Twinings hit the headlines this week by substituting a new fangled Earl Grey blend for the 180 year old traditional recipe. Outrage among devotees has seen the reinstatement of “Classic Earl Grey” – but what is the history behind a tea company that has been in the same family for 10 generations?
Twinings is one of the world’s iconic tea companies. Old by any standard, it was established in London by Thomas Twining in 1706 and has remained in the same family ever since. Today, Stephen Twining is the tenth generation family member to work for the still expanding company, with its tea selling now into more than 100 countries.
In a few hundred words we can barely scratch the surface of the history of a tea company that has traded for three centuries, but in Part 1. of the saga we can at least record how Twinings Tea began business and follow its progress during the reigns of Charles II to George IV.
Back in the 17th Century the Twinings family were weavers and cloth fullers in Painswick near Gloucester, though they were named through having family connections with the tiny ancient Gloucestershire village of Twyning – near Tewkesbury, so called from Saxon times because it was ‘tween the Rivers Avon and Severn. Around 1680 a bad recession in the wool industry caused Thomas Twining’s father Daniel to uproot his family to try their luck in the London weaving trade. Young Thomas was born in 1675 and was apprenticed to his brother, a London lace maker, at the unusually advanced age of 19, probably to qualify him for becoming a Freeman for which a Guild trade training was necessary. Through hard work he progressed, and by the age of 25 was working with a wealthy East India Company merchant Thomas D’Aeth, and through his patronage was elected as a Freeman of the City of London in 1701. The East India Company imported many tropical commodities including spices, coffee and tea, about which Thomas learned sufficient to start his own tea and coffee business in 1706, during the reign of Queen Anne, by purchasing ‘Tom’s Coffee House’. This was situated in Devereux Court at the back of 216 Strand, strategically placed between the City trade and the Westminster aristocracy who had deserted the City after the Great Fire. The very same premises in the Strand remain today as Twinings’ London Tea Shop and Twinings’ museum.
There were of course many tea and coffee shops in London – by 1683 over 2,000 coffee houses were recorded, but Thomas Twining’s marketing niche was fine tea – or speciality tea as we would call it today. As his reputation for offering only the finest teas grew he attracted royalty and gentry as customers – not all of them good payers however – Hogarth the artist was often short of money because print sellers avoided paying him royalties and on one famous occasion could not meet his mounting tea bill at Twinings. Instead, he bargained with Thomas Twining who agreed to let Hogarth paint his portrait in lieu of payment. That portrait still hangs in the Twinings museum. Twining’s earliest sales ledgers are from 1715-20 and show tea prices during this period of 14 to 20 shillings per pound for Green Hyson, and 36 shillings for Finest Hyson. Coffee at 4 shillings per pound and drinking chocolate were much cheaper, the most popular chocolate being 2 shillings and 9 pence per pound, with brandy far cheaper than a pound of tea at a very reasonable 12 shillings per gallon!
When Thomas Twining died in 1741 his son Daniel took the reins and commenced an export business to America where ironically the Governor of Boston was one of his customers. Daniel Twining’s wife Mary succeeded him in 1762 and ran the business with considerable skill until her son Richard took over in 1771.
Young Richard Twining exerted a strong influence on both the company and the trade. The latter half of the 18th Century saw high taxation of tea and a great deal of smuggling – an activity that Twinings proudly boasted they never got involved in. Richard Twining became the Chairman of London Tea Dealers and argued that high taxes were the cause of tea smuggling. Prime Minister William Pitt was sufficiently persuaded by the trade’s argument that the government would earn more revenue if taxation was reduced, and the tea tax was slashed from around 80% to 12% by the Commutation Act of 1785. Tea prices to the consumer fell by nearly 3 shillings per pound overnight and tea consumption leapt – this increased Twinings’ sales and reputation as well. For the record, Pitt balanced the loss of tea tax by introducing the window tax – this was much more difficult to avoid. However, by 1819, to raise cash for fighting Napoleon, the tax on tea was back at 100% of the sale price.
In 1787 the Twinings name became what we would now call a brand. Thomas Twining’s grandson Richard built a handsome doorway to 216 Strand incorporating his grandfather’s ‘Golden Lyon’ symbol with two Chinese figures. The doorway survives today, surmounted by the Twinings name carved in the stonework in a distinctive font and without an apostrophe. Richard Twining had invented the concept of the logo – and one which still appears on the company’s tea packets today – exactly the same spelling and typeface has been used by the company ever since. In fact it is the world’s oldest logo in continuous use.
Richard Twining and his wife Mary were blessed with five sons and three daughters. Three of his sons joined Richard and his brother John as partners in the business – Richard Twining Jnr. in 1796, George Twining in 1805 and John Aldred Twining in 1811. During this period Richard Snr. was twice elected to the prestigious position of a director of the Honorable East India Company (1810-14, and 1815-17). This was despite his always taking a firm stance against the East India Company’s monopoly position as tea importer. A notable example of this was in December 1784 when at the East India Company’s quarterly tea sale some tea dealers objected to several lots of tea that had been damaged by sea water, and asked that these musty chests be withdrawn from sale. The Company withdrew 23 chests while the dealers had asked for 1,300 to be removed. Richard as Chairman of the Tea Dealers advised them to refrain from bidding for any tea. The Company retaliated by bringing in a silk broker to bid for the tainted tea and to sell it to the public by undercutting tea dealers’ prices. By the following April Richard had circulated a letter to his customers reassuring them that while “the East India Company have persisted in offering to Sale a considerable quantity of Tea that is musty and mouldy” that Twinings had “not purchas’d a single Chest of tea of any of the above mentioned descriptions” and that his customers “may depend upon every possible attention on our part, to supply them with the best Teas, at the most reasonable prices”.
Richard Senior retired in 1818, and by 1825 under his sons’ control the Twinings tea business had diversified into banking. In previous generations the Twinings business had banked with Hoare’s Bank in Fleet Street but now was sufficiently secure financially to establish their own Banking House, also in Devereux Court behind 216 Strand. This innovation became so popular that by 1835 the ‘Observer’ recorded that they had “erected a more commodious banking house in the Strand close to their celebrated warehouse”. There was a connecting door from bank to shop and cashiers were often asked to change cheques partly in cash or notes and with the balance in tea. Service indeed!
In Part 1. we have followed the Twining family and tea business through nine Reigns – in Part 2. we shall follow Twinings’ remarkable development through a further six Reigns.
