Meet the people: take a look inside a Derbyshire tea lover’s heaven

Derbyshire Times

Run by Gail Hannan in Clay Cross, Cup and Saucer is the place to be for a quality cup of tea and a slice of locally made cake.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:11 I'm Gail and I'm the owner of Cup and Saucer and I'm based in Claycross.

00:17 I'm a tea blender and I've got a shop which is Tea Lovers Heaven.

00:22 So it's everything to do with tea.

00:25 You can buy teas or you can just come in and have a cup of tea and a piece of locally made cake.

00:31 Cup of tea and cake.

00:34 It's just so nice. I think a cup of tea made in a tea pot with a china cup and saucer

00:42 is just like a little ritual and it's just time for yourself just to sit and enjoy.

00:49 I get that people are at work, people are busy, when you're at work you just want to drink.

00:55 You're thirsty and want to drink so you just dump a tea bag in a mug and drink it.

00:59 But you're not enjoying it.

01:02 Whereas when people come in and they get the little tea pot, they get the cup and saucer and they just sit there

01:07 and they always say "Oh it's so much nicer out of a tea pot, it's so much nicer in a cup and saucer."

01:13 And the fact that it's proper tea as well, proper loose leaf tea.

01:17 And it's just sat there with your cup of tea and your china cup, your piece of cake

01:22 and it's just a bit of time for yourself and just time to enjoy.

01:27 So my shop, I've sort of changed styles a bit to what I used to be and I've gone more sort of art deco style.

01:35 But also it was done on a very tight budget so everything in the shop is just things that have either

01:42 been upcycled, so furniture's been painted, there's a lot of wood, my counter's all been made out of tea crates

01:52 which I have a lot of tea crates, so my husband very kindly built my counter all out of old tea crates.

02:00 It's all nice greens and golds and a lot of customers when they come in they all say it's beautiful

02:08 and it's a really nice warm inviting cosy space where you can just sit and have a cup of tea,

02:14 have a little chat and just be in tea heaven.

02:18 The secret to making a good cup of tea is probably your equipment and a good quality leaf tea.

02:28 And the water temperature. So your water temperature for any tea is 100 degrees unless it's a green tea

02:36 and then it's 80 degrees. So make sure your water temperature's right, make sure you've got your infuser

02:43 and also drink it out of a nice bone china cup.

02:48 So I've got all my teas, I think I've got 34 different blends now. When I first started I had, I think it was

02:56 I can't remember if it was either 6 or 8 blends that I started with. Vintage teaware, a lot of people like to

03:02 buy their own little cup and saucers to take home. Different types of infusers.

03:08 So there's lots of different ways of brewing your tea, whether you use an infuser that just goes in a mug

03:13 which is the one that I use. Different types, I've got clippy ones.

03:19 Tea caddies, gift sets, infuser teapots, nice mugs, nice choice of cakes everyday whether you just want

03:28 a nice cream scone, clotted cream or a brownie. We even have gluten free and vegan varieties as well.

03:37 I think everybody has a dream job, but it's never going to be a job, it's just a dream.

03:44 Like I might be a trapeze artist in the circus but it's never going to happen.

03:49 And my dream was always to have my own little tea room and my own tea blends.

03:55 But it was just a dream and then in 2017 I got made redundant from my job of 15 years.

04:04 And my youngest daughter just said "Mum, why don't you use this opportunity to follow your dream and do what you've always wanted to do?"

04:11 And I was just like "Oh don't be silly, I'm never going to do that, it's just a dream."

04:16 And she was like "No, why don't you try it?" So I did, I tried it and that's like 6 years ago.

04:24 And I'm so glad that she encouraged me to do it because now I've fulfilled my dream.

04:31 Clay Cross is a lovely place, the people in Clay Cross are so friendly, it's such a nice community.

04:39 All the independent businesses, we all know each other, we try and help each other and work together.

04:45 And we've found there's a lot of businesses wanting to move into Clay Cross because they know it's sort of up and coming.

04:52 We get a lot of people that come from different towns that say they come to Clay Cross because they like the variety of the independent shops.

05:00 We have got a lot of independents.

05:03 On the main two streets in Clay Cross, there's no big brands, it is all little independent businesses.

05:11 And I just like the community feel, the friendliness, the support, all the local people all support all the little businesses.

05:20 And that's what I like, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

05:23 [Music]

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