Gravraak Teateliér

HANDMADE TEA

Gravraak Teateliér delivers handmade tea created in Trøndelag by a Master Tea Blender who may be the only tea expert of her kind in Norway. The small business is run by Hanne Charlotte Heggberget, and her goal is to provide great quality tea to Norwegian tea lovers.

“The business started on my husband's farm, which has been in his family for nine generations, since 1787. Right after we took over the farm, my husband went blind. We wanted to find a sensory experience in the growing season and started growing herbs,” Hanne Charlotte says.

In 2018, Gravraak Teateliér started selling their own tea at farmer’s markets and similar local events. Soon, restaurants and cafés began contacting them requesting to buy tea to sell in their establishments. Gravraak Teateliér currently has a pop-up store located in the heart of Trondheim, and are soon opening a permanent shop where they’ll also be producing tea.

Hanne Charlotte didn’t grow up in Norway – she was raised in South Africa and Hong Kong, where tea is hugely important. There’s a growing culture of tea drinking in Scandinavia, and Gravraak Teateliér is one of the few Norwegian businesses dedicated to the art of tea blending.

Hanne Charlotte undertook a dedicated tea blending course, and was given the title Master Tea Blender by the International Tea Masters Association. ITMA has been given The Gold Standards when it comes to tea education. As far as she’s aware, Hanne Charlotte is the only person in Norway with this title and education.

When it comes to her small business, sustainability and social responsibility is hugely important.

“Tea is traded at a large auction centre in Mombasa, Kenya, and it’s the only one of its kind in the world. It is, however, difficult to ensure quality and check the conditions of the workers when you’re buying from this huge market,” Hanne Charlotte says.

“Since we’re farmers, we’ve traveled the world to obtain the teas that we believe meet our requirements. We wanted to source our tea directly from the producers to ensure quality in the tea we import, and to be sure that those who make our tea have good working conditions. We wanted to talk to those who make the product, and build good relationships with them.”

Gravraak Teateliér uses the 17 sustainability requirements set forth by the UN as their guidepost for their business and the tea farmers they work with.

“Those we buy tea from must document that they meet the 17 goals with regards to the working conditions of the workers. Fighting poverty is very important in the tea industry,” Hanne Charlotte says. “Including people with special needs is also very important to us. My husband is blind, and the employees that package our products are differently abled.”

Sustainability is a key consideration in every aspect of the business. The packaging itself is also environmentally friendly, and the pyramid teabags are made entirely of plant material.

Creating tea blends that are of the best quality is a top priority for Gravraak Teateliér, and Hanne Charlotte is focused on creating unique tastes using all-natural ingredients. One of their speciality teas made it to the semi-finals in the Best Drink of the Year 2020 category in Det Norske Måltid – a competition focused on celebrating the best Norwegian food and drinks.

Gravraak Teateliér also supplies tea to fine dining restaurants in the Trondheim area and are currently expanding to other fine places in Norway.

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“In addition to the sustainability requirements we have, we’re also concerned with sensuality. We emphasise using all our senses - smell, taste, visuals for sighted people, and what you can feel in your body when you drink the tea.”

While the small business imports the tea from a hand-picked group of tea farmers, they also grow herbs and flowers on their own farm. This combination creates unique tea blends.

“90% of all teas are blended. Tea is a bit like wine - you put together different types of herbs from different regions to get the taste you want. The process on the farm is to grow plants, harvest them just when we know there is as much flavor as possible, before we dry them. Then we can use them to flavour or decorate the tea,” Hanne Charlotte says.

For Hanne Charlotte, creating specialty tea blends is a creative process, and she finds a lot of inspiration in her local community.

“The creative process of making something like tea is very special to me. I’ve become a tea chef and considering that Trondheim is the home of Nordic flavours, it’s great to be included in an environment that is so focused on taste and the development of taste. The most important thing for me is to build relationships with other people, and to create an experience you can only get when you combine taste, smell, and the knowledge of how the product is made,” she says.