Survival not Guaran-tea'd : Hettie's Tearoom's Journey through COVID, Pitlochry

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I know, I know! You’re probably thinking, Hettie please I’ve heard enough about COVID, let’s just move on. Trust me, I feel the same……but, for us and many other small businesses it was not smooth sailing! Mum and I had a blast, trying to figure out what we could do to ensure the survival of Hettie’s, and we came up with some good ideas (and some totally krankie ones)! 


Originally mum was uncertain as to whether Hettie’s would make it out the other side at all.   But it meant so much to us both to keep the ‘empire’ alive. 


So the Facebook Lives were born. These were a hit —you loved seeing Mum “just talking rubbish” she used to say, and it was a lovely way to stay connected worldwide.  Spoiler alert: We’re bringing them back! 


Then we decided to open a baking supplies shop with our stock which was lying doing nothing, just waiting to get made into cakes and bread etc . We could be found, most evenings, decanting and packing things like flour, local eggs, yeast (who remembers yeast gate.. you couldn’t get it anywhere) to sell to the Pitlochry community.  On opening day the queue stretched all the way round to the taxi office on Station Rd!   This wee shop worked for a while; until we both got sooooooooooo sick of the sight of flour that we had to rethink.   Oh, I forgot to mention we used to do deliveries too ….. respect to all deliveries drivers!!!! 


Back to the drawing board and we came up with this brilliant tea product The 21 Day Lockdown.  If you remember we were being locked down in 3 week increments.  So we decided to create a product where you had a new tea to try everyday of those 3 weeks.  Sounds like a fab idea right?  And it was; we sold hundreds of them!!! BUT, it was not such a great idea when there are only two of you packing all 200 x 21 mini bags of tea 😂.  Character building stuff!!!   But we are so thankful for everyone who supported us through covid, be it buying a bag of flour in Hettie’s, commenting on a Facebook post or ordering The 21 Day Lockdown package to be sent to America!


Your crazy love of all things Hettie’s really contributed to its survival! 



From then the as the legislation was relaxed, we were able to open Hettie’s as a takeaway selling cakes and scones… as you know a party without cake is just a meeting!  And coffee…. We switched the espresso machine on and people came from the hills to experience good coffee once more!


In some ways it’s an interesting time to look back at, the way that everyone came together. This sort of reflects the reason Mum opened Hettie’s 14 years ago—to be the happiest tearoom in the world. Building a sense of belonging, family and community. Thanks to YOU, the Pitlochry community, and for that matter the whole world, we’re still here today!


Hettie x

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