Low-calorie Chocolate Tea, Anyone?
May 17, 2013
Twins Jodi and Stella Kean initially planned on having a tea bar, but when such plan didn't come about, they started their own novelty tea business.
"When the lease on the shop fell through we came up with the idea for choclateas. I don't think people realize how many calories and how much sugar is in a cup of hot chocolate. We wanted to create something that felt like a treat but was healthy," the Daily Express quoted Stella as saying.
They found a tea supplier and worked with an array of different flavors to come up with their tea containing fewer than 20 calories per cup. Last December, the twins were given start-up loans of 5,500 pounds. Melissa Middleton, who has plenty of businesses in the Newscastle area, also became their mentor.
"We struggled a bit at the start to get the contacts we needed to sell our teas. Melissa kept us on the right track and told us how to attract customers," Stella said.
Almost year was spent just perfecting the flavors they were striving for, considering they had to know the right ratio of tea to chocolate. What other method would they use besides the undying trial and error?
"The main taste you get is tea, followed by the undertone of the flavor, such as pure dark chocolate and cocoa powder in the traditional-style choclatea," she said.
Among the other flavors in this particular range are chilli chocolate, peppermint chocolate, vanilla chocolate, and wild berry chocolate.
Their loans were also used in producing their second line of teas, sweeteas. They base this on traditional sweetshop favorites like rhubarb and custard, mint humbugs, liquorice wheels, and lemon sherbet. They also plan on having other lines of tea flavors and are on the lookout for 150,000 pounds turnover within the span of five years.
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