The British Collection Kickstarter is official open! Q&A with NovelTea Tins about their new British book inspired tea tins

Artwork by Lily Jones

NovelTea Tins Kickstarter has officially launched! Over 750 backers came together last year to bring about the first collection of book inspired tea tins which have been a huge success. Now, the British are coming, but they need your help to get here. Read all about NovelTea Tins inspiration and processes, and get a sneaky taste of what to expect from The British Collection.



1) How did you come up with the idea of doing a 'British Collection'?
Tea represents a quintessential taste in British culture and the English literature we read literally comes from English literature. So once we decided that we would launch new Tea Tin collections as our way of introducing new designs, it was a no-brainer to do The British Collection first.

2) Why, out of all British authors, did you decide to choose Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare for this collection?
We chose Jane Austen for her preternatural social perspective, her way with words, her sense of humour,  her role in feminism, and her irrevocable place as an icon of Victorian England. She is loved world-wide and we liked the challenge of juxtaposing her classical characters - many of whom would naturally be found holding cups of tea - with tea in a humorous way. 
Charles Dickens dominated early Victorian literature and is considered by many to be one of the greatest story tellers and stylists of all time. He wrote more than ten still-famous novels and we liked the idea of Oliver Twist because it seemed obvious that an organic uplifting tea should be able to do for you what the State was unable to do for Oliver.
William Shakespeare? I mean duh. Frankly, we didn't have any choice, one of his ghosts appeared to us at night muttering about an "eternal haunt" if he were excluded from The British Collection. Also, we wanted the challenge of making a play. Matcha Do About Nothing was top of our list, not because it's his "best" play but because it's in fact a brilliant comedy famous for it's wordplay.
3) How much planning has gone into the pun-tastic names and designs of these new Noveltea Tins?
The Kickstarter Backers have given us indispensable ideas, puns and input. I'm embarrassed to admit how much planning goes into each project, hundreds of hours are spent analysing options for the best tea / tin / title combinations. Sometimes we catch ourselves thinking, "it's only a tea tin"... but then one of Shakespeare's ghosts appears again and scares us back to work. 

4) Explain to the readers what they can expect from these new tea blends?
Each tea is carefully flavoured to immerse you in the reading experience of a book. The British Collection of teas have at least two flavour elements in common, they are Uplifting & Organic:
Pride & Peppermint pokes fun at the "normal mint" flavour
Matcha Do About Nothing is a high energy, bright green wake up call
Oliver Lemon Twist zings a lemon ginger twist to lift you out of any gutter.
Also, last time we went "partly organic", this time we are going "full organic".
 5) Any last thoughts/comments to the readers?
 We don't mention it much, but we believe deeply in the essential democratic function of literature and fiction in society. Our goal of immersing you in a book hails back to our wish for helping you unplug from work and enjoy the profound intimacy of great literature. Beyond what we think is a wonderfully sensible product - the combination of books and tea - our dream is to inspire millions of children and adults to smile, share and read more often.
So what will it be; Pride and Peppermint? Matcha Do About Nothing? Or perhaps a cup of Oliver Lemon Twist? Visit the Kickstarter page here 
To contact NovelTea Tins, visit one of their social media links:

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