| Product type | Tea |
|---|---|
| Owner | Corinne Noyes |
| Country | Australia |
| Introduced | 2007 |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Website | www.madameflavour.com |
Madame Flavour is a tea and tisane company based in Australia. It was established by Corinne Noyes in 2007 after she found a market gap for high-quality loose leaf tea.
Teas for the different blends are sourced from Sri Lanka, India and China, and combined with locally grown native Australian herbs. The blends are inspired by Noyes' travels to Cuba, France, America, China, Sri Lanka and Norway. [1]
Noyes continues her role in the company as Head Tea Blender. [2]
The brand is female-focused, [1] and boxes of tea bags also include letters or colouring-in sheets which have built rapport between Noyes and her customers. [3] When the tea blends were first launched in supermarkets, Noyes hand-signed 1000 of the enclosed letters. [4] The letters have garnered 20,000 letters replying to the company. [5] The teas are available in loose leaf or contained within gauze pyramid-shaped teabags, or infuser pods. [6] [7] The teabags are made from a corn starch derivative, [8] [9] and are green plant certified and biodegradable. [10]
In 2011, the teas included Signature Blend, Grey De Luxe, Sultry Chai, Green, Jasmine and Pear and White with Rose. That same year, Mint Lavender Tisane was added to the range. The caffeine-free blend combines peppermint, spearmint, lavender and peppermint gum leaves. It was inspired by Noyes' rainforest property in South Gippsland. [11]
In 2012, the brand changed to a smaller, cheaper 18 pack with new tea versions Special Blend 18 and Grey de Luxe 18. [12]
In 2015, the tea range was expanded with "Tea Treats", which was billed as the first dessert-inspired tea range in Australian supermarkets. [13] The single-origin blends included Orange Choc Ceylon, Caramel Oolong and Mint Choc Rooibos. [14]
In Winter 2016, Madame Flavour launched new tea blends, Blood Orange Fruit Tea, Ginger Masala Chai and Green Jasmine Pear. [15]
The Earl Grey Twist blend contains lemon myrtle from a farm in Lismore, the Sultry Chai blend is made with Australian mountain pepper leaf from South Gippsland, [16] English Breakfast has organic Assam loose leaves from Sri Lanka, [9] and Mint Lavender blend has lavender from France, [17] and round leaf mint from Gippsland. [18]
In February 2008, Noyes presented to a major supermarket chain, and by July that year, the range was being sold in 700 supermarkets. [19] [20]
In 2012, the tea blends were sold in over 1200 supermarkets, [21] and in 2015, this increased to over 1800 supermarkets including major chains Coles, Woolworths and New Zealand's Countdown. Madame Flavour teas are served on Virgin Australia flights and in Crown and Metropole hotels. The company produces 15 million bags of tea in up to 60 different varieties each year. [22] As of 2016, Madame Flavour was close to achieving sales of $5 million AUD. [3] In 2017, the teas were available in supermarkets across New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. [23]
In May 2020, Noyes asked customers via an Instagram post, to support the company while they await the outcome of the administration of Virgin Australia. Madame Flavour was a creditor as they supplied tea to Virgin lounges nationally. The high volume of customer support caused the Madame Flavour website to crash from the amount of traffic. [24]
The business was originally founded from Noyes' home in Highett in 2007.
In 2011, Noyes and husband Matt and daughter Sienna moved to Gippsland, with the business relocating to a commercial building elsewhere in Highett. [25] The business now operates from Brighton.
In 2011, Noyes was a Victorian finalist in the Telstra Business Women's awards. [4] [26]
In 2012, the infuser pods were a finalist in the Beverages category of the Food Magazine Awards. [10]
A "Let beautiful happen" branding campaign by Nourish Brands was a finalist in the 2013 Melbourne Design Awards in the Advertising-Print category. [27]
In 2014, Madame Flavour supported the Fish Creek Tea Cosy Festival. [28]
Noyes spoke on 'conscious marketing' and product values, at the ADMA (Association for Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising) Global Forum in August 2015. [29]
In 2016, the brand worked with Smiling Mind to create a three-minute tea-infusion meditation ritual. The app-based ritual is focused on fostering mindfulness. [30]
Tea, or cha, is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northern Myanmar. Tea is also made, but rarely, from the leaves of Camellia taliensis. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content.
Herbal teas, also known as herbal infusions and less commonly called tisanes, are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water; they do not usually contain any true tea. Often herb tea, or the plain term tea, is used as a reference to all sorts of herbal teas. Many herbs used in teas/tisanes are also used in herbal medicine. Some herbal blends contain true tea.
A tea bag or teabag is a small, porous, sealed bag or packet, typically containing tea leaves or the leaves of other herbs, which is immersed in water to steep and make an infusion. Originally used only for tea, they are now made with other tisanes as well.
Lapsang souchong or Zhengshan xiaozhong is a black tea consisting of Camellia sinensis leaves that may be smoke-dried over a pinewood fire. This smoking is accomplished either as a cold smoke of the raw leaves as they are processed or as a hot smoke of previously processed leaves. The intensity of the smoke aroma can be varied by locating the leaves closer or farther from the source of heat and smoke or by adjusting the duration of the process. The flavour and aroma of smoked lapsang souchong is described as containing empyreumatic notes, including wood smoke, pine resin, smoked paprika, and dried longan; it may be mixed with milk but is not bitter and usually not sweetened with sugar. The tea originates from the Wuyi Mountains region of Fujian and is considered a Wuyi tea. It is also produced in Taiwan. It has been labelled as smoked tea, smoky souchong, tarry lapsang souchong and lapsang souchong crocodile. While the tea leaf grading system adopted the term souchong to refer to a particular leaf position, lapsang souchong may be made with any leaf of the Camellia sinensis plant, though it is not unusual for the lower leaves, which are larger and less flavourful, to be used as the smoking compensates for the lower flavour profile and the higher leaves are more valuable for use in unflavoured or unblended teas. In addition to its consumption as a tea, lapsang souchong is also used in stock for soups, stews and sauces or otherwise as a spice or seasoning. Beginning in the early 21st century, an unsmoked variety of lapsang souchong was developed in the village of Tong Mu Guan in the Wuyi mountains. The unsmoked variety has become increasingly popular, particularly in the Chinese domestic market.
Earl Grey tea is a tea blend which has been flavoured with oil of bergamot. The rind's fragrant oil is added to black tea to give Earl Grey its unique taste. However, many if not most Earl Greys use artificial bergamot flavour.
Tea culture is defined by how tea is made and consumed, how people interact with tea, and the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking.
Tea blending is the act of blending different teas together to produce a final product that differs in flavor from the original tea used. This occurs chiefly with black tea, which is blended to make most tea bags, but it can also occur with such teas as Pu-erh, where leaves are blended from different regions before being compressed. The most prominent type of tea blending is commercial tea blending, which is used to ensure consistency of a batch on a mass scale so that any variations between different batches and seasons of tea production do not affect the final product. However, it is also common to blend tea leaves with herbs and spice, either for health purposes or to add interesting and more complex flavor notes. It is important that any one blend must taste the same as the previous one, so a consumer will not be able to detect a difference in flavor from one purchase to the next.
Irish breakfast tea is a blend of several black teas, most often a combination of Assam teas and Ceylon teas. Irish tea brands, notably Barry's, Bewley's, Lyons and Robert Roberts in the Republic and Nambarrie's and Thompson's Punjana in Northern Ireland are heavily weighted towards Assam. It is one of the most popular blended teas, common in tea culture in Ireland. When tea was first transported from China to Ireland in the mid-18th century, it was mainly introduced to the wealthy as a result of its high cost and low demand. However, throughout the mid-19th century, Irish breakfast tea became readily available to those of both lower and higher socioeconomic classes.
Argo Tea began as a chain of tea cafes that was founded in the Lincoln Park community area in Chicago, Illinois, in June 2003. It was headquartered in Chicago's Loop community area. It had more than a dozen locations in the Chicago metropolitan area before expanding in 2010 to New York City, where it opened four locations that year and then expanded to St. Louis and Boston. As of October 2011 the chain had 26 locations and distribution in over 3,000 grocery stores. In its first decade, it has grown simultaneously with the tea market. Its expansion into grocery stores occurred in 2010 and 2011. Arsen Avakian is the current chief executive officer. By spring 2013, it had opened in Beirut with plans to add locations in five Middle East cities by year end.
Tim Tam is a brand of chocolate biscuit introduced by the Australian biscuit company Arnott's in 1964. It consists of two malted biscuits separated by a light hard chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.
Lipton is a British-American brand of tea, owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions. Lipton was also the name of a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, owned by Allied Suppliers, which was sold to Argyll Foods in 1982, after which the brand was used only for tea. The company, which is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who started the business it in 1890, was owned by Unilever for many decades until its sale to CVC Capital Partners in 2022. Lipton’s ready to drink beverages are sold by "Pepsi Lipton International", a company jointly owned by Unilever and PepsiCo.
Tea Forté Inc. is an American tea company based in Maynard, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 2003 by Peter Hewitt, an American product designer and graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. The company produces a highly stylized product line inspired by the Japanese tea ceremony, intended to "elevate a cup of tea into an extraordinary experience for all of your senses".
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India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China, including the famous Assam tea and Darjeeling tea. Tea is the 'State Drink' of Assam. Following this the former Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia had plans to officially recognise tea as the Indian "National Drink" in 2013. According to the ASSOCHAM report released in December 2011, India is the world's largest consumer of tea, consuming nearly 30% of global output. India is also the second-largest exporter of tea, after China.
Steven Dean Smith was an American tea entrepreneur, best known as the founder of Tazo tea company, co-founder of Stash Tea Company, and co-founder of Steven Smith Teamaker in Portland, Oregon. Smith was recognized internationally as one of the tea industry's leading entrepreneurs, and often spoke to various industry groups about branding, product development, and origin projects. He was an active investor in, and consultant to, multiple business ventures in North America and abroad. A philanthropist, Smith supported numerous community projects locally and internationally, ranging from work with Mercy Corps to local schools and arts organizations, creating special tea blends for the Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Oregon College of Art and Craft.
Goodricke Group Limited is an India-based tea producing company headquartered in West Bengal. It is a part of the Camellia PLC UK – the world's largest private sector tea producer. The four tea producing companies in its fold include Goodricke Group Limited, Stewart Holl (India) Limited, Amgoorie India Limited and Koomber Tea Co. Pvt. Limited. The Group owns 30 gardens and 27 tea factories spread over Darjeeling, Dooars, Assam and Cachar. In recent years the Goodricke Group acquired in Assam two estates of the McLeod company being in economic difficulties. The major Darjeeling brands include Goodricke Castleton, Roasted and Margaret's Hope, while the Black (CTC) tea includes Goodricke Khaass, Goodricke Zabardast and Goodricke Chai.
T2, officially registered as Tea Too, is a chain of specialty tea shops with stores in Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. The company was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1996, and was purchased by Unilever in 2013. In 2013, T2 had 40 stores across the globe and made an annual turnover of A$57 million.
Masons Gin is a gin based alcoholic drink distilled by the Mason family in North Yorkshire, England. The brand has won many awards and accolades despite only being set up in 2013. It had a distillery and shop in Aiskew, North Yorkshire, which was moved to a new site in Leeming Bar, after a fire.
