WELLNESS
TEA AND WELLBEING : A PERSONAL JOURNEY
Katherine Boucher , founder of The Jersey Tea Company , shares how tea can play an important role in wellbeing .
In 2015 , I was 37 years old with three children , and was working as a psychologist in Jersey . Life was pretty hectic so starting a new business was a slightly crazy idea . Having been raised in Jersey , my family and I returned to the island from London in 2014 . My husband is also a psychologist and having both spent over 15 years working for mental health and prison services in the NHS , we were a little frazzled .
We wanted to be involved in working with the land ( in particular , thinking about regenerative farming and biodiversity ) and doing something different to our “ day jobs ”. My husband heard on Radio 4 about teas being grown in Scotland and remembered that Jersey has a history with tea , with the Oversea Trading Corporation being an important tea trader . We then researched how possible it would be to grow tea in Jersey ( looking at average annual rainfall ; soil quality ; sunshine hours etc .) and discovered that this could be something that worked ! So , we started experimenting with tea plants in our garden , and in 2016 my husband and I , alongside another local couple , established The Jersey Tea Company .
HOW STARTING A TEA COMPANY HAS HELPED WITH MY WELLBEING When we started telling friends and family about our idea to grow tea in Jersey , there were many amazed and concerned faces . People close to me were quite perplexed about why I was adding another element into the equation with an already busy lifestyle . I couldn ’ t provide a valid answer , apart from the clichéd response that I needed something different in my life . Something that still gave me a sense of achievement but didn ’ t require so much of my emotional world and instead provided me with something positive for my wellbeing in return . �
www . mannermagazine . co . uk 67