Bethan Thomas travelled throughout Asia as an international tea-buyer for years, before founding her own botanical tea and herbal brand, HotTea Mama, whose products support women’s health across the life stages.
Bethan Thomas travelled throughout Asia as an international tea-buyer for years, before founding her own botanical tea and herbal brand, HotTea Mama, whose products support women’s health across the life stages.
She shares her story with us.
“I have a degree in tea science from the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Fujian, China, and have worked with herbs and spices through my career in tea for over 20 years. So, the ashwagandha ingredients link strongly to my past experience and studies.
“However, brewer’s yeast is not a botanical and is the first ingredient HotTea Mama has used that isn’t [taken directly] from a plant. We identified this through consumer research, looking at where our current and previous customers were looking for support. We have a great group of women who we affectionately call ‘the teasers’ who helped us with this.”
“We have always been committed to making HotTea Mama’s workplace flexible, fair, and fun, and officially recognising the ‘fair’ part of this is an important milestone for us. We’ve been trading for seven years and haven’t had a lot of spare income as we’ve been growing to invest in certification of our processes. So now that we’re able to, we want to officially commit to the policies we’ve had in place internally.”
“Not having access to huge funds makes you more creative with the funds that you do have. I believe it can make women-led businesses more successful at growing a community and finding lower-cost marketing routes that offer a better ROAS [return on advertising spend] than standard agencies.
“I also think that you naturally are more careful with the funds that you do have, and are likely better at choosing team members and suppliers to ensure they are in keeping with your culture.”
“Absolutely! […] Women-founded food business perform 63% better than male-founded businesses, but exclusively female-founded businesses only get two pence out of every pound invested in food businesses. Exclusively male-founded businesses receive 85p. This just doesn't make sense.
“Imagine giving a business with 63% more likelihood of success some more money... the likelihood is that the business would be even more successful. Investment should be equally weighted between men and women – though you could argue that in food, it should be weighted more to women-founded businesses, given their success rates.”
“I loved it. I travelled extensively across the Middle East, India, China, Taiwan, and Japan with my roles in tea-buying and marketing. Experiencing another culture, especially the food and drink, is always my favourite part of travelling, but exposure to different cultures is so invigorating.
“China is my second home, as I lived in China for long periods, firstly as an intern working in fashion-buying and marketing, and then while I studied Chinese and tea science – three years in total. So, no matter where I've lived, it is always where I want to return to.”
“It was a very intentional career. At the age of 18, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I was lucky enough to move to Shanghai as I was offered an internship there. I spent nine months in Shanghai and three months in Seoul, and was inspired by tea in both countries. It is treated so differently compared to English tea. I travelled in China to visit tea gardens along the south-east coast [and] I decided to study for a post-graduate degree in Chinese Studies while I was working in Shanghai, as I found it so hard to learn to read and write Chinese in my spare time.
“When I studied at Oxford, I wrote my thesis about the Chinese tea trade because I knew I wanted to work in the tea trade. I got a job working for JING Tea, which allowed me to use my Chinese and focus on speciality Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese teas, rather than a ‘builder’s brew’ – and my career went from there, hugely influenced by my experience in China.”
“No. I'm a big believer that all mistakes we make take us to where we are. I could absolutely have done things differently and better – but if I had done that, I don’t think I would be [sitting] with an amazing team of women making unique teas that are now a huge support to women at some of the most challenging times of life.”
“I certainly don’t have a perfect work-life balance. As an entrepreneur, it’s hard not to work constantly, as your brain is wired to think about your business. Throw into that the fact that I became an entrepreneur in my mid-thirties, with a toddler and baby in tow... I don't have a lot of spare time!
“The biggest way I ensure that I have work-life balance is to ensure that I do not work nine-to-five in our office. I have greater flexibility than my partner, so I am lucky to drop my kids at school every day. We send them to morning club, so I drop them at 8am, and have established our offices 15 minutes from my kids’ school. It means that I start work early but [after] having had a walk and spent quality time with my kids.
“Three days a week, I pick my kids up from school and take them to varying activities later on, where I work while they are doing their activities. It might make it more difficult to schedule meetings, and I regularly work from a car, but I see my kids far more than the average working parent and still get work done!”
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