in a in a big, big yeah,
Speaker 1: so I get the flavor, but I'm so good. Oh,
Speaker 1: this has been delightful, Stephen. Thank you It's been my
Speaker 1: absolute pleasure. God bless you. Thank you to Twinings for
Speaker 1: being a part of the Delilah Show, but from my heart,
Speaker 1: thank you for just making such a fabulous cup of tea.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful to meet such a fabulous customer. Stephen Twining,
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing conversations with Delilah.