Hoogly Blogs / Plastic free

A Journey into Hoogly Tea: Embracing Flavour, Wellness, and Sustainability

In a world of ever-growing tea varieties, one brand stands out for its unique blend of flavours, wellness benefits, and commitment to sustainability. That brand is Hoogly Tea. Founded with a deep passion for hygge, the Danish concept of comfort and coziness, Hoogly Tea has crafted a range of teas that blend classic and exotic ingredients to offer the ultimate tea-drinking experience. But Hoogly Tea isn’t just about great taste; they’re on a mission to embrace sustainability through innovative packaging and responsible practices. Let’s dive into the world of Hoogly Tea, discover who they are, and learn about their journey towards sustainable, eco-friendly tea production.

Who Are Hoogly Tea?

Based in the UK, Hoogly Tea is known for its creative and carefully crafted tea blends, offering everything from traditional favourites like Earl Grey and English Breakfast to more adventurous flavours like Rhubarb & Vanillaand Cocoa & Chilli Chai. Each blend is designed to evoke a sense of tranquillity, allowing you to enjoy a moment of hygge in your busy day.

Their journey

Since its inception, Hoogly Tea has been on a remarkable journey, growing from a small tea brand to a recognized name in the wellness and specialty tea market. With an emphasis on premium, ethically sourced ingredients, Hoogly Tea ensures that every cup delivers quality and consistency.

A key turning point in Hoogly’s journey came when they made a decisive shift towards sustainability. Recognizing the impact of packaging waste on the environment, Hoogly Tea began exploring eco-friendly alternatives. This led to their partnership with Parkside Flex, a leading provider of compostable packaging solutions. Together, they introduced 100% compostable tea packaging, a bold step that showcases Hoogly’s commitment to the planet.

Why Choose Sustainable Packaging?

In an era where consumers are increasingly conscious of their environmental footprint, Hoogly Tea understands the importance of reducing waste. The tea industry, like many others, has long been associated with single-use plastics and non-recyclable materials, contributing to the global issue of plastic pollution. Hoogly Tea wanted to break away from this mold and adopt a more sustainable approach to packaging.

The innovative packaging is made from bio-based materials, which break down completely in a home compost environment, leaving no trace of microplastics or harmful residues. By using compostable packaging, Hoogly Tea ensures that the lifecycle of their products is as sustainable as possible, from production to disposal.

Incorporating sustainable practices is not just a business decision for Hoogly; it’s part of their broader mission to promote well-being and harmony with nature. Their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint aligns perfectly with their core philosophy: to create moments of comfort and calm while protecting the planet.

Hoogly Tea’s commitment to sustainability is ongoing. As the company continues to expand its reach, they are focused on further reducing their environmental impact, whether through sourcing ingredients responsibly, minimizing waste, or exploring new ways to innovate within the tea industry.

Hoogly Tea’s journey—from its roots in hygge-inspired teas to its leadership in sustainable packaging—serves as an inspiring example of how businesses can grow while staying true to their values. With each cup of Hoogly tea, you’re not just savouring unique flavours; you’re supporting a brand that cares about your well-being and the health of the planet.

So, next time you brew a cup of Hoogly Tea, take a moment to appreciate the comforting warmth, the carefully curated ingredients, and the innovative packaging that all contribute to a better, more sustainable future.

Written by Charles Hope

https://www.charleshope.co.uk

Posted on November 01, 2024

Tagged: Apartment stays, fully compostable, hotel rooms tea, Independent tea company, luxury tea, Natural teas, plastic free, plastic free teabags, sustainability, teabags, vegan, Wellness

Hampers and corporate gifting.

Corporate gifting is something that we really love here at Hoogly. We adore it when people ask us to be involved in their hampers. Our teapods, which offer 5 of our unique flavours in teabag form, are the perfect addition to any hamper. We have teas to fit every season, so they can be slipped in as a Christmas thank-you present or perhaps as congratulations to someone who has just completed their first deal.

Let’s step back a little, though, to the origins of the hamper. The hamper is, in most of our minds, synonymous with traditional British family life. I experienced my own pastiche form of this. I remember well the excitement of filling it up with all the things we would eat, the blankets slung on precariously. These trips to various beauty spots for a picnic were an integral part of my childhood. Growing up in Kent, we had the North Downs to contend with, a 153-mile stretch of chalk escarpment, wooded for the most part, covered with wildflowers and cows where it wasn’t. We could also turn north, out to the marshes, to Dickens country, where the land became a little murkier. Still cows, of course, just sunken a little. Since I am not an Arthur Ransome character, I never quite experienced the picnic hamper at its peak. Lashings of ginger beer and corned beef sandwiches. I had to settle for supermarket pork pies and scotch eggs. For nectarines, not freshly scrumped apples (orchards in Kent are a serious business. I couldn’t dig like Mr Fox).

While this, the early twentieth-century British countryside picnic, is no doubt what we think of when we think of the hamper, its origins lie elsewhere. Originating from the Old English "hamper," meaning literally "wicker container," they are, in fact, an invention of medieval Europe. Not used for a picnic, but rather as a cheap box used for transporting food and clothes across great distances. It was as late as the Victorian era when they began to be used for picnics. It was also in this period where we see them begin to be used for gifts. Various artisanal products presented in a hamper for Christmas became a staple of Victorian society.

From this, the idea of corporate gift-giving flourished. Around the midpoint of the twentieth century, companies began to give hampers as gifts to clients. As trade flourished across borders and industries, the concept of sitting down and discussing business began to decline. Phones, for the most part, dealt with day-to-day administration, but, as we have all witnessed, they are less reliable for expressing gratitude. Suddenly, your grandma's Christmas hamper became a revolutionary product. Is there a better way to say thank you to a client if you couldn’t necessarily

be there, or as personalised staff gifts in the increasingly impersonal office environments? Indeed, they became a market in and of themselves, with companies offering to create the hampers for their various corporate clients.

As can be imagined, the internet was a major driving force in the growth of the industry we see today. The internet has allowed the flourishing of smaller craft industries, due to its eradication of barriers to entry, increasing the distances that we can trade with. Whereas before, chances are a quick trip along the high street would be all that could be done, now we have access to pretty much every small seller across the country. The hamper symbolically travels across those same distances it did in medieval Europe, only perhaps with a few more ribbons attached.

The internet also has a habit of reviving cultural moments, long forgotten even by the people within them. The hamper in its wicker container has come full circle and is back with us. While the internet helps to repopulate, the growth is no doubt as a result of increasing interests in sustainability, since wicker is a regenerative material.

We are proud to have been a part of that boom in luxury artisanal products at Hoogly. We embrace the importance of smaller sellers and are driven by sustainability. Our teapods are fully compostable and biodegradable. For a summer hamper, I would recommend one of our white teas, particularly Sparkling White, which is probably our most luxurious tea. Champagne in a mug! For the winter, any of our black teas or rooibos are perfect. Can you imagine anything better than our Chocolate Brownie Tea, for instance, on a cold winter's night?

Written by Euan Reid

www.hooglytea.com

Posted on August 26, 2023

Tagged: black teas, corporate gifts, flavoured teas, fully biodegradable, gifts, hampers, herbal, natural ingredients, no plastic, parcel, picnic, plastic free, surprise, tea, tea pyramid bags, thank you gift, treat someone, treats, vegan

Daily Rituals

Hello all!! March is finally here, and with that comes the knowledge winter is drawing to a close. I say knowledge rather than awareness because you wouldn’t think it from this weather!
This winter has made me think a lot about the mechanisms we use in our day to day lives to cope with fast changing events. I was recently reading ‘Thousand Cranes’, by Yasunari Kawabata, a beautiful novel in which the narrator describes the various relationships he has had across his life, and his attempt to come to terms with the inherent uncertainty which comes from relationships. Set against a backdrop of Post World War Two Japan, it evolves to become a tale of how to cope with the broader changes and uncertainties which came from the latter half of the 20th century. Kawabata develops this meaning very slowly, almost without you even noticing, utilising prose that evokes a portrait of quiet , micro-emotions, whether that be happiness, yearning, or even despair.

Among the strongest of relationships that the narrator has, and what drew me first to the novel, is with that of the Japanese matcha tea ritual, which becomes a symbol for the uncertainty present throughout the text. As the novel progresses, the narrator becomes disheartened by the power both himself and those around him place upon the ceremony. What follows is a novel driven by its characters' use of, and indeed, reliance upon, rituals. Rituals become a symbol of solace but also of a removal from the everyday reality which comes from uncertainty. A performative way to reject existence without finding any meaning in that rejection. It is this which I think of first when I am forced to think of my own rituals; funny, old fashioned sounding things, passed down from parent to parent. Presents before or after food at Christmas. A Roast Dinner only allowed on Sunday.

As I think more about these rituals though, it becomes clear to me that while they may very well be pointless, they are also pivotal to our relationship with those events. As soon as I try and imagine Christmas with presents in the order I don’t expect them, a cold dread fills me. It may not matter, of course it doesn't, but I can’t change how it makes me feel. The beauty of Kawabata’s novel is that there is also power which comes from rituals. They are

simultaneously a marker of the most important and also of the most superficial aspects of the world.

Following on from this, I believe that rituals represent the small parts of our individual lives which keep us tethered to our sense of self in an increasingly discordant world. Inter connectivity might be all anyone ever talks about. We have all doom scrolled around the horrors of social media and of the decline of the high street. But while we don’t all need to be shaking our fists and railing against technical progress, which has really been quite beneficial to all of our lives, we do need to remember certain things. As everything becomes more and more interconnected, our bodies swept along into vast neurological networks, it seems like we all do need to keep something that is entirely our own. To me, rituals are the tiny, almost inconsequential things which invert my life from that network. They are my own, established not in laboratories or dictated to me through instruction Manuals. Little things, perhaps irrational, which I have gathered from my own praxis, with the only end in sight being my own sense of peace. It is important, I think, to stop us from becoming entirely caught up in efficiency and time-management. Sometimes it's good to do things a bit slow, a bit silly.

For better or for worse then, rituals are an integral part of how we cope with the world. Of Course we at Hoogly cannot offer quite such a ritual, but I think there is something in our message which attempts to construct some sense of ritual back into life. I walk into the kitchen to make myself a cup. Danish pastry I think this time. I measure out the tea, place it in the teapot, pour water at the correct temperature, turn over the timer, and wait. I then pour out the tea into a cup. Drinking it slowly I think of other things I do, other repetitive acts which I really don’t need to do in quite such elaborate detail, but which I do anyway, and which, when I do them , make me feel a whole lot better. I always walk in a circle to work and back home. There is no requirement as to which way I walk, in fact it changes daily. But if I walk one direction in then I have to walk the other way back. I can’t really think why but I know that it helps. I hope you all go and make a cup of tea after reading this, and as you make it,

think of all the little things you do each day which made this winter not just bearable, but enjoyable.

Written by Euan Reid

www.hooglytea.com

Posted on March 06, 2023

Tagged: hygge, matcha, natural, plastic free, ritual, tea, tea ritual, vegan, well being, winter, Yasunari Kawabata

HIGH RESOLUTION

Hello and a Hoogly New Year to you all! It’s that time of year again; a time of reset and resolution; a time of looking forward to the months ahead; of new challenges and high expectations; of learning from our mistakes and setbacks in an attempt to do better this time round. At Hoogly, we are always searching for ways to help you feel happy and empowered, and this month we are sharing our top tips for achievable New Year’s Resolutions. Obviously, drinking more Hoogly Tea is the number one target for 2023, because this is a sure-fire way to tranquillity and mindful bliss—but we also have a whole load of equally amazing suggestions, so buckle up and see if any of these ideas strikes a chord…

Boundaries. This is a tricky one to get right, but hugely beneficial in the long run. Learn to say no in the right way and at the right time. If you can master this simple-sounding (but often difficult) act, you will find yourself with more time, more productivity, more belief in yourself and a good work-life balance.
Become a better listener. Give people around you the time and space to express themselves. Active listening will make others feel respected, valued and understood, and the feelings will usually be reciprocal.
Mind-wandering. Give your brain the space to make connections and form ideas without the constant interruption of technology or conversation. Allow your thoughts the silence they need to coalesce, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much your focus and creativity is bolstered.
Social Media time out. Maybe start with a ban on checking your socials first thing in the morning and last thing at night. If you can, expand the times when you are tech-free, and attempt wherever possible to avoid ‘doom-scrolling,’ endlessly swiping through content that lasts only for a few seconds. Engage in an activity that fills you with joy, one that makes time melt away in a positive way, and focus exclusively on being present in that activity. Your mind will thank you.
Be health-conscious. This doesn’t mean an all-out blitz on every aspect of your life, but small and positive changes as you are able. Walk or cycle instead of driving where possible. Dodge the lift and take the stairs. Eat an apple instead of a chocolate bar. Chose proteins over trans-fats. Drink less coffee and add more water. Even doing these things once or twice a week can make a big difference, and the positive changes you notice might just motivate you to continue!
Gratitude. Start a journal and jot down three things each day that you’re thankful for. It can be big or small, getting a new job or simply narrowly avoiding a downpour. Go back over these notes every night and focus on the positive things in your life, gently pushing away negativity.
Read more books. Of course, this requires a certain investment of time, but if you can carve out some moments from your schedule, this traditional hobby is a hugely mindful way of relaxing, as well as offering (depending on the genre) excitement, cosiness, educational value or a darn good fright!
Drink more Hoogly Tea. This comes in at number 8, despite being the most valuable item on our list! As you know, being more Hoogly is about tapping into the Danish sense of cosy, calm and joyful living, focussing on the things that matter most in your life, and treating yourself to things that put a smile on your face. It is about slowing down and appreciating the people, places and hobbies that we love; it’s about being kind to yourself; it’s about fluffy socks, candlelight baths and baking cakes; it’s about board games with friends, light conversation for the sake of conversation, and surrounding yourself with people who make you feel special. And all this joyful Hooglyness has been condensed and curated into our wonderful selection of teas, offering you a tantalising treat to help you shed the day’s stresses and a deliciously Danish taste of comfort that you can turn to time and time again.

And now introducing our brand-new addition to the Hoogly shop: Silver Needle White Tea! This is the champagne of all white teas, utilising only the top buds of the Camellia Sinensis to produce beautifully smooth and elegant loose-leaf brew, ideal to send as a delightful gift to your nearest and dearest, or simply to enjoy as an indulgent treat for yourself.

If it’s possible, our next newcomer might be even more spectacular! Jasmine Flower Balls Green Tea are intricately hand-crafted, jasmine-scented Green Tea balls, whose blossoms unfurl as the brew infuses to reveal a stunning display of delicate flowers. This is a mesmerising spectacle, perfect for wowing guests on special occasions, and ideal for adding light and cheer to the dark winter months!

That’s it for now, Hoogly lovers. Good luck with your resolutions—stay safe and take care of each other!

Written by Chris Bedford

www.hooglytea.com

Posted on January 18, 2023

Tagged: biodegradable tea bags, books, celebration, cherish life, January, New Year, plastic free, resolutions, tea, try something new, vegan, well-being

Wabi-Sabi

Greetings Hoogly fans! I hope you are all safe and well. While we are still under the long shadow of the pandemic, I thought I’d share something I’d discovered over the last month that made me sit up and pay attention; something that offered a well-timed shift in perspective, and simply put a smile on my face. As with our company’s beloved Hygge ethos, the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi provides an inspiring and philosophical way of looking at the world, and—just like Hygge—offers a way of reducing stress and feeling better, even in difficult circumstances.

In essence, the ancient Japanese philosophy of Wabi-sabi seeks to counter the world’s obsession with perfection, trends and the purchase of new and fancy items. It views imperfection as meaningful and valid, and in its own way, beautiful. It offers a way to navigate the unpredictability of life by embracing the idea that all things pass, that what we have now is truly worthwhile, even if it is damaged or worn, as long as we love it, and appreciate it.

Wabi-sabi is a cracked and re-glued vase. It’s a misshapen, homegrown fruit or vegetable. It’s a Lego construction built from a box of leftover pieces. It’s an old floor with scuff marks that echo a life well-lived. It’s a button wonkily re-sewn on an old jacket. It asks us to appreciate simplicity, modesty and imperfection in all its guises. By learning to be content with our lot without yearning for more, we can select what we truly love and need, offering a cheery antidote to a materialistic, mass-produced society.

Wabi-Sabi can help us in our everyday lives, too. It allows us to pause and take a mindful step back from the relentless pursuit of perfection, offering the opportunity to count our blessings and rejoice in the way things are rather than the way they could be. It does not diminish or reject the complexity of life and its trials, but chooses to see life as temporary, incomplete and imperfect. A great example is the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which cracked pottery is filled with gold-dusted lacquer to highlight its age and imperfection rather than concealing it.

By utilizing seven Zen aesthetic principles, including Kanso: simplicity, Shibumi: beauty in the understated and Shizen: Naturalness without pretension, Wabi-sabi can also be used to help curate and shape your home. By following the principle of less-is-more, Wabi-sabi seeks to reduce consumption and lessen the strain on our planet. It allows us to appreciate the natural world around us and encourages us to incorporate long-lasting options like wood, steel and stone into open, spacey decors. If you can’t use these natural materials, then you can always take inspiration from nature in your choice of colours, suiting your mood and personality, and bringing a rustic, humble aesthetic into your life that will enable you to treasure the space around you, and imbibe its transience. By getting rid of unloved or unused items, you allow your most cherished items to flourish and shine, and you increase the tranquillity of your surroundings.

Hoogly fans will be delighted to learn that Wabi-Sabi has roots in a Japanese tea ceremony introduced by Zen monk Murata Shukō, who incorporated simple, plain and imperfect Japanese pottery and utensils into the original Chinese ceremony that was traditionally luxurious and lavish, in order to help guests better appreciate what was in front of them. Whereas guests had previously drunk tea and admired the full moon; Shukō wished them to appreciate a half-moon, or a moon covered by clouds. Shukō did not entirely replace the extravagance of the traditional ceremonies, choosing instead for coexistence, but he is credited as being the founder of the more minimalist Wabi-cha ceremony, which then led to Wabi-sabi.

And to celebrate Wabi-sabi, as well as Hygge, why not indulge in one of our most delicious brews, Apple Strudel, which combines Chinese and Japanese green teas, as well as a gorgeous combination of spices, fruit and petals, giving you a taste of the ancient, as well as a cheeky slice of Danish delight!

Until next time, stay safe, look after each other and try a little Wabi-sabi in your life!

Written by Chris Bedford

www.hooglytea.com

Posted on September 16, 2020

Tagged: cherish life, Chinese, enjoy, green, herbal infusions, hygge, Japanese way of life, mindfullness, natural, no sugar, philosphy, plastic free, relax, Tea, vegan, Wabi-Sabi, white tea, Zen, Zen monk Murata Shukō

A Time of Waste

Plastic is a pretty remarkable material. It’s cheap, strong, long-lasting, and can be made into any shape you can imagine. Humans are so enamoured with the invention that since the fifties, it’s estimated that we’ve created over eight billion metric tonnes of plastic. Although plastic has been put to good use and has been a success in many areas of our everyday lives, the impact of its supreme durability is now becoming horribly evident.

Nearly eighty percent of plastic made in the last seven decades has been discarded onto landfills or into the general environment. Less than ten percent is recycled, and the rest is incinerated. This has led scientists, conservationists and activists to call on the population, from top to bottom, to urgently reassess the way we think about and use plastic.

The statistics they cite are damning. More than 8 million tonnes of plastic finds its way into the sea each year, and some experts estimate that, by the middle of the century, there will be more plastic than fish, and that 99% of all seabirds will have eaten some plastic during their lives. The sea also contains over fifty trillion particles of micro-plastic—five hundred times the amount of stars in our galaxy. Sea turtles can mistake plastic bags for tasty jellyfish, floating plastic can tempt a swooping seagull, and young perch will readily eat plastic over plankton. Scientists think that this waste effects over six hundred species, and the damage done by consuming this indigestible poison is often lethal, which is not only an obvious disaster for the creatures themselves, but also has a knock-on effect on our species, as we eat so many sea-dwelling creatures ourselves. Owing to the fact that plastic can degrade into fragments tiny enough to pass through the gut and into the flesh of fish and other animals, we are already consuming the waste plastic that is polluting our oceans. This is not good news, as some plastic is toxic and can cause disruption to the normal functioning of hormones. Additionally, plastic has been known to attract other spilled pollutants and poisons like a magnet, which simply heightens the importance of removing it from our oceans.

It’s not just the sea that is affected, of course. There are over three hundred billion pieces of plastic in the once-pristine Artic, and some of the remote Pacific Islands have some of the highest levels of plastic pollution anywhere on the globe.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s now thought that plastic may be contaminating the air. Microparticles from cosmetics and microfibres from synthetic clothes wash into our sewage systems and enter treatment plants, finally finding their way into the sea. Some particles, however, combine with the sewage and are then used to fertilise farmers’ fields. Once these dry, and the wind picks up, these particles may be blown into the atmosphere where they can be inhaled as we go about our lives.

The good news is, the world is beginning to respond to the problem. The United Nations has engaged in a ‘War on Ocean Plastic,’ creating a CleanSeas campaign which have notable signatories, including the UK and France, Brazil and Italy. The UK itself has enforced a ban on microplastics in “rinse-off” cosmetics, and has tried to raise awareness in communities about the best ways to recycle, and how to avoid single-use plastics where possible.

And we at Hoogly are doing our part too. Our ethos, Hygge, is about being cosy and content, focussing on the things that bring you joy, and most importantly, being kind to yourself. But being cosy starts in your surroundings and your environment: we want the natural world, from which we take so much pleasure, to be as beautiful and healthy as possible, so that it can provide purity, safety and comfort to us now and in the future, helping us find balance and tranquillity in our everyday lives.

To this end, all of our tea pyramids are fully biodegradable, giving you peace of mind every time you flip on the kettle and indulge in our tasty range of brews. In addition to this, we will very soon be packaging and presenting our tea pyramids in fully biodegradable cellophane bags made from natural, renewable sources. The new NatureFlex bags are static-free, compostable, heat-seal viable, and won’t biodegrade on your shelf. So now you can relax, enjoy the Hoogly moment, safe in the knowledge that you’re sharing a smile with Mother Earth.

And if you’re looking for help navigating your way through our delicious selection of eclectic treats, look no further than our Hoogly Brew of the Week: Early Grey black tea. Our riff on an old classic provides the perfect way to unwind in style, with a delicate blend of Sri Lankan tea leaves, infused with bergamot oil and complemented by zesty lemon and sweet orange, offering a scintillating scent as well as a treat for the taste-buds!

That’s it for now. Until next time, look after yourself and the beautiful world around you—and don’t forget, for a huggable cuppa…it has to be Hoogly!

Written by Chris Bedford

www.hooglytea.com

Posted on August 19, 2019

Tagged: biodegradable tea bags, good for environment, good life, healthy indulgences, no chemicals, Plastic free, protect the planet, tea, tea pyramid bags, think before consuming, vegan, zero waste

Hoogly Blogs / Plastic free

A Journey into Hoogly Tea: Embracing Flavour, Wellness, and Sustainability

Who Are Hoogly Tea?

Their journey

Hampers and corporate gifting.

Daily Rituals

HIGH RESOLUTION

Wabi-Sabi

A Time of Waste

Your Order