Charis makes the tea for Waffle to try, using Woof Brew herbal tea bags for dogs
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What do you get for the dog that has everything this Christmas? How about herbal tea?
Customers of a new St Ives firm are literally lapping up the range.
But the people behind Woof and Brew are not barking mad, they have set their sights on a piece of the lucrative pet food market which is worth £2.7 billion a year in the UK alone.
And behind the fun idea of herbals tea bags for dogs there is a serious message that the drinks contain anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals designed to keep pets in the peak of health.
Having sampled a glass of Posh Pooch – which gives your dog substance and style – I can assure readers that it tastes perfectly pleasant to humans too.
It contains devil’s claw, skullcap, astragalus, lime flowers, orange flowers, lavender and rose petals and tastes not unlike a cup of camomile.
I did not sample Ha-Pee Lawns, which is designed to prevent urine burns in your grass.
Woof and Brew was set up by Steve Bennett, whose job title is sales dog, Lisa Morton, whose title is brand bitch, Nick Gandon and Tony Kinch.
Steve, who had previously worked for a tea shop, made the jump between the health-giving effects of herbal teas on humans to the potential for dogs.
The drinks are sourced from a top tea firm and use high-quality herbal ingredients which are left intact for maximum benefit and are not ground up in the way some herbal teas for humans are. They also have biodegradable bags.
Lisa said: “We launched at Crufts in March this year to see how it would be received and it went down pretty well and it has just gone on from there.
“As well as an impressive response from the UK market we also now have stockists in Holland, Jersey, Singapore and have supplied to America, Spain and Germany and have had inquiries from Canada, Australia and Japan.”
The firm, at The Dog House, Free Church Passage, launched with five products for adult dogs, senior dogs, skin and coat, performance and fresh breath and has since added Posh Pooch and Ha-Pee Lawns. There are even Christmas gift boxes.
Lisa said: “It is a fun thing, but underneath that there is the serious point that it is all about getting goodness into dogs.”
She said the tea was made in the normal way with 250ml of boiling water, left to infuse for four minutes and a further 750ml of cold water added.
The drink could then be put in the dog’s bowl or poured over food.
Lisa said it had also been made into ice cubes and jellies.
Woof and Brew has joined the Movember campaign – which highlights male cancers with moustache-growing stunts – by adding moustaches to pictures of owners’ dogs photographically.
It raised £175 in its first three days.
Lisa said: “Movember is a good fit for us because it is a lot of fun but underneath there is a serious message and it is a very good cause.”
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