This Woodbridge business owner has started to sell the tea and other legal CBD oil products…and they’re flying off the shelves.

East Anglian Daily Times: Jules Button now sells CBD tea and products at the Woodbridge Emporium Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWNJules Button now sells CBD tea and products at the Woodbridge Emporium Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN (Image: Archant)

It cannot legally claim to have health benefits…but the fact is many people (particularly those with chronic conditions) are routinely turning to CBD oil based products to help relieve their symptoms.

While empirical data on the efficacy of CBD is scarce, the anecdotal claims cannot be ignored, and more and more businesses in the health, and even the food, sectors are choosing to stock products containing the naturally derived ingredient in response to consumer demand.

One such business is Woodbridge Emporium, an independent teasmith and book store on the town's Thoroughfare, specialising in health, wellbeing and self-help books.

The shop is run by qualified therapist and former health store owner Jules Button, who found her personal use of CBD tea such a revelation that she had to introduce it to her customers, and, she says, it's flying off the shelves.

East Anglian Daily Times: Jules Button now sells CBD tea and products at the Woodbridge Emporium Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWNJules Button now sells CBD tea and products at the Woodbridge Emporium Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN (Image: Archant)

"It's made such a difference to me," Jules (who suffers a long term pain-causing condition) says. "Within two months I stopped using painkillers and because I found it such a relief I thought I had to offer it in the shop."

The emporium now sells Body and Mind Botanicals CBD teabags, loose leaf tea and oil products, but there are still a lot of myths to bust around CBD as a product…not least its legality.

"This is cannabis without the THC," Jules says. "It's perfectly legal in the UK and that's important to get over, but it's really rich in CBD and our tea is one of the strongest on the market. You'd use one teabag three times a day, so you get the strongest 'hit' in the morning, then you keep the tea and rebrew it again at lunchtime and then again in the evening. It works out quite economically and I know some people don't want to take drops, they prefer tea. This is in its natural state, as nature intended, and hasn't been through refining processes. Also, it's not addictive so you haven't got to worry about that.

"When you buy from most normal health shops you don't really know what you're buying because it's not stated clearly on the packet. It's not easy for the consumer so that's something I really wanted to address. People can come in and say 'what is this strength?', or 'what am I taking?' and I can help them."

While manufacturers are prohibited from making any claims about the benefits of CBD products, Jules says it's well known amongst those who use it to help with pain, sleep problems, anxiety, low mood, stress and inflammation.

Explaining the rudimentary science behind it, she adds: "Everyone has cannaboids within their system. We all have those. What the tea and drops do is enhance the cannaboids already in the body. I have to say it's changed my life. I've got a small garden and I've never been able to do anything out there, but at Easter I was out for two days in a row moving statues. It has made a huge difference to me."

The tea at Woodbridge Emporium is £11 for 10 bags or just over £9 for the equivalent in loose tea. The original flavour has a "distinctive" earthy taste, but a peppermint flavour is also available and Jules says she can blend the loose tea with any of the other loose varieties in the shop, from fennel to mint or chamomile to make it more palatable.

Has using CBD oil or CBD tea helped improve your life? Write to us.