July 23, 2025 • 56 mins
Three hundred years of ethical business seems almost impossible in today's world, yet the Twining family tea empire stands as a remarkable exception to our cynical expectations.
Sources:
Which Came First? Tea or Coffee?, Twinings Tea,
Witheridge Historical Archive, Livery Committee, Catherine of Braganza,
Twining Tea and Jane Austen, Back Then History, Richard Twining,
East India Company Act of 1784, Earl Grey, What is a Royal Warrant,
Garden History Girl , The London Archives, Red Leaf Tea, Tea Happiness,
Ready for Tea, World Tea News, Sourced With Care, Save the Children,
Human Rights Guide, Modern Slavery Statement,
E-Mail the show at BorrowedBonesPodcast@proton.me
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm Sarah.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Cole.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to Borrowed Bones, a podcast about
fucked up, interesting and toxicfamilies.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Back at it, here we go.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let's do it.
It's been a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it's been a minute on our end.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, I got a new job , so there's that.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I'm still bartending, but just a different place.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Just a different bar.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, did the whole overlap thing for the two weeks.
You know all that fun stuff.
So we're like two weeks behind,but life is life.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Who are we talking about today?
Who, what?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I've been telling you about this family because
they're surprisingly very nice.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh, so you know what's coming yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I haven't said too much to you, though there's a
lot of details.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I didn't say yeah, I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So we're not doing a true crimey one today.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's almost like the absence of crime.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And wrongdoing and nefariousness.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And that's what is startling to me.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
That just means they buried it really well.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I wouldn't be surprised, because I never am.
But I don't think so, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
But yes, it's more of an interesting family.
I needed a break from thesadness, the doom and gloom and
the blood and guts.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I'll get back into it .
I know it.
I'm already working on anotherone that a lot of other podcasts
say they won't work on, so I'mdoing it, but for now we'll keep
it nice and light and happy.
We are going to talk about theTwining family, or the Twining's
Tea Company.
Okay, so their last name isTwining.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But they are so intertwined with their company.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Intertwining.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Tea.
Yes, I'm focusing more on thecompany growth and how each
member of the family helped withthe company growth, because
they really do put all of theirmorals and integrity and values
into their company.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Oh, okay, I don't know anything about them.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You don't see every day.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I'm assuming they're English.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I mean, I know the name.
Twining tea is a product, but Inever gave any thought to its
origin or who the twinings areor were.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Me either.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Do they make Earl Grey, or is that its own?
Who makes Earl Grey tea?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Maybe if we go through this podcast we'll find
out, okay.
You just jump right to it.
Yeah, anyway, let's get started.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Tell me about the Twining's Tiptoe through the
Twining's.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The Twining family originates from Gloucestershire,
england.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Okay, I looked up how to say that, yeah that's one
that I know in my head I say itcorrectly, but I'm nervous about
saying it out loud because Ithink I'll just fumble over my
lips and tongue.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I listened and I spelled it phonetically it's
either like Gloucestershire orGloucestershire, but I don't
have the English accent to addthat little finesse to it, I'm.
American, but I'm saying it thebest that I can Gloucestershire
?
It Not Gloucestershire though.
Yeah, so I know that much.
It's kind of a.
Boston moment here.
Not Boston, but Massachusettshow they have those weird
(03:08):
fucking names.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
All right Family.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The Twining family originates from Gloucestershire,
England.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
England.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Thomas Twining is the one who started it all.
Okay, he was born in 1675.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Ooh, way back.
Mm-hmm, that's really earlierthan I thought.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, that's why this was so surprising, because they
haven't really been corrupted.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
That's T's older than our nation.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
A lot of England's older than our nation, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We're young and dumb.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
He was born in 1675, and his family at the time.
Their trade was to becomeeither a weaver or a fulling
miller.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
A fulling miller.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, f-u-l-l-i-n-g.
I don't know what that?
Means, and a fulling mill iswhere cloth was processed by
beating it with wooden malletsto make it smooth and compact.
So it kind of goes with theweaving hand-in-hand cloth
weaving textile pact.
Okay, so it kind of goes withthe weaving hand in hand cloth,
weaving textile, yeah, yeah.
In 1684 a recession hit thearea and the family had to move
(04:12):
to london for a better life.
Thomas was nine years old atthis time oh, all right, just a
wee one just a lad.
As thomas got older, he followedin his father's footsteps and
he took on the family trade andbecame an apprentice for a
weaver in London.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Cool, he's learning the family business.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Well, it's not really the family business yet right.
Weavers the family trade.
Family trade yeah, they justknow how to do that.
Yeah, Work for other peopleOkay.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
So then, in 1701, at the age of 26, thomas became a
freeman, and that was a steppingstone toward owning his own
business.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, kind of like a free agent.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, you had to be a freeman at this time to own a
business and the requirementsyou had to have an
apprenticeship for seven yearsor experience and then, after
Freeman, you're a livery man andthen you have some standing in
the company and that's anotherstep closer to ownership.
There were a lot of steppingstones.
So he worked it, but by the ageof 26, he was a Freeman, so he
(05:17):
was already going.
After he became a Freeman hedecided to switch trades and he
began dabbling in tea.
He was working for a wealthymerchant at the time and they
were handling some of the earlyshipments of tea into England
and Thomas would stay with thismerchant for five years learning
the tea business and he becamereally fascinated by it.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
He loved it, so he's in England bringing tea in.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yep, he's working for a merchant that brings the tea
in.
So he's helping.
I don't think he's not goingback and forth.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
He's in England.
Yeah, importing, exporting.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yes, he's an importer , exporter.
But what do you import andexport?
Toothpicks.
Is that what it is?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
on Seinfeld, something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Another Seinfeld reference.
Now, before we get too into howthe Twining family basically
revolutionized tea in the UK, alittle history of tea in that
area.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I just know it's really popular now and
apparently society stops for teatime.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I think so.
I don't know really all the insand outs of that because I'm
but there's a stereotype, atleast in America, of Brits who
are like in the clock dings, thewhole country is like it's tea
time now, and that's it.
I do imagine that happening.
I want that to be real.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I've watched documentaries like the making of
movies and whatnot, andAmerican directors would often
be angry at British crews whenthey'd be filming because, like
the production would stop for anhour on aliens.
James Cameron got really pissedoff because all of his British
crew was like it's one o'clockor whatever, like we're done to
(06:57):
take tea, and he'd be like fuckyour tea time, you're done.
When I say you're done and no,you're not, I almost walked off
and it became like a big.
They had to apologize.
They had to apologize.
It was a big thing, I think itwas.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I respect that.
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Sigourney Weaver, who played Ripley, who had to like
be the middle man and smooththings over because, the crew of
like 50 Brits was like we'rewalking off, yeah.
And James Cameron was like, oh,I need you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I love that.
I love, yeah, I wish we couldbe more like that in this
country.
But you know, whatever, yeah,so tea was.
It was consumed in England fora long time Fifteen, sixteen
hundreds in that area but it wasmore medicinal.
They didn't really do greatthings with it.
They would reuse the tea leavesmultiple times.
(07:46):
It would kind of get like gross.
They didn't know what they weredoing.
It was medicinal.
Yeah, it wasn't a posh culturalrevolution that everyone had to
have all the time of.
Braganza, the daughter of theKing of Portugal, married King
Charles II in 1662.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
She brought tea over and she also brought the
porcelain saucers, the teacups,the teapots, the proper way to
do everything, the whole nineyards.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So England kind of inherited it from Portugal.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And Portugal took it from China.
Okay, well, yeah, yeah, I doknow that China is like the
epicenter of tea.
Yes, china had it in the 1300s,is what I read.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Pasta gunpowder.
They had everything.
They've got it all.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So Catherine brings this over and with her, like I
said, she brings over theporcelain teapot, the teacups,
the saucers, the spoons.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
She shows people how to mix things with tea, the
whole pumping circumstance Likehoney sugar milk.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I don't know exactly what she used at that time, but
she spruced it up did more to it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's more than just dregs of twigs and seeds.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
From the forest floor and roots.
Yeah, she showed them it can beenjoyable it can be a beverage
you prefer, not just somethingyou take when you have cramps.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yep People notice that she would drink it daily
and multiple times a day.
They're like why Is she sick?
Is she okay?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So they're like what is this bitch doing?
Why is this woman just drinkingPepto-Bismol out of the bottle
all day?
What's wrong with her?
Yeah, her innards must berancid.
It's like Just really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yep, once the royals, the people all around her the
aristocracy.
Yes, Once they figured out whatshe was doing and actually took
time to be like oh, what isthis?
They really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It's new fad, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
However, it was still very, very expensive.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, it's the upper crust.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yes, so only the higher-ups can do it.
They would hand their tea downto their servants after they've
used it, though.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Take a sip as you clean out the cup.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, here's a swig yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Have a taste of the good life.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, not everyone was really enjoying tea in the
way that they think of it today.
It was starting to seep in,though.
It was happening.
It started to steep in.
Oh yeah, steep in no wait aminute.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You steep coffee.
Yeah, you steep.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
You steep tea or not?
Tea, tea, tea, cut.
That cut that.
Thomas Twining in 1706, openedhis first business.
What was it?
Tom's Coffee House.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Wow.
Original name 6 opened hisfirst business.
What was it?
Tom's coffee house.
Wow original name just tomtom's coffee house that seems so
modern yeah I feel like backthen I'd be like thomas, the
whole name.
Yeah, maybe that's how he stoodout was by being tom's but he's
selling coffee hut tom's coffeehouse.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
It straddled the border between Westminster and
the city of London.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
On the Strand.
That's the street name theStrand.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I don't know how they do streets in London so I don't
know.
I tried to figure it out, butit's just called the Strand.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Anyway, this area was a wealthy, newly populated area
that grew up very rapidly afterthe Great London Fire of 1666.
Oh, 666.
I know, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Big fires from history don't really impress me
because I'm like well, thetown's still there.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, I just think the date—.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
The Chicago Fire, the London Fire, I'm like they're
still there.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, but I thought we were talking about the
numbers.
Yeah, no, we are, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
But just in general, when someone references like the
Great Fire, I'm like, well, itdidn't destroy it, they built it
back up.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
If like what's in Rome, Pompeii.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh, I was thinking of the lost city of Atlantis.
Yeah, pompeii, and HerculaneumLike yeah, those are better
because they stayed destroyed,didn't they?
Yeah, they, yeah, I guess Idon't know what your argument is
right here?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I don't know anyway, just that I want like great
fires in history, that's itcoffee was more popular during
this time.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
There were around 2 000 coffee houses in london wow
so right, coffee was verypopular.
That coffee was the drink forengland just like here in
america.
Huh, that's how it started.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Coffee house is everywhere, so Tom wanted to
stand out with his coffee house.
Maybe it was by being Tom, Idon't know, but what he thought
was he would bring in somethingnew.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, side beverage Like some tea.
Like some tea.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Huh, when Thomas opened his coffee house, he sold
brewed ready-to-drink coffeeand tea, but he also was selling
dry coffee and dry tea leaveswhich they haven't done.
Unheard of.
Yeah, he was the first one.
Well, people believe he's thefirst one.
You can't ever fully fullyconfirm that, because there
(12:39):
might be someone in thebackwoods doing something, who
knows.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
But he made a name for himself.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
He was the first one to really do it make it yourself
at home coffee and not justconsume on the premises.
Yeah, okay, that's how hestarted to stand out, and this
was very beneficial, becausewomen were not allowed in coffee
houses at that time.
Society deemed it inappropriateand only a space for men there
(13:04):
was.
You know, men wanted to talkabout important issues at the
time and topics and governmentpolitics.
And there's drinking here too.
You know, they would sellalcoholic beverages at these
coffee houses as well.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Like the salons of France.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, very much like the salons of France is how this
was viewed Women not allowed.
Yeah viewed women not allowedyeah, but if you sell, things to
go.
These women can purchase thedry coffee and the dry tea
leaves and take it home to hosttheir own parties and events, or
to just have for themselves.
Yeah, they still couldn't enter, though, but they would have,
like their footmen, run in realquick by them and bring them out
(13:39):
.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
He's expanding his clientele base yes, like right
there you're doubling yourpotential customers yeah,
because the women loved it.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
That's what brought him more success.
Because they were like oh, welove this new trend of tea, we
love coffee, but like tea waslike the new thing.
So they wanted to show off andhave people at their parlors and
enjoy, you know, tea in theircoffee or in in their coffee
room tea in their coffee.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Put a little tea in that coffee tea in their drawing
rooms.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
They like to just enjoy it, it's the new thing,
and Thomas even had quite a fewof London's movers and shakers
visit the coffee house becausehe was known to have the best
quality tea.
Even long after Tom's death,the twining tea empire was still
(14:29):
very, very well known.
Jane Austen would go to Tom'scoffee house to get her tea
there.
Obviously, they were not aliveat the same time.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
She wrote a letter to her sister when she was
visiting her brother in Englandin 1841.
It was.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I'll read it to you, Jane Austen very boring.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
It says I am sorry there has been a rise in tea
like money.
I do not intend to pay twininguntil later in the day when we
may order a fresh supply.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Oh.
But proof that she, you know,proof that she enjoyed her tea,
enjoyed her tea from Twining.
She's not paying more, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
No, she is.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
But she has to wait until later in the day because
the price raised yeah.
Yeah, but that's it.
Yeah, I thought that was kindhas crossing in time.
Yeah, all, right, now we'regonna go back to 1717.
Okay, selling tea became verysuccessful for thomas, so much
so that he was able to acquirethe two adjacent houses next to
(15:27):
his coffee house.
Okay, allowing him to make itone big shop, and he knocked
down the walls yep, knocked himdown, made it big.
He had like his coffee house onone side and like the shop on
the other for the dry tea leavesand the dry coffee.
Women were allowed into theinto shops.
That's why he did this.
He's creating more foot trafficthrough that side and then
(15:49):
still has the coffee house onthe other side.
Today it's just one big openshop.
It's still open, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Oh, the original Nice .
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I forgot to mention that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
It's been around for 319 years.
The original, yeah, theoriginal.
That's why it's A coffee andtea house the address is 216
Strand, but it's not StrandStreet or Road or Avenue, I
don't know, just Strand.
Maybe in England they'resmarter and they're like
obviously there's pavement andthere's a road of some kind,
does it need to be an avenue?
(16:19):
Does it need to be a road.
Who cares?
Yeah, sorry, anyway, littlethings that trip up stupid
Americans, you know that's me,but yeah, they're still there.
The same building, the same,it's all there from 319 years
ago.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Older than our country the coffee shop, so are
their universities too.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
When Thomas redid like updated his coffee house,
he adorned the entryway of thiscombo shop with a gold-plated
lion to showcase the regalnessof tea and coffee, and he also
updated the name, changing it tothe Golden Lion Tea and Coffee
House.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Made me think of a Nico Cay song, Last Lion of
Albion, because it's all abouthow the British used lion
imagery a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
They were hunted to extinction from their island.
Oh, I didn't realize they usedit so much for things.
Yeah, it's like on their money,I think.
Oh, okay, yeah, it's on a bunchof stuff and I didn't know
lions were.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
There were lions on Britain.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, like thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
But still, I didn't know that.
And they've been hunted.
Yeah Well, that's what they do.
Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's what we do, yeah .
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Now we're in the year 1741.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Thomas Twining dies and his son, daniel, takes over.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Just dies, a natural, not a big deal.
Okay, he dies, he's old, histime has come.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, I was more interested with the story of how
this family stayed soconsistently true to their
morals, values, beliefs, whilestill running a successful
business and being I mean,they're probably billionaires,
I'm guessing.
I didn't look up the value, butit's yeah.
I'm guessing they're really,really doing well Now.
When Daniel took over, he wasable to establish connections
(18:10):
and he began exporting teaoverseas.
His ledgers show that in 1749,twinings tea was being sold to
America and specifically thegovernor of Boston was a very
loyal customer.
In 1773, when the Boston TeaParty happened, Twining tea.
(18:31):
Yeah, the Boston Tea Party foranyone who doesn't know, is when
in America we were really madabout the taxation without
representation, bullshit, blah,blah, blah.
I mean like fair, we don't wantto get taxed, whatever, and we
just dumped all of the britishtea into the water harbour yeah,
(18:51):
and we were just like notaxation.
We don, we don't like tariffs,we don't like taxes, we don't
like this.
And it pretty much was thebeginning of, like, the
rumblings of the revolution.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Of course the guys who did it dressed up as Native
Americans, because twinings tea,oh, and they did not throw it
in the harbor, okay because ofhow good it was okay a local
(19:27):
writer at the time even notedquote it was not the twinings
tea the boston rebels tossedinto the sea.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Nice Sing-songy yeah.
I thought that was cute,Jumping back to 1762,.
Daniel passes away and hiswidow, Mary Twining, takes over.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Okay, so she married into it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yep and she takes over Very progressive of 1762.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yep, she had a lot of naysayers.
They did not like not in thefamily, but just people.
But Mary was great, she had agood business mind and she
continued to run that businessfor the next 21 years.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, she was.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Until a man righted the ship right.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
No, I mean she let it go on her own.
Yeah, the family themselveswere totally fine with.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Mary doing this.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
It wasn't the family, like they're fantastic and I'm
assuming there's going to besomeone from England that's like
actually there's a pedophile orsomething.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
They would say pedophile oh a pedo.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
A pedophile?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I don't know Aluminium I don't know how they
say it.
This is all a plug for us toget like a lifetime supply of
twining tea sent, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Oh yeah, I'll take it .
I mean, from what I have seen,I don't have an issue with
anyone in this family so far.
So, mary, during her time,during her reign of the twining
tea empire, the tea taxationpeaked.
It got really big, and so itwas very common for tea to be
(21:01):
smuggled into the country fromlike france or holland, and
smugglers would often tamperwith the tea adding dry leaves,
twigs and bark, just yeah,cutting it, reducing it, cutting
it it's like a drug cut yourproduct, move those kilos yes,
and that's what they were doing.
However, this was not thetwining way, and Mary knew that.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Cutting our product.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yep.
She refused to taint thequality of her tea.
She was not a tea tainter.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
No tea.
Tainting with Mary?
No, yeah, no tea taint Mary.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
She wrote in her journal that she was proud of
herself for never buyingsmuggled tea and that her tea
was always of the finest quality.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
She's very Ben and Jerry's.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, we need that.
I love Ben and Jerry's.
They have a new dairy-free icecream that we have to get.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It's like chocolate something.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You communist?
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Anyway, I know, I know we love them.
I'm just kidding.
Anyway, I know, I know we lovethem, yeah.
In 1783, now we're jumpingforward a few more years.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
America 1783.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
We're not.
We don't care about them.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I just want to say that we're on the world stage
now At this point in history.
What's America doing rightabout now?
Existing, Existing.
We just won the war.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, we're trying yeah 1783, richard twining takes
over.
That's mary's son dick twiningand this is thomas twining's
grandson.
So we're in the thirdgeneration here, okay now
richard becomes a prominentperson of the tea trade and was
the chairman of the london teadealers.
(22:34):
At a time when smuggling andtampering with tea was pretty
high on the political agenda, hewas in a position where he
could lean into it, yeah or not.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Mm-hmm Tea.
Taxes were still very, veryhigh, but Richard felt that
everyone should be able toafford tea.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, it's the people's drink now.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Tea for all.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah.
Tea for all, it's just waterpoured over some like I don't
know.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's a lot of things that go in there, it's
just like water poured overpotpourri.
I mean, but you know, there'smore to it yet.
Do it.
Yet Now Richard proposed to theprime minister at the time to
cut the T-tax, to take it downfrom 119% to 12.5%.
(23:25):
Wow, that's what he wanted.
Richard argued that loweringthe tax would mean more sales
and that if there were highlevels of taxes, that that only
served to encourage thesmuggling they're like.
Well, if there's high taxes,people aren't going to pay them,
they're going to just smugglethem in.
But if we lower the taxes,people will buy the quality
products.
This isn't hard.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, it's pretty basic, it's not difficult yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Well, the prime minister at the time did
something that I've never seenin this country.
He listened, oh, and he went.
Oh, I changed my mind.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
He didn't believe I already made my decision.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Right, he didn't double down.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'm dug in and I'll never change yeah.
Yep, a good decision once is agood decision forever.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yep.
New information brought to youdoesn't change anything.
Nope, new information.
You just dig in, actually, getyour gun out and point it at him
.
Yeah, yeah, well, this primeminister.
He said yeah, no, you're kindof right, let's see what happens
here.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Let's try it out.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Let's try it out.
The prime minister would passthe Commutation Act of 1784,
effectively slashing the taxeson tea, and the tea sales went
through the roof.
Oh and that is how tea becamethe national drink as it is
today.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Oh, is it officially like England's national drink?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I don't know.
I just said that I honestlydidn't, colloquially.
I don't know if they have likea national drink, do we?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Can you look it up?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Do countries have national drinks?
I'm sure they have nationaleverything.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
If one has one, it would be England, I think, and
it would be tea, but I don'tknow.
I just assume.
I just call it the nationaldrink.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
England's natural beverage.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
National.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Okay, it does.
The UK does consider tea itsnational drink.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Okay, moving on.
So with the cut of the taxes ofthe tea, the sales went through
the roof and tea became popular.
Everyone can drink it now.
And then, of course, catherinefrom 1662 brought over the
tradition of it, the the nice,you know yeah saucers, teacups,
all that fun stuff.
All the pieces are there, andnow it just has to grow word of
(25:35):
mouth richard did become richardtwining.
He did become a shareholder inthe east india company in 1793
okay and he was the director ofthe east india company, or he
was a director, I think they hadmultiple I don't know much
about the east india company.
I just know what he did, but hewas the or a director from 1810
(25:58):
to 1817.
And this is when I was like,I'll find it.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, this is it.
This is when the skeletons comeout of the closet.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I don't think they were part of the slave trade,
but they were a part of the EastIndia Company.
Yeah, During his time asdirector he worked to make the
East India Company less of amonopoly and by giving more
control to the Britishgovernment okay, because the
East India Company was justrunning wild yeah, doing
whatever they wanted.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
State almost yes and the directors.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Oh, there's multiple directors.
The directors would be incharge of their little pods yeah
, and so he was.
Hey, we got to get a hold onthis.
They're treating people likeshit, they're being awful.
This is really unnecessarilyhorrible and we need to have
better control over our ownfucking people.
And so he was trying to get theBritish government to have more
(26:48):
control of the East IndiaCompany.
He cleaned it up a bit, made itto where directors don't have
quite as much power and thegovernment does.
Instead, as richard twining wasfighting the good fight, um, to
make the east india companybetter, he was also working at
the store at the golden lioncoffee tea house.
(27:12):
All that and he was adding morepizzazz to it.
In 1787, richard twiningcommissioned the store entrance
to move from the side of thebuilding to the front, so the
door was on the side at onepoint.
So he moved it to the front.
So it's officially on thestrand, officially the door, and
(27:33):
it's still there today okay,cool the new store entrance, he
added two Chinese figures of mensitting on either side of a
gold-plated lion that's lyingdown.
The Chinese men are meant to bein honor of China for the tea,
and then the lion because it'sremembering Thomas his original
(27:56):
idea and his original story, andhe changed the name of it one
more time as well richard towhat now?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
the golden lion let's make it easier, and that's what
it is today.
It's cleaner yes.
He should still drop the.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
It's cleaner, yeah, just golden lion, yeah, the
golden lion, and lion is spelledl-y-o-n oh, is that how it's
spelled in?
England.
I don't think so, maybe backthen I have a really dumb
American moment.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I've never seen.
I mean, I've read Britishnovels that have wine in it.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, I've read.
Yeah, I've never.
I've never seen it with a wineStylized way.
Yeah, just maybe older time.
Yeah, just fun.
Okay, you're right, I have read, like British things and I've
never seen yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
And there are.
Ok, I got really nervous aboutsaying how there's lions on
British money and I'm like is?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
there, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
There are.
There's lions on their coinsand yeah, ok yeah, it's on their
royal coat of arms.
It's not money, but yeah, thereis.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They've got lions everywhere.
They're big on to lions okay,yeah, well, now the store is
called the golden lion and ithas been this same storefront
and logo since 1787, so it hasbeen what it is right now for
238 years wow and walmart willlast that long I hope not come
(29:20):
on um.
The twinings logo is one of theoldest unchanged british
commercial logos in continuoususe in the uk I can't even
picture it.
I know I need to know what itlooks like oh, yes, you can look
it up, but I will also postphotos of these so you, if you
want to know, it'll be on ourinstagram.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Borrowed bones podcast yeah, it's just okay.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's classic, standard, clean looking.
It looks good.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Established 1706.
Mm-hmm London.
Yes yeah, london, england.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
London, England.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Got to add another syllable.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
You talk like y'all from London.
I had to do it.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's Paul Rudd, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Or no, you sound like , I don't know whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, he's talking to Russell Brand when he has the
little coral and is like oh,it's right through my leg.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
is that what he says?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, Russell Brand's oh yeah, he's a predator now
too.
Yeah, he's like doing CharlieKirk tours too.
Yeah, Whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Forgetting Sarah Marshall's a good movie.
Yeah, anyway, jumping ahead tothe year 1818, Richard Twining
II takes over the business.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And during his ownership he was selling tea to
the prime minister, charles GrayII, the second Earl Gray.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Oh spoiler, so his name's not Earl Grey.
Oh spoiler, so his name's notEarl, it's his title.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
It's his title.
His name is Charles Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Charles Earl.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Charles Grey, when the prime minister sent an envoy
on a diplomatic mission toChina in 1831, this envoy
apparently heroically saved thelife of a Chinese person.
I don't know how, I don't knowthe story.
And as a token of thanks, theywere gifted a bag of tea along
(31:13):
with the recipe Okay, whichbefore that was a well-guarded
secret, apparently, like it wasoh, you can't have this, but the
Chinese were like thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Here you go.
You saved one of us.
Here you go here you go.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
When this special tea blend made its way back to
england it became very, verypopular with the prime minister
earl gray and his people.
They all loved it.
His circles were just diggingit.
And then soon the primeminister Earl Grey II was asking
Twining to reproduce the tea sohe could sell it to others and
(31:46):
he could have more of it Like hewas.
Like we got to keep this shitgoing.
He gives it to Twining toreproduce it.
So some people I've read thinkthat Twining created it.
He replicated it Right, but itis English.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I mean Earl Grey is, you know, but it's made off a
Chinese recipe.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I mean, like all of the tea basically is but, they
just didn't create the recipe.
They just distributed it, soldit, named it you know,
popularized it Appropriate.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They are white.
That's what we do.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
It was a gift to them , though, too, so it doesn't
feel wrong, you know it feelsokay, but yes, but also it's
okay, that's what us whites dois we don't invent anything, we
get gifted or we take things andthen we just do a little spin
on it.
Other tea companies might evenclaim that they came up with the
tea blend, but in 2013, philipGray, the seventh Earl Gray he
officially endorsed twinings asthe original blend.
(32:44):
Like nope, they had theoriginal blend that was gifted.
They're the ones that have it.
And then other predecessors ofEarl Greys before them have also
been like nope, twinings,they're the ones that do it.
So I say the twinings are theones that had it the first time,
nice.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Had it the first time , nice.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
In 1837, queen Victoria made twinings an
official royal warrant holder.
Now this meant that thetwinings were now appointed with
supplying the tea for herhousehold.
Royal warrant holder, you hadto have been supplying a
household a royal household forat least five years to
demonstrate consistent qualityservice.
So that just shows how goodquality they are.
(33:30):
I just wanted to kind of noteagain they're sticking with
their quality.
They don't waver at all.
Jumping ahead to the 1860s, weare going to talk about
Elizabeth Twining.
She was never an owner, but shewas an heiress to the Twining
family fortune.
She was one of the daughters ofMary and Richard.
(33:51):
She was one of nine.
She's just a good human, so Iwanted to highlight her.
She has all the money, doesn'thave to work and she chooses to
be a philanthropist.
And she was also into drawing,painting, but she would always
draw and paint flowers, plants.
She really liked to be outside,but she was also a champion for
social reform.
(34:11):
In 1866, elizabeth would havebeen 60 years old at this time.
She turned her family home intoan informal training school for
impoverished girls who wantedto enter into service, like work
, the workforce, and she alsocared for retired domestic
servants, oh yeah, so she gaveup her house for these people.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Right.
I thought back then, if theyretired, you were just thrown
out.
Yeah, that's why she took careof them.
Go die in the street now.
Yes, yep, you are correct,that's why she took care of them
Go die in the street now.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Yes, yep, you are correct.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
That's why she took care of them Nice.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
There was no retirement.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, like retirement .
What year was that?
Once they were done?
Yeah, once they couldn't, whenthey were worked to death.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yes, that's it, yeah.
Yeah, there was no yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
They were worked to death.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Elizabeth also established a Provident Hospital
named St John's to providemedical care for those who
couldn't afford a doctor.
So Provident Hospital isspecifically for people that
don't have money or insurance.
Elizabeth's main focus wasmothers and children.
(35:22):
Elizabeth's main focus wasmothers and children.
She was the first person toorganize mothers meetings in
London and she took part infounding the Bedford College for
Girls, which is the firsthigher education school for
women in the UK oh, I've heardof that one.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I've heard of Bedford .
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I thought I've heard of it too.
Yeah, I guess I didn't lookinto it I'm assuming it's still
around yeah now, these mothersmeetings included spiritual
education, story reading, sewinginstruction and sometimes field
trips, so like just helping,like how to live.
Yeah now, elizabeth's sister,louisa, who's a younger sister,
(35:58):
was also very big into helpingand philanthropic, is that a
word?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, philanthropic.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Nice and she focused mainly on helping the poor and
the elderly.
So they kind of are dividingand conquering here.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
They weren't helping the rich.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
No, they weren't.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Wait a minute.
Why aren't they helping therich, though?
They're the ones who struggleand work the most?
I mean right, fellow Americans.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
They should be sacrificing for the rich.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
If the poor and the sick needed help, God would help
them.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Obviously they're not good people.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
God put them there to suffer for a reason.
And who are you?
And God made the rich rich fora reason.
It's your duty to get themricher.
I mean, it's self-evident.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
This is what the Twining family needs to figure
out.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
This is their problem .
They probably worship SatanHelping those that God fucked
over.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
It doesn't look like you trust in God's design
purpose.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
These Twinings.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Twining it around.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Well, louisa, she was great.
She was into helping the poorand the elderly.
There was quite an age gapbetween the two of them too.
Elizabeth was born in 1805 andLouisa was born in 1820.
So they had like a 15 year agedifference, but they still did
the damn thing.
Louisa was very appalled by theconditions of workhouses.
(37:15):
She spearheaded reform for that.
She was like this is ridiculous.
These workhouses can be better.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
We need.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
We need to do better.
Louisa founded homes to carefor the old and the sick.
In 1893, luisa was elected thefirst female poor law guardian.
Which poor law guardians wereboards of people responsible for
(37:41):
administering assistance tolocal residents who could not
support themselves.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, she's just like doing good things with other
good people.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
I feel like these are like time travelers or
something I know, like they'renot real, like you're not real.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You're not real.
Louisa was also the presidentof a local branch of the
National Union of Women Workersthat began in 1895.
So this was established tocombat the working conditions
for women.
It's still a thing, but it'slike now been associated or
absorbed or changed into theInternational Council of Women,
(38:19):
icw.
Louisa was also she did a lotawarded the title of the Lady of
Grace of the Order of St Johnof Jerusalem in England.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
That's too many ofs.
I know you got to pick one ofin your title.
That should be real, forwhatever your title is whether
it's a job royalty you get oneof.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
The Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of
Jerusalem in England.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Four ofs.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
This title, though, was also given to Florence
Nightingale.
Oh, because it's for people whovolunteer in hospitals and
ambulances and work relief.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, I really thought you would say Florence
Henderson, what Isn't she?
From the Partridge family?
Yeah, yeah, that's why.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I'm confused.
I thought I was thinking of thewrong person.
When I hear the name Florence.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
That's where my name goes to, not Nightingale.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Oh, you didn't think I was going to say.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Oh okay, oh, you didn't think I was gonna say oh
okay, I mean, it makes moresense, I should have guessed
Nightingale cause.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
That makes sense.
That is, she has the Partridgefamily right, not the Brady
Bunch.
Who's the Brady Bunch mom?
Hold on let me look we'reforgetting everything today.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
I think it's oh she was she was the Brady Bunch hey,
yes, see, you're really fuckingwith me, man sorry, oh, I
thought we were paused thiswhole time, but uh, no, we're
not paused, no, we're recording.
Sorry, I have the name, but thewrong role she was carol brady,
not yes mrs partridge we, Idon't know.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, I watched both growing up.
My mom liked both of them, so Iwas like wait a minute, hold on
.
I couldn't let it go either.
I was like I don't think it'sthe partridge family and I just.
But anyway, we got there.
So yes, louisa shares the sametitle as florence nightingale,
which is another fantastic thing.
Now we're going to jump aheadquite a bit, because nothing
(40:17):
really happens between the late1890s and the early 1930s.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Tea is tea.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, they kind of just maintain, Maintain.
Now it is 1933, and theTwinings English Breakfast Blend
comes to be, so a lot of peopleeat, or a lot of people drink
tea, the blend of Englishbreakfast.
Have you seen that?
Yeah, yeah, that's anotherpopular one like Earl Grey.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
That's another popular one, like Earl Grey.
Now, the Twinings did notactually invent the breakfast
blend, but they did improve uponit same way with the Earl Grey
tea.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
They added cinnamon.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I don't know what they added.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Did you just add one more spice?
We added some nutmeg.
Now it's different.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
No, I think they more so made it unified Because,
before you know, other peoplehave recipes for the same thing,
but it's not necessarily thesame.
The story of English breakfastis that in 1843, an English
immigrant, mr Davies, was livingin New York City and he wanted
some really good tea.
He was homesick.
(41:19):
He's like these Americans areinto coffee, I want tea.
He was homesick.
He's like these Americans areinto coffee, I want tea.
So he puts together a blend andhe begins selling it in America
and he's calling it Englishbreakfast.
Because why would you namesomething English breakfast if
you live in England?
It would just be breakfast teaor morning tea, so he names it
English breakfast.
There's a lot of argumentsonline as to where this actually
(41:42):
came from, the englishbreakfast blend, and one of the
arguments is like it obviouslydidn't come from england.
Because why would it be calledenglish breakfast?
I don't know, I'm just that.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Makes sense to me I mean, do english muffins come
from england?
I don't know if they do, thenthere goes that whole point.
Well, either way there'smultiple stories.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
This one seems to make the most sense to me, but
there are multiple stories, soif you think you know the real
one, let me know.
But I have read pretty much allof them and this is the one
that I think fits Mr Davies'.
English breakfast became sopopular that he was able to make
it a business and he startedthe Canton Tea Company.
However, he was not good atbusiness and he made poor
(42:23):
decisions and the businessfailed.
But Twinings already discoveredthe English breakfast recipe
because they bought some fromthe Canton Company, knowing that
it was popular.
They'd heard about it.
And so they bought some from theCanton Company and the Twining
(42:43):
Company sent it over to theirexperts that they had in China
to decipher what the blend wasand recreate it.
So they stole it kind of.
But also the first company didfail and if twinings didn't take
that recipe when they did, wewouldn't have English Breakfast
Blend, I think that's why I likethat we wouldn't have English
breakfast blend.
No, I think that's why I likethat story.
(43:04):
It makes the most sense to me.
1939, the Twinings tea helpedkeep spirits high during World
War II, because now we're duringthe war times.
During this time, the Twinings,they supplied tea for the Red
Cross and the Red Cross wassending these prisoner of war
parcels, and so tea was beingsent in those little packages.
(43:26):
There was also tea supplied forthe Women's Voluntary Service.
The YMCA had a mobile wartimecalled canteen.
It's like a van that goes aroundsupplies, and tea was a part of
that.
They knew that tea wassomething that people come
together for and they were likeyep, we'll help, we'll do this,
we'll send it, we'll do whatever.
So they helped with the war.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, nice.
That's nice, everyone pulledtogether.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah 1956, the Twinings make tea bags in the UK
for the first time.
I found this interesting.
It doesn't have anything to dowith the family, really.
Really.
They just made tea bags in theuk for the first time.
America had already had teabags.
Because we're a go-go-go kindof crowd and because twinings
(44:09):
were selling to americans aswell, they're like well, fuck,
all, right now we're losing ourmarket in america because we
don't have tea bags.
So I don't know.
I just thought it wasinteresting that they waited so
long, that the uk was like we'reinto the like.
I think I wrote in here when westarted having them in america,
like in 1908 and I think, and Idon't know how true this is for
the 1930s yeah I read this intrivia that uh, tea bags were
(44:33):
not meant to be like steepedlike we yeah do now.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
They were meant to just be ripped or cut open and
you'd pour the contents into thewater, and then people just
started leaving it with thestring well, the one theory.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
There's multiple little theories, I think the one
that I believe is similar towhat yours is in america anyway.
Um, in 1908 a tea merchant fromnew york shipped his tea
samples to his customers insmall silk pouches, and most
people did them differently andin larger quantities, but he
thought this would be easier totransport, and I don't know how
(45:06):
this happened.
But the customers just put themin the cups at some point and
let it steep that way and theydecided they liked it better
that way and started requestingthe silk pouches.
And then, a few years go by, weget that paper filter that we
have today, but that took alittle bit while, a little while
to get there.
So yeah, I don't know, it justtook twining a while to get tea
(45:27):
bags.
I kind of like that becausethey're like old school, old
school and staying traditional.
But it was america who was likewe want tea bags.
They're like fuck fine.
I just thought that wasinteresting.
The company itself grows quitea bit.
In 1964 so we're jumping aheadthey were acquired by a larger,
(45:48):
a larger company calledassociated british foods, like a
conglomerate, and I thoughtthat was really cool because
they still stand, they're hugeand they still stand strong to
their morals and I think it'sbaffling to my American brain.
I can't understand how they'regrowing and not being corrupt
and awful humans.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
I don't get why.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Are there names?
Speaker 2 (46:10):
on the Epstein files.
There aren't any.
Who's Jeffrey Epstein?
I know you didn't say a firstname just there, but that's
because he doesn't have one.
He, she, what?
There's no one never been named, that Stop it.
She, what?
There's no one never been named, that stop it.
No one's ever been namedepstein.
His wife isn't in prison forsex trafficking.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Nothing to no one we just jumped a minute, yeah
anyway lost time in 1997,jumping ahead again, the
Twinings became a foundingmember of the Ethical Tea
(46:46):
Partnership, an organizationworking to create a fairer, more
sustainable tea industry forthe tea workers, farmers and the
environment.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Yeah, like, okay, nice, like all these things.
I'm like what, what?
Yeah, in 2004, the Twiningsstarted the Save the Children
partnership in China.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Someone needs to think of them, the children.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, think of the children.
Well, the Twinings truly are.
Yeah.
Yeah, we say that in jest, butthey're doing it.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
People who have them aren't.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, over half a million children have been
helped so far because of this,starting in 2004.
They help communities byproviding better nutrition,
giving lessons or classes tomothers on breastfeeding and
what to do if your child won'tbreastfeed.
That's just a few examples, butall of that.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Let nature do what it will Eat or it won't.
I mean yeah, so learn to eat,or it won't.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
I mean, yeah.
In 2010, Twinings partneredwith UNICEF to improve the lives
of girls and young women livingon tea estates, specifically in
Assam, India.
I didn't look too far into it,but it sounds like there's a lot
that goes on in there.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Probably.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Because a lot of the Twinings focus for, for
improving things is like a someIndia area, but either way
they're trying to make sure thatall of their production line
across the globe is uniform,good yes fully transparent as a
(48:25):
company and they came up with alist of approved tea gardens,
showing that they care abouttheir workers all the way, from
beginning to end, and they willlet anyone go and see the
working conditions and they'llthey have maps to show like
they're like.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
This is where it is, this is where everything is.
You can, like, look up like Idon't know about their tea
gardens, yes, yep.
Thailand, if they have any,yeah, wherever they are.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
you can find them, they will show them to you.
And I don't believe there's anylaws or government oversight
saying these companies have todo this.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Probably not.
It's just the twining companydoing it and they have companies
in different continents.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah, it's just them saying hey, we're just showing
you guys that we're good, we'rejust showing you guys that we're
good yeah.
We're just letting you know wehave nothing to hide, so we'll
show you everything.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
So what do they have to hide?
Speaker 1 (49:04):
then Exactly, no one does this.
I can't handle this.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
No one preemptively releases information, just to
say look how not bad I am.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
I know Like gold over here, and then where's?
The black, like where's thedark?
I don't know.
It's like that.
Yeah, but I can't find it.
In 2016, they launched aprogram called Sourced with Care
, and it's a responsiblesourcing program aiming to
(49:31):
improve the lives of communitieswho grow its tea and herbs.
They also support empowermentof women, farmers, workers.
That's all a part of it.
Yeah, young people protectingworkers' rights, improving
incomes, like they want everyoneto be good.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Sounds like they're helping everyone again.
But the rich, yeah.
Where's their rich charity?
Someone just like you, for adollar a day, could help save a
billionaire.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Can't you find it in your heart to donate 50 cents?
Speaker 1 (50:07):
a day to keep this rich person from having to pay
for anything.
In 2018, the Twinings becamethe second major tea company to
put up a list, oh and map.
So yeah, this is when theyadded the map in 2018.
Okay, oh wait, actually no,they do make multiple lists and
maps, but I think they the mapin 2018.
Okay, oh wait, Actually no,they do multiple lists and maps
(50:27):
but I think they did it inphases.
So I think in 2018, they didthis of the Indian plantations
that are supplying their teablends.
So they just keep adding moreand more and more to their
transparency journey here.
A quote on their website aboutthis says that transparency is
part of the journey to improvingthe lives of tea communities we
are sourcing from, and it andit is important to drive the
(50:51):
change we all aspire to see.
So, if you want the change, bethe change.
Wow, wow.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
If you want to make the world a better place take a
look at yourself and make thatchange quoted a pedophile yes he
didn't change anything, no,except those boys pants but he's
american.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, I don't know.
I know there's bad englishpeople.
I've talked about them, it'sfine.
I just I love this.
Who's that one?
Speaker 2 (51:19):
prince of England.
Right now he's not like one ofthe two main ones, but he's on
the Epstein.
Sorry, he who should not benamed.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Oh, yeah, with an A yeah is it Anthony, andrew,
andrew?
It's not Andrew.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
There's no file.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
There's no list, yeah .
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Anyway, allegedly In 2019, the Herbs Supply Chain
Project was launched inGuatemala, similar to the list
of the tea plantations and allthat stuff.
But they keep moving along oneby one.
In 2020, the twining companyachieves a major ethical
milestone 100% of their tea isnow sourced from certified
(52:03):
gardens.
500,000 plus people are nowpositively impacted by the
program Sourced with Care, andall of this is all a part of all
of their programs.
They are finally hitting.
They're like okay, everyone inour company, from all the way
down the line, is taken care of.
At least they're trying to be,anyway.
(52:24):
In 2023, the Twinings publishedtheir first human rights report
and they gave a detailed guideon how they expect to be as a
company and how they can helpthe communities that they're
impacting, because they are inareas that this is a problem.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, in areas that this is a problem.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
Yeah, yeah.
In 2024, the company came outwith a modern slavery statement.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
They're against it.
Yes, I'm assuming, stating howthey are against it.
Okay, good, I was on the fence.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
This is it.
The ball drops here.
How do they fall?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
into slavery.
Yeah, everything else I know alot of people are, you know, on
the fence about that topic, soI'm glad that they're on a side
of history.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, and so the modern slavery statement in 2024
stating how they are against itand what they're doing to help
with this problem.
Now, today, currently, stephenTwining is the reigning heir of
the company.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Was it a V or a PH PH ?
Okay.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
And he is a 10th generation Twining and he serves
as the brand ambassador anddirector of corporate relations
at Twining's.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
He says he has had a lifelong passion for tea and he
has about nine cups of tea a dayit's good for him that he was
born into a family.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
It's all about tea, I mean shit.
What if he had a passion for,like basketball or anything else
?
It's a good thing that,coincidentally, his passion is
the thing he was born into.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
I mean okay, I need everyone to look up youtube
clips with him, because we'regonna watch I haven't shown you
him because he is a delight, heis a gem.
I again eve.
I was like, okay, the guythat's around today is probably
shitty.
Right, because I don't know,it's 2025.
Everyone's shit, I don't know,the world's burning, I don't
know, but he's so british, it'sso just a character.
(54:16):
I, just you.
You have to watch it.
It it's on YouTube, look upStephen Twining or Twining Tea.
He'll be a spokesperson onthere and he'll just talk about
it and you get to see the insideof the Golden Lion.
He gives you a tour and you getto see it all and just
everything about him.
He's kind of adorable, he'slike an older gentleman but yeah
(54:37):
, he loves his job, he loves hiscompany and he loves tea.
And I don't think that theTwinings are going to, I don't
think they're going to switch itup anytime soon.
They're successful, they're notcorrupt, they're not bad,
they're not.
I mean, I don't know what theyall do with their money, but the
company itself seems fuckinglegit yeah.
(55:00):
Yeah, so yeah, twinings, sponsorus, us.
I would love that.
Yeah, if you want to see thephotos and everything I'm going
to post for the twining, I'll doa logo shot of the strand and
get a photo of that and a fewmore things.
Maybe I'll do a photo of steventwining himself.
I'll do a screenshot fromYouTube.
(55:21):
But, yeah, follow us on ourInstagram account.
Borrowed Bones Podcast.
Please rate.
Review, like all the things onApple Podcasts, spotify.
It really helps us get pushedup and shoved into people's
faces Clout.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, do they still call it that online on the
internet Clout?
It used to be a clout score.
Remember that.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Oh, it probably is the same thing.
I don't know if it's stillcalled that or not, but I think
it's a similar thing.
The more engagement there is onthe actual apps, it helps.
So, yeah, anyway, thanks, bye,bye.
Till next time Drink your teaBye.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Bye.
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm Sarah.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Cole.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to Borrowed Bones, a podcast about
fucked up, interesting and toxicfamilies.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Back at it, here we go.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let's do it.
It's been a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it's been a minute on our end.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, I got a new job , so there's that.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I'm still bartending, but just a different place.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Just a different bar.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, did the whole overlap thing for the two weeks.
You know all that fun stuff.
So we're like two weeks behind,but life is life.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Who are we talking about today?
Who, what?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I've been telling you about this family because
they're surprisingly very nice.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh, so you know what's coming yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I haven't said too much to you, though there's a
lot of details.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I didn't say yeah, I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
So we're not doing a true crimey one today.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's almost like the absence of crime.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And wrongdoing and nefariousness.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And that's what is startling to me.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
That just means they buried it really well.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I wouldn't be surprised, because I never am.
But I don't think so, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
But yes, it's more of an interesting family.
I needed a break from thesadness, the doom and gloom and
the blood and guts.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I'll get back into it .
I know it.
I'm already working on anotherone that a lot of other podcasts
say they won't work on, so I'mdoing it, but for now we'll keep
it nice and light and happy.
We are going to talk about theTwining family, or the Twining's
Tea Company.
Okay, so their last name isTwining.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But they are so intertwined with their company.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Intertwining.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Tea.
Yes, I'm focusing more on thecompany growth and how each
member of the family helped withthe company growth, because
they really do put all of theirmorals and integrity and values
into their company.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Oh, okay, I don't know anything about them.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You don't see every day.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I'm assuming they're English.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I mean, I know the name.
Twining tea is a product, but Inever gave any thought to its
origin or who the twinings areor were.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Me either.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Do they make Earl Grey, or is that its own?
Who makes Earl Grey tea?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Maybe if we go through this podcast we'll find
out, okay.
You just jump right to it.
Yeah, anyway, let's get started.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Tell me about the Twining's Tiptoe through the
Twining's.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The Twining family originates from Gloucestershire,
england.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Okay, I looked up how to say that, yeah that's one
that I know in my head I say itcorrectly, but I'm nervous about
saying it out loud because Ithink I'll just fumble over my
lips and tongue.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I listened and I spelled it phonetically it's
either like Gloucestershire orGloucestershire, but I don't
have the English accent to addthat little finesse to it, I'm.
American, but I'm saying it thebest that I can Gloucestershire
?
It Not Gloucestershire though.
Yeah, so I know that much.
It's kind of a.
Boston moment here.
Not Boston, but Massachusettshow they have those weird
(03:08):
fucking names.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
All right Family.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The Twining family originates from Gloucestershire,
England.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
England.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Thomas Twining is the one who started it all.
Okay, he was born in 1675.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Ooh, way back.
Mm-hmm, that's really earlierthan I thought.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, that's why this was so surprising, because they
haven't really been corrupted.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
That's T's older than our nation.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
A lot of England's older than our nation, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We're young and dumb.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
He was born in 1675, and his family at the time.
Their trade was to becomeeither a weaver or a fulling
miller.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
A fulling miller.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, f-u-l-l-i-n-g.
I don't know what that?
Means, and a fulling mill iswhere cloth was processed by
beating it with wooden malletsto make it smooth and compact.
So it kind of goes with theweaving hand-in-hand cloth
weaving textile pact.
Okay, so it kind of goes withthe weaving hand in hand cloth,
weaving textile, yeah, yeah.
In 1684 a recession hit thearea and the family had to move
(04:12):
to london for a better life.
Thomas was nine years old atthis time oh, all right, just a
wee one just a lad.
As thomas got older, he followedin his father's footsteps and
he took on the family trade andbecame an apprentice for a
weaver in London.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Cool, he's learning the family business.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Well, it's not really the family business yet right.
Weavers the family trade.
Family trade yeah, they justknow how to do that.
Yeah, Work for other peopleOkay.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
So then, in 1701, at the age of 26, thomas became a
freeman, and that was a steppingstone toward owning his own
business.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, kind of like a free agent.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, you had to be a freeman at this time to own a
business and the requirementsyou had to have an
apprenticeship for seven yearsor experience and then, after
Freeman, you're a livery man andthen you have some standing in
the company and that's anotherstep closer to ownership.
There were a lot of steppingstones.
So he worked it, but by the ageof 26, he was a Freeman, so he
(05:17):
was already going.
After he became a Freeman hedecided to switch trades and he
began dabbling in tea.
He was working for a wealthymerchant at the time and they
were handling some of the earlyshipments of tea into England
and Thomas would stay with thismerchant for five years learning
the tea business and he becamereally fascinated by it.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
He loved it, so he's in England bringing tea in.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yep, he's working for a merchant that brings the tea
in.
So he's helping.
I don't think he's not goingback and forth.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
He's in England.
Yeah, importing, exporting.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yes, he's an importer , exporter.
But what do you import andexport?
Toothpicks.
Is that what it is?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
on Seinfeld, something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Another Seinfeld reference.
Now, before we get too into howthe Twining family basically
revolutionized tea in the UK, alittle history of tea in that
area.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I just know it's really popular now and
apparently society stops for teatime.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I think so.
I don't know really all the insand outs of that because I'm
but there's a stereotype, atleast in America, of Brits who
are like in the clock dings, thewhole country is like it's tea
time now, and that's it.
I do imagine that happening.
I want that to be real.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I've watched documentaries like the making of
movies and whatnot, andAmerican directors would often
be angry at British crews whenthey'd be filming because, like
the production would stop for anhour on aliens.
James Cameron got really pissedoff because all of his British
crew was like it's one o'clockor whatever, like we're done to
(06:57):
take tea, and he'd be like fuckyour tea time, you're done.
When I say you're done and no,you're not, I almost walked off
and it became like a big.
They had to apologize.
They had to apologize.
It was a big thing, I think itwas.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I respect that.
I think it was.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Sigourney Weaver, who played Ripley, who had to like
be the middle man and smooththings over because, the crew of
like 50 Brits was like we'rewalking off, yeah.
And James Cameron was like, oh,I need you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I love that.
I love, yeah, I wish we couldbe more like that in this
country.
But you know, whatever, yeah,so tea was.
It was consumed in England fora long time Fifteen, sixteen
hundreds in that area but it wasmore medicinal.
They didn't really do greatthings with it.
They would reuse the tea leavesmultiple times.
(07:46):
It would kind of get like gross.
They didn't know what they weredoing.
It was medicinal.
Yeah, it wasn't a posh culturalrevolution that everyone had to
have all the time of.
Braganza, the daughter of theKing of Portugal, married King
Charles II in 1662.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
She brought tea over and she also brought the
porcelain saucers, the teacups,the teapots, the proper way to
do everything, the whole nineyards.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So England kind of inherited it from Portugal.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And Portugal took it from China.
Okay, well, yeah, yeah, I doknow that China is like the
epicenter of tea.
Yes, china had it in the 1300s,is what I read.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Pasta gunpowder.
They had everything.
They've got it all.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So Catherine brings this over and with her, like I
said, she brings over theporcelain teapot, the teacups,
the saucers, the spoons.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
She shows people how to mix things with tea, the
whole pumping circumstance Likehoney sugar milk.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I don't know exactly what she used at that time, but
she spruced it up did more to it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's more than just dregs of twigs and seeds.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
From the forest floor and roots.
Yeah, she showed them it can beenjoyable it can be a beverage
you prefer, not just somethingyou take when you have cramps.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yep People notice that she would drink it daily
and multiple times a day.
They're like why Is she sick?
Is she okay?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So they're like what is this bitch doing?
Why is this woman just drinkingPepto-Bismol out of the bottle
all day?
What's wrong with her?
Yeah, her innards must berancid.
It's like Just really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yep, once the royals, the people all around her the
aristocracy.
Yes, Once they figured out whatshe was doing and actually took
time to be like oh, what isthis?
They really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It's new fad, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
However, it was still very, very expensive.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, it's the upper crust.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yes, so only the higher-ups can do it.
They would hand their tea downto their servants after they've
used it, though.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Take a sip as you clean out the cup.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, here's a swig yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Have a taste of the good life.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, not everyone was really enjoying tea in the
way that they think of it today.
It was starting to seep in,though.
It was happening.
It started to steep in.
Oh yeah, steep in no wait aminute.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You steep coffee.
Yeah, you steep.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
You steep tea or not?
Tea, tea, tea, cut.
That cut that.
Thomas Twining in 1706, openedhis first business.
What was it?
Tom's Coffee House.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Wow.
Original name 6 opened hisfirst business.
What was it?
Tom's coffee house.
Wow original name just tomtom's coffee house that seems so
modern yeah I feel like backthen I'd be like thomas, the
whole name.
Yeah, maybe that's how he stoodout was by being tom's but he's
selling coffee hut tom's coffeehouse.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
It straddled the border between Westminster and
the city of London.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
On the Strand.
That's the street name theStrand.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I don't know how they do streets in London so I don't
know.
I tried to figure it out, butit's just called the Strand.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Anyway, this area was a wealthy, newly populated area
that grew up very rapidly afterthe Great London Fire of 1666.
Oh, 666.
I know, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Big fires from history don't really impress me
because I'm like well, thetown's still there.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, I just think the date—.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
The Chicago Fire, the London Fire, I'm like they're
still there.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, but I thought we were talking about the
numbers.
Yeah, no, we are, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
But just in general, when someone references like the
Great Fire, I'm like, well, itdidn't destroy it, they built it
back up.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
If like what's in Rome, Pompeii.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh, I was thinking of the lost city of Atlantis.
Yeah, pompeii, and HerculaneumLike yeah, those are better
because they stayed destroyed,didn't they?
Yeah, they, yeah, I guess Idon't know what your argument is
right here?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I don't know anyway, just that I want like great
fires in history, that's itcoffee was more popular during
this time.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
There were around 2 000 coffee houses in london wow
so right, coffee was verypopular.
That coffee was the drink forengland just like here in
america.
Huh, that's how it started.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Coffee house is everywhere, so Tom wanted to
stand out with his coffee house.
Maybe it was by being Tom, Idon't know, but what he thought
was he would bring in somethingnew.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, side beverage Like some tea.
Like some tea.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Huh, when Thomas opened his coffee house, he sold
brewed ready-to-drink coffeeand tea, but he also was selling
dry coffee and dry tea leaveswhich they haven't done.
Unheard of.
Yeah, he was the first one.
Well, people believe he's thefirst one.
You can't ever fully fullyconfirm that, because there
(12:39):
might be someone in thebackwoods doing something, who
knows.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
But he made a name for himself.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
He was the first one to really do it make it yourself
at home coffee and not justconsume on the premises.
Yeah, okay, that's how hestarted to stand out, and this
was very beneficial, becausewomen were not allowed in coffee
houses at that time.
Society deemed it inappropriateand only a space for men there
(13:04):
was.
You know, men wanted to talkabout important issues at the
time and topics and governmentpolitics.
And there's drinking here too.
You know, they would sellalcoholic beverages at these
coffee houses as well.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Like the salons of France.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, very much like the salons of France is how this
was viewed Women not allowed.
Yeah viewed women not allowedyeah, but if you sell, things to
go.
These women can purchase thedry coffee and the dry tea
leaves and take it home to hosttheir own parties and events, or
to just have for themselves.
Yeah, they still couldn't enter, though, but they would have,
like their footmen, run in realquick by them and bring them out
(13:39):
.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
He's expanding his clientele base yes, like right
there you're doubling yourpotential customers yeah,
because the women loved it.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
That's what brought him more success.
Because they were like oh, welove this new trend of tea, we
love coffee, but like tea waslike the new thing.
So they wanted to show off andhave people at their parlors and
enjoy, you know, tea in theircoffee or in in their coffee
room tea in their coffee.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Put a little tea in that coffee tea in their drawing
rooms.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
They like to just enjoy it, it's the new thing,
and Thomas even had quite a fewof London's movers and shakers
visit the coffee house becausehe was known to have the best
quality tea.
Even long after Tom's death,the twining tea empire was still
(14:29):
very, very well known.
Jane Austen would go to Tom'scoffee house to get her tea
there.
Obviously, they were not aliveat the same time.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
She wrote a letter to her sister when she was
visiting her brother in Englandin 1841.
It was.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I'll read it to you, Jane Austen very boring.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
It says I am sorry there has been a rise in tea
like money.
I do not intend to pay twininguntil later in the day when we
may order a fresh supply.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Oh.
But proof that she, you know,proof that she enjoyed her tea,
enjoyed her tea from Twining.
She's not paying more, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
No, she is.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
But she has to wait until later in the day because
the price raised yeah.
Yeah, but that's it.
Yeah, I thought that was kindhas crossing in time.
Yeah, all, right, now we'regonna go back to 1717.
Okay, selling tea became verysuccessful for thomas, so much
so that he was able to acquirethe two adjacent houses next to
(15:27):
his coffee house.
Okay, allowing him to make itone big shop, and he knocked
down the walls yep, knocked himdown, made it big.
He had like his coffee house onone side and like the shop on
the other for the dry tea leavesand the dry coffee.
Women were allowed into theinto shops.
That's why he did this.
He's creating more foot trafficthrough that side and then
(15:49):
still has the coffee house onthe other side.
Today it's just one big openshop.
It's still open, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Oh, the original Nice .
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I forgot to mention that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
It's been around for 319 years.
The original, yeah, theoriginal.
That's why it's A coffee andtea house the address is 216
Strand, but it's not StrandStreet or Road or Avenue, I
don't know, just Strand.
Maybe in England they'resmarter and they're like
obviously there's pavement andthere's a road of some kind,
does it need to be an avenue?
(16:19):
Does it need to be a road.
Who cares?
Yeah, sorry, anyway, littlethings that trip up stupid
Americans, you know that's me,but yeah, they're still there.
The same building, the same,it's all there from 319 years
ago.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Older than our country the coffee shop, so are
their universities too.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
When Thomas redid like updated his coffee house,
he adorned the entryway of thiscombo shop with a gold-plated
lion to showcase the regalnessof tea and coffee, and he also
updated the name, changing it tothe Golden Lion Tea and Coffee
House.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Made me think of a Nico Cay song, Last Lion of
Albion, because it's all abouthow the British used lion
imagery a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
They were hunted to extinction from their island.
Oh, I didn't realize they usedit so much for things.
Yeah, it's like on their money,I think.
Oh, okay, yeah, it's on a bunchof stuff and I didn't know
lions were.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
There were lions on Britain.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, like thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
But still, I didn't know that.
And they've been hunted.
Yeah Well, that's what they do.
Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's what we do, yeah .
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Now we're in the year 1741.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Thomas Twining dies and his son, daniel, takes over.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Just dies, a natural, not a big deal.
Okay, he dies, he's old, histime has come.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, I was more interested with the story of how
this family stayed soconsistently true to their
morals, values, beliefs, whilestill running a successful
business and being I mean,they're probably billionaires,
I'm guessing.
I didn't look up the value, butit's yeah.
I'm guessing they're really,really doing well Now.
When Daniel took over, he wasable to establish connections
(18:10):
and he began exporting teaoverseas.
His ledgers show that in 1749,twinings tea was being sold to
America and specifically thegovernor of Boston was a very
loyal customer.
In 1773, when the Boston TeaParty happened, Twining tea.
(18:31):
Yeah, the Boston Tea Party foranyone who doesn't know, is when
in America we were really madabout the taxation without
representation, bullshit, blah,blah, blah.
I mean like fair, we don't wantto get taxed, whatever, and we
just dumped all of the britishtea into the water harbour yeah,
(18:51):
and we were just like notaxation.
We don, we don't like tariffs,we don't like taxes, we don't
like this.
And it pretty much was thebeginning of, like, the
rumblings of the revolution.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Of course the guys who did it dressed up as Native
Americans, because twinings tea,oh, and they did not throw it
in the harbor, okay because ofhow good it was okay a local
(19:27):
writer at the time even notedquote it was not the twinings
tea the boston rebels tossedinto the sea.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Nice Sing-songy yeah.
I thought that was cute,Jumping back to 1762,.
Daniel passes away and hiswidow, Mary Twining, takes over.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Okay, so she married into it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yep and she takes over Very progressive of 1762.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yep, she had a lot of naysayers.
They did not like not in thefamily, but just people.
But Mary was great, she had agood business mind and she
continued to run that businessfor the next 21 years.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, she was.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Until a man righted the ship right.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
No, I mean she let it go on her own.
Yeah, the family themselveswere totally fine with.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Mary doing this.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
It wasn't the family, like they're fantastic and I'm
assuming there's going to besomeone from England that's like
actually there's a pedophile orsomething.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
They would say pedophile oh a pedo.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
A pedophile?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I don't know Aluminium I don't know how they
say it.
This is all a plug for us toget like a lifetime supply of
twining tea sent, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Oh yeah, I'll take it .
I mean, from what I have seen,I don't have an issue with
anyone in this family so far.
So, mary, during her time,during her reign of the twining
tea empire, the tea taxationpeaked.
It got really big, and so itwas very common for tea to be
(21:01):
smuggled into the country fromlike france or holland, and
smugglers would often tamperwith the tea adding dry leaves,
twigs and bark, just yeah,cutting it, reducing it, cutting
it it's like a drug cut yourproduct, move those kilos yes,
and that's what they were doing.
However, this was not thetwining way, and Mary knew that.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Cutting our product.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yep.
She refused to taint thequality of her tea.
She was not a tea tainter.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
No tea.
Tainting with Mary?
No, yeah, no tea taint Mary.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
She wrote in her journal that she was proud of
herself for never buyingsmuggled tea and that her tea
was always of the finest quality.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
She's very Ben and Jerry's.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, we need that.
I love Ben and Jerry's.
They have a new dairy-free icecream that we have to get.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It's like chocolate something.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You communist?
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Anyway, I know, I know we love them.
I'm just kidding.
Anyway, I know, I know we lovethem, yeah.
In 1783, now we're jumpingforward a few more years.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
America 1783.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
We're not.
We don't care about them.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I just want to say that we're on the world stage
now At this point in history.
What's America doing rightabout now?
Existing, Existing.
We just won the war.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, we're trying yeah 1783, richard twining takes
over.
That's mary's son dick twiningand this is thomas twining's
grandson.
So we're in the thirdgeneration here, okay now
richard becomes a prominentperson of the tea trade and was
the chairman of the london teadealers.
(22:34):
At a time when smuggling andtampering with tea was pretty
high on the political agenda, hewas in a position where he
could lean into it, yeah or not.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Mm-hmm Tea.
Taxes were still very, veryhigh, but Richard felt that
everyone should be able toafford tea.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, it's the people's drink now.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Tea for all.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah.
Tea for all, it's just waterpoured over some like I don't
know.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's a lot of things that go in there, it's
just like water poured overpotpourri.
I mean, but you know, there'smore to it yet.
Do it.
Yet Now Richard proposed to theprime minister at the time to
cut the T-tax, to take it downfrom 119% to 12.5%.
(23:25):
Wow, that's what he wanted.
Richard argued that loweringthe tax would mean more sales
and that if there were highlevels of taxes, that that only
served to encourage thesmuggling they're like.
Well, if there's high taxes,people aren't going to pay them,
they're going to just smugglethem in.
But if we lower the taxes,people will buy the quality
products.
This isn't hard.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, it's pretty basic, it's not difficult yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Well, the prime minister at the time did
something that I've never seenin this country.
He listened, oh, and he went.
Oh, I changed my mind.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
He didn't believe I already made my decision.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Right, he didn't double down.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'm dug in and I'll never change yeah.
Yep, a good decision once is agood decision forever.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yep.
New information brought to youdoesn't change anything.
Nope, new information.
You just dig in, actually, getyour gun out and point it at him
.
Yeah, yeah, well, this primeminister.
He said yeah, no, you're kindof right, let's see what happens
here.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Let's try it out.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Let's try it out.
The prime minister would passthe Commutation Act of 1784,
effectively slashing the taxeson tea, and the tea sales went
through the roof.
Oh and that is how tea becamethe national drink as it is
today.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Oh, is it officially like England's national drink?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I don't know.
I just said that I honestlydidn't, colloquially.
I don't know if they have likea national drink, do we?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Can you look it up?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Do countries have national drinks?
I'm sure they have nationaleverything.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
If one has one, it would be England, I think, and
it would be tea, but I don'tknow.
I just assume.
I just call it the nationaldrink.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
England's natural beverage.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
National.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Okay, it does.
The UK does consider tea itsnational drink.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Okay, moving on.
So with the cut of the taxes ofthe tea, the sales went through
the roof and tea became popular.
Everyone can drink it now.
And then, of course, catherinefrom 1662 brought over the
tradition of it, the the nice,you know yeah saucers, teacups,
all that fun stuff.
All the pieces are there, andnow it just has to grow word of
(25:35):
mouth richard did become richardtwining.
He did become a shareholder inthe east india company in 1793
okay and he was the director ofthe east india company, or he
was a director, I think they hadmultiple I don't know much
about the east india company.
I just know what he did, but hewas the or a director from 1810
(25:58):
to 1817.
And this is when I was like,I'll find it.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, this is it.
This is when the skeletons comeout of the closet.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I don't think they were part of the slave trade,
but they were a part of the EastIndia Company.
Yeah, During his time asdirector he worked to make the
East India Company less of amonopoly and by giving more
control to the Britishgovernment okay, because the
East India Company was justrunning wild yeah, doing
whatever they wanted.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
State almost yes and the directors.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Oh, there's multiple directors.
The directors would be incharge of their little pods yeah
, and so he was.
Hey, we got to get a hold onthis.
They're treating people likeshit, they're being awful.
This is really unnecessarilyhorrible and we need to have
better control over our ownfucking people.
And so he was trying to get theBritish government to have more
(26:48):
control of the East IndiaCompany.
He cleaned it up a bit, made itto where directors don't have
quite as much power and thegovernment does.
Instead, as richard twining wasfighting the good fight, um, to
make the east india companybetter, he was also working at
the store at the golden lioncoffee tea house.
(27:12):
All that and he was adding morepizzazz to it.
In 1787, richard twiningcommissioned the store entrance
to move from the side of thebuilding to the front, so the
door was on the side at onepoint.
So he moved it to the front.
So it's officially on thestrand, officially the door, and
(27:33):
it's still there today okay,cool the new store entrance, he
added two Chinese figures of mensitting on either side of a
gold-plated lion that's lyingdown.
The Chinese men are meant to bein honor of China for the tea,
and then the lion because it'sremembering Thomas his original
(27:56):
idea and his original story, andhe changed the name of it one
more time as well richard towhat now?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
the golden lion let's make it easier, and that's what
it is today.
It's cleaner yes.
He should still drop the.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
It's cleaner, yeah, just golden lion, yeah, the
golden lion, and lion is spelledl-y-o-n oh, is that how it's
spelled in?
England.
I don't think so, maybe backthen I have a really dumb
American moment.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I've never seen.
I mean, I've read Britishnovels that have wine in it.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, I've read.
Yeah, I've never.
I've never seen it with a wineStylized way.
Yeah, just maybe older time.
Yeah, just fun.
Okay, you're right, I have read, like British things and I've
never seen yeah.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
And there are.
Ok, I got really nervous aboutsaying how there's lions on
British money and I'm like is?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
there, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
There are.
There's lions on their coinsand yeah, ok yeah, it's on their
royal coat of arms.
It's not money, but yeah, thereis.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They've got lions everywhere.
They're big on to lions okay,yeah, well, now the store is
called the golden lion and ithas been this same storefront
and logo since 1787, so it hasbeen what it is right now for
238 years wow and walmart willlast that long I hope not come
(29:20):
on um.
The twinings logo is one of theoldest unchanged british
commercial logos in continuoususe in the uk I can't even
picture it.
I know I need to know what itlooks like oh, yes, you can look
it up, but I will also postphotos of these so you, if you
want to know, it'll be on ourinstagram.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Borrowed bones podcast yeah, it's just okay.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's classic, standard, clean looking.
It looks good.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Established 1706.
Mm-hmm London.
Yes yeah, london, england.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
London, England.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Got to add another syllable.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
You talk like y'all from London.
I had to do it.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's Paul Rudd, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Or no, you sound like , I don't know whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, he's talking to Russell Brand when he has the
little coral and is like oh,it's right through my leg.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
is that what he says?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, Russell Brand's oh yeah, he's a predator now
too.
Yeah, he's like doing CharlieKirk tours too.
Yeah, Whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Forgetting Sarah Marshall's a good movie.
Yeah, anyway, jumping ahead tothe year 1818, Richard Twining
II takes over the business.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And during his ownership he was selling tea to
the prime minister, charles GrayII, the second Earl Gray.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Oh spoiler, so his name's not Earl Grey.
Oh spoiler, so his name's notEarl, it's his title.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
It's his title.
His name is Charles Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Charles Earl.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Charles Grey, when the prime minister sent an envoy
on a diplomatic mission toChina in 1831, this envoy
apparently heroically saved thelife of a Chinese person.
I don't know how, I don't knowthe story.
And as a token of thanks, theywere gifted a bag of tea along
(31:13):
with the recipe Okay, whichbefore that was a well-guarded
secret, apparently, like it wasoh, you can't have this, but the
Chinese were like thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Here you go.
You saved one of us.
Here you go here you go.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
When this special tea blend made its way back to
england it became very, verypopular with the prime minister
earl gray and his people.
They all loved it.
His circles were just diggingit.
And then soon the primeminister Earl Grey II was asking
Twining to reproduce the tea sohe could sell it to others and
(31:46):
he could have more of it Like hewas.
Like we got to keep this shitgoing.
He gives it to Twining toreproduce it.
So some people I've read thinkthat Twining created it.
He replicated it Right, but itis English.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I mean Earl Grey is, you know, but it's made off a
Chinese recipe.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I mean, like all of the tea basically is but, they
just didn't create the recipe.
They just distributed it, soldit, named it you know,
popularized it Appropriate.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They are white.
That's what we do.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
It was a gift to them , though, too, so it doesn't
feel wrong, you know it feelsokay, but yes, but also it's
okay, that's what us whites dois we don't invent anything, we
get gifted or we take things andthen we just do a little spin
on it.
Other tea companies might evenclaim that they came up with the
tea blend, but in 2013, philipGray, the seventh Earl Gray he
officially endorsed twinings asthe original blend.
(32:44):
Like nope, they had theoriginal blend that was gifted.
They're the ones that have it.
And then other predecessors ofEarl Greys before them have also
been like nope, twinings,they're the ones that do it.
So I say the twinings are theones that had it the first time,
nice.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Had it the first time , nice.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
In 1837, queen Victoria made twinings an
official royal warrant holder.
Now this meant that thetwinings were now appointed with
supplying the tea for herhousehold.
Royal warrant holder, you hadto have been supplying a
household a royal household forat least five years to
demonstrate consistent qualityservice.
So that just shows how goodquality they are.
(33:30):
I just wanted to kind of noteagain they're sticking with
their quality.
They don't waver at all.
Jumping ahead to the 1860s, weare going to talk about
Elizabeth Twining.
She was never an owner, but shewas an heiress to the Twining
family fortune.
She was one of the daughters ofMary and Richard.
(33:51):
She was one of nine.
She's just a good human, so Iwanted to highlight her.
She has all the money, doesn'thave to work and she chooses to
be a philanthropist.
And she was also into drawing,painting, but she would always
draw and paint flowers, plants.
She really liked to be outside,but she was also a champion for
social reform.
(34:11):
In 1866, elizabeth would havebeen 60 years old at this time.
She turned her family home intoan informal training school for
impoverished girls who wantedto enter into service, like work
, the workforce, and she alsocared for retired domestic
servants, oh yeah, so she gaveup her house for these people.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Right.
I thought back then, if theyretired, you were just thrown
out.
Yeah, that's why she took careof them.
Go die in the street now.
Yes, yep, you are correct,that's why she took care of them
Go die in the street now.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Yes, yep, you are correct.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
That's why she took care of them Nice.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
There was no retirement.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, like retirement .
What year was that?
Once they were done?
Yeah, once they couldn't, whenthey were worked to death.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yes, that's it, yeah.
Yeah, there was no yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
They were worked to death.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Elizabeth also established a Provident Hospital
named St John's to providemedical care for those who
couldn't afford a doctor.
So Provident Hospital isspecifically for people that
don't have money or insurance.
Elizabeth's main focus wasmothers and children.
(35:22):
Elizabeth's main focus wasmothers and children.
She was the first person toorganize mothers meetings in
London and she took part infounding the Bedford College for
Girls, which is the firsthigher education school for
women in the UK oh, I've heardof that one.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I've heard of Bedford .
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I thought I've heard of it too.
Yeah, I guess I didn't lookinto it I'm assuming it's still
around yeah now, these mothersmeetings included spiritual
education, story reading, sewinginstruction and sometimes field
trips, so like just helping,like how to live.
Yeah now, elizabeth's sister,louisa, who's a younger sister,
(35:58):
was also very big into helpingand philanthropic, is that a
word?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, philanthropic.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Nice and she focused mainly on helping the poor and
the elderly.
So they kind of are dividingand conquering here.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
They weren't helping the rich.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
No, they weren't.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Wait a minute.
Why aren't they helping therich, though?
They're the ones who struggleand work the most?
I mean right, fellow Americans.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
They should be sacrificing for the rich.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
If the poor and the sick needed help, God would help
them.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Obviously they're not good people.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
God put them there to suffer for a reason.
And who are you?
And God made the rich rich fora reason.
It's your duty to get themricher.
I mean, it's self-evident.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
This is what the Twining family needs to figure
out.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
This is their problem .
They probably worship SatanHelping those that God fucked
over.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
It doesn't look like you trust in God's design
purpose.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
These Twinings.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Twining it around.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Well, louisa, she was great.
She was into helping the poorand the elderly.
There was quite an age gapbetween the two of them too.
Elizabeth was born in 1805 andLouisa was born in 1820.
So they had like a 15 year agedifference, but they still did
the damn thing.
Louisa was very appalled by theconditions of workhouses.
(37:15):
She spearheaded reform for that.
She was like this is ridiculous.
These workhouses can be better.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
We need.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
We need to do better.
Louisa founded homes to carefor the old and the sick.
In 1893, luisa was elected thefirst female poor law guardian.
Which poor law guardians wereboards of people responsible for
(37:41):
administering assistance tolocal residents who could not
support themselves.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, she's just like doing good things with other
good people.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
I feel like these are like time travelers or
something I know, like they'renot real, like you're not real.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You're not real.
Louisa was also the presidentof a local branch of the
National Union of Women Workersthat began in 1895.
So this was established tocombat the working conditions
for women.
It's still a thing, but it'slike now been associated or
absorbed or changed into theInternational Council of Women,
(38:19):
icw.
Louisa was also she did a lotawarded the title of the Lady of
Grace of the Order of St Johnof Jerusalem in England.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
That's too many ofs.
I know you got to pick one ofin your title.
That should be real, forwhatever your title is whether
it's a job royalty you get oneof.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
The Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of
Jerusalem in England.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Four ofs.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
This title, though, was also given to Florence
Nightingale.
Oh, because it's for people whovolunteer in hospitals and
ambulances and work relief.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, I really thought you would say Florence
Henderson, what Isn't she?
From the Partridge family?
Yeah, yeah, that's why.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I'm confused.
I thought I was thinking of thewrong person.
When I hear the name Florence.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
That's where my name goes to, not Nightingale.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Oh, you didn't think I was going to say.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Oh okay, oh, you didn't think I was gonna say oh
okay, I mean, it makes moresense, I should have guessed
Nightingale cause.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
That makes sense.
That is, she has the Partridgefamily right, not the Brady
Bunch.
Who's the Brady Bunch mom?
Hold on let me look we'reforgetting everything today.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
I think it's oh she was she was the Brady Bunch hey,
yes, see, you're really fuckingwith me, man sorry, oh, I
thought we were paused thiswhole time, but uh, no, we're
not paused, no, we're recording.
Sorry, I have the name, but thewrong role she was carol brady,
not yes mrs partridge we, Idon't know.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, I watched both growing up.
My mom liked both of them, so Iwas like wait a minute, hold on
.
I couldn't let it go either.
I was like I don't think it'sthe partridge family and I just.
But anyway, we got there.
So yes, louisa shares the sametitle as florence nightingale,
which is another fantastic thing.
Now we're going to jump aheadquite a bit, because nothing
(40:17):
really happens between the late1890s and the early 1930s.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Tea is tea.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, they kind of just maintain, Maintain.
Now it is 1933, and theTwinings English Breakfast Blend
comes to be, so a lot of peopleeat, or a lot of people drink
tea, the blend of Englishbreakfast.
Have you seen that?
Yeah, yeah, that's anotherpopular one like Earl Grey.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
That's another popular one, like Earl Grey.
Now, the Twinings did notactually invent the breakfast
blend, but they did improve uponit same way with the Earl Grey
tea.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
They added cinnamon.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I don't know what they added.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Did you just add one more spice?
We added some nutmeg.
Now it's different.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
No, I think they more so made it unified Because,
before you know, other peoplehave recipes for the same thing,
but it's not necessarily thesame.
The story of English breakfastis that in 1843, an English
immigrant, mr Davies, was livingin New York City and he wanted
some really good tea.
He was homesick.
(41:19):
He's like these Americans areinto coffee, I want tea.
He was homesick.
He's like these Americans areinto coffee, I want tea.
So he puts together a blend andhe begins selling it in America
and he's calling it Englishbreakfast.
Because why would you namesomething English breakfast if
you live in England?
It would just be breakfast teaor morning tea, so he names it
English breakfast.
There's a lot of argumentsonline as to where this actually
(41:42):
came from, the englishbreakfast blend, and one of the
arguments is like it obviouslydidn't come from england.
Because why would it be calledenglish breakfast?
I don't know, I'm just that.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Makes sense to me I mean, do english muffins come
from england?
I don't know if they do, thenthere goes that whole point.
Well, either way there'smultiple stories.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
This one seems to make the most sense to me, but
there are multiple stories, soif you think you know the real
one, let me know.
But I have read pretty much allof them and this is the one
that I think fits Mr Davies'.
English breakfast became sopopular that he was able to make
it a business and he startedthe Canton Tea Company.
However, he was not good atbusiness and he made poor
(42:23):
decisions and the businessfailed.
But Twinings already discoveredthe English breakfast recipe
because they bought some fromthe Canton Company, knowing that
it was popular.
They'd heard about it.
And so they bought some from theCanton Company and the Twining
(42:43):
Company sent it over to theirexperts that they had in China
to decipher what the blend wasand recreate it.
So they stole it kind of.
But also the first company didfail and if twinings didn't take
that recipe when they did, wewouldn't have English Breakfast
Blend, I think that's why I likethat we wouldn't have English
breakfast blend.
No, I think that's why I likethat story.
(43:04):
It makes the most sense to me.
1939, the Twinings tea helpedkeep spirits high during World
War II, because now we're duringthe war times.
During this time, the Twinings,they supplied tea for the Red
Cross and the Red Cross wassending these prisoner of war
parcels, and so tea was beingsent in those little packages.
(43:26):
There was also tea supplied forthe Women's Voluntary Service.
The YMCA had a mobile wartimecalled canteen.
It's like a van that goes aroundsupplies, and tea was a part of
that.
They knew that tea wassomething that people come
together for and they were likeyep, we'll help, we'll do this,
we'll send it, we'll do whatever.
So they helped with the war.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, nice.
That's nice, everyone pulledtogether.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah 1956, the Twinings make tea bags in the UK
for the first time.
I found this interesting.
It doesn't have anything to dowith the family, really.
Really.
They just made tea bags in theuk for the first time.
America had already had teabags.
Because we're a go-go-go kindof crowd and because twinings
(44:09):
were selling to americans aswell, they're like well, fuck,
all, right now we're losing ourmarket in america because we
don't have tea bags.
So I don't know.
I just thought it wasinteresting that they waited so
long, that the uk was like we'reinto the like.
I think I wrote in here when westarted having them in america,
like in 1908 and I think, and Idon't know how true this is for
the 1930s yeah I read this intrivia that uh, tea bags were
(44:33):
not meant to be like steepedlike we yeah do now.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
They were meant to just be ripped or cut open and
you'd pour the contents into thewater, and then people just
started leaving it with thestring well, the one theory.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
There's multiple little theories, I think the one
that I believe is similar towhat yours is in america anyway.
Um, in 1908 a tea merchant fromnew york shipped his tea
samples to his customers insmall silk pouches, and most
people did them differently andin larger quantities, but he
thought this would be easier totransport, and I don't know how
(45:06):
this happened.
But the customers just put themin the cups at some point and
let it steep that way and theydecided they liked it better
that way and started requestingthe silk pouches.
And then, a few years go by, weget that paper filter that we
have today, but that took alittle bit while, a little while
to get there.
So yeah, I don't know, it justtook twining a while to get tea
(45:27):
bags.
I kind of like that becausethey're like old school, old
school and staying traditional.
But it was america who was likewe want tea bags.
They're like fuck fine.
I just thought that wasinteresting.
The company itself grows quitea bit.
In 1964 so we're jumping aheadthey were acquired by a larger,
(45:48):
a larger company calledassociated british foods, like a
conglomerate, and I thoughtthat was really cool because
they still stand, they're hugeand they still stand strong to
their morals and I think it'sbaffling to my American brain.
I can't understand how they'regrowing and not being corrupt
and awful humans.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
I don't get why.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Are there names?
Speaker 2 (46:10):
on the Epstein files.
There aren't any.
Who's Jeffrey Epstein?
I know you didn't say a firstname just there, but that's
because he doesn't have one.
He, she, what?
There's no one never been named, that Stop it.
She, what?
There's no one never been named, that stop it.
No one's ever been namedepstein.
His wife isn't in prison forsex trafficking.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Nothing to no one we just jumped a minute, yeah
anyway lost time in 1997,jumping ahead again, the
Twinings became a foundingmember of the Ethical Tea
(46:46):
Partnership, an organizationworking to create a fairer, more
sustainable tea industry forthe tea workers, farmers and the
environment.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Yeah, like, okay, nice, like all these things.
I'm like what, what?
Yeah, in 2004, the Twiningsstarted the Save the Children
partnership in China.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Someone needs to think of them, the children.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, think of the children.
Well, the Twinings truly are.
Yeah.
Yeah, we say that in jest, butthey're doing it.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
People who have them aren't.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, over half a million children have been
helped so far because of this,starting in 2004.
They help communities byproviding better nutrition,
giving lessons or classes tomothers on breastfeeding and
what to do if your child won'tbreastfeed.
That's just a few examples, butall of that.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Let nature do what it will Eat or it won't.
I mean yeah, so learn to eat,or it won't.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
I mean, yeah.
In 2010, Twinings partneredwith UNICEF to improve the lives
of girls and young women livingon tea estates, specifically in
Assam, India.
I didn't look too far into it,but it sounds like there's a lot
that goes on in there.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Probably.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Because a lot of the Twinings focus for, for
improving things is like a someIndia area, but either way
they're trying to make sure thatall of their production line
across the globe is uniform,good yes fully transparent as a
(48:25):
company and they came up with alist of approved tea gardens,
showing that they care abouttheir workers all the way, from
beginning to end, and they willlet anyone go and see the
working conditions and they'llthey have maps to show like
they're like.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
This is where it is, this is where everything is.
You can, like, look up like Idon't know about their tea
gardens, yes, yep.
Thailand, if they have any,yeah, wherever they are.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
you can find them, they will show them to you.
And I don't believe there's anylaws or government oversight
saying these companies have todo this.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Probably not.
It's just the twining companydoing it and they have companies
in different continents.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah, it's just them saying hey, we're just showing
you guys that we're good, we'rejust showing you guys that we're
good yeah.
We're just letting you know wehave nothing to hide, so we'll
show you everything.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
So what do they have to hide?
Speaker 1 (49:04):
then Exactly, no one does this.
I can't handle this.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
No one preemptively releases information, just to
say look how not bad I am.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
I know Like gold over here, and then where's?
The black, like where's thedark?
I don't know.
It's like that.
Yeah, but I can't find it.
In 2016, they launched aprogram called Sourced with Care
, and it's a responsiblesourcing program aiming to
(49:31):
improve the lives of communitieswho grow its tea and herbs.
They also support empowermentof women, farmers, workers.
That's all a part of it.
Yeah, young people protectingworkers' rights, improving
incomes, like they want everyoneto be good.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Sounds like they're helping everyone again.
But the rich, yeah.
Where's their rich charity?
Someone just like you, for adollar a day, could help save a
billionaire.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Can't you find it in your heart to donate 50 cents?
Speaker 1 (50:07):
a day to keep this rich person from having to pay
for anything.
In 2018, the Twinings becamethe second major tea company to
put up a list, oh and map.
So yeah, this is when theyadded the map in 2018.
Okay, oh wait, actually no,they do make multiple lists and
maps, but I think they the mapin 2018.
Okay, oh wait, Actually no,they do multiple lists and maps
(50:27):
but I think they did it inphases.
So I think in 2018, they didthis of the Indian plantations
that are supplying their teablends.
So they just keep adding moreand more and more to their
transparency journey here.
A quote on their website aboutthis says that transparency is
part of the journey to improvingthe lives of tea communities we
are sourcing from, and it andit is important to drive the
(50:51):
change we all aspire to see.
So, if you want the change, bethe change.
Wow, wow.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
If you want to make the world a better place take a
look at yourself and make thatchange quoted a pedophile yes he
didn't change anything, no,except those boys pants but he's
american.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, I don't know.
I know there's bad englishpeople.
I've talked about them, it'sfine.
I just I love this.
Who's that one?
Speaker 2 (51:19):
prince of England.
Right now he's not like one ofthe two main ones, but he's on
the Epstein.
Sorry, he who should not benamed.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Oh, yeah, with an A yeah is it Anthony, andrew,
andrew?
It's not Andrew.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
There's no file.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
There's no list, yeah .
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Anyway, allegedly In 2019, the Herbs Supply Chain
Project was launched inGuatemala, similar to the list
of the tea plantations and allthat stuff.
But they keep moving along oneby one.
In 2020, the twining companyachieves a major ethical
milestone 100% of their tea isnow sourced from certified
(52:03):
gardens.
500,000 plus people are nowpositively impacted by the
program Sourced with Care, andall of this is all a part of all
of their programs.
They are finally hitting.
They're like okay, everyone inour company, from all the way
down the line, is taken care of.
At least they're trying to be,anyway.
(52:24):
In 2023, the Twinings publishedtheir first human rights report
and they gave a detailed guideon how they expect to be as a
company and how they can helpthe communities that they're
impacting, because they are inareas that this is a problem.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, in areas that this is a problem.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
Yeah, yeah.
In 2024, the company came outwith a modern slavery statement.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
They're against it.
Yes, I'm assuming, stating howthey are against it.
Okay, good, I was on the fence.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
This is it.
The ball drops here.
How do they fall?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
into slavery.
Yeah, everything else I know alot of people are, you know, on
the fence about that topic, soI'm glad that they're on a side
of history.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, and so the modern slavery statement in 2024
stating how they are against itand what they're doing to help
with this problem.
Now, today, currently, stephenTwining is the reigning heir of
the company.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Was it a V or a PH PH ?
Okay.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
And he is a 10th generation Twining and he serves
as the brand ambassador anddirector of corporate relations
at Twining's.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
He says he has had a lifelong passion for tea and he
has about nine cups of tea a dayit's good for him that he was
born into a family.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
It's all about tea, I mean shit.
What if he had a passion for,like basketball or anything else
?
It's a good thing that,coincidentally, his passion is
the thing he was born into.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
I mean okay, I need everyone to look up youtube
clips with him, because we'regonna watch I haven't shown you
him because he is a delight, heis a gem.
I again eve.
I was like, okay, the guythat's around today is probably
shitty.
Right, because I don't know,it's 2025.
Everyone's shit, I don't know,the world's burning, I don't
know, but he's so british, it'sso just a character.
(54:16):
I, just you.
You have to watch it.
It it's on YouTube, look upStephen Twining or Twining Tea.
He'll be a spokesperson onthere and he'll just talk about
it and you get to see the insideof the Golden Lion.
He gives you a tour and you getto see it all and just
everything about him.
He's kind of adorable, he'slike an older gentleman but yeah
(54:37):
, he loves his job, he loves hiscompany and he loves tea.
And I don't think that theTwinings are going to, I don't
think they're going to switch itup anytime soon.
They're successful, they're notcorrupt, they're not bad,
they're not.
I mean, I don't know what theyall do with their money, but the
company itself seems fuckinglegit yeah.
(55:00):
Yeah, so yeah, twinings, sponsorus, us.
I would love that.
Yeah, if you want to see thephotos and everything I'm going
to post for the twining, I'll doa logo shot of the strand and
get a photo of that and a fewmore things.
Maybe I'll do a photo of steventwining himself.
I'll do a screenshot fromYouTube.
(55:21):
But, yeah, follow us on ourInstagram account.
Borrowed Bones Podcast.
Please rate.
Review, like all the things onApple Podcasts, spotify.
It really helps us get pushedup and shoved into people's
faces Clout.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, do they still call it that online on the
internet Clout?
It used to be a clout score.
Remember that.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Oh, it probably is the same thing.
I don't know if it's stillcalled that or not, but I think
it's a similar thing.
The more engagement there is onthe actual apps, it helps.
So, yeah, anyway, thanks, bye,bye.
Till next time Drink your teaBye.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Bye.
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