A SPECIALIST tea seller has been rejected by Dragons’ Den because her product was “really expensive”.

Katherine Swift owns OMGTea, based in Hove Town Hall.

She was hoping for a £50,000 investment from the Dragons and appeared on the BBC programme on Sunday to make her case.

But she left with nothing after being told her matcha tea, which starts at £14.95 for 14 servings, was “too niche”.

The 46-year-old, who lives in Hove, said: “Matcha tea is a relatively new product in the UK.

“Three of the five dragons didn’t know what it was or grasp the difference between it and other teas, so it was a tall order to expect them to invest in a business that specialises in a product they were unfamiliar with.”

The average price for a cup of Katherine’s tea is 40p compared with 4p for a regular cuppa.

The dragons decided the product was too niche to be worth an investment.

Matcha is a powder grown and processed from specific green tea leaves and is becoming increasingly popular among people who drink it for their health.

Katherine set up OMGTea three years ago after finding it benefited her health and that of her mother, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

She said an antioxidant found in matcha was beneficial in fighting the illness.

She said: “One cup of matcha is the equivalent in nutrition to 15 cups of green tea

“My mum had an aggressive breast cancer tumour and the prognosis wasn’t great but she’s still here.

“I’d never say it cured her but we believe it contributed to it.”

But on Sunday, TV dragon Tej Lalvani said the tea was “really expensive”.

Fellow dragon Jenny Campbell said that for her to invest she needed to “love the product”.

Katherine said that while plenty of positives came from the experience, she did not think she was properly portrayed.

She said: “I was in there for an hour and a half.

“None of the edited version shows me talking about what we were doing in validating the product.

“I knew the dragons liked me and there were so many positive comments.

“The BBC said it would be a fair representation of my business and it wasn’t.

“They definitely showed the worst but not the best. Peter Jones said that I was inspirational.”

The programme shows Jenny Campbell calling Katherine a “great advocate for her product”, with fellow dragon Peter Jones adding that she had “done really well”.

Katherine said: “I don’t think it can harm business – I see a bright future ahead for OMGTeas.

“Once you know what to do it’s just as easy as making a normal cup of tea of coffee. But comparing a teabag to matcha tea is like comparing beer to the best champagne.”

Katherine continued to talk about the painstaking research that had gone into discovering the benefits of matcha.

"To be clear, I am passionate about robust evidence-based health benefits and we are doing what we can to help validate these and whilst early independent research into Matcha tea potentially halting the growth of breast cancer stem cells is extremely promising, we are committed to going to the next stage to validate the results further. I am extremely proud of what I have achieved.

"The research carried out at the University of Salford shows that Matcha green tea may have significant therapeutic potential, by mediating the metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells.

"Studies are ongoing and OMGTea will continue to work closely with one of the world’s leading micro cell biologists, Professor Michael Lisanti."

The scientific team at Salford University, led by Professor Michael Lisanti, has been working on a breast cancer study for over two years.

Katherine met Michael while project managing a major UK breast cancer research appeal back in 2010, spurred on by her mother’s stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis.

OMGTea supplied the high grade Japanese Matcha tea for the purposes of the study. 

Katherine has been dedicated to supporting research for the disease which affects one in eight women in the UK*, and founded the charity Healthy Life Foundation (www.thehealthylifefoundation.org) to raise funds to support ground-breaking research into age related diseases. 

“Katherine was the driving force behind this study and donated the necessary product for testing,” said Michael Lisanti.

“I have always been interested in natural products for cancer prevention and/or treatment so to finally have this positive research which confirms the effects of Matcha green tea on breast cancer stem cells is a very important first step forward. 

“Matcha green tea fits very well with our interest in natural products.

"Our finding could also help explain why lifespan in Japan is among the highest in the world.

"I was very surprised that the Dragon’s had little to no knowledge about the potential health benefits of this natural compound that is growing massively in popularity as people’s interest in ‘naturally healthy’ explodes”