Why I Started Stead: Rediscovering Loose Leaf Tea and the Ritual of Brewing Properly

Stead started, quite literally, in a dream.

Unlike a lot of dreams I have, I couldn’t shake it. It stayed with me. I didn’t immediately have a polished business plan. But it quickly became clear that I wanted to turn that initial spark into something tangible.

“If you can dream it, you can do it,” Walt Disney once said. I didn’t want to make a Mickey Mouse company. If the business were to exist outside of my own REM sleep, I knew I would have to take it seriously and start to build.

Tea was always there

The dream didn’t come in isolation though. For as long as I can remember, tea has been my favourite drink. I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t drink it. It punctuated my day. Waking up, having breakfast, after lunch, before bed – there would always be a cup of tea in my hands.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m a Yorkshireman. Tea practically comes out of the taps where I’m from. We’re passionate tea drinkers in Yorkshire. There’s also a lot of brand tribalism.

For me, the most important part was the overall taste. I was always intrigued by how tea tasted different when I went to visit family in other parts of the UK. When going abroad, I longed for the brews from home. I loved the familiar feeling it gave me.

The process was always simple: a mug, a tea bag, hot water, milk. People used to ridicule me for having 1.5 teaspoons of sugar – not one, not two. One and a half. These days, I’m most likely to have no sugar in many of the teas I drink.

Tea deserves better

The problem I have is that tea isn’t treated with the respect it deserves. I’ve always admired coffee culture. We’ll spend hundreds perfecting espresso, but barely give tea three minutes to steep. The simplicity people associate with tea can sometimes do it a disservice. In doing so, we devalue a drink that has been a prominent part of British culture for so long.

My aim isn’t to convert staunch coffee drinkers into overnight tea purists. We can and should enjoy both, unapologetically. What I want to do is address the imbalance that no one seems to talk about.

I remember watching a lot of soaps growing up – Brookside (RIP), Coronation Street, Emmerdale and the like. Every time one of the characters received bad news, the usual knee-jerk reaction was to put the kettle on.

I don’t watch soaps anymore, but that trope stayed with me because it was so true to my real life. Even if the tea itself was never the star of the show, it always played the best supporting role. It gave the lead characters the opportunity to pause, take a deep breath and gain some perspective. It gave the supportive best friend the chance to do something caring, even if they couldn’t solve the massive problem at hand.

That is the value tea holds. Tea geeks shouldn’t be the only ones who can tap into that value. Tea is for everyone, but it should be elevated. It should be put on the pedestal where it belongs.

Letting the leaves unfurl

One day, I found out that tea doesn’t have to live in tea bags. I also discovered that English breakfast tea isn’t the only variety available. My aunty once introduced me to herbals as a child, but even then it was still a fruity variation of the same tea experience I was already used to.

Loose leaf tea was different. It felt like a special treat. It opened me up to new varieties of tea, but it also opened me up to new ways of brewing it. That’s when I began to understand the difference between loose leaf tea and tea bags – not just in flavour, but in experience. I bought some loose tea from an independent seller at a food festival, along with a small stick-shaped infuser to hold the leaves.

I didn’t know back then that I was still confining the leaves in a small space where they couldn’t fully release their flavour. I was just happy to be doing tea differently.

Now when I make loose leaf tea, it’s a fully sensory experience. I often use a clear glass teapot and watch the leaves unfurl. I notice how different loose leaf tea looks compared to the fine filings inside a tea bag.

Then there’s the taste. The flavour feels elevated when you use loose tea. Even English breakfast – the tea I’ve enjoyed since childhood in teabags – takes on a new life when it’s freed from the bag.

The wait is actually part of the journey for me. It’s not an eternity, just a few minutes. But it’s a part of the process that’s often skipped. We’re busy – I get it. I just think good tea is worth the wait, and we’re worth the few minutes we give ourselves to pause while it brews. Brewing loose leaf tea properly doesn’t just improve taste – it slows you down in the best way.

The permission to pause

This is the foundation on which Stead is built. I want to share the permission that tea gives us to pause.

We might not be in the middle of melodrama. We might not be at the brink of disaster. We might just be filing a report for work and want to take a few minutes to celebrate the progress we’ve already made. Ironically, when we do take that break, we’re much more likely to return to our frantic lives with a bit more clarity.

Sometimes, when life feels like it’s at full pelt, we can’t see the wood for the trees. A short tea break won’t solve our problems, but it might be all we need to regain focus.

Stead isn’t about making tea complicated. It’s about making it considered. Stead exists to make brewing loose leaf tea feel accessible, not intimidating. I never want to lose the simplicity that brought me so much joy when I first started drinking tea. But now that I’m a busy parent, husband and copywriter, I appreciate the breathing space it gives me in the midst of the chaos.

Taking a few minutes to brew tea and a few more minutes to enjoy it isn’t wasted time. It’s reclaimed time. We all deserve space in our day to appreciate good tea. I created Stead to give that opportunity.

I bring the leaves. You bring the busy. Let’s put the kettle on and sip some calm.