Quinteassential's founder and tea designer, Bernadine Tay, used her science background to compose a veritable symphony of blends using only the finest quality grade of leaf tea, herbs, fruits and flowers.
Our tea guru doesn’t just create wonderful blends for our own small business, Bernadine has also crafted custom blends for many other wonderful clients including The Midland Hotel, Hakkasan, Wedgwood, Amanda Wakeley and even the Queen.
Not only a highly trained tea sommelier, Bernadine is also a tea judge, business coach and a founding member of the European Speciality Tea Association.
Bernadine is a natural storyteller; inspiration for her inimitable blends has been steeped with the colourful experiences she’s encountered during her travels. From this, each of our blends has its own unique story and soothing soundtrack, which we call the Quinteassential experience.
Enjoy a cup of Quinteassential tea, which will entice each and every sense, allowing you to relax and escape so that you can enjoy your perfect 'Me Moment'.
Capture Your Perfect 'Me Moment' With Quinteassential Fine Teas
CLICK HERE TO SHOP ALL TEASARMED with a degree in biomedical science from King’s College, London, Bernadine initially started a promising career in marketing.
However, the world of tea -her true love - was calling her and she made the first steps to pursue her dream of starting a quality-driven tea business.
With the conceptual vision of our teas clearly formed in her psyche, in 2010 Bernadine started selling her unique blends in the speciality and farmers’ markets of England’s North West.
Quinteassential was born!
WHILST gradually garnering a loyal customer following, selling directly to the public gave Bernadine invaluable market insight.
Using this knowledge, our budding tea designer created new blends and refined her skills learning about the likes and dislikes of the discerning British teadrinker.
To this day, we pride ourselves in our ability to translate our customers’ thirst into inimitable tea blends.
Now set up as a registered business, Bernadine’s efforts were recognised through winning multiple Great Taste awards within this period.
THE demand for our speciality teas grew ever stronger with lots of hospitality businesses wanting to serve our distinct blends in their fine establishments.
Notwithstanding an enforced year-long hiatus due to a serious back injury, Bernadine recruited her first team members to help her build on these emerging successes.
An invitation to take tea with the descendant of the original Earl Grey at his Northumberland Country Estate, led to the creation of one of our most popular tea blends to date, Imperial Earl Grey.
We also launched our first iteration of the Quinteassential website, making our teas available to tea drinkers worldwide.
QUINTEASSENTIAL’S peerless ability to fuse exquisite design with sustainability and technology was recognised by earning best in class at the venerable Luxury Packaging Awards.
The ceremony held at London’s Dorchester Hotel in September 2016 featured our re-fillable loose leaf tea box as the star of the show.
The caddy design served well in keeping our teas in top condition, whilst the QR code on the packaging triggered a unique soundtrack that acted as a tea-timer.
This creates a multi-sensory tea experience that remains immensely popular with our audience.
We also started on the path to becoming a plastics free company.
BY 2018 our teas became firm favourites in diverse hospitality businesses, ranging from Michelin-starred restaurants and classic tea rooms to luxury hotels and resorts the world over.
We also saw a growth in customers active in other industries, customers who sought to use our superlative tea as an ingredient - Artisan brewers and gin distillers, in particular.
Also during this period, we were proud to have stood at the inception of the European Speciality Tea Association through which we are able to fly the flag for quality tea.
As well as bringing to market environmentally-friendly pyramid teabags for a quick-to-brew fix maintaining the quality of our loose leaf tea.
And to conclude 2020, we were over the moon to land the title of “Most Innovative Tea Company” at the Lux Life hosted 2020 Food & Drink Awards.
TODAY, Quinteassential has developed into a much-doted, independent, values-driven and family owned British tea brand.
We brighten the lives of our customers through engendering innovative, colourful flavour experiences that cleanse, nurture, restore and provide enjoyment by harnessing the superpower of tea.
Our teas can be relished in more than 50 top hospitality establishments in the UK and even more across the globe.
We partnered up with one of Europe’s leading distributers of quality teaware, allowing us to provide the ultimate tea package to our business and retail customers.
We’ll soon be expanding our existing tea range, staying true to our heritage and comprehensive scientific knowledge, only ever using natural ingredients and coherent provenance.
OUR VALUES AND WHAT OUR TEA STANDS FOR
Health and wellbeing:
Our success depends on supporting our customers health and wellbeing. We create healthy, focused products and experiences that inspire positivity in keeping with the Quinteassential life.
Sustainable partnership:
Winning together to empower business. Using consumer-focused business strategies, we are committed to sustainable profitability with honest collaboration, powered by technology and innovation.
Environmentally-friendly:
We aim to eliminate any waste we product as part of our process, we do this by recycling, reusing and repurposing.
Connecting cultures:
We aim to convey the joy of understanding different cultural tea habits that fosters cultural connections. Through our marketing communications, recipe creations and training programmes, we infuse knowledge sharing of tea and cultures.
Embracing adventures:
Our blend creations are with imbued Eastern and Western influences. They are a reflection of our founder and tea designer’s heritage and upbringing that straddles both East and West. Through our blends, we hope to influence the industry with creative thinking and inspire change.
Experience the Quinteassential Life and capture your perfect 'Me Moment', when you try our delicious blends.