A Brief History
Discover the ancient origins and fascinating history of tea!
Search for tea businesses, UKTIA member companies and afternoon tea venues.
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Ahmad Tea of London
Rex Industrial Estate
Winchester Road
Chandlers Ford, Hampshire
SO53 2PZ
Ahmad Tea of London draws upon 4 generations of experience in the tea trade to produce a range of tea bags, loose teas and gifts. All are available in a variety of fine quality speciality black tea blends, green teas, fruity flavoured teas and herbal & fruit infusions.
Birchall Tea
54 Willow Way
London
SE26 4QP
Birchall is a fifth generation British tea company with a rich heritage and a passion for "the perfect pick". Our tea experts specialise in creating speciality and everyday black tea blends, in addition to green teas and fruit & herbal tea infusions.
Since 2011, our teas have won 56 accolades at The Guild of Fine Foods' prestigious Great Taste Awards and our signature Great Rift breakfast tea has received honours for 9 consecutive years.
We work hard to ensure all our teas are sustainability sourced and are long standing members of the UK Tea & Infusions Association, the Ethical Tea Partnership, Fairtrade Foundation and Rainforest Alliance..
For more information about our new retail collection and foodservice range, please visit our web site.
Britannia Tea Company Limited
320 King Street
Hammersmith
London
W6 ORR
Brodie Melrose Drysdale & Co Ltd
Newhailes Industrial Estate
Newhailes Road
Musselburgh
EH21 6SY
Since 1867 Brodies have catered for the great British taste for tea, selecting the finest leaves to create a specialist range of loose leaf and tea bags (standard and tagged), all bearing the Brodies stamp of quality. Our choice of 16 teas is renowned for its flavour and fullness, the most popular blends being Scottish Breakfast, Scottish Teatime and Famous Edinburgh. We sell to caterers and retailers across the UK and export worldwide.
Clipper Teas
Beaminster Business Park
Broadwindsor Road
Beaminster
DT8 3PR
At Clipper we believe that it?s what?s on the inside that counts.
Clipper products are made with pure ingredients and a clear conscience. We use only the highest-quality sources, add nothing artificial and strive to improve the quality of our workers.
We want our customers to have a great tasting cup of tea, and be secure in the knowledge that our ethics will make it a comforting choice in more than just taste; that what they are drinking has been naturally sourced and treated with respect.
Established in 1984 with just 2 chests of the finest Assam teas, we have been innovators in the hot drinks market for the last 30 years. We have led the way in green, white and organic teas and infusions and we were the first tea in the UK to carry the Fairtrade Mark and are the UK?s No 1 Fairtrade tea brand.
Today we are sold in 50 countries across the world but we still blend all of our tea on site in Dorset, where we have 85 permanent employees.
Cup of Tea Ltd - Ronnefeldt Tea UK
3 Moonshill Barns
Frog Lane
Stoke St. Michael
BA3 5HL
Cup of Tea specialises in the finest orthodox produced teas from around the world. Sold online via our website and distributed wholesale to the finest hotels, restaurants and tea shops we have more than 200 teas available.
Our huge range encomasses teas from single estate Darjeelings to popular black teas, green teas and herbal and fruit infusions plus a new range of Ayurveda infusions specifically developed for Spa Hotels and Health Spa operations.
For our trade customers we provide everything needed to display, brew and serve our superb teas and infusions.
We have a strong focus on training and it is our belief that it is pointless working with great tea if it is not stored, brewed and served properly. Our exclusive customers benefit from free training on a regular basis to ensure that staff, of all levels, feel comfortable, confident and capable in working with top quality teas.
Styles of Tea & Services Offered:
Our list of teas include teas from India such as First and Second Flush Darjeelings, Assams, Ceylon Teas, plus an excellent range of white, green and black teas from China. We also offer our customers a carefully chosen selection of Japanese green teas (mostly organic), Oolongs from Taiwan and other growing areas and amongst our loose leaf teas are some from even more exotic locations such as Tanzania and Columbia.
The widest range of teas we list are in orthodox loose leaf format, however, we also have a large selection of traditional tag and string teabags filled with superior orthodox fannings plus leaf grade teabag formats .
We pride ourselves that quality, service and consistency are at the heart of what we do and we are always happy to enthusiastically discuss tea with both our regular customers and potential customers.
Varieties of Tea Offered:
Orthodox loose leaf teas; Black; Green; White & Oolong. Orthodox produced flavoured Black; Green & Oolong teas.
Herbal and Fruit Infusions
Ayurveda Infusions.
Forthcoming Tea Events:
Twice a year we host tea tasting workshops at our head office in Somerset. These events are hugely popular with tea enthusiasts and, especially, for those who are planning to start up a tea related business. For more details and information please visit our website: www.cupoftea.co.uk or call our offices on 01761 239162.
We are also happy to arrange personalised tea talks and to discuss your individual tea concept.
Business Hours: Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm
DJ Miles & Co Ltd
The Vale Yard
High Street
Porlock, Somerset
TA24 5PU
A family run firm of tea and coffee merchants established in 1888. All our tea tasting, blending and packing is done in-house. We have a wide range of retail and catering products and complimentary ancillaries. Ask about our speciality teas and coffees. We have a firm base in the south west of England, and also provide a postal service for individual customers outside the region.
Fine Tea Merchants Ltd
The Office Building, Village Yard, Station Road
Potterhanworth
Lincoln
LN42DX
Finlay Beverages Ltd
Elmsall Way
South Elmsall
Pontefract
WF9 2XS
Finlay Beverages, as part of Finlay's, is a wholly owned subsidiary of John Swire & Sons Limited. The group's 250 year heritage has centred on its core asset, tea plantations in Africa and the Indian sub continent. We have been packing tea for the UK market for over 100 years and are now the UK's largest private label and food service industry packer/supplier. Finlay Beverages utilises its group knowledge and expertise to blend and pack high quality standard black teas, speciality teas, and fruit & herbal infusions in modern well-equipped production facilities in Yorkshire. For over 250 years Finlay's have built a legacy of real social and environmental responsibility. Embracing our responsibilities means commitment to high standards of sustainability within our business and acting for change outside our borders. In line with our standards, all our products are supplied under the Ethical Tea Partnership and Fairtrade mark with high quality certified Organic teas also being produced.
Finlay Tea Solutions UK Limited
Swire House
59 Buckingham Gate
London
SW1E 6AJ
T: 0207 802 3230
W: www.finlays.net
Grey's Teas
The Granary, Yew Tree Farm
Stratford Road, Wooton Wawen
Nr Henley in Arden, Warwickshire
B95 6BY
We offer loose leaf teas via our website and to specialist retailers, tea-rooms, cafes, restaurants and hotels. Most of our teas are large leaf from single tea gardens, produced using traditional orthodox methods. These ensure the fullest flavour. Since 2000 our comprehensive and informative website has developed an interest in tea amongst our constantly growing and loyal customer base. The online store offers over one hundred of the world's best teas.
Founded by a descendant of Earl Grey, we offer only the most distinctive teas from areas of the world renown for their tea: wonderful orchid-like black teas from the distant provinces of China; beautiful Oolongs from Formosa; malty Assams, muscatel Darjeelings or fragrant Nilgiris from the southern Blue mountains of India. We have healthy Green or exotic White teas from China, India, Kenya and Japan. We also offer classic blends.
Retail orders over £30 are delivered free in the UK.
Keith Spicer
Keith Spicer Ltd
5 Cobham Road
Wimborne, Dorset
BH21 7PN
It was in 1934 that 24-year-old Keith Spicer founded the business, using the parlour of the family home in Bournemouth as the blending department and the distribution fleet consisting of a well-used but serviceable butcher?s bicycle. The company grew rapidly thereafter becoming an important supplier to the local hotel and catering industries and by 1970 had moved to its current location in Ferndown Industrial Estate Dorset.
In 2013 Spicers added a large manufacturing plant in Newcastle to support its blending expertise with the facilities to produce high volume bespoke tea blends. Spicers is now the chosen tea supplier of some of the largest UK supermarkets at the same time offering a broad portfolio of well-known branded teas.
Northern Tea Merchants
Crown House
193 Chatsworth Road
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
S40 2BA
Northern Tea Merchants is a privately owned, independent business established in 1959.
We blend a wide range of teas (including FairTrade) and manufacture them into teabags for supply internationally under our own brands and also customers' own label.
Our products are sold at retail, wholesale and catering levels and we also operate a mail order service.
Our Sales Department can also be contacted via the above address or fax numbers or the above email address.
For more information on our products, please visit our website at www.northern-tea.com
Organic Herb Trading
Organic Herb Trading
Butts Way,
Milverton, Somerset
TA4 1ND
Herbs, spices and botanicals sourced with integrity – since 1982. For more than 40 years we have grown, sourced and supplied the UK's largest range of high-quality organic botanicals for a diverse range of customers in the food and beverage, cosmetic, medicinal, petfood and animal feed markets. We source from more than 60 countries and our customers are global, ranging from start-ups to multi-national corporations. Tea and infusions are the largest part of our business by volume and value, and our offer is comprehensive. We draw on more than 30 years of experience to offer exceptional raw materials often with traceability to origin, bespoke blend development and manufacture (NPD and EPD), as well as white label, and toll processing, such as cutting and blending. We are certified BRCGS at grade A+ and as well as being 100% organic, we offer an extensive range of FLO Fairtrade, Fair For Life and FairWild ingredients.
Pukka Herbs
8 Hawkfield Business Park
Bristol
BS14 0BY
Pukka Herbs began in 2001 after Sebastian Pole met Tim Westwell. Sebastian was an ambitious herbalist who wanted to change the world through introducing people to the power of herbs. Tim had been looking to step out of the corporate world to find a way to combine his passion to contribute to a more positive world with his business skills. They quickly realised they had a shared vision. Today over a million cups of Pukka tea are drunk every day. Pukka also makes a range of supplements using the same pharmacopeia grade, ethically traded organic herbs used in teas.
Pukka Herbs currently (at October 2016) has 40 blends of tea. These include a ranges of green teas using matcha, herbal teas and speciality black teas.
Pukka blends its teas not just for taste, but also for wellbeing. All teas are blended using the principles of Ayurveda, an ancient Indian holistic philosophy that shows how to live a healthy, wholesome and more fulfilled life by balancing mind, body and spirit.
As well as being organic, Pukka has also worked hard to pioneer new ways to ensure that the organisation is making a genuine contribution to global equality, poverty and the environment. For example, Pukka is working with FairWild guaranteeing that the plants used from the wild have been harvested in a sustainable way and that the collectors have been paid fairly for their work. All Pukka?s teas are now certified as ?fair? through a new fair trade scheme called ?Fair for Life?. Fair for Life is one of the fairest, most equitable and transparent fair trade systems in the world. It guarantees that everyone who Pukka touches, from crop to cup across the globe, is treated fairly, equitably and transparently. And as a member of 1% for the Planet, Pukka gives 1% of its turnover to support environmental causes.
More information about Pukka?s range of 40 teas is available here: www.pukkaherbs.com/pukka-products/pukka-teas
Dace Jece
Pukka Herbs
8 Hawkfield Business Park
Bristol
BS14 0BY
Phone: 0117 9640944
Web: www.pukkaherbs.com
Email: enquiries@pukkaherbs.com
Closed bank holidays.
Reginald Ames Ltd
Unit 12, Tannery Road Industrial Estate
Tannery Road
Tonbridge, Kent
TN9 1RF
Reginald Ames Ltd. is a long standing tea company that has been running in London since 1934. It is a unique blend of traditional methods & ideologies with modern views & business knowhow. The company has several strings to its bow as follows:
The Directors of the company still pay regular visits to the growing regions in order to ensure the quality of workmanship that they hold in such high regard.
On occasion, they have taken customers along with them to help enhance the customers knowledge ? after all, it is the company?s firm belief that they will only ever be as successful as their customers.
It is fortunate then, that their customers include some of the best tea companies, restaurants, hotels and tea rooms throughout the world.
Reginald Ames is one of the UK's remaining traditional Tea Merchants. The company still adheres to and maintains the very high standards that were a necessary requirement from its conception.
Our combined buying, brokering tea and herbal infusions, shipping and tea blending experience enables the staff at Reginald Ames to continue to provide a high quality service and exceptional product for wholesale and Export sales.
Our skilled team works together to ensure that only the best quality orthodox and CTC manufactured teas are used. The blending drums and teabag machines are continuously in use throughout the year ensuring consistent blends of speciality teas both for Wholesale/Export and individual customers - Speciality - Loose - Teabags.
We import teas from India, Africa, Asia, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, and other sources.
Ringtons Ltd
Algernon Road
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE6 2TN
Ringtons is a British tea and coffee merchant which was established in 1907 by Samuel Smith who sold tea door to door via horse and cart.
Today the family business still offers a traditional doorstep delivery service to over 260,000 customers throughout the UK.
Ringtons also operates an ecommerce website and business-to-business division Ringtons Beverages, while its UK factory buys and packs for private and own label customers.
Steenbergs Organic
6 Hallikeld Close,
Barker Business Park
Melmerby, Ripon
HG4 5GZ
Steenbergs is a family-run tea merchant specialising in high quality loose leaf teas, with a focus on organic and Fairtrade and a passion for provenance, aroma and taste.
Steenbergs' wide range of teas include single estate loose leaf teas, as well as their unique blends of Chais, green, white, black and herbal teas - all hand-blended in their eco-factory in Yorkshire.
All of their teas are beautifully packaged in stylish black caddies, with refill packs available for retail and in larger packs for tea houses and tea shops.
To savour the full range of delicious teas and handy accessories, take a look at the Steenbergs online shop for more inspiration and voisit: www.steenbergs.co.uk
Taylors of Harrogate
Plumpton Park
Harrogate
North Yorkshire
HG2 7LD
Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate is an independent family business based in the heart of Yorkshire. Taylors of Harrogate blends and packs more than 50 different speciality teas, including Yorkshire Tea. We even blend a tea to suit your water, so that you get the same Yorkshire Tea taste whether your water is soft or hard. You can also enjoy many of our teas in the traditional elegant surroundings of our six Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms based in Yorkshire. A real treat.
Tea People Ltd
96 Cardigan Road
Reading
RG1 5QW
Tea People is an award winning, speciality tea company that is passionate about spreading the richness of natural, high quality whole-leaf tea. It was founded to address the issue of educational development in the tea growing regions and is hence set up as a social enterprise. We commit 50% of our net profits to help educate children in under-served tea growing areas.
Our teas range from the finest premium single estate teas to a wide variety of our own unique blends, flavours and herbal infusions. We cater to the needs of all tea lovers as well businesses including hotels, cafes, restaurants, etc.
One of our unique offerings is ?BESPOKE TEAS?, a service that allows our customers to create their own tea experience which could range from a new blend to customized labeling and packaging.
Our Teas:
At Tea People we sell a wide variety of teas and infusions catering to a wide array of tastes and palates. We offer our teas in both loose leaf form as well as specially designed biodegradable pyramid tea bags. Some of the teas that we stock include:
Single Estate Black Tea: We stock some of the finest single estate teas ranging from the 1st Flush Darjeeling to the premium Assam, Ceylon and Keynan teas.
Blended & Flavoured Black Tea: In addition to the ever popular English Breakfast and Earl Grey we also do a wide variety of other blends including the Indian Chai tea, Russian Caravan and Lapsang Souchong.
Our flavoured range of black teas containing Blueberry, Apricot and Peach, Lemon & Ginger, etc.
Green Tea: Our selection of Green tea ranges from the single estate green teas from Darjeeling and Celyon to flavoured and blended Green Tea such as Jasmine Green and Coconut Rose Green. We also stock a range of Japanese green teas including Matcha, Sencha and Genmaicha.
Flowering Tea: When it comes to our flowering or blooming teas, they are not just pretty to look at, but are also a delight to drink.
Oolong Tea: From Tie Guan Yin, China?s most popular Oolong tea to DarjOolong, a rare Oolong from Darjeeling you can find them at Tea People.
Herbal & Fruit Infusions: We boast of a wide range of some unique herbal and fruit infusions such as Liquorice Mint Toffee, Spicy Apple, Very Berry, etc.
Rooibos: We stock an exclusive range of Rooibos or Red Bush tea. Our Choco Mint Rooibos won 2 gold stars at the Great Taste Awards 2014.
Teapigs
1The Old Pumping Station
Pump Alley
Brentford
TW8 0AP
teapigs offer a select range of high quality teas and infusions. We make a big thing about using whole leaf tea, whole leaf herbs and whole flowers. For us it is a question of flavour; crushed just does not taste as good. We present our teas in our tea temples - a roomy, silky mesh bag, which offers all the space that whole leaves need to infuse properly. So you have all the convenience of a teabag but with the superior taste of whole leaf tea. teapigs can be bought online (www.teapigs.co.uk) or in selected outlets nationwide.
Williamson Fine Teas Ltd
5 West Mills
Newbury
Berkshire
RG14 5HG
Williamson Tea has been growing and selling the finest quality teas in the world since 1869. Not only do we have over 135 years experience of buying and blending teas from all round the world but we also own tea farms in Kenya, generally regarded as producing Premium quality. Our farms have Fair Trade approval and several awards for tea excellence, whilst our experienced team of tasters and blenders offer unparalleled service and expertise, sourcing teas from all round the globe. Distributing the finest teas from our UK factory, this family run business keeps all the traditions and values that has made the Williamson Tea name so special, whilst embracing new fashions in tea drinking. As part of our service we can provide Own label packing in teabag, tagged/envelope and loose tea formats. As a result we offer the very best quality tea to our customers. For a special tea drink Williamson Tea.