Tea News Blog

We did not just beat the World Record - we obliterated it. The American record stood at 68.5kg. The new British record, that we set this afternoon, is now 120kg.

So why did we bother?

Tea is a product that typifies the British way of life. I wanted to create an opportunity to showcase tea, and to tell people that the tea the drink every day can be so much better than they realise. Tea in the supermarkets has declined in quality year by year. My goal is to play my small part in reversing that trend.

Portsmouth is a city with a great maritime and naval history. HMS Warrior typifies that history, and she provides an excellent location in the Historic Dockyard where people can look out and see the ships coming in and out of the harbour, as they have done for hundreds of years.

It was me that answered the phone. Guinness World Records needed someone to break a world record that could represent the British way of life. The annual day of world records is a global event with events in many countries. They asked if we could break the record for the world's largest teabag. The record suited their needs perfectly, since tea is typically British and yet is also a global commodity which All About Tea trades all around the world.

I was happy to help. In fact, we had been thinking along these lines already. The British people love their tea. Portsmouth is a proud maritime city. It was in Portsmouth that Catherine of Braganza first introduced tea to England. What a fantastic way to celebrate the new Portsmouth Tea blend!

Hopes of lasting peace in Darjeeling are high. An historic deal today creates a new administrative region for the Gorkha tribes. Protests, sometimes violent, have been continuing in the region since the 1980s and caused great damage to the tea and tourist industries. Each year, the first flush tea season is troubled by blockades and strikes, at great cost to the plantations.

Gorkhas overjoyed

Screams of delight from the Gorkhas greeted the signing of a 16-page Memorandum of Agreement in the village of Pintail, 380m from Kolkata, on Monday. It brings into being the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The administration will be in charge of welfare, education, health, public building projects and forests.

Passionate support from Banerjee

The new Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, spoke passionately about the agreement: