A PROSECCO-style tea drink to be enjoyed from a champagne flute is the brainchild of two former Essex University graduates.

Francis Oyewole, 24, and Sultan Bin Khaled, 25, are behind Green Lady - the UK's first sparkling tea for grown-up teetotallers.

Its simple recipe is Francis's own concoction of green tea from the Himalayan Mountains of Darjeeling, India.

It was inspired by a chance encounter with an Indian tea merchant at a London market, who told him 'Darjeeling is the champagne of teas'.

But also the disappointment at having to settle for lemonade or tonic water while others enjoyed their alcohol at university.

He said: "It took about a month of pestering Sultan before he agreed because it wasn't the perfect recipe and it took more than two years of product development before we had something.

"I finalised the idea in my mum's kitchen at home in Stanford-le-Hope.

"Darjeeling is also one of the most prestigious tea producers so it led us down the route to make a premium product with the prestige of champagne, but also the calming vibe associated with tea."

Green Lady is purposefully stocked in venues across the UK where customers go for an experience.

The boys' first customer was Wivenhoe House, in Colchester.

The drink also landed a summer at celebrity chef Mark Hix's champagne bar in Selfridges, London, after Francis pretended to be a chef wanting a job.

He said: "It was an open session which Hix put out on Twitter, but I admitted to the lady at front of house what I was planning and my cheekiness paid off because she let me in.

"But she warned me not to say anything to his PA so once I got into the room with him I asked her to get me a glass of water and then cracked open a bottle and began pitching.

"I felt like James Bond, it was definitely one of the highlights so far."

The next stage is raising £26,000 to support the launch of a new flavour, working with Tesco's BackIt campaign for small businesses.

Their online fundraising page launches on October 7 and will have six weeks to reach its target.

Francis added: "There's a lot of work and planning that's gone into it and more to be done, but we wouldn't be doing it if we weren't confident."

To support Green Lady, visit backit.tesco.com/p/greenlady.