March 8th is Internationa Women’s Day, the best day to launch our newest product the “Reusable Tea Bags” We chose the international women’s day to launch this product because of the women’s place in tea history. The more I researched about the history of the tea the more I realized how women influenced the culture around tea, tea houses, and afternoon teas. More importantly?how the introduction of tea slowly changed women’s status and became empowering.

Equal opportunity beverage

The first public sale of tea was in 1657 at Garway’s Coffee House in London. In those days coffee houses wouldn’t let women in, they were men inclusive. In 1717 Mr. Thomas Twining, a forward-thinking?man, recognized the importance of an inclusive consumer market. Changed the name of his establishment from Tom’s Coffee House to The Golden Lyon, started serving both coffee and tea and opened the door to women in his coffee house and other coffee houses in the future.

A Financial Salvation

Running a little tea room was a socially acceptable way for women to make a living and thus a financial salvation for a lot of women. They could even run the tea room out of their home and the entertainment area.

At the point in history that women couldn’t hold a title to a property in their own name and were not able to vote, there were some who were notable in the history of tea in the western world.

Today we celebrate women who used tea as their voice to make a difference in their lives and their community.

Elizabeth Ruby the proprietor of “The Tea Room” designed her tea house in a way that was enjoyable both by men and women.

Maria Tewkes of York, the first female tea merchant,

Penelope Barker of Edenton, North Carolina who organized a political “Tea Party” which fired the American Revolution.?There is still a large commemorative monument in Edenton that has an oversized teapot as part of her movement.

Anna, Duchess of Bedford, who is considered the inventor of the afternoon teatime

We are launching our?newest product on International Women’s day. A product that I think has a lot to say about women and their roll in history and how they influenced the history, sometimes not in so subtle ways.

So let’s raise our teacups and celebrate women and the launch of our reusable tea bags 🙂

Happy Women’s Day!