The UK’s first pub that serves only loose-leaf tea and tea-based cocktails has launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, ahead of a proposed opening in South London this autumn.
Brew will feature the “rich atmosphere” of a pub but will offer a menu of freshly brewed loose-leaf tea and tea cocktails such as Earl Grey and tonic, Oolong martinis, and Lapsang old fashioned. At the time of writing, the company had received £117,500 of its £180,000 goal – almost three weeks into the campaign, with a further 27 days left to finance its campaign – from more than 100 separate investors.
The money will be used to set up the first Brew pub, including decorating the site and buying specialist tea making equipment, teapots and cups. It will also partner with charities such as Switchback to offer work experience opportunities to ex-offenders, and buy tea in bulk from small-scale farmers in south Asia, guaranteeing a better price for their tea.
The company behind the campaign, Albion Tea, has offered equity of 27.8%, valuing the concept at nearly £650,000.
The idea stems from Albion Tea founder Alex Holland, who was surprised by the superiority of loose-leaf tea over teabags in a “greasy spoon”-type café in London. Brew “is on a mission to restore prestige to our national drink by converting you to loose-leaf tea,” the company wrote in its initial Crowdcube pitch.
Holland said: “Brew is a place that serves exceptional tea but instead of in a starkly lit café, it’s got the rich atmosphere of a pub.
“We’re going to open the first Brew in South London. After that’s been running for 14–18 months, we will look to open a second Brew in East London, run that for a year to prove it can work in another area, and then we’ll take on a large round of finance to go for rapid expansion.”
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