Tea was widely advocated by the Temperance movement to counteract alcohol consumption and Densham, being a strict Baptist, was probably influenced by this aspect.
The firm grew without major changes but things altered when the youngest son, John Lane Densham, then in his late 20s, joined as an employee in 1881.
He had not been able to devote himself to daily labour previously owing to poor health but once he joined he soon became the leading light; he was an indefatigable traveller for the firm and his brothers were soon able to rely on his efforts.
It is to many modern eyes a rather gloomy thing showing an aged, bespectacled and somewhat toothless grandmother with her supposed granddaughter and the compulsory cup of tea.
The model for the child was to have been her granddaughter but she was too shy, and the photographer had to enlist the aid of the little girl next door, Alice Emma Nichols.
High prices were obtained by dealers, especially for the hand-selected leaf buds of good quality tea known as "Golden Tips".
Tea prices rose, largely due to an increase in duty to help meet the cost of the Boer War (1899–1902) and there were strikes and political troubles.
Not to be deterred, John Lane Densham kept travelling round the world on behalf of the firm, often taking his family with him, but marred by health problems.
A huge site was acquired near New Cross alongside the Surrey Union Canal and a vast building constructed to process and pack products and opened in 1901.
The inaugural luncheon was reported favourably in the press for this was a factory built on a grand scale: at one time nearly 2,000 people worked there.
Publicity continued as ever and typical of the inventiveness of the firm was a small round coin-like commemorative tin containing a chocolate distributed in 1902 to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII.
In 1902, John Lane's health deteriorated and he was obliged to hand over the managing directorship to Robert McQuitty and Alexander Jackson and go abroad.
Events at home almost led to the complete downfall of the Mazawattee business: McQuitty and another director, John McClean, started a major change in policy, possibly trying to emulate other tea merchants that had also become successful retailers: they persuaded John Lane's brother Benjamin that the way ahead was to open Mazawattee retail shops.
Benjamin Densham resigned as chairman and subsequently it was found that McQuitty and McClean had played upon his weakness not helped by his addiction to secret drinking and had used this to get his support for their schemes.
Some most attractive advertising products were issued from then onwards and there was a proliferation of fine things including calendars, diaries, atlases, dictionaries, and tins, many of these designed by artists of repute.
There was even a small game, "Our Kings and Queens", 38 cards produced in fine lithographic printing, a variation of "Happy Families", the idea being to complete the "trick" of monarchs in each century.
John Lane Densham resigned the chairmanship in 1915 as his health had been failing for some time and he died whilst abroad on 13 February 1918, the firm losing one of its main assets.
Alexander Jackson took over as chairman and many amusing advertisements were still devised including the idea of using a small team of tame zebras to haul one of the Mazawattee vans, notably in the Tunbridge Wells area.
In this capacity he was present when the Duchess of Albany declared the Purley Fountain (the Queen Victoria Memorial) open on Saturday 11 June 1904.
In the 1890s he moved to "Hurstleigh", 23 South Park Hill Road and after his retirement in 1896 to "Foxley Lodge", 2 Higher Drive, Purley.
The words "Elizabeth Industrial Estate" can be spotted from trains from New Cross Gate to London Bridge, just before the new Waste Transfer Station: these are on a smallish tower that was used as part of the factory boiler-system.
This resulted in the purchase of 19 acres (7.688 hectares) by the Urban District Council in November 1937 and its registration under the Green Belt Scheme.
A few words by the poet William Cowper give a reminder of the perhaps more leisurely earlier days of tea drinking in the 18th century: Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful ev’ning in.3A few minutes into the film Gaslight (1940) a horse-drawn bus can be seen displaying a large advertisement for Mazawattee Tea.
Comedian Stuart Ashen (who has an interest in older packaged foods) acquired a Mazawattee tinned chocolate disc dating back to 1902 and the coronation of Edward VII (with a bust profile of the regent on its front), and displayed it in an 18 January 2018 video posted to his YouTube channel; the chocolate disc had taken a white and disintegrated colour and texture, and the advertising message beneath it on the bottom inner tin had mostly remained intact.
[2] An undated photograph (probably c.1910) of the firm of J G Vicker & Co in Westgate Street, Gloucester, shows "DELICIOUS MAZAWATTEE TEA" engraved in white lettering on the glass of the right hand display window, with "HIGH CLASS PROVISIONS" engraved in similar lettering on the left hand window.
J G Vicker & Co were the leading family grocery store in the City and the prominence given to this one product emphasises its importance as a contemporary brand name.
In the film Withnail & I (1987), a round vintage tin of Mazawattee Tea can be seen on the shelf in Uncle Monty's cottage (Crow Crag).
White, graffiti in the giant Galapas's stronghold reads "Mazawattee Mead for Night Starvation"; also a reference to a 1930s ad campaign for Horlicks Malted Milk.
Clayton became Vicar of All Hallows by the Tower in 1922 and soon used this as a base as a roving ambassador for Toc H. He lived nearby at 43 Trinity Square, marked by a Blue Plaque.