July.1999 / Yorkshire Tea
Introduction: 　On March 11, 1998, at the London Chamber of Commerce, Bettys and Taylors of Harrogatte placed the last ever bid for tea sold at the London Tea Auction. Having purchased a quantity of Margaret's Hope Estate Darjeeling and Dirok Estate Assam during the early stages of the final auction, Jonathan Wild, chairman of Bettys and Taylors, outbid Tetleys, Brooke Bond, Pegasus, and Twinning to secure the last ever lot of 44 kg of Hellbodde tea from Sri Lanka for the staggering record price of £550 per kg − a total cost of £24,000. All proceeds from the sale went to charities, including the Tea Trade Benevolent Fund. 　Chris Pinfold, Bettys Tea buyer, said, "Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate are one of the few remaining family tea merchants left in Britain today, so it seemed right and proper for us to bid for a tea that symbolizes over 300 years of the tea trade. We simply couldn't resist snapping up a little piece of history for our customers to savor. It's a very fine Ceylon tea with a good color and large leaf, and a particular richness." 　The following day, customers at the company's York tea room were sampling for free one of the most expensive cups of tea ever served. Betty's spokeswoman, Katy Squire, said, " It is light and flowery with a fine flavor, I'm told, but we shall have to see what people think. Hopefully, they will find it delicious." She said that they would be selling some of the 44kg lot at £10 a pot, but the rest will be kept for posterity. 　The acquisition of that historically significant chest of Ceylon tea was just another landmark in the history of a company that has grown from one small shop in the quiet Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate to a thriving chain of tea rooms that includes its own craft bakery, sells a wide range of top quality teas and coffees, and runs an extremely successful mail order business that sends cakes, biscuits, hampers, dinner party gift boxes, chocolates, Christmas puddings, teas, coffees, tea and coffee wares, and other gifts all over the world.
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