Whole leaf loose tea lovers: quality English blends, sencha, oolong, puerh etc.

terra_ferma

I've started drinking loose tea, and really liking it.
So far I've bought cheap gunpowder and jasmine teas from local chinese supermarkets.
I'd love to try silver needle, puerh cakes etc. but the cost is astronomical.
I use ebay/amazon a lot, but only when I can judge the quality of the product I'm buying, so won't be buying chinese tea there for now.

I was wondering were other tea lovers get their precious leaves

Edwardia

I buy Brooke Bond Taj Mahal loose tea from https://www.spicesofindia.co.uk as does my mother now. It's the #1 bestselling tea in India.

terra_ferma

Hello Edwardia
Great site, I knew about it, but only for spices, fantastic selection of teas.
Not what I'm looking for right now, but looks interesting for exploring black tea, and for chai to keep warm in a few months' time.

PS silly me chai is the brand, not different types of spiced tea, chai is just the word for tea anyway

Incidentally the cheapest puehr cake I found is £8.50 for 100gr, but makes me wonders why is it so cheap (the most expensive was a £1000+ 400g 1958 vintage, my OH thought I was talking about vintage champagne... not vintage tea )
http://the-chinese-tea-company.com/puer-tea/long-sheng-cooked-puer-tuo-tea-2005.html

wendym

I struck lucky a while ago on the approvedfoods site, where they were selling all sorts of high end teas, well in date, absurdly cheaply. But I'm running out, and although I keep an eye on the site, it's never been repeated. I'll post if I see them again.

http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/

Slightly O/T: can anyone recommend leaf tea Earl Grey that still has a decent bergamot hit? I can only assume that the price has gone up, and the blends are definitely being affected, whether the tea companies will admit it or not. Both Suki and Taylors/Betty's are pale shadows of what they were.

A._Badger

If you are really keen on high quality Chinese tea, the Canton Tea Co, www.cantonteaco.com is very good but it is also eye-wateringly expensive.

Mrs Badger is keen on it - personally, I prefer loose leaf Assam - strong enough to dissolve the spoon!

c45arlo

I have yet to find anywhere that beats Atkinsons of Lancaster for loose tea or coffee.The aroma when they are roasting coffee beans is wonderful and the business dates back to the early 1800's.

http://www.thecoffeehopper.com/

They have an excellent selection of teas and coffee's from around the world and are reasonably priced. :rotfl:

terra_ferma

A._Badger wrote: »

If you are really keen on high quality Chinese tea, the Canton Tea Co, www.cantonteaco.com is very good but it is also eye-wateringly expensive.

c45arlo wrote: »

I have yet to find anywhere that beats Atkinsons of Lancaster for loose tea or coffee.The aroma when they are roasting coffee beans is wonderful and the business dates back to the early 1800's.

http://www.thecoffeehopper.com/

They have an excellent selection of teas and coffee's from around the world and are reasonably priced. :rotfl:

From what I've seen western based stores don't offer good value/quality, they other offer average tea for high prices, or excellent tea for extortionately high prices (e.g. canton tea, they are well known but very expensive).
At the end of the day going closer to the source is always cheaper than going through a series of middlemen.

The problem with chinese stores selling tea is that you need to know what you are looking for (the choice is overwhelming) and also make sure you buy from a reputable source.

I've found a store that has excellent reviews on the internet:
http://www.jingteashop.com/chinese_tea.cfm
(not to be confused with an much more expensive UK-based tea site...)
I've been looking at this:
http://www.jingteashop.com/pd-ing-tea-shop-white-tea-bmdaaa.cfm
100g Price: $8.40 GBP5.41464(approx.)

These teas look very expensive, but the chinese make a lot of tea out of them, top quality teas can be brewed up to 50 times.
I hope that once I know what I'm buying I can source cheap very good quality tea (on ebay for example) and save a fortune compared to supermarket tea.

little_busy_bee

Hi,

love my loose leaf tea, and not that expensive when you consider that tea leaves can be re-used.

i would suggest two sites, http://www.suki-tea.com/ they also have a physical presence in the market in Belfast and they do a wonderful Irish Breakfast tea called Belfast Brew as well as good selection of other green and black teas.

the other is the algerian coffee shop http://www.algcoffee.co.uk/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=1227 based in Soho, London. This is the largest slection that i have found for loose leaf teas

in both cases staff are very helpful...

GreenFairy

Second vote for Suki tea - I used to live in Belfast and had a pantry full of their blends. Really lovely stuff.
My current obsession is Kingfisher tea - kingfishertea.com
Lovely people and an amazing range of teas. Plus you can take advantage of the !!!! poor euro if you order online

wendym

Just to repeat the warning about Suki Earl Grey - they have all but removed the bergamot, and when I contacted them they said the change was in response to customer requests. Hmm.

I am ashamed to say I had forgotten that I live in a city with a specialist tea shop, run by lovely people. They have now confirmed that the price of bergamot has risen, hence the re-blends appearing everywhere.

http://www.imperialteas.co.uk/

terra_ferma

GreenFairy wrote: »

Second vote for Suki tea - I used to live in Belfast and had a pantry full of their blends. Really lovely stuff.
My current obsession is Kingfisher tea - kingfishertea.com
Lovely people and an amazing range of teas. Plus you can take advantage of the !!!! poor euro if you order online

Thank you everyone, these websites are very interesting.
kingfisher looked really good, not too expensive
unfortunately I was less than impressed by their (illegal) t&c:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once packages have been shipped, The postal service or the courier is responsible for delivery. We do not insure packages - if you would like your order insured, please request this when you check out.