Here’s a question: why did colonial New Zealanders drink almost twice as much tea as their contemporaries in Mother England?  As Susette Goldsmith discovered while researching her book Tea: A Potted History of Tea in New Zealand, in the 1870s we were importing 3.1 kilograms of dried tea per capita a year while Brits were sipping through just 1.7 kilograms each.

Aussies and South Africans are throwing away their tea bags in favour of Taumaranui's very own Chai (Indian for 'tea').

Afternoon host Kerry Smith interviews Doug Hastie about the success of the Chai loose leaf tea brand which started in Taumarunui and is now selling tea in supermarkets in New Zealand, Japan, Australia, and  South Africa.

Newstalk ZB host Danny Watson interviews Doug Hastie about Chai loose leaf tea - New Zealand premium tea brand.

Radio Live hosts Helen Jackson (Foodlovers) and Tony Murrell interview Doug Hastie on their saturday morning show about loose leaf tea and Chai, New Zealand's premium tea brand.

So, you wouldn’t dream of serving your guests instant coffee or cardboard-flavoured wine, but you’ve got a box of teabags on standby in the pantry, right?

Doug Hastie gets a real buzz when customers tell him his tea is the best they’ve ever tasted.

I want to change the way New Zealanders think about tea, so they realise there are different styles and qualities,” says Doug Hastie.

The Chai range is the best quality tea available in New Zealand, which is why it is served at the Hilton, George, Soto and other fine dining establishments.

The Chai range is the best quality tea in New Zealand, which is why it is served at the Hilton, George, Soto and other fine dining establishments.

Can a leisurely cup of tea compete with a zippy espresso?

Kakuzo wrote in 1906 that “teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence”. Almost a century later this statement is more relevant than ever.

When Doug Hastie was setting up Kiwi company Chai Tea, he travelled the great tea-producing countries of the world to find is suppliers.

Good loose leaf tea has a natural tea flavour - it’s nice and mellow”, says tea connoisseur Doug Hastie.

Doug Hastie is passionate about tea…not just drinking it, but importing and selling it.

Chai, a new brand of tea appearing on supermarket shelves, has international connections.

Taking on the world's biggest tea exporters on their own turf from a country half-way around the world sounds daft. Especially when that country - NZ - relies totally on tea imports.

It had been a hectic day with lunch devoured at traffic lights, when I turned into Hastie’s driveway. I could have murdered a cup of coffee, but there was little chance of that – my next interview was with a tea expert.

In a feat comparable to sending coal to Newcastle, a Taumarunui businessman is exporting tea to Japan - a country he describes as the most lucrative tea market in the world.

The coffee revolution is long past.  You can get your cappuccino or latte fix in almost any cafe in the country.  Are we about to embark on the tea revolution, all because one Taumarunui man reckoned he couldn't get a "decent cup of tea"?

Is New Zealand ripe for a tea renaissance?  And could its first stirrings possibly waft from a small town in the King Country?

The ritual of making a cup of tea is thousands of years old - from the ancient Japanese tea ceremony, to today's act of simply putting the kettle on. It soothes us and makes us take time out.