For most of us, there’s nothing like a cup of tea to soothe the soul on a cold winter’s day. For Margit Nellemann, though, tea is about more than flavour. “It’s tradition. Celebration,” says the co-founder, tea specialist and clay maker at Westholme Tea Company.
Nellemann and Victor Vesely created Westholme Tea Company (westholmetea.com) out of their home in Duncan, British Columbia, back in 2008, driven by their passion for tea.
“At the time, I had a ceramics business, making teapots and such,” says Nellemann. “We converted an old dairy barn on our property into a tea shop and started putting on tea-focused events. Then we began creating tea blends from our own unique recipes, and it grew from there.”
Interestingly, Nellemann’s fascination with tea began, of all places, in Spain. “I used to drink coffee and my body couldn’t handle it anymore. So I gave up coffee and I was living in Spain at the time and I thought,