Lisburn’s Suki Tea Makers helping to improve education in global tea communities

Now a director of the European Speciality Tea Association (ESTA), Oscar was a leading figure in what was known as ‘the world’s biggest online tea sipping event’ held on International Tea Day last Sunday.

“The hour-long event brought together thousands of tea lovers and professionals from around the world to meet, share, sip tea, network and have fun,” explains

Oscar, who founded Suki Tea Makers with business partner and close friend Anne Irwin in 2005.

They’ve both visited the main tea growing gardens especially in remote parts India, Tanzania, Nepal and Kenya regularly and have long been keen to help people there to improve living conditions and particularly educational opportunities.

“We are keen to put something tangible back into the growing communities and especially to improve living conditions for families there,” continues Oscar.

“A woman equipped with the proper education resources has the power to lift whole families and communities. The International Tea Day initiative was designed to empower as many women as we can, helping them and, indeed, the entire tea industry in these nations to thrive through greater access to sources of quality education."

This commitment to tea growing communities led Oscar to join ESTA, an inclusive organisation whose mission is “to create and inspire excellence in the speciality tea community through innovation, research, education and communication”.

With members from over 50 countries representing all parts of the tea supply chain from producers to tea baristas, ESTA is helping “to generate a vibrant speciality tea community across the world and is dedicated to promoting great quality tea in all of its forms to create a new sensory excitement amongst tea drinkers”.

The focus also reflects Suki’s own fair and ethical trading strategy and commitment to the natural environment. It has, in addition, won a host of UK Great Taste and Irish National Food awards over the past decade.

Originally formed in an old linen warehouse in east Belfast, Suki recently opened a state-of-the-art processing and eco-friendly plant in Lisburn to support its growth plans.

The company, which began life with a stall at weekends at St George’s Market in Belfast, has also taken huge steps to eliminate plastic from all its packaging. As a result, all teas and tea bags produced by Suki are now 100 percent plastic free. Tea pyramids are made from paper, yarn and a special material called Soilon, meaning unlike some traditional teabags, pyramid teabags are completely natural and plastic-free.

Packaging is now as environmentally friendly as the tea that goes inside it! Boxes for retailers are also made from sustainably sourced cardboard and are either pre-printed using vegetable-based inks or use a paper-based label.

ESTA connects professionals from tea gardens to specialists along the tea value chain. It’s essentially a membership organisation reliant on the voluntary work of its members since its formation in England in 2018.

ESTA now has members in 28 different countries. Chapters are being established in the Benelux countries, Russia, Ireland, Denmark, Germany and the Nordic countries.

In addition, ESTA is partnering with two different agencies, the Nepal Tea Foundation and Rare Charity which is supporting education resources with Setamwa Tea estate in Malawi.

In partnership with ESTA Nepal Tea Collective’s sister non-profit wing Nepal Tea Foundation is presenting at least one scholarship for tea training and management to empower women throughout the international tea industry.

“One of the exciting things about being an ESTA director – and one of the main benefits – is that it helps people and companies become part of the worldwide speciality tea community. It provides an effective platform to teach, learn, exchange ideas, mentor, be mentored, make new friends, connect with old friends, network, do business, collectively promote speciality tea, this is what community is about,” Oscar adds.

The company is also pioneering tea growing in Ireland and is developing a tea garden near Portaferry overlooking Strangford Lough, where a favourable micro-climate makes growing tea feasible.