Canton Tea Blog

Canton Director Edgar recently decided the whole Canton Tea Co team should all cycle from our home in Bristol Cornwall…”for fun”.  Having agreed to this challenge and found a suitable charity to fundraise for, the implications of what we had got ourselves in for slowly started to dawn upon us. Driving to Cornwall would entail a quick journey on the motorway for around 150 miles. However, since we’re not too keen on cycling down the middle lane of the M5, we will have to cycle over 250 miles, over Exmoor, taking at least 4 days to reach our coastal destination.

So, some training was clearly necessary. The first ride along the Bristol-Bath cycle path to Saltford was fairly successful with only one slightly hairy moment as Edgar accidentally let ALL the air out of his tyre and couldn’t get it back in again. We got through that one though, then we thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we could stop for some tea on our rides? Cue Dan lugging his Kelly Kettle into the office this morning and declaring “We’re going on a gong-fu bike ride”. (For those of you not familiar with the concept of gong fu, take a read of our earlier gong fu blog).

So, we packed up the tea set (the little Tea chestlets from India finally coming in handy), got some picnic snacks from Mark’s Bread, and off we pedalled along the Bristol Portway, settling down to a feed in the shade of an oak tree an hour later.

Dan immediately gets to work with the Kelly Kettle, lighting a small fire at its base and feeding kindling into it until the water heats up, whilst I prepare the tea set.

Dan: “Right, the water’s nearly there, what are we drinking?”

Kate: “Probably should be Wild White, since we’re in a field.”

Edgar: “Think I bought some of that with us. Who’s got the tea?”

Dan: “Well I didn’t bring it.”

Kate: “Me neither.”

Edgar: “….nope, nor me”.

All: “OH. BUGGER.”

So, hot water it was then. Would’ve been a shame to waste all that energy.  We ate lunch and imagined that the hot drink was a lovely delicate white tea (well, the taste of the water was definitely delicate, that’s for sure), and rode back to the office to put the kettle on. Better luck next time we hope.

To find out more about Team Canton’s upcoming Bristol-Cornwall cycle challenge in aid of Temwa, go to our Justgiving Page.

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  Gong Fu goes wild

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  Ah, that's what that's for

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  Back to the office it is then.

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  Dan and his Kelly Kettle