This morning I have a very serious question for you. I’ve been a bag tea drinker most of my life. Except for the time I lived in Russia, where tea was always loose leaf. In US, my life got busy and I switched to the bags.
A few weeks ago, I bought white tea on a whim from HEB, our local grocery store. It came in little pyramid bags and it was unexpectedly delicious. I want more tea like that, but I have a problem with the pyramid bags because they seem kind of plastic. So I have purchased a cute tea pot on Amazon. I’ve selected it very carefully. I wanted it to hold about two cups, I wanted it to have an infuser, and I wanted it to not spill my tea all over.
The cool thing about this teapot: the infuser has a little handle so it’s easy to remove and the lid fits on the tea pot with or without the infuser and it’s nice and snug. So you can take the infuser out to control the strength of your tea, and the tea will sit in the teapot nice and hot. The description says it’s stove-top safe. I can’t testify to that. I boil the water to the right temperature in a metal electric kettle and then pour it in there.
Having obtained the right equipment, I decided to buy tea. Ideally I would like to find the site I like, order a sampler, and then figure out which tea I would actually enjoy drinking.
Me: Loose tea?
Google: 50 million links.
Me: Best place to buy loose tea?
Google: Article from Serious Eats on tea buying.
Beware the chains. I don’t need to name names, but you know the ones I’m talking about. You see them in malls and major tourist shopping districts. They carry more chocolate chai or lavender-lemongrass blends than straight tea. By and large, these chains just don’t carry quality tea. They buy leaves in vast quantities through middlemen brokers, then add so many spices and herbs to their blends that it’s often impossible to taste the tea underneath (see here for more thoughts on flavored tea versus flavorful tea). The straight tea these chains do sell tends not to be particularly great, either. Better than teabags to be sure, but hardly first-rate stuff. You can do better.
MAX FALKOWITZ
Okay. So I clicked on some of the smaller tea shops linked in the article. $36 for 4 ounces of tea.
So help me out. Where do you buy good tea at somewhat reasonable prices? I prefer green tea, possibly fruity tea, and English Breakfast blend. Not a fan of Earl Gray. Also not a fan of flowering teas. You know, the ones where it’s a tightly wrapped bud of tea that blooms into a flower when you brew it? I’ve tried a few of them and they taste awful.
There is a tea company in Ruidoso N.M. that is amazing I love going into the store every time we go. It’s called Old Barrel Tea Company. The website is Oldbarreltea.com
They do all different blends for the season also!
You might give Harney and Sons a whirl. https://www.harney.com/collections/best-sellers
+1 for Harney and Sons. I love their teas! Favorites include Irish Breakfast and Hot Cinnamon Spice.
Thanks! Haven’t tried their white teas yet … love their Earl Grey!
When I purchase loose leaf tea, I purchase from adagio.com. I found them when I was in Vermont, but they have several store-front in Chicago area. Their 16oz bags are like 2 cups worth They have black, green, flavored, etc. My favorite is the Earl Grey and Assam teas.
^ THIS,
+1
I second this. I, too, have been searching for loose tea that doesn’t taste like the box or the metal container it comes in. All the Adagio teas I’ve tried so far have been wonderful.
+1 on Adagio. They also have a presence in the U.K./Europe.
Love their black fruity teas, apricot, mango, coconut – all yum.
Adagio is excellent. They often have a number of grades of at least the black teas, and it’s amusing (to me) how I find I generally like the low-mid grade teas.. Also, if you like blended teas, they let you do custom blends out of their stocks. Plus a selection of white, and so on.
I have approximately ten cans (cylinders, tall) of Tea of Inquiry in my cupboard. I love them (except the green teas, which are for Husband Person). Republic of Tea also has some good choices. Just watch the labels when buying. They sell loose leaf and ‘bags’ (little disc shaped packets with no string) in the same cylinder cans, so if you want loose, make sure the label is correct
I live near a Chinese neighborhood so I usually just go there and find a tea shop and have a tasting until I find something I want. It could be a fun addition to book tour?
English tealeaves in parker, Colorado. They have a wide range and everything I’ve tasted has been delicious! They do ship, as i received a tea oof the month one year for xmas!
Tea Runners is one site I’m aware of. It’s gotten some good reviews.
http://www.tearunners.com
If you like green tea I would order from Verdant tea (Verdanttea.com). They have a great selection of Chinese teas that come directly from the farmers. They also allow you to buy small samples so you can try it before investing too much money! They have a really easy to navigate website as well. For herbal teas and blends I use The Tea Spot (theteaspot.com). They are a great company out of Colorado. They have a pledge to donate 10% of all sales to cancer survivors and cancer wellness. They have an herbal tea called Cold Buster that always makes my cold symptoms more manageable!
Not a tea drinker unless I am sick. But your infuser and Totoro picture made me smile. Because I have a similar one that is Totoro themed. It cannot go stove top though, but it brings me comfort. Good luck on the good tea hunt.
I have been drinking loose tea for several years. One of the more extensive selections can be found with Upton Tea importers – they have a good online site with descriptions of tea and a wide variety of prices from very affordable to very expensive. They do offer some sampler sets to try different varieties. They also have some teapots and tea mugs with removable infuser baskets if you want more choices on how to brew. My husband also travels for work to Asia and brings back some nice teas, but not a general option.
Old Barrel Tea Company in Ruidoso, NM is yummy loose leaf tea. I tried to attach a picture but couldn’t it comes in cute metal containers that you can see through the top. They have regular teas and they have seasonal blends. It is one of my favorite places when we visit Ruidoso and it’s not expensive.
Ps I did post already but it didn’t show up when I came back to try to put a picture.
I love thejasminepearl.com and a coworker loves davidstea.com
Author Faith Hunter is a tea person and posts about some of the wonderful teas she gets. Are you “friend’s” with her that you could ask?
Harney.com – good selection, free shipping and a lot of their teas come in a sample size so you don’t have to buy a lot until you know you like it. My current favorite is the Thai Silk.
Republic of Tea offers many of their teas loose leaf. The fruity green and white teas are yummy, but my favorite is their cardamom-cinnamon spice blend tea.
Also, for “serious” tea, I order from Mark T Wendell tea company. Love the dragonwell green.
Affordability: Adagio. You can make your own custom blends, or purchase ones already blended for you. They have a large selection of pre-blends and the custom blend option is awesome!
Best: Chamong. Grown in India by a family friend’s family. It’s pricey, but it is absolutely worth it for “having an awful day and just want a lovely cuppa” times. On *very* special occasions, we get a gift of tea from that family and we treat it like the One Ring…
This is a rabbit hole, but the bunnies at the end are the softest and cuddliest ever:
https://www.adagio.com
Adagio teas are reasonably priced, delicious, and more importantly you can get fandom teas and mix your own blends. I made Disney villain teas that I bought this week and I want to replace my blood with then
https://www.englishtealeaves.com/Default.asp
They have a bountiful selection and are priced reasonably.
For the English teas go to Amazon and but kill have of Taylor’s Yorkshire Gold. Don’t know if they sell their other blends in the kill bags but it’s possible.
I love Upton Tea Imports. I especially love that you can sample the teas inexpensively before buying. I buy from them every year.
Adagio Teas (adagio.com), Premium Steap in Philadelphia (premiumsteap.com), and Fortnum & Mason (fortnumandmason.com) are great.
Do Fortnums deliver in the US? I was hesitant to recommend them, brilliant Ceylon and samplers.
I buy from a little shop here in Houston but you can order online as well. I LOVE their tea blends. $19.95 for 3 OZ bag. My favorite is “Beach Bum – Watch me sip, watch me lay lay”…
https://teasip.com
If I have to buy loose leaf tea I usually purchase from whitards. Very good quality teas and coffees. it is a English company so I’m not too sure if they have stores in America but it’s worth a try.
Tea is not my thing so I can’t speak to the taste or priciness of their tea, but my daughter loves the teas she gets from brutaliteas.com (I’m not affiliated with this company in any way nor do I make money from recommendations 😉).
There is a wonderful tea shop in Santa Fe that sells delicious and very high quality loose teas. Their website is comprehensive.
https://www.artfultea.com/
It is also nice to support a small, locally owned shop where the staff are so generous and knowledgeable.
I can attest to the deliciousness of their green tea and their Moroccan Mint Green Tea.
I like Harney and Sons, and Twinings has good loose leaf tea too. I went to their original tea shop in London a few years ago and did a tea tasting and it was very fun. If you are willing to pay shipping to order from the UK website, they have different teas than the US site does. Fortnum and Mason has a few teas they’re selling at Williams-Sonoma in the US and they come in pretty tins. (I like some but not all of their teas, but I am a sucker for a pretty tea tin.) My sister has ordered tea from Simpson and Vail, and every time I look through their catalog I end up with a long list of teas I want to order. Stash has some good loose leaf teas too, but mostly online. Stores don’t tend to carry them. I know Harney’s lets you buy samples for $2 or $3 each, I can’t remember about the others. I have to taste a tea to know if I’ll like it, so I appreciate being able to get samples. I get most of my tea from Harney and Son’s, but Stash has some teas I make sure to keep in my pantry too.
We’ve bought from https://www.teagallerie.com/ and liked the teas.
I’ve been buying loose leaf pretty regularly for over 10 yrs now and my two favorites are Harney and Sons and Adagio teas. I’ve tried teavana and David teas( and many others) and while sometimes enjoyable they include too many added flavors, not to mention teavana doesn’t really exist anymore. Another company that deserves an honorable mention is The Tea Spot, which is out of Colorado. I tend to find something the company does well and stick with it; I buy all my chai from Adagio, all my single estate or “plain teas” from Harney and Sons, and all my mint teas from The Tea Spot. Hope you find your something you like. :))
Teatable.com – and each time you order, you can select up to 3 free samples. They have tea paraphernalia, the tea is fresh, has great descriptions and there is a great selection in various styles: black, green, herbal, decaf, etc. The tea comes in resealable foil bags, so stays fresh longer. There is a code (it pops up when you first log in to the site) that you type in each order, and it discounts 10%. I get my tea in 2-3 days, depending on postal selection.
If you can find a local shop that will let you sniff the containers and get 2oz at a time, that’s great if you’re feeling your way on the basic types. Good online sources:
https://itoen.com/collections/loose-leaf
Some of the blends are quite interesting, along with a solid selection of quality varieties.
https://floatingleaves.com/
Both the Jin Xuan and Spring Nantou are everyday staples.
Wherever you go, pay attention to the price! Range is $20/lb – $100+++/lb.
Murchie’s from British Columbia. Their shipping is reasonable and their tea is fantastic. I recommend their Library Blend which is a blend of green and black teas. Their Assam is great too: what a proper cup of tea should taste like. The taste still comes through when milk or cream is added. They have been selling tea since the late 1800’s so there is the proof it is good.
I like Murchie’s Teas (https://www.murchies.com/store/), especially their afternoon blend. And if you are ever in Paris again definately got to Mariage Freres!
My local favorite has a website. It’s the London Tea Merchant (https://www.thelondonteamerchant.com/)
I’m a flavored black tea kinda of gal, but they have all types including some great single estate teas. Periodically they’ll have rare varieties on sale too. The prices vary, but they don’t gouge you horribly. Yes, you pay $22 for 2 ounces of silver needle, but they have more economical varieties like white peony ($7).
Maybe https://www.iherb.com/c/green-tea?avids=32384.
There are reviews to the products, so it lessens the danger specified in the article. And there are coupons to this site online.
Tea Forte – this is your triangle teabags, but they sell loose leaf as well.
https://www.teaforte.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7orz3ZXJ5AIViIbACh1lggOpEAAYASAAEgIgKPD_BwE
Art of Tea
https://www.artoftea.com/
Republic of Tea
https://www.republicoftea.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuaGr9ZXJ5AIVjsDACh2VdwT7EAAYASAAEgKNO_D_BwE
I use Old Town Tea & Spice Merchants. Spiceandteamerchants.com
They are local for me but they also ship. I have been very happy with their loose teas and prices. They also have great spices and herbs. Most of the teas are around $4 an ounce some are a little higher.
You may have a tea store near you where you can wander around and check out different teas. We found one near us at our last duty station (retirement!) and even my son likes to go in and find something new to try out – https://www.encoreteas.com. It’s a small, independent tea shop. I also buy some favorites from The English Tea Store online, and they have sales, like the one going on right now. I have the 2-cup tea pot with infuser, but find myself using my mug infusers more often (I have some pretty big mugs!). We were stationed in Canada twice with the US Army, and my Canadian friends tried to school me on the whole tea etiquette and form, but being American, I’m kind of hopeless with it. They let me know I drink my tea ‘stewed.’
I like Aromatica Fine Teas (https://myaromatica.com). I found them after my friend bought me a subscription to Tea Sparrow one Christmas. They have a nice selection.
TeaPigs! TeaPigs.com. Super Fruit is a lovely, fruity blend (as the name suggests!) and it’s nice cold or hot. I can personally vouch for their English Breakfast blend. They also do tea temples made out of cornstarch. They’re biodegradable but don’t break down in your cup. All of their packaging is either recyclable or compostable! They do little samplers, too! I’m working my way through one now.
I get mine from Teavivre. They have tons of varieties direct from China. I’ve really enjoyed their Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing green tea, but they have several samplers, including a green tea one, if you want to try a few different ones. And I think the price is very reasonable, since in my experience with loose leaf a little goes a long way.
I personally don’t like tea but my sister loves it. She buys from Republic of Tea or Tea Republic, something like that. They have black, green, white and red teas. She likes Earl Gray.
This is no help to you whatsoever because I’m English so have access to all sorts of amazing teas. I take my own boxes of tea bags to the States whenever I visit and happily distribute them to anyone who asks to try them. I feel for you, coffee is nice but there is nothing like a good cup of tea.
Also, Adagio teas already has a Kate Daniels blend someone made
https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=39786
If you like Chinese tea, I love buying them from redblossomtea.com
They are not a chain and they’re in San Francisco. I went to visit SF and did a tea tasting there and I love their teas. They sell online and that’s how I normally buy them. Check it out. They’re an awesome company.
I buy a good bit of tea from TeBella – https://tebellatea.com – I love their Cafe au Lait tea, and I’m ready to start stalking their website to stock up on their Peppermint Bark seasonal tea, because it’s absolutely delicious and only available for a brief time ( I cried a little when I realized that). Also, the Blue Lady tea from Zest Tea (https://www.zesttea.com/products/tea-bags?variant=12757276229719) is really good. If you like to try different teas, I recommend SipsBy (https://www.sipsby.com). I signed up based on a friend’s recommendation almost a year ago, and I’ve really enjoyed trying things I wouldn’t have even looked twice at otherwise. It’s very customizable to include or exclude types of tea you don’t like and such. That’s how I discovered the peppermint bark tea and the Blue Lady!
No idea where to buy tea… but I have a tea snob friend and I gifted her a subscription to Sips by (https://www.sipsby.com/) and she says she loves it. YMMV.
Try the Perennial Tea Room in Seattle.
206-448-4054
They have a website https://perennialtearoom.com/
I get my teas from them. They have estate teas in all the major varieties and many minor varieties like the various gold teas. They ship all over the U.S. Just call them and discuss what you like. I am sure they can help. I believe they sell in 2 ounce quantities even for shipping.
Hope that works.
Tea Haus is a local tea store for me but they also mail order all over the country. I love their tea. https://teahaus.com/
My family is pretty big fans of Adagio ( https://www.adagio.com/ ) for loose leaf tea. Are they the best or cheapest? I don’t know, I haven’t compared enough to say. We just found one we liked and stuck with it.
What I CAN say is they have a large selection of tasty stuff. And lots of it is (we think) quite affordably priced.
We love the Harney & Sons Irish Breakfast Assam Tea – Loose Tea bought on Amazon – $18.99 for 16oz.
Mountain Rose Herbs or Frontier Coop.
I like Mighty Leaf Tea (which is owned by Peet’s) as a nice compromise between weird flavored chain store teas and insanely expensive niche tea. I buy their English Breakfast and Orange Dolce (vanilla/orange flavored black) by the 100 ct box since my tea drinking habits don’t really support loose leaf tea, but their teas also come loose leaf.
It’s possible my grape-Fanta-and-dunks-ice-tea-loving palate isn’t the most refined, though.
BlueBird Tea from the UK is what the local coffee shop sales and my sister and mom love it. I don’t drink it so I have no idea. But I’m assuming that’s the sorta brand your looking for.
I currently have a lot of tea in the pantry, so haven’t bought much recently. But in the past I’ve ordered from culinaryteas.com, and was pleased with the prices and speed of delivery. You might check if there’s a local tea place where you can sample a variety of tea and order through them. I discovered one of my favorites, Lapseng Souchong (a smoky tea), that way. A few ounces can go a long way, so sampling is nice so you don’t get stuck with too much that you don’t like.
I used to do a lot of loose tea myself. If I wanted specialty blends I’d buy from Etsy, actually. If I want bulk or cheaper I’d go with Amazon. In fact, Amazon has in bulk a very nice Ginger Lemon Tulsi tea that is quite excellent and I would recommend.
https://www.adagio.com/
https://www.discoverteas.com/
Adagio is a chain with crazy blends, but I’d still recommend checking them out. I would stay away from their fandom blends and their fruit blends have been hit or miss for me, but their basic teas are pretty good. Even if you don’t like floral teas, I’d still recommend jasmine pearls. Discover Teas is actually local to me. They also have some crazy blends, but some are pretty good. I like their earthbound angel for migraines.
Try this website http://www.t2tea.com They have an amazing variety of different teas. Even ones you’ve probably never heard of.
I get my loose leaf tea in bulk from the Tao of Tea (taooftea.com) which is a fair trade company. I am also lucky enough to be able to go in to their original location where they have brewed me samples until I found what I wanted. My tea of choice for a couple of years has been black spiral, but I prefer black tea. If I want it flavored, I add the flavoring myself.
One word of caution, on the website it looks like they have been hit hard by the trade war with China, so a lot of the Chinese teas are out of stock.
Given our deep British roots, Canadians still drink a fair bit of tea – coffee is more popular but tea holds its own 🙂. The Great Canadian Tea Company Ltd. sources loose tea from India, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Egypt, and South Africa (plus a few other places). Besides offering great tea, I like that they try to choose suppliers that follow sustainable practises / standards. They ship free to the US with a $50 CDN order.
https://greatcanadiantea.com/
I have had good experience buying loose and bagged tea from Tea-for-All at the Burlington County farmer’s market. They will even create special blend for you. Co-worker was lamenting how she couldn’t find a Teavana blend (or was really expensive on Amazon). I took photo of tea bag, asked Debbie (owner) if she could recreate something similar. Coworker says it was a success! Price per ounce varies according to variety. But, you may want to check out their website. (I’m not affiliated, etc. etc. I just love tea)
https://tea-for-all.com/
I was lucky enough to find a local tea shop near me with a owner who makes her own blends.
https://satoriteausa.com/
Perhaps you can find a similar place near enough to you for occasional visits?
For the ultimate in lazy (but accurate) tea making I highly recommend Breville. I’ve used this automatic kettle and infuser for years.
https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/tea/btm800.html
Thank you! We are on the same quest 😁.
I only drink loose tea. My favorite place is https://www.rakkasantea.com/ – they care about the workers and the environment. I also will buy from The English Tea Store – https://www.englishteastore.com/. Finally, I trust Taylors of Harrogate for several teas I can’t get at the other two. If you like really dark tea, there is a Turkish tea that I love. Caykur Black Tea, Altinbas which is available through Amazon.
I only like the black, caffeinated tea so no help on decaffeinated or herbal.
http://www.capitalteas.com I fell in love with them when we lived in Northern Virginia and made a regular trek to Annapolis. When we moved back to Idaho I made sure I could order from them.
Enjoy!
Xanadu teas from Cook’s Nook. You’ll still be paying $30 but you’ll get 2 lbs of tea instead of 4oz. I know it’s hard to blindly trust, but I promise you they’re delicious. If you want to dip your toe, just get the Assam Estate. I have tons of tea options, and 95% of the time I choose to drink the Assam Estate.
I like:
Snow Monkey Plum <- This is a flavored tea, which I agree with that article is usually not very good, but I love this one in particular. My sister likes this blended 50/50 with Earl Grey, but ew Earl Grey.
Assam Estate TGFOP <- I like English Breakfast, this is even better. 10/10 highly recommend.
English Breakfast Decaf <- Caffeine isn't supposed to have a taste, but somehow decaffeinated black teas have usually lost flavor. This isn't as good as caffeinated tea but it's better than most if you want an evening tea.
I am more of a tea enthusiast than someone with an expert palate, but these are my two regular sources.
Friday Tea is a local shop that focused on nerdy blends and inclusivity. (And they’re delicious.)
https://fridaytea.com/
I’ve also been happy with all the teas I’ve sampled from David’s Tea. They have a great range for reasonable prices. They’re not a mall-type retailer, but they are a fairly big company. https://www.davidstea.com/us_en/home/
Happy tea sampling!
I get most of my loose leaf, especially green tea, from Teavivre. They’re direct from China sales, so all the varieties are in that style, but very good and very reasonably priced. I really enjoy their Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing green tea, but they have several samplers, including one for green tea, if you want to try a few different things.
Taylor’s of Harrogate sells kilo bags of loose leaf tea including English Breakfast. Obviously you might want to try it in smaller quantity first.
Amazon sells it but they also have a shop.
I live in France so I don’t know if you can find it in the USA but I love tea and I drink mostly Dammann Freres (https://www.dammann.fr/en/) It’s not cheap but it’s delicious and I think you’ll love Nuit à Versailles =)
There are also Kusmi tea, and Mariage freres (I’m not a fan but some of my friends love them so …)
Oh, Nuit a Versailles is one of my favourite treats! This reminds me to stock up before Brexshit insanity hits, thank you!
I love Plum Deluxe. They have a subscription box if you like surprises, and their tea quality is always consistent and great. :3
Marriage Freres tea is great, but expensive. I’ve been trying the Harney and Sons tea, and it’s ok. I can find it at Kroger, Target, and Amazon for $5 – $7. The Harney tea can be found loose leaf or in bags.
I used to buy from Adagio and Upton tea before I got addicted to the expensive good stuff. I believe Upton has the better tea.
https://www.uptontea.com/earl-grey-tea/earl-grey-loose-leaf-black-tea/p/V00727/
https://www.adagio.com/black/index.html
When I was buying loose leaf tea I ordered from SpecialTeas. But I am retired now and not drinking tea like I did when working, so this info is possibly out of date. The Snow Mountain bud tea was especially wonderful. Now I buy smaller amounts in local tea shops.
I’m not a big tea drinker. Coffee is my game but I decided I needed to diversify and I found August Uncommon Tea. You can purchase samples which is what I did. They have some really great blends. https://august.la/
I’ve been really happy with Adagio teas. Their prices are reasonable. They’ve got some fruit teas I actually enjoy and love their sample sizes if you’re not sure what you’ll like — or just only like a certain kind of tea very rarely. I’ve been buying from them for years since they were fairly new to the online market.
Savoy tea company. I used to go in their shop in Arkansas and now I buy them online… because we moved to Florida. I buy their cinnamon orange tea and I drink it every morning.
I tend to get really into hard to find oolongs, and currently shop at https://redblossomtea.com/. Prices do run the gamut, especially with their green teas. They send a couple of single serving samples with your order which can be fun to try.
You want me to pop to Twinings for you?
https://www.twinings.co.uk/about-twinings/flagship-store-london-216-strand?aliaspath=%2fAbout-Twinings%2fflagship-store-london-216-strand
I am COMPLETELY happy to go buy loose leaf tea and ship it to you guys 🙂
We have a lovely boutique tea merchant here in Nanaimo, BC.
https://islandteablenz.com/
I checked and IslandTEAblenz ships to the US for a flat $5 rate (and that probably $5 CAD). I’ve tried a few of their blends and have enjoyed every one. Full disclosure: I am friendly with the owner, but not what you’d call friends and I am in no way part of the business – just spreading the gospel of loose leaf tea lol 🍃🍵😀
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Atlantic spice company is where I go for reasonable prices and good tea. Their Marsala Chai is to die for.
I am also a monthly tea box subscriber at Plum Deluxe. Their blends are amazingly good. It is a reasonable amount for a monthly tea box.
Hello from South Africa. I’ve been told that all teabags contain plastic and can’t be recycled (think about it: the edges are sealed together – what melted together). If anyone knows of a brand which actually has compostable teabags, please let me know.
*What is melted that the edges are able to be sealed?
I like Adagio Teas- you can order samples here https://www.adagio.com/gifts/samplers.html . They take care of their farmers and I can attest for their fruity black teas, especially the apricot one and the coconut.
Uptontea.com. I’ve been buying from them almost two decades. Very reliable, although the prices have risen over the years.
Inpursuitoftea.com. one of the choices is big tea bags that you can make a half gallon of iced tea with! Sample $5.00!
You could try Charleston tea company, they grow their own and have website, I’m local so l can find it at my grocery store.
Market Spice in Seattle sells a wide variety of teas. Not going to be knowledgeable about how good the pricing is. Here’s a link to some white tea choices. https://www.marketspice.com/13-white
Uptown Tea is amazing (https://www.uptontea.com/). Really great tea, good prices, and a website with helpful reviews. It ends up being the same or less cost per cup than bad tea bags. For the prices, don’t forget that you only need a gram or two per cup, so 4 ounces would likely be 50 to 100 cups.
For Upton, I’d recommend starting with one of their samplers (https://www.uptontea.com/teas/c/tea-samplers/) or staff favorites (https://www.uptontea.com/staff-favorites/a/uptons_favorites/).
For tea pots, I love Bee House tea pots (http://www.beehouseteapot.com/), but there’s no handle to remove the hot brewing basket.
August Uncommon Tea is my go-to. They have great variety packs if you don’t want to commit outright to a large bag of tea leaves. Plus delicious flavor combinations. https://august.la/
Wegmans! They have a great tea variety for not a lot of money
https://www.oldbarreltea.com/#/
This is where I get all of my loose leaf tea from. They have a wonderful selection and I’ve never been disappointed by the taste of their tea or spices.
I love Harney & Sons. I’ve been drinking their teas for years. They are a growing company out of upstate New York. Almost all of their teas are sold in 2 or 3 forms: loose leaf, pyramid bag, regular tea bag. They also often sell their teas in smaller sample portions as well as the larger amounts.
Since I’m from Germany it probably won’t help you to know where I get my tea from… but still…
Mostly I buy from the “Bremer Tee Kontor” (maybe there’s sonething similar in the US?) and I get an email each year when you can order some darjeeling first flush …
https://www.tee-handelskontor-bremen.de <– forgot to add the link…
I also am on the white tea bandwagon (little less acidic so I can still drink tea).
I generally order my loose leaf from Pippa’s Real Tea in Port Townsend WA. They have 7 white teas on offer (I like the Silver Needle and the White Peach w/ marigold).
At work, I use bag tea, and generally Republic of Tea’s white teas (Emperor’s 100% White, Jasmine and Ginger Peach). They also sell a “Silver Rain White Full-Leaf”. Beware weird flavors — bleh.
It has been my experience that the flavored/scented white teas taste different from their black-tea analog (e.g. white tea ginger peach is very different black tea ginger peach); it takes a few days for me to get used to the new taste, and then it is my preferred tea.
Forgot to add … Pippa’s does ship, in variety of sizes.
And steeping time is important … about 2 minutes, as I recall, for the loose leaf white teas.
Another Tea that I was gifted (and is just fantastic) is Phoenix Pearl … like the Jasmine Pearl, but, oh my, so fragrant and tasty. I’ve seen it marketed as “Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearl” green tea and variations. I think they purchased it at Seattle’s Pike Street Market, probably from MarketSpice teas.
I prefer Vandam tea from Amazon, or if I want to go all out, I’ll buy Rishi. Both are fantastic!
I’ve bought loose tea from HEB/Central Market before. I’m not sure if they all carry it near their bulk section, but it is nice to just be able to look and smell instead of ordering online. I’m not a tea snob so I like all the teas (my absolute favorite tea is Earl Gray, but I drink white, green, black, roobois, herbal…)
Adagio and Uncommon Teas both run ads on FB. I’ve purchased from both and found them to be delicious. Not testifying to the quality, just flavor.
Hi when I lived in AK I bought all my loose tea from Summit Tea and Spice. Prices are reasonable black in India and China listed. If you spent time in Russia did you enjoy the smoky flavours in some of the tea, that would be from the lapsang souchong.
If you want to try a different company? Murchies in BC Canada has been blending tea since 1800 with approval from royal family(only company in Canada able to use royal seal). I have found Karen at the North Vancouver store very helpful and will suggest teas on the preference of taste. 604-924-0846.
I like these people. Thewhistlingkettle.com
Your mileage may vary. 🙂
Murchies
So I have two companies that I can point you to. I love Zhi Tea it has some of my favorite blends and it is not cheap but not really expensive either. It also has some sample size options for some of the teas. It has a storefront in Austin Texas. Usually, you can steep your tea leaves two or three times so that decreases the per cup cost. The other company, Valley of Tea has very good quality tea for a reasonable price but they don’t do blends
https://zhitea.com/
https://www.valleyoftea.com/
Good luck finding some teas that you love at a price you can stand.
https://www.worldspice.com/teas
Their assam is lovely, and I’m quite fond of their chipotle chai. If you’re looking for herbal, the mystic licorice is quite nice.
Good luck with the tea shopping!
I mostly buy spices from them (though their teas are excellent) but I agree with this rec! (And if you’re looking for less coming spices, they’re great, and their quality is excellent.)
try the Tea Madame in Sumner WA, excellent, quality Teas from White to Rooibos . Delicious flavors. So Many. they are privately owned and the owner does classes every year at our State Holiday Fair. Give them a call.
Cafe Moto is a local coffee roaster in San Diego that also sources excellent teas. They offer online sales: https://cafemoto.com/products-page/teas/
You have many, many suggestions above. I buy my loose leaf tea from the Boston Tea Campaign. I personally prefer darjeeling, so I buy that in huge bulk bags. But it’s excellent quality. Good luck finding some you love.
I get my loose leaf tea locally and it is expensive. BUT 4oz is actually a lot of tea. Especially with high quality stuff, you won’t need to use as much of it and you can make more cups. For example, with really high quality Longjing, you can steep it like 7 times and it will still taste good. (In fact, each steep tastes different. And if you go to a fancy tea house, they will sometimes throw away the first few steeps to give you the “best” steep which is like 3 steeps in.)
Seconding this thought on multiple steeps. Tea is my writing and editing fuel. I go through several pots a day, but they’re usually the same leaves, steeped over and over. Black teas and black tea blends–like English Breakfast–only last 2-3 steepings because of the way they’re processed. Oolongs are known as “giving teas” and can usually go 7 steepings, sometimes up to 14. Greens can be steeped multiple times as well (unless they’re matcha style). Whites vary–some lose all flavor after the first steep. Puers can be steeped many times, but they’re also like the whiskey of tea–strong, unique flavors that don’t appeal to everyone (and high price tags). There are also yellow teas and purple teas, but they’re rarer.
I’d caution that the tea flavors you know from cheap bagged teas sometimes barely resemble the flavors you get in quality loose leaf teas. English Breakfast is a style of tea created by blending several types of black tea, and the flavors can be very different in different places. It’s like buying a house red blend at different wineries. Same with buying green tea. Saying you like green tea is kind of like saying you like white wine. There are so many flavors–smoked/roasted, grassy/seaweed, floral, buttery, and more. And that’s before you start blending the tea with fruits, spices, and flavoring oils.
When I was first getting into tea, I did the same thing you’re thinking of doing. I bought 4 oz of Iron Goddess tea (ti kuan yin, spellings vary) online, because I’d had Iron Goddess oolong at one place and liked it. The tea I received was very different from what I expected–grassy and bright instead of the malty and raisin flavors I was used to. I wasn’t a huge fan. Still have some in the back of my tea cabinet for visitors.
Another thing to consider is that green tea is also only supposed to be good for 6 months after you open it (unless it’s roasted or smoked). You can drink it after then, but it won’t be as flavorful. So unless you know you’ll drink that one tea every day and use up the whole bag, it’s better to buy smaller quantities. White tea is about the same. Black teas are designed to last for years, so you’re safer buying larger quantities if you like something. Oolongs fall in between, depending on how they’re processed. Puers age like whiskey.
The best way to find a good tea is to visit a local tea shop and sample things before you buy them. Smelling things is not enough; many places will brew samples if you request it, and that’s the best option. Try to only buy 1-2 oz of any new tea, since it may taste different when you brew it at home. I also go to a local tea festival to buy most of my tea for the year, which is always a wonderful, relaxing treat. But if you don’t want to spend a lot of time, signing up for a monthly tea sampler is a great option, and it’s a fun thing to get in the mail every month. Given what you like, I’d start with a sampler that features pure teas instead of fruit blends. Before you sign up, make sure they allow you to order more of the exact teas you like. Some monthly clubs don’t tell you who their suppliers are, and if you fall in love with something, you may not be able to find it again.
Sorry for the absurdly long comment. I hope this is helpful! Good luck finding some new delicious teas. 🙂
I understand that 90 % of the caffeine is in the first batch. If you don’t want* the jolt of “wake up!”, you could toss the first brewing and start with the second.
*Not ever my problem, alas.
(This is from the internet, so I make no guarantees as to veracity.)
You might want to try Upton Tea https://www.uptontea.com/ they have 12g samples for $3.25. Or Adagio Tea https://www.adagio.com/ they have sample size for $3.00 plus both have samplers with multiple teas.
I’ll add my voice to Adagio. They also have a tea club where for a year they send out a different tea sample every month or so.
I third this! They have fandom teas, including Kate tea
Also second Adagio. My wife has been drinking loose leaf tea from them for years. They give out samples, have special blends people make (geeky ones too, like the Firefly inspired ones), and sell in good prices for bulk.
+1 on Adagio. I love them, and the black fruity teas are awesome
I buy adagio to. Faith Hunter recommend them. I like the Irish breakfast blend
I second Upton teas. We have been buying from them gor over a decade. Great customer service, fast delivery, fantastic p4ices, and wonderful teas
I buy my loose tea from the tea spot dot com and adagio teas. The tea spot has a lot of different teas and different prices depending on origin of tea. For hot tea my current fav are the black pearls, they are from the Yunnan province and Yunnan teas just float my boat lol. My fav ice tea of theirs is the mango tango it’s the best ice tea I have ever They also have steepers, mugs and pots. Adagio has good prices and you can earn points to use to pay for tea. My fav tea of theirs is the Yunnan all the yunnans, they have quite a few varieties. I got hooked on tea from reading the Jane Yellowrock series and the author Faith Hunter buys from adagio and also makes her own blends, she talks about it on her fb. I have also tried the loose tea from my natural grocers and it’s ok. I do prefer the tea spot and adagio better.
Harney and Sons have a great selection: https://www.harney.com/
I have concern for loose tea Harney & Sons has full leaf tea both in the silky bags and loose. I am a tea snob and have returned again and again to them. I’ve spent many years loving tea and Harney and Sons has some of the nicest, without a horridly high price point. They are better than Trevana ever dreamed of being.
i agree with harney and sons. they also have sachet tea bags if you need to have the bags instead of loose.
I agree that this is a good quality tea if price is a concern. Most tea shops will charge about $4-5 an ounce. Once you know you like the tea it’s worth it, but trying tea at that price is a bummer. I stumbled upon loose leaf Harney and Sons and was pleasantly surprised by the Victorian London Fog. I prefer their loose tea to the bagged. My go to for loose tea I’m spending money on is Savannah Tea Room. They have lovely flavored blacks. I especially like Emperor’s Bride, Spiced Red Berries, and their Christmas tea.
Golden Moon Tea. The best by far. They take great care in the tea the choose to sell. No chemicals, natural tea. They have a variety of flavors. My favorite is Moroccan Mint.
https://www.goldenmoontea.com/
I’ve been drinking loose tea for over 10 years (we have a whole cupboard dedicated to all the little colourful tins and infusers). The quality and flavour is unbeatable – we usually travel with some too. We have two one-off tea shops in Vancouver,BC that are a cut above- stocked with teas that aren’t chemically flavoured (the most important thing to look for) or full of dust or other ‘particles’. We are very well acquainted with the owners of both and both stores have different favouite teas. If you don’t like earl grey (the bergamot I’m guessing) try Darjeeling and Asam (Asam is the base for Chai). We also like some flavoured black teas like Rose lychee and coffee liquor – but beware that you want naturally flavoured teas!! Sadly I don’t think these shops ship internationally but if you’re ever in our neck of the woods, I’m happy to recommend them!
Oh and I should mention we regularly spend $100 when we stock up on tea – which are about $5/oz of dried tea – you get about 5 cups per Oz. of tea.
Mind listing the names? I’ll be going up to Vancouver in a month or two! 🙂
Is one of them Murchies? It is our favorite. and they do ship to the US .
I like Silk Road teas, they’re local to me (Marin County, CA) and treat their workers well. I love Yunnan and Keemun for black tea and Heavenly Blue Peak for green. They have a multitude of sampler packs for you to see what varietal you’d like the best. A good quality loose leaf will allow you to get at least two or three brewings out of each pot, so the expense evens out.
Upton Tea. They have a paper catalogue as well as online catalogue. Great quality and a wide range of teas and prices. They also sell small sample packets which are a great way to occasionally try a small amount of an otherwise unaffordable tea. the small samples are also a great size to slip into the envelope with a Christmas card. Also their shipping is very prompt.
In Houston I’ve gone to The Path of Tea; if they don’t do wholesale (I think they do?) they’d probably be a good source of information
We get ours from Republic of Tea. They have a lot of different teas, black, green, white, fruit infused (I love the Cinnamon Plum, it tastes sweet w/o sugar), herbal, rooibos, and many others.
https://www.republicoftea.com/
Also
https://www.englishteastore.com/
Republic of tea is also what Panera uses for their green tea
I was going to mention Republic of Tea, which is also where my husband buys tea. I suspected this was the chain store in the mall that the quoted writer above was warning against (as it is, indeed, a chain store in a mall). Like so many things, though, tea is a question of personal preference, and this is really *not* bad tea.
I buy my teas from Olde Town Spice Shoppe in St. Charles, Missouri. The web address is oldtownspices.com. Most of their loose teas are around $3 for 2 ounces.
Expensive, but delicious: https://us-en.kusmitea.com/
Good quality and reasonably priced: https://cafemoto.com/products-page/teas/
Try teapigs
I don’t have the site code here, because I buy it from France but they send tea in USA.
We have a lot of tea shops in France, but I still prefer them.
I LOVE their tea. (Personnaly I love the darjeeling earl grey tea, and their green tea with mint tea. But they have a large selection.
If you are ever in San Francisco, there is a tea shop called Aroma Tea. The dude that runs it is amazing. Imagine someone with a monotone, deep male voice, tattoos, who cracks jokes the whole time. When you walk in they have puns for all the tea labels.
Aaaaand looking them up, they have a website to purchase tea! It’s a family run store and they travel directly to pick out the tea themselves. Their website goes by the lb, but when I walk in I’m able to buy in smaller quantities:
https://www.aromateashop.com
OMG, the dude even makes tea songs… go to the video and music section. I’m dying.
I really like Tea People! It’s where Boba Guys(bubble tea) orders their tea from. I personally love the matcha, but they also have a great black tea blend, jasmine green, and I just ordered the honey black tea to try! 🙂
I’m a big fan of Peet’s. It’s started as a small local chain (Portland, OR area) and has spread out over time. Many people know them for their coffee, but they started as tea specialists and do a good job with loose leaf tea sold online. I used to stock up at one of their shops whenever we traveled through Portland (about once every 6 months), but now I just click send. I’m sure your tea sage would call them a substandard chain-type purveyor, but I keep coming back to them over other choices.
I agree Peets is good, but it started in Berkeley CA not Portland.
I order from Amoda Tea https://amodatea.com/
They have a monthly tea subscription box that had a discount code for the month. Very reasonable, high quality tea from smaller producers. They have a rotating variety of tea depending on the stock they receive. I have never have had any issues with my orders, just fantastic tea 🙂
I like Stash Tea, https://www.stashtea.com/ . They have both loose and bag teas. Various blends, black, green. And a pretty good selection.
+1 for Stash. They make a GREEN & WHITE FUSION tea that I drink everyday. I buy the tea bags but they are individually foil wrapped and therefore perfect for travel. I even keep a couple in my purse just in case I’m in danger of the dreaded Li#$on tea as my only choice. Many grocery stores carry it, but I buy mine in bulk from Amazon.
I drink so much tea I buy in bulk. The best prices and the best quality I’ve gotten has been at https://www.enjoyingtea.com/ I’m a black tea fan and love their organic keemun which I buy by the pound.
My favorite local tea shop is Pippa’s Real Tea, located in Port Townsend, WA.
She has a fabulous selection (only loose leaf), a good amount for the price, and you can order online. My current favorites are White Peach, Indian Summer (black with a subtle peach flavor), and Make Mine Mango.
https://www.pippasrealtea.com/teas/
I buy from the English Tea Store. They carry loose, bags and make your own bags plus all the English manufacturers. What I like is you can get sample sizes of pretty much every type of tea so you don’t have to waste much of you hate it. Their Russian Caravan is excellent and the exotics are fun to try.
On a separate note, loved Sapphire Flames and congrats on the rankings!
Murchies in Victoria, B.C. has a good selection of loose teas.
https://www.murchies.com/store/fine-tea/format/loose-tea.html
Big tea drinker here. I’ve been enjoying my selections from David’s tea, which is based in Canada. They have stores in some states but none by me, so I order online. I’ve also gotten loose tea at my local Wegman’s, if you have that grocery chain.
https://www.davidstea.com/us_en/home/
I buy my loose leaf tea from Arbor Teas (arborteas.com). They have reasonable prices and I really like that they have sample sizes so I can try the tea before I decide to buy a larger quantity. Most of their tea is Fair Trade and organic as well, so that is a plus! And if you put in the coupon code EveryLibrary they donate a portion to EveryLibrary.org (and I think you get free shipping).
I love thejasminepearl.com and my coworker loves davidstea.com
My absolute favorite tea is from a small company in Atlanta named Just Add Honey. I love their georgia peaches tea, which is both fruity and spicy. I found it by accident when I was visiting Atlanta, and now I order it online to always have a supply handy! https://justaddhoney.net/products/georgia-peaches?variant=77537042
I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone’s recommendations so I can find new teas to try!
That sounds delicious! I have to see if they deliver to the U.K.
Hee-hee! I see the inundation has started! Okay, here are some of my favourites:
https://wellwithinspa.com/shop/herbal-house-tea/
https://russianriverteaco.com/
https://www.demmersteahouse.com/tee/
I have to stop myself now … bon appetit!
I’ve bought my loose leaf tea from Simpson & Vail (https://www.svtea.com/) for several years and been happy. You can buy as little as 1 ounce if you want to try something. I like knowing the origins of the teas, I’ve found for example that with black tea I usually like Kenyan varieties but don’t like the Assams. They carry “pure” teas, but also carry blends and flavored teas. If you’re ever looking for flavored teas I’d strongly recommend Plum Deluxe. They only do flavored teas and herbals, but both the product and the customer service are very good.
I thought I was not gonna be of much help as I browse independent shops for the strange kick but mostly I buy my loose tea from TeeGschwendner store here in Germany (there you can buy little samples before you commit to a larger packet.)
But now I found out that they have like three stores in the us and an online shop: tgtea.com
Buying online you will not be able to smell all the teas to enjoy the shopping experience but that can’t be helped 🙁
I get it from http://www.adagio.com They seem to source their tea sustainably, and they ship fast and they have sample packets. their sample size tea can make over 10 cups of tea. Plus I can email you a 5 dollar gift certificate if you are interested (and no I do not make any money from mailing that out)
I still only drink loose leaf tea from them and only keep tea bags for visitors
I love Lupicia (https://usa.lupicia.com/collections/all) for their fruity blends. Many of the fruity blends I tried here in the US, from supermarket’s to specialty shop’s, tend to taste very fake and cloying, but Lupicia’s aren’t.
And if you’re looking for a spare teapot, I’d highly recommend the HAY coffee pot (https://www.finnishdesignshop.com/tableware-carafes-jugs-coffee-pots-teapots-coffee-pot-medium-mint-p-18660.html). Even though it’s designed for coffee, it works wonderfully as a teapot as well. It has ultra fine filter (https://media.endclothing.com/media/catalog/product/0/4/04-05-2018_hay_porcelaincoffeepot_lightyellow_506811_lm_8.jpg) that’s finer than any of the teapot’s variety I’ve seen.
I’m so glad that you brought this up! I lost my favorite loose leaf tea place due to them having to close (due to owners health issues). After that I was making do with Teavana, then Starbucks bought them out & closed all of their stores. So I’ve been searching for a new “GOOD” place to buy my loose leaf tea from.
I recently bought some tea from https://www.tealyra.com, and was very happy with the tea I purchased. Their website seems to have a nice selection, but I’ve only tried one tea so far. I’m kinda limited on trying teas right now as I’m going thru chemo and my tastebuds have changed. I can’t even drink the majority of the teas I have at home as they either taste too salty, spicy, or too something & cause acid reflux, or make the inside of my mouth hurt (grrrrr).
FYI…. it is normal for GOOD loose leaf teas to cost upwards of $26 (or more) for 2 oz of tea. At the same time, you should be able to find a decent tea for a little less. Also with the teapot you have & if it’s a good tea leaf, you should be able to get multiple “steepings” out of the leaves you put in the pot. I usually get 2-4 steepings, depending on which leaves I’m using.
Good Tea Hunting & tasting/drinking!
Groehn Hart
I like the spice and tea exchange. There are a few here on the east coast (spiceandtea.com) and all of the ones I’ve tried I like. I’m not sure if they’re elsewhere, but they ship. My fav is the ruby oolong tea. They also have good spices and spice blends there as well. I’m looking forward to the other comments though, I’m always interested in finding new teas.
When I could afford it, I bought loose tea from David’s Tea, at davidstea.com. They’re based in Montreal. They have samplers. They also include 5 sample loose leaf teas in every order, or they used to, which I loved. I could try new teas without spending extra, to see if I liked them. I really enjoyed their English and Irish breakfast teas, and I miss them. I also found a spectacular cinnamon black breakfast tea from a company called Volt through Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LD9ZKGF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_O0sEDb580HXFA
Very inexpensive. I was surprised at the quality and caffeine kick. And if you don’t like it, you’re not out much $$.
Good luck!
I buy most of my loose leaf tea from The Republic of Tea. I have always found their quality to be great, they have interesting combos without drifting into the somewhat ridiculous (imo) ones places like Teavana carry, and I don’t mind their prices. You can also buy bulk refills, which I like. They used recycled material for their teabags and use the leftover teabag material as packing material instead of styrofoam or plastic. And they have several sales a year that offer free shipping (which I tend to wait for and then stock up). Also, if you ask to be put on their postal mailing list, you will get a free teabag with every catalog. 🙂 Also-also, they have many smaller sampler sets that you can use to try a number of their teas (though that might just be in the bags…).
Tea Runners, awesome tea, and they do a subscription box. Try it!
For bagged tea that works in an infuser, I prefer Organic India’s tulsi teas.
For loose leaf, I tend to buy dried herbs in bulk and make my own combinations based on lessons from a western herbalism class.
Purchase most of my bulk herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs (http://www.mountainroseherbs.com). They also sell a variety of pre-made teas and tea accessories.
Also, if you like your teas a little quirkier (and geekier): https://fridaytea.com/pages/our-teas-1
I’ve only had a few of their blends, but they were very good, and the folks working there were both knowledgeable and friendly.
Red Blossom Tea Company in San Francisco. They ship. Best green and oolong tea I’ve ever had. Their Moroccan Mint is excellent also. If you like herbal teas, I’m a real fan of David’s Tea. They are in Quebec but, you can find the occasional brick and mortar store in the US and they ship.
I get mine from New Mexico Tea Company. https://www.nmteaco.com/. They have a good selection of all the different types of tea and you can order a sample size on several as long as they have it in stock. My favorite is probably their High Mountain Green tea, but there are many others. During winter, I can’t start writing until I have at least one cup. At one point I also went to adagio teas, but it’s been a while since I shopped there so I can’t speak to their quality anymore.
Teas can be expensive, just remember you can often re-steep many of the varieties which gives you more cups for the same amount.
I’m not much of a green or herbal tea person…. I prefer my tea black, and brewed almost as dark as coffee, with maybe a bit of sugar but, to the horror of my Scots relatives, no cream or milk. I like tea that tastes like tea, no froo froo flavors. That being said, taste is extremely subjective…. The only recommendation I would make would be to go organic. No one wants to brew a cup of pesticides, etc….. Enjoy the search!
https://perennialtearoom.com/
I love their Paris, Blackberry, and Black Currant (black tea).
Here in Raleigh, Tin Roof Tea has an amazing collection. Best of all, they sell a smaller selection through Amazon. Check out their site, https://www.tinroofteas.com/. You can order directly as well. Mango Tango is excellent.
I second the recommendation for adagio.com. I’ve bought my loose tea from it for years. The tea is shipped promptly and is reasonably priced. The selection is terrific.
My local Costco (British Columbia, Canada) is currently selling a collection of 4 O’clock teas. The teas are varied and taste delicious, and I buy a few sets every time they are available to last me the whole year.
Their website claims the tea bags are compostable. Check them out. You can order from Amazon.ca or Well.ca
https://fouroclock.ca/en/
Mountain Rose Herbs https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/teas (they also sell spices & aromatherapy stuff)
Arbor Teas (bags can be composted) http://www.arborteas.com
Little Red Cup Tea Company https://littleredcuptea.com/
Teavana (owned by Starbucks apparently); my wife is a tea drinker, and she buys her tea in small bulk (fills a tin that she bought at Teavana, as well as some nice teapots that brew a large cup for her).
Yes, Starbucks acquired them a while back. They closed all the physical locations, but I think some of the teas (not all) are still available online.
I was looking for a tea House not so long ago because going to Central market sucks, it’s always packed and with a 3yr old and a 3 month old is not fun, while I liked their variety of loose leaf tea, I had to change places, so I found The Path of Tea, since I live in Houston, is not far from me, love their tea, bought 9 different 2oz teas for $68, their website is thepathoftea.com
It’s a nice and quiet place to relax and drink tea and eat sweet bread, from what I saw, so hope you give it a try, also I can’t see the comments so hope you see mine.
I can see the comments now just wanted to let you know.
Totorrroooooo!! <333
My tea connoisseur friend has given me the following links;
For black tea, strong tea flavor with high caffeine:
https://smile.amazon.com/Yunnan-Longrun-Pu-erh-Tea-Cake-Caiwei/dp/B00AXNQPMQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Yunnan+Longrun+Pe-erh+Tea+Cake-Caiwei&qid=1568223194&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr0
For green tea, milder slightly sweet flavor, low to mid caffeine:
https://smile.amazon.com/Yunnan-Longrun-Pu-erh-Tea-Cake-Chunhui/dp/B007EEV0TU?ref_=ast_bbp_dp
pu-erh tea is more fermented and has a different flavor (not always liked) than regular tea. I like it, but many don’t. It tends to be ‘earthy’.
Lifelong tea drinker here. But I prefer black teas to herbal. I have tried all sorts of stuff through the years but I now buy my stock from just two:
Harney and Sons have a great selection: https://www.harney.com/
– I get Mint Verbena(sachets), Earl Grey Supreme(loose) and Darjeeling(loose).
Murchies – https://www.murchies.com/store/
– Murchies Afternoon(loose)
Both of these have good prices, occasional sales and they do sampler boxes so you can try just a few bags of something before you decide to buy in bulk.
This likely won’t help you but in Calgary, AB my go to spot for tea is https://thenakedleaf.ca/
They are serious about their tea. I hate green tea but the grape-sencha green tea from Japan is simply wonderful. And the masala-chai from India is really, really good.
I like both Adagio tea and Mem Tea:
https://www.adagio.com/
https://www.memteaimports.com/
I’ve also purchased Positively Tea Brand from amazon. I find it the most affordable loose leaf tea. I get their Assam regularly.
Also, if you want to do single cups, this item is great. Very easy to clean and it allows for excellent steeping. Plus you can rest the tea strainer on the inverted lid. https://www.memteaimports.com/teaware/blackandgoldstrainerwithlid
Having worked in the tea import biz, don’t overthinking too much. All tea comes into San Francisco or New York, it’s almost all the same tea that then bagged and distributed. Each time it changes hands the price goes up. Mountain Rose Herb has some great affordable teas, in fact they sell to many smaller companies in bulk.
Thank you for this! I needed to hear somebody cut through the crap today…
And in a related note the current China tariff is higher taxation by our government which means that, ironically, it might be cheaper to buy tea that has come through England and Canada.
Upton Tea is where I get all my loose leaf tea. Amazing catalog and wonderful prices! I am quite spoiled now with these teas!
https://www.uptontea.com/
Lupicia tea
My favorite is grapefruit green
That made me smile. There is a Chi Chop food shop in Virginia Beach that sells a cold green tea and grapefruit mix that is yummy. They have many unique combinations I’ve not heard of it drank yet. I’m not very adventurous.
Hubby and I have had great results from this place:
https://www.coffeebeandirect.com/
They source organic and ‘brand’ teas. The White Oolong they offer is delicious. We avoid the flavored teas for organic whites, blacks, and peuruha. (<–not spelled right, sorry.)
I have a tea pot close to the one you have. Mine is rounder, and the spout is thin, but it's taken a good beating for four years and it's still unbroken. Our coffee comes from the same company, and they have good selections of whole beans. Since we switched to French Press brewing methods, we've enjoyed a wide variety of whole bean coffee.
Hope this helps.
I wish I could offer some names, butall of our great tea is locally produced and that’s part of how they keep the quality so high.
Perhaps look for an actual tea grower as near as you can, of course I realise that wont be all that easy, but nowadays a lot of artisan growers are popping up, largely in response to the special coffees.
Sorry I couldnt help more
Brew Tea Co- I lived in the UK during college and this is my fav, they recently opened in the states so i no longer have to import. https://www.brewteacompany.us/
The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse is a good one if you like a very particular flavour.
I second Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse!
Rishi Tea in Milwaukee, WI does a nice variety and offers a discount on your first order. Also Teahaus in Ann Arbor Mi, which uses German standards of tea has a wide selection.
We gave loose tea as a favor at my niece’s bridal shower last May. My sister ordered it from Whittard of Chelsea. I’m not sure if it was considered expensive, but it was fabulous! I particularly enjoyed the Jasmine green tea, and I usually really, really dislike green tea.
+1 for Whittard – they have these brilliant Elephant designed Tins that the tea comes in – very attractive to look at.
Also..some of the Fortnum & Mason blends are very nice – we always get their Christmas Ruby Tea or Christmas Coffee Blends at… well Christmas!
This is my local tea house, they source directly and do have an order section, I really enjoy a variety of black teas from them, so may be worth looking at:
https://www.dobratea.com/
B & B Tea
Bnbtea.com
We’ve had the Lady Hanna Whole Fruit, Angel fall Mist and the monicania sunset. The sunset is my favorite so far. We tried quite a few samples at the rennaisance fair and all were pretty good.
Both my kids are tea drinkers. They like David’s Tea. I know it’s a “chain” but the teas we’ve purchased have all been good. Earl Grey, vanilla chai, peppermint amour, vanilla cappuccino, lavender swirl, Saigon chai, and Bergamot Kisses. Full disclosure: I haven’t tried them all but the boys both like them very much. You can buy online, some are seasonal only.
If you’d like to sample different kinds of tea / manufacturers, I recommend Sipsby: https://www.sipsby.com/
I did their sampler boxes for awhile while I sorted out brands and tea types for my own loose leaf tea maker. They let me select my preferences and then sent me all kinds of tea by different makers while I discovered my palette and what worked well for me. I tried one or two teas that I didn’t care for, but overwhelmingly I had a great experience and found some really good tea makers. You can also order direct from their site if there is anything you love.
I’m still primarily a bag drinker – it’s quicker and I’m lazy. But I now own some really delicious loose leaf teas. Good luck on your tea journey, it sounds like you’re off to a great start!
Please be careful pouring your boiling water into a glass pot! I made this mistake once, and was almost injured. It can cause the pot to explode if you don’t preheat it under running hot water. Especially during cooler months, when room temps are cooler.
I don’t drink tea, but wanted to share the warning after seeing the pic of your cute little glass tea pot. Hate to see anyone get hurt. Good luck on your tea hunt. 🙂
Borosilicate should be able to tolerate it – and glass tea pots should be made of boro, but obviously, they aren’t, always.
I really like republic of tea.
https://www.republicoftea.com/ They have a large variety of really good black teas as well as various blends. Most of the loose runs around $13 for a quarter lb. A few are more expensive. Most teas can be purchased in either loose or bags. There’s tons of samplers. And many of the versions have sample sizes for individual teas. If you like points incentives you can use your points to get free tea every so often and their site is one of the best e-commerce sites I’ve used.
I love MarketSpice’s signature Cinnamon-Orange Tea. A store near us had bulk tea and I tried several of MarketSpice’s other blends. I like there NorthWest Breakfast blend for a strong morning pick me up.
https://www.marketspice.com/
Harney & Sons out of New York State. Delish! Not cheap but high quality. They do “sachets” or loose tea.
I stock up when I go to Australia once a year and freeze my tea until I need it. I just can’t find good Black Leaf tea here in the USA… I love my English Breakfast tea. I love it strong so, I steep the tea bags (tea leaves)until it is a deep amber . Leaf tea has the milk in the cup first and my tea bags has the tea first. I also bought my tea cozi Australia.
Have you tried Sprouts? Our local Sprouts has loose leaf bulk green tea for .69/ ounce.
I’m not a huge tea drinker, but I love Dilmah black tea – it’s a single source tea from Sri Lanka and you can buy it on Amazon. I think only their ceylon, green and Earl Grey are sold loose leaf these days. It’s a reasonable price and I don’t find that it ever becomes tannic with over steeping. For flavored teas, I prefer Republic of tea, Stash or Bigelow, but I admit to buying bagged tea only. Coffee drinker here for the most part.
We buy Positively Irish Breakfast Tea in bulk. Steep for 3 minutes for full dark tea flavor (any more & too many tannins come through for my taste).
Here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/Positively-Company-Organic-Irish-Breakfast/dp/B00GA95AV4?ref_=ast_bbp_dp
They also make a delicious Berry Citrus and Mango Tango.
We like Numi tea for bulk organic camomile & rooibos.
Harney & Sons Florence flavor is delightfully chocolatey.
We only drink tea or espresso since regular coffee makes us feel a bit odd & jittery. 🤷🏻♀️ We purchase massive quantities. 😆
I visit the Twinnings website, https://www.twiningsusa.com/
They sell tea bags, k-cups, and loose tea.They have black, green, and herbal. I’m a fan of Darjeeling and this is we’re I get mine.
Mrs Kellys Tea Custom Blends (http://mrskellystea.com) — Mrs Kellys is a small tea shop located in Minneapolis, MN that primarily sells to restaurants but you can by their tea online and once a month in their tiny shop and meet Mrs Kelly herself. Mrs Kellys teas are special because everything is custom made — if you go to her shop she actually mixes what you order as you wait. My Favorites are Cherry Almond Vanilla White Tea, Creme Brûlée Roobios, and Butterbeer Roobios. You can order any flavor combination with any type of tea (White, Green, Black, Rooibos.
I know you have many suggestions and I am going to offer one more: the Perennial Tea Room. They are in Seattle (where I no longer live). They offer high-grade teas and moderate-grade teas. I am very much I love with their Kenilworth Estate Ceylon, but their Keemun and Assam’s are also very good.
The thing about prices for loose tea is that you get a lot of tea out of an ounce, if you go by the one teaspoon per cup rule, like teabags also use. I prefer higher-grade teas for my whites because they are so delicate. Also, while I usually use a bit more than 1 teaspoon for boat of my blacks (never Assam!), I usually use less for my whites because I like them lighter.
Anyway, have fun weeding thru what I’m sure are many, many good tea-buying recommendations and tea lore.
Thank you for this timely posting. I have been trying to get away from diet soda (I have one can a day with my lunch). I drink lot of water the rest of the day but sometimes you want the taste of something else. I have used supermarket green tea bags and then put in the fridge for ice green tea. Now there are all these great suggestions to check out. Thanks everyone.
I used to make a large pot of tea at dinner time and poured any left over tea into a pitcher. Refrigerated, it still tasted fresh the next night as iced tea. (Diluted about 1 to 1 with water – not full strength.) Anything left in the pitcher went down the drain.
As long as I did not leave the tea ball in the tea too long, the iced tea was much better than I got elsewhere.
I think most places try to get as much out of their tea as they can and brew it very dark. That assumes that it’s not instant, of course. (Ick)
I buy my favorite loose leaf tea from Harney & Sons. (Harney.com). They have over 300 teas, loose and bagged. I drink tea a lot so I order tea by the pound. My favorite is their black current. But I like their Earl Grey, Chai, and Irish Breakfast as well.
I second the Republic of Tea recommendation. Currently, though, I am buying from Tea Forte. http://www.teaforte.com I’ll have to try some of the other suggestions, they look interesting too.
You might try Tea Lulu.. It’s local for me.. But I know they ship….
https://tealula.com/collections/our-teas
I’m stupid sensitive to caffeine and have had a lot of trouble finding decaf loose tea IRL (which I know is not at all what anyone asked about). These are 2 places where I’ve had tea in person and then ordered from later bc I couldn’t find what I wanted where I was:
http://pekoe.com/ in Boulder (CO)
https://www.tinroofteas.com/ in Raleigh (NC)
Most options are in the $12/4 ounce range, so still not cheap, but TONS of options/types.
I’ve been using Upton Tea for years. I prefer Golden Yunnan or Tippy Assam for my morning tea but also have bought some green teas from them. They have everything and the prices are reasonable. You also get a lovely catalog with the history of the teas that’s fun to look through. World Market sells cast iron teapots with infuser baskets in different sizes which hold the heat very well. If you get a kettle like this for tea the different temperature controls are preset and let you make a perfect pot of black, green, white tea or whatever you want. https://www.amazon.com/Miroco-Temperature-Stainless-Protection-1500W/dp/B07JN2TK4Q?ref_=ast_bbp_dp
Upton Tea is online here: uptonteas.com
I’m going to be one of those that recommend Upton Teas – they sell mostly single leaf types of tea from specific growers.
I also recommend Stash Tea https://www.stashtea.com/ they too sell single leaf teas from named plantations; they also sell interesting blends, herbals and decaffeinated teas as well. I’ve been buying from Stash for almost 20 years now, their prices for bulk
teas, 50 or 100 gram bags are more than reasonable. They also do tea bags and seasonal blends that can be purchased bulk if you like them well enough.
Harney & Sons makes good loose leaf tea – their Earl Grey Supreme is really good but my absolute favorite is Victorian London Fog. Amazing flavor. I also enjoyed their Paris tea. But Victorian London Fog – try it, it is so good. one thing I learned after seeing a tea timer in Ireland’s Cupan Tae in Galway was that it is SO important to flavor to brew each variety the correct amount of time. Get a tea timer that has the different speeds for green, black, etc. https://cupantae.eu/collections/black-teas they also have great loose tea – I especially enjoyed the Dreamy Creamy Galway black tea and the blue petal Earl Grey. I bought my twin China Gunpowder while I was there and she said that was good too.
I also like English breakfast and don’t like Earl Grey.
I like Republic of tea. They have some good flavors, I like the mango Ceylon. And the ginger peach.
But you can get small samples of different tea.
Good hunting .
I live in nyc and I love drinking tea in large mugs .Plain or with honey in the winter.
Harney and Sons for me, too. I order online. They have a wide variety of teas, including decaf–the panyang congou is lovely and makes me happy and I mix the decaf sencha with a bit of jasmine for something that doesn’t make me jittery but tastes like a bit of summer. They have some very good Assams and Darjeeling and some good blends. A range of prices. https://www.harney.com
teabox.com is great for loose leaf teas direct from estates in India. I love their Darjeeling Exotic Spring tea. It’s technically a black tea, but tastes almost green.
I have peasant taste buds when it comes to tea and really food in general, so you shouldn’t take any recommendations from me for quality teas. But thank you for the topic (and the wonderful stories), because now I feel the need to go make myself a cup of tea. Even it’s poor quality leaves and I don’t know how to make it properly, nothing beats a cup of tea!
I am a daily tea drinker. I, too, like English Breakfast, plus Tazo Chai, Twining’s Darjeeling, PGTips, and decaf Constant Comment. Sometimes the loose leaves are good and sometimes they are disappointing. Sometimes the bags are good and then again, not always. PG Tips has a teabag recycling program in England, yes, really (from their website). I agree about the plastic net pyramid bags. You know who has reliably good tea bags? Dunkin Donuts. Surprisingly.
I’m not a big tea drinker, but I have bought gifts from these two sites. One is literary based, the other more fandom based (even Kate has her own – link below). I know the second site has an option to make your own blend.
Literary Blends
https://www.literarytea.com/
Fandom Blends
https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/fandoms.html
Custom Blends
https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/create_blend.html
Kate Daniels Fan Blend
https://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/blend.html?blend=39786
Can’t promise these are reasonably priced as I find it subjective, but i enjoy Lupicia. https://usa.lupicia.com/
I myself am a fan of Tazo English Breakfast. Very lucky where I live to have many tea stores, both local and chain type (David’s). By far my favourite is silk road tea – their sour cherry green tea. Not sure the cost for shipping to the US but I highly recommend their teas, and their store is located in china town (one of the oldest in Canada) which has character itself and lends to the whole tea atmosphere. http://silkroadteastore.com/shop/tea-green
https://www.davidstea.com – We have actual stores in Canada but you can order online. They have a really wide selection and some interesting seasonal tea’s. My Favorite was always the wild cherry. Unfortunately they no longer carry it. – Good luck with your hunt
There are a few in the US. There is one near my (I’m in the greater Seattle area). Worth checking if you’re the sort who likes to sniff first ;-).
I used to hate tea in all forms until very recently. Then I started doing intermittent fasting for weight loss and out of desperation decided to try it again with an open mind, since I really couldn’t imagine drinking my coffee without milk and sugar. Tried several and was won over by Green Tea Tropical by Mighty Leaf. Since, I’ve tried almost all of their teas and love the Chamomile Citrus, White Orchard (white and green tea), and Wild Berry Hibiscus. It’s been the surprise of my life that now I love tea.
I use the bags, as I mostly drink it hiding in my car , reading in between hospitals, reading, bring hot water in a thermos, but they come in loose leaves. I buy them from Amazon. They also have a breakfast blend and other types of green tea.
I just look for the local China town or Asian stores. I find I can Get a higher quality the loose leaf tea At a fraction of the big tea and coffee stores. Give it is try. ( don’t forget to stop for dim sum while there !!!!!)
London Tea Room in St. Louis is where we buy most of our everyday teas https://www.thelondonteamerchant.com/
And I adore the Nepalese black tea from Mountain Rose Herbs https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/teas
I’m from the UK so I’m not sure how useful my suggestions might be since delivery costs might be ridiculous, but if i’m buying loose tea online I like Whittards. https://www.whittard.co.uk/
They do deliver to the US and their English Breakfast Blend is very good though I also highly recommend the Tippy Assam and Rhubarb Punch.
I found a great loose leaf tea place while on vacation in Carlsbad when we randomly went to a farmers market. The Loose Leaf – https://www.looseleafblends.com/ I have enjoyed everything I have gotten from them. I usually only get the herbal blends but I have tried their Gunpowder green and my husband likes their Cacao and Green tea blend. We also like Harney & Sons, they have a Hot Cinnamon Tea my husband particularly enjoys. https://www.harney.com/products/hot-cinnamon-spice-tea?variant=16152853086279
We also have had really good luck with loose tea at the farmer’s market. I’m in Atlanta so that is not really any immediate help for you but thought I would throw it out there.
Cathy
I‘m German and French friends hooked me on Kusmi Tea. The founder was Russian.. maybe you know it already. It’s not cheap but I like the quality
https://us-en.kusmitea.com/
Apart from this, there’s a very good online tea shop (organic quality even which is „bio“ in German)
https://www.teespeicher.de/
It’s a long tradition that our teas get shipped in through Bremen or Hamburg.
Maybe they send to the US
https://www.teespeicher.de/tee/bio/
Hey, I’ve had The Loose Leaf tea from the Carlsbad farmer’s market! I’m a San Diego native and completely forgot about them! They’re good!
I live by T2tea hundreds of different blends, some fancy but a whole load of ordinary bog standard tea. Love it!!
A good friend owns a farm. They grow all their own tea stuff. She has tons of different blends. She is quite reasonably priced too. It’s the only tea my daughter will even drink.
Twin Creek Farms- Murfreesboro TN
They have a Facebook page you can order from.
My favorite is Arbor Teas. They have a fabulous selection; organic, free trade sourced and it comes in compostable bags. They have the best Earl Gray I’ve ever had and their Hibiscus tea is awesome.
http://www.arborteas.com
Sandy
There is stone leaf tea house in Middlebury, VT that freshly imports tea and is really great! Honestly I would check out any local places that offer tea (non big box brands). That way you can try some and then figure out what you like! They also have evokative descriptions.
+1
I also buy my tea from Arbor Teas. They sell sample sizes for all their teas. They’re pretty generously sized too, usually 3-5 servings depending on how “fluffy” the tea is. English Breakfast has 8 servings.
Adagio Teas online (https://www.adagio.com/). Now, I can’t drink true tea much because more than a tiny amount of caffeine makes me sick, but the white teas I’ve gotten are good, I love several of their herbal blends, and my brothers (who can do the caffeine and have gotten some of their teas) say the blacks and greens and matcha they’ve gotten from here were nice. I find them a good balance of decent quality and decent prices. Oh, and they do have lots of different sampler options, which is nice. Tea is my thing (quoth many of my relations upon opening my cupboard: “Wow. You own a lot of teas.”), because I don’t like how water tastes and I need to be hydrated ;-).
This is where I purchase my tea from, Adagio. I used to order tea from a place called specialtea – they went out of business years ago, but I’m still search for a flavor they had. It was called cocoa cardamon tango and was AMAZING. Not too chocolately, not too spicy, you could still taste the tea. Adagio doesn’t have anything close, but I enjoy their English Breakfast and their Earl Grey Moonlight (which has vanilla in it). They also have a very nice Assam – Assam Melody.
I get mine from Adagio as well. I am not a fan of Earl Grey but had bought the Firefly sampler and one of the teas was Wash. It contains Earl Grey, Rooibos Tea, Natural Coconut Flavor, Lavender, Natural Caramel Flavor, Coconut, Orange, Blue Cornflowers, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Natural Bergamot Flavor & Natural Creme Flavor. I know it sounds weird. My husband does not drink tea but he had back surgery and was having anxiety attacks. The nurse recommended lavender tea. I had him try this and it really helped. I hadn’t tried it because of the Earl grey but I really like it. I also like their Almond Oolong and the fact you can get samples
I’ve bought a lot of samplers from Adagio. A sample size will usually do about 10 cups of tea at @ 1 tsp./6 oz. cup. Cost is reasonable, I think they run $2-$3 a sample and shipping is flat rate(?). I’ll put my other recommendation in a separate comment.
Yes, they have flat rate shipping if you’re under $49 and free shipping if you’re over $49 (I just save up what I want to buy and do big orders to get the free shipping).
+1 Adagio.
My go to spots:
https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/teas
https://www.adagio.com/teas.html
https://www.republicoftea.com/full-leaf-teas/c/145/
Republic of tea can be obtained at a LOT of Grocer’s nowadays – so you can go try them without waiting or paying for shipping. Adagio and Republic of tea also have samplers, so you can try different ones – either bagged OR loose.
Talk to Faith Hunter. She is a big tea aficionado.
Check out The Path of Tea when you are next in Houston. They are really knowledgeable and give great tea recommendations. https://thepathoftea.com/
Highly recommend everything from David’s tea in Canada. Blends are wonderful. Very smart packaging to stay fresh. Wonderful recipes for delish decaf toddies. Ps dont be stupid me. When you order choose USA option because exchange rates plus postage slightly different.
https://www.republicoftea.com/
Twinings looseleaf. They’ve been around for centuries and they make dependable tea. It’s not “gourmet”, but it tastes good and doesn’t cost the world.
+1 Vote from the UK here for Twinings! (Or Yorkshire… Yorkshire Tea is very good!)
+ another UK vote for Twinings tea – usually their Ceylon blend.
Yorkshire tea is good but they match the blend to the water where it will be sold so it may not travel well.
Another vote for Twinings loose leaf from me in Australia. I grew up drinking their loose leaf English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Orange Pekoe, Ceylon, and Russian Caravan. Maybe Assam too? There is such pleasure in the ritual of making and drinking loose leaf tea.
These days I mainly use Twinings teabags and they are still very good. I can even taste the differing flavour between their normal EB and EB decaf tea bags.
I will often brew fruit infusion teabags in a tea pot that makes two cups, much like yours. I prefer Pukka teas for this. So many lovely flavours and high quality too. I buy them locally but I have sent them as a care package to a friend in the US via iherb. I also like that I can compost the wrapper and the teabag.
Harney and Sons have fabulous teas, loose leaf, bags, all kinds and flavors. Have been buying from them only for years. Beats the heck out of anything they sell at the grocery store. You can also buy small samples of differnt teas to find something you like. http://www.Harney.com
What she said. My wife is very particular, and has found several Harney blends to be to her liking. She only drinks black tea, though, so we haven’t tried any of their other types.
+1
I used to put sugar in my tea, but not since I started buying from Harney&Sons
I also like Harney. I recommend the Paris tea.
Tea Sparrow monthly selection of teas of the month.
My favorite black tea similar to English Breakfast (but so much better IMO) is Scottish Blend – it has a nice strong flavor that does not get acrid even if you leave your tea bag in the mug like I do. I’ve tried other brands that call their tea Scottish Blend but they don’t taste as good IMO. Amazon has it here: https://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Blend-Tea-Bags-232g/dp/B004V48CF6/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=scottish+blend&qid=1568229628&s=gateway&sr=8-3
My favorite flavored black tea is chocolate mint by Harney.com. I’ve tried other chocolate mints and they just can’t compare. Harney has a LOT of excellent flavored teas – their mango is the best, I also like their passionfruit, and someone I know loves their black currant. I also love their Royal Wedding tea. Unfortunately these are all black teas. (Can you tell I prefer black to green?) But I would give their green teas a try, they’re not too expensive and they have 2 oz. sampler sizes. I’ve heard their Gunpowder Green is good but I have not tried it.
Love the chocolate mint. it smells a little like dirt in the tin but tastes wonderful. I also like their Holiday Tea
Well now. I happen to be a fan of loose-leaf tea, and was turned to loose leaf by the fact that I stumbled upon a store in SF’s Chinatown that sold them by the pound. Don’t need a pound for one person, but you can get a 1/4 pound for like 10 dollars (which is a lot). The teas are fantastic, and cheaper than anything you can find online.
If you have access to a Chinatown in Houston, Austin, or hopefully San Antonio, you might want to look for herbal-medicinal stores like the one I mentioned (https://www.yelp.com/biz/nan-hai-corporation-san-francisco). Take a look at the pictures and see their clear glass tubs of different quality-level teas to sample from. If you find a nice store they might let you smell their aromas to get familiar with them.
That’s how I discovered I like Oolong Tea (dark rich tea that tastes great with milk), Hojicha (toasted green tea and Japanese) and Genmaicha (toasted green tea with toasted rice, all great by themselves or milk). I also like Jasmine Tea and make sure I always keep these in stock in air-tight glass jars.
Just yesterday I discovered West Lake Dragon Well Tea (Lonqing Tea), which is one of the top 10 teas from China that has a delicate buttery, nutty flavor (also a green tea).
It’s been a great way to discover and sample new teas I like or don’t like, and love making a day trip out of it to “re-stock” on my teas. Hope you find something near you!
My name is Victoria, and I’m a Lady Londonderry looseleaf tea addict. LOL
Seriously, though, a friend of mine brought me this stuff, and after years of bagged Lipton and then bagged Yorkshire Gold, Lady Londonderry is heaven in a cup. I get mine two pounds at a time from https://www.englishteastore.com/ and brew it in an old Teavana infuser. I’ve tried a few of their herbal blends and enjoyed all of them. They fill orders quickly, but their basic shipping cross country is pretty slow for those of us used to Amazon Prime. Tea is fresh and well packaged, though.
If u are in Austin and near the Domain, check out the Stepping Room. Tgey have a good selection of loose leaf tea.
Wow, lots of tea drinkers here!
Totally off topic. CharlaineHarris.com has a review of Sapphire Flames from June, lucky lady got it early. Very complimentary and now she’s waiting for the next book too!
https://phoenixpearltea.com/
Amazing selection, amazing blends, and they’re DnD nerds who express this through tea names.
Some favorites:
Pixieblush – Mixed Berry Sweet Matcha Green Tea
Nash Maggard’s Firebolt – Cinnamon Orange Herbal
Dream Drinker – Peppermint Vanilla Dessert Shu Pu-Erh
I can not recommend: Dragon Engine – Intensely Spicy Smoked Masala Chai
It felt like I was drinking a campfire. Same burn, same smoky flavor/smell.
now I want to try dragon engine tea. yummmm, fire…
My two favorite tea brands are both Singaporean so I’m not sure if they’re available in the US: TWG and Gryphon. Some brands that I’ve tried previously that are available in the US: Harney & Sons and The Republic of Tea.
I LOVE TEA!
I either go to Kusmi (not sure if you can buy in the US and pricy) or I buy Yorkshire tea (not so expensive). I also like Whittard of chalsea teas… (unfortunately expensive).
I also really like the Ronnfeld teas (so so good ) and I have a favorite tea store in Paris (Mariage Fréres)…
I also get some if i am in Asia – sometime it’s really good- sometimes it’s not 😉
(Very European recommendations- sorry)
I have been buying my tea from Upton tea imports for decades :https://www.uptontea.com/ . They have a catalog describing all their tea which I bought from before they arrived online. Wide selection of teas.
I love adagio teas. I have also heard great things about upton’s tea.
I get most of my matcha from yuuki-cha, which is a very easy to deal with import company. So much of what’s sold in the US is either vile and/or very overpriced! They also carry a variety of leaf teas and Japanese teaware.
When I’m not buying from various shops in Chinatown, I like Silk Road Teas? They source a lot of interesting single origin teas from China. Their White Peony and Tian Mu Qing Ding are my standbys.
Sakuma Bros. in WA also has put out a few teas (they’re one of a very few growers in the US), and their white tea is pretty special… But i don’t know what’s up with production? Anyhow, it made a splash a few years back, and was included in a tasting party I was at…
(And, total tangent, but another great thing about moving to NC is that I can plant my tea plants in the ground here, and have more of them, so my own production is going up. I mean, we’re still talking a handful of bushes, and I’m still refining my sencha, but it’s an entertaining hobby.)
Just wondering, Jane Yellowrock (Faith Hunter) Likes Too Good For Common People tea. Is that real? Are authors more inclined to tea than coffee?
I’m a huge fan of oolong teas. This site works with local farmers so the sourcing is direct and sustainability is a priority. I have been ordering from them for a few years now. Oolong runs the gamet from a light green to a black tea, all in the way its processed.
eco-cha.com
Ilona! I love tea and cannot stand coffee and loose leaf tea is my favorite! Here are two of my favorite tea spots to order from
Good Life Tea
https://www.goodlifetea.com/
My parents found them when they were visiting the finger lakes winery and now we order from them all the time!
https://thesnootyfoxteashop.com/
They are based in Duluth MN and the tea is sooo good I love black tea and they have a chestnut tea that is amazing!
Mighty leaf tea company will let you order online…my friend gave me an assortment of their teas which was quite nice.
Teaism.com has excellent quality
Elmwood Inn Fine Teas. They have a fantastic selection at a reasonable price! I love their blueberry herbal tea!
I like the Republic of Tea and Adagio Tea. Republic of Tea has a large selection of bagged and loose. I like that many of their bagged teas can be purchased as loose. Adagio has a great selection of loose teas.
I use Upton Tea and my current favorite is the organic English breakfast. I do not recommend their Gen Mai Cha. Very bitter even on a short steep. They offer little samplers so you can try a few and then order. I also love the Traditional Masala Chai. uptonetea.com
uptontea.com. Only one e
I have enjoyed the Vital Tea Leaf company. https://vtlseattle.com/
They had 2 stores in China Town in San Francisco so I got to sit at a little bar and try out about 10 teas. I order the Jasmine White Pearl tea primarily. They used to sell little tins of loose tea but I don’t see them on the website anymore 🙁
When I wanted loose tea I looked it up in Consumer Report for best place to order on line. They recommended https://www.tenren.com/ and I have been very happy with all the different teas I have ordered from them.
I’m a big fan of Rishi Tea – they sell bags and loose-leaf, many of which is organic. And Earl Grey is $36 for a pound! Based out of Milwaukee, WI, they’re good people, too. https://www.rishi-tea.com/product/earl-grey-organic-black-tea/black-tea
Enjoy!
Thank you for thr post, Ilona Andrews. I am not home so I can not tell you name of where I buy loose leaf tea. Here at rehab place, i use celestral seasons packets and bigelow mint medley bags.. They do not allow loose tea here. I miss my oolong tea. Sigh.
What I wanted to say was that the water quality is important . My well water is tested every 5 years because I am rural rural. So I know it is pure. But here it is city water. Bluck.
Good luck in your quest.
Best tea shop I was ever in was in Victoria, BC. Amazing tea and varieties and they list 108 loose tea blends on their website. https://www.murchies.com/store/
As a Canadian I can vouch for Murchies. I love their black teas and they offer loose and bagged options. I stock up whenever I can and shipping is very reasonable and quick.
Tea Forte has great tea and good sales.
Ilona, you might like LADY GRAY tea. The flavor is not as strong as Earl Gray. I’ve never cared for Earl Gray. I enjoy Lady Gray, very much, plain, or with milk/cream and sugar. I had never heard of it, until a friend suggested that I try it. I’ve only had Twinnings version of it. They make it with and without caffeine.
Rose mountain herb
https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/
I love Ahmad tea, particularly the English tea No 1. I love it. My boss brought a sampler back from England and then decided she wasn’t going to use it, so she gave it to me. It had a couple of other types ( I think one was Earl Gray), but I fell in love with the English No. 1. They make a variety of teas
Not sure if it comes in loose tea, but it’s $6.39 for 100 tea bags and is a lovely tea.
Hm, I love David’s Tea and I’m fairly sure that’s one of the chains that you’ve been warned against. Maybe try out some of the “plain” teas to see if you like the quality?
FYI I compost at home and most tea bags (even the ones that don’t look like plastic) are in fact plastic. Look for packaging that says “compostable” or even better “home compostable.” If packaging says that the bags are “biodegradable” that’s a no-no. Everything is technically “biodegrable” including plastic.
The Ahmad English No 1 does come in loose tea – Amazon has a 7 ounce tin for $6.99.
I just get T2 teas, they taste yummy, the shop is nearby and it’s not too expensive, although the article makes a good point.
You can also get the plasticky tea bags that you liked, cut them open and put the tea in the pot’s infuser
I also like T2 tea mugs with the infusers, because I don’t have to wash up the pot after each cup of tea when it’s just me drinking it.
I find that the tea in a tea bag tends to be crushed pretty fine – almost dust. I assume it brews more easily through the paper/fabric/ plastic? that way.
If you put that in the usual mesh infuser, you are going to have quite a bit of tea leaf in your teapot and your cup. Great for telling fortunes, I suppose.
Better grade teabags my not be so powdery. I buy cheap tea bags for when I’m lazy, but more expensive loose tea for when I care.
I have also noticed that cheap tea wants sugar and good tea does not need it.
OBTW, Ilona, the House of Coffee Beans (next door to Murder by the Book in Houston) also sells tea (loose and bagged), tea pots and infusers, and tea “tools”. Check them out the next time you do a signing. I highly recommend the apricot tea…
I like Harney and Sons. They sell loose and also in regular and pyramid bags. They are a larger retailer, but I have found the quality consistent over the past 5 years. I use their chocolate tea to curb my chocolate cravings occasionally so flavor is really important.
I have also tried Tea Forte, which was not consistent on the flavors I ordered.
My mother-in-law has picked up some tea blends when she tries different places for an afternoon tea service, usually around Christmas. That may be another option if you want to stay local.
I live in Arizona. I buy my loose teas at “MarketSpice” in Seattle, Washington. Their prices are reasonable, They have a HUGE selection of different kinds of tea (Black, Green, White, Decaf, etc.) and long lists of different flavors in each kind of tea. Many of these teas are available in tea bags and in sampler packs.
Mostly, I just buy 4 ounces of a new flavor in loose tea. By the time I finish it, I am certain of my taste decision. I do this because my state of mind has a lot to do with what I think of new tastes. When my mood changes, sometimes so do my decisions about the new flavor.
My only objection to shopping with MarketSpice is that their shipping costs are based on purchase cost. The first break point is $30 so I make myself wait until I am very near that purchase total before I place an order and then fiddle with the order so that I don’t exceed that cost.
https://www.marketspice.com/
My fiancee actually works in quality control/preventive control for a local [St. Louis, here] coffee/tea company [also, I do not work for them, or even get free samples. I get no money from directing people there.]. The tea part of the company is called Firepot Nomadic Teas [https://www.firepot.com]. Most of their stuff is organic and directly sourced from farmers. They sell by 2 oz bags or by 8 oz bags. Prices vary by the specific tea you want, but they have a nice black tea for about $30 for an 8 oz bag. $20 for their Moroccan Jasmine Mint 8oz [my fav].
Some of their teas can be ridiculous. Their Japanese Peasant Tea, for instance.
Me: -trying JP tea- this tastes a little like warm, liquid sushi…uh. hm.
fiancee: mhmm.
me: is it supposed to taste like that?
fiancee: …yes.
Sips in Cedar Park (near Parmer / Avery Ranch) or Cian Frani’s (there’s one in Georgetown, and I think one in Austin) both let you sample teas before purchase. They’re really wonderful and I think the prices are pretty reasonable; maybe $16 / 4oz. Good luck on your tea journey! I feel, like yarn, it’s rather subjective and very easy to spend gobs if money!
A friend of mine swears by a tea of the month club. That way she gets to experiment with different tea varieties without investing a lot in any one brew.
MEM Tea is my go-to. Smallish company in Boston. The quality is excellent and the selection is pretty varied and they change it up periodically. You can order online ranging from sample sizes to 16 oz bags. The prices will vary depending on the tea but 4 oz of English Breakfast (Ceylon blend) is about $14. They also offer samplers if you’re looking to try new teas. If you like fruity greens and breakfast teas some of their Taiwanese oolongs are really nice.
I get a 1 to 2 year’s supply at Seattle’s annual tea fest, so you may find their list of vendors helpful. (http://www.nwteafestival.com/) Most of the vendors are smaller and more local. I don’t know if there’s a similar fest in your part of Texas or not. From that fest, I’ve discovered http://www.mynecessitea.com/ and https://www.chafineteas.com/, the latter of which mixes their own tea blends. I do like flavored black teas, so your mileage may vary. For straight black teas, I would recommend stopping at an Asian market; you may not be able read the labels, but it tastes good.
I’ll admit I get lazy and buy Twining’s loose leaf Irish or English breakfast tea, but when I worked at an office and drank tea a lot more than I do now I used to buy from Adiago. They used to have a loose leaf sampler where you could choose your own samples. Not sure if they do that anymore though.
My personal favorite loose leaf tea is Marco Polo by Mariage Freres. It is a French Company dating back to the 1800’s. They make i credible tea blends. Marco Polo is a full bodied Chinese black tea with notes of strawberry and orchid. You can taste test it at The Cultured Cup in Dallas. The Cultures Cup has a LARGE selection of wonderful loose leaf read and you can arrange for a taste testing the next time you intend to be in that area. The tasting is great fun and they impart lots of great info on the various teas.
I had a dream about tea and a friend took me to this place: https://perennialtearoom.com/ where the lady spent ~4 hours finding me the tea I dreamed about. They take that level of trouble over every transaction, every time. And the tea is delicious and never stale and never overwhelming with non-tea flavors.
I’m a huge fan of Murchie’s Tea based out BC, Canada They have been around since 1894 and do great loose tea. Two of my favorite black tea blends are Murchie’s Afternoon and Vanilla blend, another good tea is the Library blend, made with black and green teas. My newest favorite is Pomegranate Rooibos. You can get loose leaf 2 oz samples normally around $6.5-5.50.
https://www.murchies.com/store/
There is a local shop in our downtown area (Holland,MI) that sells teas and spices. I get everything here. It’s one of my favorite shops and I like that it is a small, local, family owned business. My husband and kids buy me teas for my stocking from here every year for Christmas.
http://www.theseasonedhome.com/
MURCHIES IS WONDERFUL! By far my favourite place to buy loose leaf. Their golden jubilee is delicious, as was the (long discontinued) Persian Spice.
Oops casinos teas not read…spell check struck again!
Gold Moon Tea has loose tea samplers. It’s good quality tea.
Sorry, it’s Golden Moon Tea.
Upton Tea Imports is an online company with many single estate teas and blends. Most are available in sample sizes that range in price from $1-$7+ depending on the rarity. Sizes also range from making 2-3 cups to 8-10 cups.
I’ll plug my favorite tea shop in St. Louis, the London Tea Room. They’ve got some nice blends and do online sales. Duke and Dutchess, their own blend in honor of Prince Williams wedding, is quite nice. So is Jubilee, another blend for the Queen’s jubilee year, if you like bergamot. They don’t sell in sizes smaller than 2 oz. though.
Upton is very good.
Yes, Upton Tea is really good. I’ve bought all my tea from them for many years!
I drink quite a bit of Stash tea. They sell loose leaf but i haven’t bought that yet from them.
Stash loose leaf tea is very good
I have a friend who treats teas the way an oenophile treats wine, she’s a serious tea connoisseur, if you will . She’s always recommended Mariage Fréres (shes’ sent me some of their teas, and they are amazing even to my comparatively untrained palette) so I would suggest checking them out. I love personally love their black teas the most, but they also make excellent green teas.
I’m lucky enough to have an amazing tea cafe nearby. It’s expensive to go there, but I love their “London Fog”, but I don’t think you would like that since it’s made with a tea called Marquis Grey… a version of Earl Grey but with lavender in it.
http://thenorth-branch.com/ourtea
They have a listing of amazing tea blends at that link. For buying, these sites seem promising:
https://www.frontiercoop.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=english
https://www.serendipitea.com/
Good luck!
The Steeping Room in Austin at 45th and Lamar has some great teas, along with a lovely tea and scones service. I’ve been getting my loose teas there and they are so good!
https://www.harney.com/
https://www.modernsteep.com/
https://www.rishi-tea.com/category/loose-leaf-tea
https://www.goodmedicinetea.com/shop-all-tea – wanderlust is particularly amazing
Crazy expensive loose leaf tea that’s worth it: https://www.mariagefreres.com/UK//1-marco_polo_french_tea.html
I live just down the street from the stash tea company’s retail store and they have great looseleaf teas at non-ridiculous prices. I think can also buy through their website. https://www.stashtea.com/collections/loose-leaf-tea I’ve been drinking a lot of Steven Smith tea recently though https://www.smithtea.com/ and I think their quality is quite good. It’s been damp in the PWN recently, so we’re solidly headed into tea weather. I’m happy to pick up and ship after I’m back from Russia.
I went through a phase where I was really determined that I was going to learn to like tea, and I ordered several choices from Stash Tea. I was quite happy with the quality – everything was very flavorful and aromatic. Sadly, it all still tasted like tea. There were a couple which were palatable if I used about 3/4 milk and an unhealthy dose of sugar or honey, but eventually I gave up.
The best deal I’ve found for bulk loose tea is Davidson’s off Amazon. It’s everyday quality, not top shelf, and they have some quality control issues; like I ordered decaf, the bag says decaf, but the tea inside is not decaf (that was english breakfast). I currently have their regular Jasmine and it’s better than anything from a bag.
For nicer tea I like Tiesta Tea https://tiestatea.com/collections/dry-flights they have the traditional blacks and greens, and also a nice variety of fruit teas. The Maui Mango is my favorite. They have a variety of samplers, and anytime you order from their website you can choose a sample size flavor for free.
I hope you find something you like=)
Mariage Frères (https://www.mariagefreres.com/FR/accueil.html) is a French company with some very high quality tea, and they will ship in the US. For black teas, the Paris and French Breakfasts are some of my favorites that are more affordable, and their Szechwan teas are also very good among the black teas (there are a few different versions based on quality). My other favorites are the Roi du Keemun and the Golden Monkey King, but they are expensive. I drink more white teas than green teas; they have an excellent jasmine white tea, though it’s pricy, and several others that are also good.
Dammann Frères (https://www.dammann.fr/en/) is another French company (also ships to the US) that is more affordable. Their Christmas Tea Vert is a favorite green tea of mine, as is their Miss Dammann tea – both are flavored green teas. They also usually have a high quality Sencha available yearly which I’ve always enjoyed.
Old Barrel Tea Company (https://www.oldbarreltea.com/#/) is based in the Colorado/New Mexico area and has some good teas as well. I like their Fire on the Mountain and Mocha Mate, and the honeysuckle blossom oolong. Mighty Leaf Tea also has a wide variety of loose leaf teas that are pretty affordable, and Republic of Tea also has a good variety. Their ginger peach is still a favorite of mine.
Hi,
I do Republic of Tea tea bags at work, but at home I use teas from Red Blossom Tea Company in San Francisco. Their website is https://redblossomtea.com/
Their teas are very good and a recent visit made me buy some Formosa Red #18 Mi Xiang a black tea that I use to make ice tea. I put some in a tea bag and let it brew in cold water for over 12 hours. It is delicious. They have been sourcing from local farmers for over 20 years. A family owned business they have a little shop in Chinatown and on the internet. You can look at their website and its looks like they have “Discovery packs” that let you try out different ones. The tea descriptions are informative.
I have also purchased a variety of loose tea from https://redblossomtea.com – their store in SF Chinatown has tea tastings. I have also gotten tea from: https://www.tenren.com as there are local stores in the bay area as well.
I buy from “Aroma” in SF. I buy in-person, but they have a website. Their tea is excellent – and yes – expensive.
If you brew the leaves 3-4 times, (as instructed) the price isn’t as bad.
https://www.aromateashop.com/
I usually get my tea from Harney’s (online). I like their classic black teas, and they have lovely green teas and oolongs and white teas. The only flavored teas I have ever been able to tolerate came from Harney’s (their Hot Cinnamon Spice, their Blackcurrant, and the Chinese Flower teas). To my taste, they do an excellent job of sourcing and blending tea, and there is lots of excellent information about tea on their site. I recommend them without reservation.
I get my tea from harney.com also.
I LOVE their Victorian London Fog. No sugar needed (I recently got diagnosed as diabetic). It’s like a cupcake as a glass of tea. When you can’t have an actual cupcake… 😉
Their blood orange as an unsweetened iced tea is awesome, and the blueberry green is great too.
I also like their sencha and dragon pearl jasmine.
I’ve liked almost everything I’ve tried from them. Only 2 I haven’t liked are the Paris one, and there was an iced tea that sounded good in theory, but was just weak and watery not matter how long I steeped it (white grapefruit something or other I think?).
+1 to Harney.com. I’ve been getting most of my loose leaf tea there for the last two years. In addition to great variety and a range of price points from inexpensive (still very good) to really fancy and $$$, they also offer samples (enough for 3 or 4 cups) of almost everything they sell for $3 to $5 per sample. I get several samples of styles I want to try with each order and greatly enjoy my own personal tea tasting flights.
+1
Harney all sells samples for most of their teas. A great way to try a whole bunch of teas with no risk of being stuck with a can!
+1 I love Harney & Sons! The basic English Breakfast tea, the Hot Cinnamon Spice, and Paris are my favorites but Holiday is also lovely.
Also, Harney & Sons offer loose leaf, sachets (the pyramids) and traditional tea bags. I like loose for home and sachets for the office.
Unfortunately, we don’t have many tea rooms in Nashville. But there is a place that serves a small afternoon tea . . . The Cafe at Thistle Farms. The Café is part of Thistle Farms’ social enterprise, which heals, empowers, and employs women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. All that to say, they had a tea I really enjoyed. It was called Firepot Breakfast Tea. You can go to http://www.firepot.com and check out their list of teas. I haven’t tried their green tea, but they have several to choose from. Price is fairly reasonable. Love the teapot you chose!
I buy my delicious Green Tea from ‘lovetea.com.au’
Their silky pyramid bags are a biodegradable mesh made from plant starch. The company (Naturopaths – a husband & wife team) is all about sustainability – organic tea & fair trade.
After discovering T2 while living in Australia, I now go nowhere else.
Melbourne breakfast is like English breakfast with extra love, and I’ve been so pleased by the fruit varietals.
I’ve tried both bags and loose leaf, and love them both, but I prefer the loose leaf so I can control the amount of steepage for those heavy-duty mornings. I am an efangelizing convert to those little boxes – they smell like home now.
https://www.t2tea.com/en/us/Home
I love T2 esp their lamington tea!
If you have any south Asian grocers find a South Indian / Sri Lankan (Ceylon) one and get their black teas. So amazing. Dilmah is a famous brand and decent quality loose tea.
Broken Orange Pekoe will be closest to English breakfast. Another option is orange pekoe, it’s lovely and light.
Is it true most Americans don’t have kettles and use a microwave 😱
I use my keurig just got hot water for tea.
It is true! But I have a kettle with several settings for different colors of tea.
I buy tea from home goods 🤷♀️ they have a bunch of imported tea, loose leaf and bags and its usually marked down so I try a new one every time I go lol. I’ve checked the prices and they are comparable to amazon and sometimes cheaper.
Blood orange smoothie tea and peppermint tea are two of my favorites. I order the bos from Amazon.
I like David’s Tea. http://Www.davidstea.com It arrives quickly and you always get 3 samples and a tin with your tea order.
McNulty’s in NYC. Harney’s is also very good. I can only attest to the quality of the black teas, as I don’t like green tea.
I’m a big fan of Upton Teas. https://www.uptontea.com/ and they sell samples sizes which make about 2, 4 cup pots of tea so you’re not committed to a large quantity of something you may not love which is a bit plus in my opinion. I’m not a big green tea drinker so I can’t speak to their selection, but their offerings for darjeelings, and pu-erhs are great so I presume they have they same tasty options for the greens.
I buy mine from The Tea Spot. The prices seem fairly decent and the tea is always excellent.
http://Www.theteaspot.com
Love their English Breakfast tea!
I buy mine here:
https://www.zesttea.com/products/loose-leaf?variant=12757517402199
They have fun flavours like:
Blue Lady (fruity)
Pomegranate Mojito (minty)
Earl Grey
Cinnamon Apple
Spicy Masala Chai
Superberry Samba
I tried sipsby recently because I wanted to expand my tea horizons and I’ve liked what they’ve sent. Nice to try new things. Not sure it’s the best value but in addition to the teas you get each month you get coupons to order more of teas that you like.
I get my tea (and coffee) from Tattle Tea. Love their peppermint and green tea, mixed both and they make a great iced tea. Just got their raspberry and it’s really good. Lemongrass is so so. Tropical punch was interesting. I have a couple more that I have yet to try, but went a bit nuts one day.
https://tattletea.coffeebeandirect.com/
Look into Harney & Sons.
They have floor to ceiling loose leaf bins, samplers and more when you go to their shop. And their tea has been served at the White House on occassions. They seem to be like the US equivalent to Britain’s Fortnum & Mason when it comes to tea.
https://www.harney.com/
I get Ahmad brand loose leaf tea from a local store in 16oz boxes for about $9 or $10. It’s available on Amazon for a little more.
I buy my tea at Wal-Mart. 🙂 The Wal-Mart I go to has Twinnings English Breakfast tea in tea bags or even in k-cups. I cold brew Lipton tea in a 2 gallon tea jug. I also have peppermint tea.
For loose tea, you would do better with the other recommendations posted.
Harney & Sons. They have marvelous teas, good pric s, and great customer service!
https://perennialtearoom.com/
Almond Sugar Cookie is my favorite. I also like Vanilla Cream.
Check out August tea. I just bought their sample pack and am loving it. There are coupons for 20% off around as well.
https://august.la/collections/best-sellers/products/top-10-sampler
I mostly use Republic of Tea. They have loose leaf and bags. I don’t feel that the bags are inferior to their loose leaf. Some teas have samples available, some don’t. Surprisingly, Kroger has some good loose leaf teas as well.
If I could add a few more suggestions although there are many ideas ahead of me. I always by loose leaf since some teas are stronger than others.
Shang Tea in Kansas City. Wonderful Green and White teas
Single Origin Tea in Dallas Texas
Tealeaves in Vancouver, BC
And of course – Harneys & Sons.
Enjoy.
I buy loose leaf tea from the New Mexico tea company. reasonable prices and very nice teas. You can get samples and there are varying sizes.
I have always enjoyed Uncle Lee’s loose leaf organic white tea (unclelee.com). I have been ordering from them for years, but not in the past year.
I also get loose leaf tea from Wildfoods.co based in Austin. They are a bit more expensive, but I’ve enjoyed every one I tried. It doesn’t look like they have the jasmine tea I ordered the last time, though.
I like to buy loose leaf from Fontier coop, organic fair trade available, they have blends too. Happy tea🍵
http://www.BarHarborTea.com Has some wonderful teas. I have a Jasmine green tea from them and it is WONDERFUL! It is about $18 for 4 ounces, not including shipping. I’m actually going to go have some now 🙂
You may want to check out TWG Tea. Unfortunately they do not have a shop in USA (nearest is Canada) but they do online shopping and deliver to US addresses. They have a lovely website with a mind boggling variety of teas (https://twgtea.com). If nothing else, the descriptions of the different types of tea are quite beautifully lyrical.
I have found some really good loose teas for very reasonable prices at the Asian grocery stores in my area. They come in tins and are made in China. You might check them out.
I buy my loose tea at local farmers markets & stores.
Currently, I’ve been buying from Mr. & Mrs. Tea (Davenport, IA – Quad Cities, IL/IA) & they also have an online shop [https://www.mrandmrstea.com/].
I’ve had in person samples, but I’m not sure what they do for online orders. They are super nice though & I’m sure you could request a sample pack. They also recommend steeping 2-3x, so the small jar lasts quite a while.
I also bought tea at High Gardens in Nashville, TN when I was living there a couple years ago. [https://highgardentea.com/] They have a HUGE variety of teas from all over the world, so prices go from reasonable to $$$ depending on how exotic you get.
It seems like you have a ton of sourcing recommendations, so I am going to go a different route. My local farmers market has a tea guy. In addition to the more common stuff, he carries Russian style tea. (Calls it Russian Caravan; I don’t know if that’s just his name or the style name.) It’s a black tea with an almost smoky flavor when compared to the standard English Breakfast or whatnot.
Since you mentioned the tea growing up, it might be worth looking for. (Assuming you didn’t already know that Russian style tea is a different thing.)
Lancaster Central Market.
https://www.theherbshoplancaster.com/
Tao of Tea in Portland, OR. They ship. Lots of teas, lots of loose leaf or bagged options, and multiple sizes so you can buy small to try. We love their 500 Mile Chai, Malty Assam and Black Tea with Rose Petals.
https://taooftea.com/
If there are tea shops in your area, these are great places to scope out tea brands. Google Tea houses in your area & check them out.
I personally love a good full bodied Assam with my breakfast & my favorite is Taylors of Harrogate Special Rare Assam & BIHU Bold Assam tea [the latter I can’t seem to find anywhere right now, but the former is findable]. Assam is at times included in various English breakfast blends. That said, some particularly good teamakers you can check out and get here in the states are Mark T. Wendell, Taylors of Harrogate, & Steven Smith Teamaker.
– MTW sells loose tea samplers on their website: https://marktwendell.com/shop-tea-gifts/tea-samplers.
– Taylors of Harrogate don’t sell samplers as far as I can tell but you can order online through 3rd party suppliers or seek them out at local stores or tea houses [they’re not as widely distributed in the US as other teas but I find them worth the effort to find].
– Steven Smith sells loose tea online but I’m not seeing any loose tea samplers at the moment unless I missed them [maybe email & ask] but you may enjoy checking out their Blend No18 English Brunch in a loose tea if you’re simply looking for a good blend [this 4 oz loose leaf pack is 14.99]. https://www.smithtea.com/products/british-brunch?variant=14656095617069
Side note: Adagio teas can be nice but I find their teas to be hit or miss. Sometimes they smell awesome, but then are kind of meh after brewing. Others are as awesome as they smell so mileage may vary at adagio.com.
https://www.teabox.com/
great fresh teas and huge selection at very reasonable prices. I’ve been buying from them for years and have never been disappointed.
I buy from Adagio Tea. They’re a bigger company, but I love their Tiger Eye. I’m more of a flavored tea drinker, but I really like their English Breakfast.
A bump for Adagio, there’s someone from my office who organizes group orders from them. The quality is good and they do “sample” sizes of their teas for flavors you want to try (they estimate 10 cups from a sample generally) https://www.adagio.com/
+ 1
Feel good organic Hibiscus flower is my fav. I buy it on amazon in 1 # bags mmmm. I wait till it goes on sale. It was 20.00 for 2lbs last time ! whoo.
I also like the U.S Wellness organic teas .
Often I get individual types of leaf and “mix” my own blends. I have a french press.
If you want to do yarn & tea shopping from the same place there’s Churchmouse Yarn & Teas. They have a wonderful assortment of both loose and bagged teas. And of course yarn. https://www.churchmouseyarns.com/
I buy most my tea from my local tea shop. They have an online store as well. https://www.sereneteaz.com/ My favorite black tea of theirs is Russian Caravan. My favorite green is Milk Oolong. You can buy tiny quantities to sample. Also, I’ve received Tea Forte samplers as gifts, and then go back and buy my favorites from them as loose leaf teas usually from Amazon.
Can’t recommend where to buy tea because we are in Australia – but I absolutely adore French Earl Grey tea. either with or without a dash of milk its even better then Lady Grey tea . This is where we get it from https://www.elmstocktea.com.au/shop/buy-online/tea/earl-grey-tea/french-earl-grey/
I love Dryad Tea! They’re a small company based out of Colorado if I remember correctly and every single blend I’ve tried, even the ones with things I was convinced I wouldn’t like, have been phenomenal. The owner is an absolute sweetheart and she’s a geek and streamer and just super awesome. They also have sampler packs and a tea of the month subscription.
https://dryadtea.com/
I admit, I’m addicted to Adagio. Love the tea, and the rewards program.
I honestly prefer to buy my loose leaf teas in person so I can sniff and see them – particularly when looking at fruity blends. Houston has to have some real tea shops you could go to…
But when I live places without tea shops, I’ve had good luck with https://theteaspot.com. They do sample size packets and also have good accessories.
Also, an ice tea maker is a must here in the south. I recommend: https://www.forlifedesign.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=49_58&products_id=150&zenid=f1ktb59rqahth3ta9kdf4o1q55/
Everything here- but my local favorite (Pacific Northwest) is experience-tea.com and I know Roberta would be happy to talk you through options. I feel like tea is similar to wine- most expensive teas don’t suit me well at all. That iced tea pitcher is awesome- these two Texas transplants have one each.
When I used to buy more tea, I liked Mighty Leaf Tea. They had high quality options, both bagged and loose. I haven’t bought much tea since they were acquired by Peet’s, so I don’t know if the quality is still as excellent.
+1 Mighty Leaf has more than 50 different kinds of loose leaf tea and the quality has not declined since they were bought by Peet’s. The Russian Caravan is lovely; savory but not too smoky.
Simpson & Vail. I buy all my delicious tea from them. I am a tea snob. I wont use bagged tea. That’s what gets swept off the floor. Also, subscribe to tea time magazine. Its amazing.
I can’t say I’m knowledgeable about the best quality NON chain tea stores online but I love http://www.davidstea.com. I get Nepal Black a great classic smooth black and they have some very good cold/health teas! They do promotional seasonal things but I’ve always liked something from the seasonal lines. So if you want cold tea I’d get Throat Rescue, and any of the fruity seasonal. I’m sure the writer of that article won’t be happy I recommend a chain but Im a big fan of Davids. I get discounts after buying a certain amount and I always had great customer service when I go in person.
I highly recommend Shen Zen Tea. You can order online. They are a local company in the Seattle area. I’m very sensitive to chemicals and have never had an issue with their teas.
My favorites are Herbal Zen Detox, Raspberry Green, and London Fog. They have many, many varieties!
I wrote a +1 on Harney, I have a lot of teas I love from them. This may feel like overkill, but A.C. Perch in Copenhagen has insanely good tea. It’s the oldest tea shop in Europe and they ship to the US (with low shipping costs). I’ve always loved Harney’s Holiday Tea, but Perch’s Christmas Tea is just better (if you like cloves). No decaf at Perch, though.
If you veer back into bag territory, keep to a sachet. Have fun!
This place has my favorite teas.
https://us.palaisdesthes.com/en_us
You have to buy over $75 to get the free shipping but the actual product is pretty reasonably priced. I get a couple of friends to go in for the order with me. They have very many teas to chose from, green, fruity, and otherwise. My personal favorite is the Sencha Ariake.
Local asian markets usually have good teas also, like green, oolong, and jasmine.
Tea is so fun! I love all the different flavors, infusions, and the culture surrounding it. I hope you enjoy your tea journey.
The pyramid bags are Forte Tea and it’s amazing. You can buy it from them as loose leaf too. I am not a tea drinker and was just intoduced to this tea. I’ve only had the African Solstice tea so far, but I could easily have it everyday.
http://www.teaforte.com
T2Tea is a lovely tea company from my home town in Melbourne (Australia) that has now gone international, and is available in the States. They have a lot of different loose-leaf varieties available, and I love going in to my local store and doing tastings. Although it’s not the same buying online, you can get an idea of their varieties from the descriptions.
Their website is t2tea.com
My Melbourne based best friend swears by their tea, and also the tea from https://beanbay.coffeesnobs.com.au/ . I get him a coffee or coffee and tea sampler from coffeesnobs every Christmas. They have some really neat tea blends.
I had a plum deluxe subscription for a while, which is fine if you like surprises.
I go to chain tea stores in malls, and they are still far better than bag tea. Just avoid the crazy blends. A basic English breakfast or green tea won’t be terrible, despite what the writer of that article said.
(Many of those pyramids are not compostable, even if you have municipal composting, which is disappointing)
Our local farmers market carries loose leaf, Rainforest, fair trade, etc, etc, tea that is very reasonably priced. Black tea and black blends. Yum! Good luck!
Savoy Tea Co. out of Arkansas is a small company that I’ve bought from before. I like the rock sugar/beet sugar they sell and the tea, too! They ship free in the continental US. and have a monthly “Tea Tasters” club, so you can try out new blends.
I rarely drink tea because I think it may smell nice but mostly tastes like dirty water. However, the Spice Tea from the Good Earth restaurant chain is FABULOUS!!! It tastes kind of fruity. They have various flavors now, which they didn’t when I lived in Minnesota, but I like the original.
Harney and sons use pyramid bags of silk, which is sustainable. This is as of a year ago when I checked out their tea. The tropical green (iced or hot) is amazing as is the Jasmine (hot). Both come in loose leaf or bags. You can generally get samples of their tea, and orders come with random single-use bags to try. Their vanilla comoro is slightly sweet and great with a small amount of amaretto. Oh, and the Paris is a fruity black tea that is great iced. Also, I loved Sapphire Flames! 😁
I’m a tea snob and I buy mine from Adagio. Good quality, reasonably priced. If you like English breakfast, try their Irish breakfast. I drink it every morning.
A brand of tea i haven’t seen mentioned is Vadham Tea. this is ethical, direct and fair trade tea http://Www.vadhamteas.com. Help@vadhamteas.com. Can get thru Amazon as well.
The teas are procured directly from the plantations, and tea growers within 24-72 hours of production .
Vadham eliminate the middle man, so the tea is fresh and also they are able to retain all earnings in the region. This makes the tea a very reasonable cost. Profits also go to education of Tea Workers’ family members.
Vadham include both a month of packing as well as a month of expiry on their labels.
They have samples, as well as different sizes. I normally get a 100g size. Current favorites are the Assam Enigma Summer Black Tea, and a Tulsi Ginger Herbal Masala Chai All teas have a size , water temp, and water steeping recommendation. The teas come in sealed, no-air pkgs, but include a label and foil lined bag to transfer into after opening.
I also recommend Steven Smith Teamaker’s Brahmin Tea, described as Second flush Indian Assam, Ceylon Dibulla and Ceylon Uva, and China Keemun full leaf black Teas. Aka Blend No. 18. This tea is in a biodegradable “relaxed fit sachet” described as ” encouraged greater full leaf expansion to give you better flavor. “
Sorry–Vadhamm has date of Picking/Harvest on label. Packing is within 24-72 hours of picking.
Sorry, the date of Picking/Harvest– not packaging– is on Vadham Tea. They are packaged within 24-72 he’s of picking.
I buy their chai samplers and love them. Only complaint is they did not put the picked date on the last batch of tea I bought in December. They make a big deal about the freshness and dates. The first time I bought the resealable envelopes had dates on them. So far it hasn’t affected the quality though. I do love the way they are packaged. It keeps the tea fresh. My favorite is the chai with saffron. I make it with cashew milk and turbido (a large crystal brown sugar). I bought cute lidded mugs that came with a sit on top strainer. They work great. I have a tendency to forget my tea, so the lid keeps it warm until I remember. Lol.
We were buying loose tea at Cost PlusWorld market… and then took a trip to Canada. try https://www.murchies.com/store/ I believe they ship world wide too. If not, fly to Seattle, take the clipper to Victoria or Vancouver BC. Might be a tax write off. ;D
If you want green tea, I recommend going to a nearby Chinatown/International district if you have one. Often them import the tea directly from China, and it’s fantastic.
I’ve purchased from teahong.com many times and i always love what i get. They are bases in China, they send you email updates about what’s in season, and it’s a great variety of teas (especially for green tea and oolong lovers). Not super cheap, but what I do buy lasts a while and they always give me a yummy sample of something random. They also send discount codes alot. Due to Trump’s trade wars, i think there may be shipping price differences to the US (i haven’t purchased since). Also places like tjmaxx tend to surprise me with decent loose leaf blends.
TheTeaTable.com has sample sizes.
They have volume discounts, and I haven’t regretted anything we’ve gotten yet. They also come with instructions for each type of tea for the best experience.
+1
I recommend you find a local non-chain store with loose leaf tea and visit them. My favorite local store is the TeaSource, http://www.teasource.com/ – they ship. I am an Assam fan.
I buy loose leaf here in Austin at either Whole Foods, or better in my opinion, Central Market. I liked the fact I could buy a small amount, try it out, and then go buy more if I liked it. There are several small tea shops around that also distribute if you’re interested.
Adagio tea is a great starting point for loose leaf teas online! I used to order from them pretty frequently. They have sample packs/tea bags that are pretty inexpensive. They also allow for people to create their own blends (example: I bought the evil tea of evil that was based on Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog).
I thought their tea was good tasting, good price, and they were easy to order from.
More recently I get mine from a local place called the Tea Source. If you have a local tea shop near you, they might also be a good resource.
I’ve been ordering from http://www.uptontea.com for more than 20 years. I love their selection and I get my tea in ~4 days.
I’ve been ordering from Upton for years too.
I like the white tea from the Republic of Tea. I drink it every day.
https://www.republicoftea.com/
Birdpick tea is amazing. Their parent company is Wing Hop Fung, which owns tea plantations in Taiwan or China, can’t remember which. WHP is for Chinese tea purists (their stores have the hard core, ginormous, oolong tea bricks, packed just as they were back on they days when they were schlepped on the Silk Road), and Bird Pick is for the next generation enthusiasts, who like their teas infused with flavors and herbs. I suspect Bird Pick was started by the kids who grew up here, so they have some really nice flavor combos as well as some of the more elegant traditional flavors, like osmanthus oolong and organic peony white.
https://birdpicktea.com/
Check out the import stores or Asian groceries. In the DFW area look for a Super H mart or a 99 ranch. Most of the loose leaf will be your standard jasmine and green teas, some English Breakfast tea. It will be much cheaper though, about $6 for 15 oz. Also Kroger now sells loose leafs tea. It’s is more expensive but about $10 per 4oz.
I forgot that World Market also sells loose leave tea. Not sure on the prices though.
I love Stash tea
https://www.stashtea.com/
And you have to get these cookies.
https://www.deweys.com/shop/item/dwy105768/d-moravian-cookies/
Stash tea used to carry those cookies and for some reason or another, they stopped carrying food. The cookies are amazing. You need to keep them in the freezer. It is just a little chocolate, so it melts quickly. They are small and thin.
https://www.stashtea.com/collections/tea/products/breakfast-in-paris-black-tea-bagged
I know you have all the equipment, but if you decide loose leaf, this tea maker is amazing. It is a gravity teapot. You put the loose leaf in the tea maker, then add your hot water. After 4 minutes, you place it on top of your cup and it empties into your cup
https://www.amazon.com/Teavana-PerfecTea-Maker-Ounce-Black/dp/B06XPQ5WG6/ref=asc_df_B06XPQ5WG6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=223258025415&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7247269635162125569&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052071&hvtargid=aud-801738734305:pla-388655851133&psc=1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQj9YYXQcq8
I have always liked Stash Tea but have only ever had it in bags. Not sure if is what you are looking for, but they do sell loos tea…
https://www.stashtea.com/collections/loose-leaf-tea
Yes they have a lot of the blends you said you did not like, but you can choose tea type at the above link. Here are their white teas:
https://www.stashtea.com/collections/loose-leaf-tea?_=pf&pf_t_tea_type=tea-type%3Awhite
Sold by the gram and I do not know gram to oz conversion, so these may be just as ridiculously high, or bargain prices. But they have a good reputation, or did a while back 🙂
One I really like was from a little shop in NC. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the shop, but it had a blend called Summerhouse tea (May have had mint in it). It was in New Berm, Moorhead City, to Troy. I can ask my SIL if she remembers, but it was a few decades ago that she lived there.
The Knitting Cup is a yarn store in Georgetown, Texas has loose leaf tea and yarn. I regifted some fruit loose leaf tea to my sister in law and she loved it.
I order from Arbor teas in Michigan. If you like fruit teas, I can strongly recommend the plum oolong and the citrus ginger green tea. The prices may look a bit on the high side, but check the number of servings for a sense of how far 4 oz of tea goes. They do some good sampler packets, too. https://www.arborteas.com/organic-flavored-green-tea-sampler.html
I get my tea from The Novel Tea thenovelteashop.com it’s a small women owned tea business.
I drink a lot of tea and tisanes (any “tea” not made with camellia sinensis). My go to for tea in white, green, oolong, and black is Red Blossom in San Francisco – redblossomtea.com . Even if you never order from them, they have a lot of great articles about tea, and the Brewing Guide with each variety is quite helpful and can be eye opening. Different teas do better at different temperatures, and they give good guidance re tea volume to water and temp and steep time. These can really make the difference between a good cup and a great cup of tea.
They list teas that have the word Mi Xiang, which roughly means “bug bitten”, which activates enzymes in the leaves that makes for a sweeter tea. They have Native Cultivar Mi Xiang, which is a black tea that you might give a try. Very satisfying without being bitter, and a touch of sweetness. Oolong teas are wonderful for the range flavors, and green teas range from grassy (Japanese) to lightly woodsy or seaweedy (Chinese).
Anyway, not to nerd out… Take a look at the site for some good info. BTW, most tea, for a pot, will be around 7-9 grams of tea per pot, so keep that in mind re price. Although it is not mentioned, Red Blossom gives sample bags with purchases, so I’d bet you could purchase single pot lots from them with the right amount of wheedling. They are friendly folks, and respond well on the phone as long as it is earlier on a weekday.
Firepot has a fabulous Masala Chai
https://shop.thepantryontap.com/
Two local shops, same owner. Loose tea, oils, balsamic vinegar, and spices. Oh! Let’s not forget chocolate! The first shop she opened was chocolatea.
It’s where I get my decaf tea when I’m getting loose leaf tea. Also many tea brewing bits and pieces.
When we lived in Chicago we’d buy from here https://www.coffeeandtea.com/product-category/tea/
I still order tea from here when I go back to the US. The San Francisco blend both the herbal and black are amazing as is the blueberry white.
The Tea Leaf in the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia (https://www.mercato.com/shop/tea-leaf). Small, family owned stall that only sells tea.
Online, I order from
https://www.t2tea.com/en/us/Home
https://us.palaisdesthes.com/en_us (omg, so good)
(I particularly like their Darjeeling and the puerh imperial. Both black sorry, I drink a lot of black.)
(I adore the hammam, and you will hate it, stay away)
https://theteaspot.com/
In practice, I find that many “organic stores” and “health stores” carry bulk spices and whole leaf teas, so I top up locally. For example, Huntsville has a little store called Health & Energy/Cloud 9 that has a little cafe, supplements, and a very nice selection of herbs and teas. Denton has a tiny grocery called the Cupboard where I bought loose leaf in bulk. (Also Denton has a 3 story used bookstore downtown and a brilliant bakery which has nothing to do with anything other than being great places to stop there.)
I enjoy Twinings teas – they’ve been in business for 300 years for good reason. I don’t like Earl Grey or Lady Grey tea (they have a “perfumey” taste that puts me off), nor green tea of any sort, but the other black teas are tasty. You can get both bagged and loose teas through iHerb.com. (The Ceylon Orange Pekoe has a wonderful flavour, but sadly the loose tea tin has been discontinued so you can only get it in the bags. The same applies to their Darjeeling, which really quite irks me.)
English Breakfast loose tea: https://ca.iherb.com/pr/Twinings-Classics-English-Breakfast-Loose-Tea-7-05-oz-200-g/43016
Irish Breakfast loose tea: https://ca.iherb.com/pr/Twinings-Classics-Irish-Breakfast-Loose-Tea-3-53-oz-100-g/41850
Prince of Wales loose tea: https://ca.iherb.com/pr/Twinings-Prince-of-Wales-Loose-Tea-3-53-oz-100-g/41852
Note that the Prince of Wales tea is quite mild, so if you prefer stronger teas you may not care for it.
I shop at Lupicia in their Hawaii store. It is a Japanese store. They have an online USA outlet at https://usa.lupicia.com/
I used to go to Lupicia, but they closed their store in California. They are still in Hawaii and take online orders https://usa.lupicia.com/
If you get chance in London you’ll probably find some excellent teas (you might have to post them home depending on customs)
There was a lovely tea shop near Covent Garden, if it’s still there.
Have fun exploring different types of tea to find what you like for your type of water 😉 cos the water can also make a big difference.
I know exactly zip about tea, however I’ve thought about getting an infuser to try some out. To that end I was intrigued by Jewel Staite’s (I’m a big Firefly fan too)Tea Runners. If I ever do start drink leaf tea I want to try them out.
Their link is:
https://www.tearunners.com/
If you try them out let me know what you think.
I am and admitted Tea Snob who only drinks loose leaf tea. Yeah, I even travel with it. I adore the Tea Runners boxes. You get a couple of ounces of 4 different teas. It is enough to brew, for me, 2-4 pots of tea. I will know if I like it or not by then and I haven’t purchased a ton of something that I hate. You can choose between 4 different types of boxes and switch your choice as often as you would like. Then if you find something you love you can purchase more from their online store. Well worth a try 🙂
Harney and sons – great teas, good quality and decent prices. I love visiting the shop in Millerton, NY to sample teas I wouldn’t have thought to try.
+1
+1.
I’ve been using Harney and Sons for about a decade.
I second Adagio https://www.adagio.com/ and also try https://www.arborteas.com/ both have inexpensive sample sizes you can purchase
Adagio Tea https://www.adagio.com/ has been my go to spot for tea for years. They have great sampler collections. They have info on who actually grew the tea so you know where it comes from. I love the place. The tea is awesome. I have quite the variety from the, anything from fun oolongs to nice black tea to green and white, they have it all. I don’t care for herbal teas but they have a large selection of that too. It is my one stop shop for teas. Shipping is free or reasonable, they have a rewards club for frequent shoppers, sometimes include a free sample in your order. I can’t recommend it enough.
I know a wonderful little shop…that, sadly for you, is in the north area of Milan!
I love white tea and its little leaves. My aunt gave me a gift that was meant for her but she doesn’t like tea and didn’t want to end up throwing the tea away. It’s called TianMuHu White Tea and it’s delicious
The Tea House in the UK is one of my favorites. You can get a bit over a half pound for ~$45 (250g for 38£). I admit it’s still pricy, and I don’t know what the shipping is, but I do know it’s really great tea (I also have to admit that the £ to € exchange rate is better and until Brexit takes hold, the shipping to Austria is dirt cheap). https://www.theteahouse.co.uk/
Buying from the UK makes your investment in quality a bit more secure, because the English actually care about their tea. Unfortunately, the Indian wholesalers are extremely uneven — I’ve tried. They all say they’re gourmet tea, they all say they’re the best value, but the one time I got really awesome tea, the store (or online shop) closed the next month.
I would also recommend beantown tea. Yes, it’s 4oz for $32 (loose silver leaf white tea), but 4oz is 50 cups. Buying in bulk and storing in a vacuum-sealed bag saves $$ in the long run. And they’ll send you an assortment of samples ranging in price from free to $1-3, depending on the tea.
https://www.beantowntea.com/
Fortnum & Mason
Haven’t bought in a while, as I’ve not been back to England for several years.
As someone who sells tea, Fortum & Mason is extremely hard to beat. They have 3 different levels of prices, their exclusive labels are to die for. They ship internationally from their site to the US. My favourite drink in the world at the moment is there Sicilian lemon and ginger- best tisane I’ve ever had😀
I love loose leaf tea. I order online at The Tea Spot or Mountain Rose Herbs. Happy steeping!
I’m a snob about my tea and really only drink one: Jasmine Dragon Pearls. Its a rather expensive green tea that’s infused with Jasmine. The chain has it for $100 a pound. My local Wegmans has it for $80 a pound and that lasts me a month or so. Tastes the same (you do have to be careful – anything cheaper and it’s been cut with another tea). Experiment and don’t turn your nose up at what you can find in your grocery store. It might be good.
I’m a Jasmine Pearl tea addict and go through about 4 oz/month (1 lb/month wow, you drink a lot of first brew tea). Also try Peets.com which is my go-to supplier for at least a decade. I’m also able to get Silk Road Jasmine Tea tea in bulk at my Whole Foods. Inferior Jasmine pearl is often modified with a scented oil instead of properly scented.
Locally – check out supermarkets with bulk tea sections. Taiwan Tea shops like Ten Ren have great loose leaf teas. If you like black tea which you can combine with milk, also check out local Indian markets. A decent tea shop needs to have good turnover or you’ll get old stale stock which is a waste of good money.
I’ve generally bought directly from Silk Roads – are the prices similar?
Okay my credentials for this come from being English and having eight kinds of tea on my desk at work. The unhelpful bit is that I don’t know if these places will ship to you for a reasonable price. Fortnum and Mason and Whittard are both wonderful. Shout out to the latter for letting you try various flavours in store. Afternoon and breakfast tea with both are obviously a winner (and Whittard currently has an Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon blend which is wonderful. Please avoid their Covent Garden blend, however. Fortnum’s Russian Caravan and Queen Anne’s are great black teas. For any flavours, that depends on taste. But Whittard’s lemoncello is a great warm weather treat. Best of luck!
Hi I think Williams Sonoma are meant to stock F&M teas but you’d have to check this.
You’re absolutely right, just looked at their stockists page. Thanks!
Several years ago i bought loose leaf from Let’s Do Tea. I liked their 8 treasures green tea and their bourbon street vanilla rooibos. They do add toasted slivered almonds and dried strawberry pieces. But they are surprisingly delightful teas. I did not think their earl grey tea was different from bagged tea, so I was I bit disappointed with that.
Try David’s Tea. It is a little pricey, but the flavors are amazing! They also have amazing sales!
I adore tea and buy it loose by the pound from Rishi in all different kinds of flavors. They have organic fair trade which is really important to me. If you have a look around their website you might find something you like. https://www.rishi-tea.com/ (They also give 15% your first order).
I too love the English tea makers, though the shipping costs to the US often price it beyond my reach. So, I’ve turned to a local tea maker called tea source. They have reasonable prices and you can buy in bulk. I can’t vouch for the green teas but the black teas are great.
Hi I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it but I quite like Twinings teas. They have a US website: https://www.twiningsusa.com. They do an English breakfast loose leaf tea (100g $5.49) as well as an Irish breakfast tea, which I prefer as it’s more full bodied. I quite like their Lady Grey too. Good luck.
Oooh, I like the Lady Grey tea, and they used to have a Russian tea that was very nice too. 30yrs ago I used to buy many different Twining black teas when I was living in Wash DC. I haven’t found much of a selection of it in California, Texas or now Florida.
I’m very lucky to live 10 minutes from TeaSource in Minneapolis, which is all loose tea they source and blend (they do sell online, if you’re interested, I’d suggest Raspberry Beret, my current black tea favorite). I’d also suggest getting a tea subscription, I had one for Tea Runners and looooved it! It’s owned by Jewel Staite of Firefly fame, and her husband. Its a great way to find out about some amazing teas offered by small shops.
Upton Tea is the best!
Oh well, I don’t know anything about online-stores.
Everywhere I’ve lived there were local specialised tea-shops within ten minutes off my home and I’ve always bought there……
Exactly! Local tea shops have been everywhere I’ve lived or visited. They’re where I’ve gone since leaving DC.
Uptown Tea is amazing mail order source for *all* types of tea. Their quarterly catalog is fascinating reading for tea nerds. We have bought estate-specific tea from Upton for 2 decades. Equally important, their telephone customer service is thoroughly knowledgeable and helpful.
Phoenix Herb Company in Kansas City. I have ordered from them several times and they are delicious. They used to have a website but you can call them and place orders. They were very helpful on the phone. Their teas also keep for some time in the foil zipper bags they send them in.
I buy organic tea from Full Leaf company. They also have points you can use for discounts. I buy it in bulk and it lasts awhile:)
I would recommend trying to find local tea shops. Since leaving DC I’ve found local tea shops almost everywhere I’ve lived or visited.
I like the Tea Lab, in Lakewood, Ohio. Website is https://tealabcle.com/
Lots of variety, reasonable prices.
Stassen, Basilur, Stash, TWG, Ronnefeldt and Twinings.
I like Kusmi Tea. They have nice looking sets with small boxes to try several tastes. The prices are not cheap but still okay. I live in Germany, so I don‘t know if it‘s available in the US.
I buy most of my loose tea directly from China via Ebay. Cheap and good.
I also get decent loose leaf tea from my local asian grocery, e.g., Lotte. They sell a lot of loose leaf tea from India.
I get teas from two places in my hometown. Only one ships regularly, but the other place will do specialty orders.
The place that I order teas from while at college(and I have drank their teas since I was twelve) is The Tea Haus. https://theteahaus.com/
If you want to get any advice on preparing tea I would contact Wisdom Tea Shop, from the same city. The owner prepares the best tea, and has very high quality leaves. It warms my heart to know that you are preparing your teas at the right temperature for them. Most teas can be brewed three times(provided you are using enough leaves and do not oversteep) before loosing all of their flavour.
Please update us on your tea adventure.
Steven Smith Teamaker from Portland, OR is very good and reasonable.
I order my ginger peach gold tea from La Creme Coffee and Tea in the Dallas area. They have a shop, but I prefer to order online, http://www.lacremecoffeeandtea.com. They have a large selection of loose tea leaves. I came across the shop by asking my favorite Thai restaurant where the tea I love (above) at their restaurant originated. They obtain it locally from La Creme.
Dryad tea based on Colorado. Rubie does sampler packets of various teas and I think does an advent calendar set. Dryadtrea.com
Up here in the pnw we have market spice. They are smallish, ship quickly and have some of the best jasmine loose leaf tea I’ve ever tasted. No idea about tx but I live in the land of foodies so I can attest it’s great stuff.
I know you’ll get a ton of recommendations, but in my opinion, Harney & Sons is a great start for English-style blends and teas. It’s affordable, they sell both bags and loose leaf, good quality, and they have a very wide range of teas. If you like English breakfast with a fruity, aromatic twist, their Paris blend is one of their most popular blends. I hope you give them a try!
http://Www.Summitspiceandtea.com best place. My in-laws come here from Asia and love this little shop. Prices seem good. Cool place.
Republic of Tea. I drink their ginger peach hot or cold and , watermelon and blueberry teas as iced tea. I checked and they do loose tea also. so you might try it.
Incase no one said it = Etsy – easy to check reviews, often cheaper because smaller samples.
There is one ShopMulberryCreek that has sample packs and you can get a variety and send them a note for what kinds of teas you like and they will pick some for you to try
Whaa green tea.. I like it and is having a matcha when I read this. Hope you find the loose tea that suited your taste and need^^
I shop at Lupicia for my flavored teas. I recommend momoko or strawberry vanilla for green tea. As for the black tea blends, the chocolate & strawberry puer and cookie are pretty good.
https://usa.lupicia.com/
486 comments about TEA? This is impressive.
https://uptownteashop.com/ is a local tea shop in Waxhaw, NC. Not a chain, just an owner with a love for tea. As far as I know, she only sells loose leaf.
I wish I could remember the name, but there was/is(?) a wonderful mail order tea company in Portland, Oregon. This was 35 years ago though, so I don’t even know if they are still in business.
I also like The Republic of Tea. They have a huge selection and sell both loose and bags. I’m sure I’ve seen samplers on their site, though I haven’t tried one.
My local HEB has a large selection for a grocery store. One surprise I found was Teeccino tea. I was looking for coconut tea and found it there. It’s a Dandelion Coconut herbal tea if you can imagine! I love it.
The Jasmine Pearl Tea Company in Portland, Oregon . They have all kinds of teas and the staff is very knowledgeable. The Aria Blend is great for irritated throats – they made it special for a few Opera singers in town and now sell it regularly. I love their puerh tea – it helped me wean off coffee (no coffee was doctor’s orders).
I keep getting gifts of tea bags in tins, so I’m no help – it’ll take me years to get through the stash. Anyway, YAY TOTORO! That is all.
It looks like there are 486 comments here already, so I’m not sure if this will be seen by anyone, but I’ll go ahead and post because I like speaking/writing of tea, even if no one is listening 🙂
My tea drinking credentials are below. Here are my opinions on where to purchase:
I buy tea from cute little shops and various vendors when I’m at art/craft fairs or when traveling. Sometimes, I find blends I like, so I follow up with their website. Primarily, I purchase my tea from the Stash website. Note that this loose leaf tea is not the same as the Stash tea offered in stores. It’s much better. Turns out that the big brand tea companies have lines of tea they sell in grocery stores, tea they sell in specialty shops, tea they sell over seas in stores, tea they sell to restaurants in other countries, etc. I find their loose leaf teas to be of a decent quality for every day drinking and quite reasonable priced for that quality. They also have a very wide selection, with an accompanying widely ranging price list.
Also: I am not a huge fan of Steve Smith teas, but many are, so you might want to check them out. They can be purchased in stores but are very exclusive. I will freely admit he is totally devoted to a specific , authentic tea experience. I think they are all bagged in special bags.
You may want to check out some blog posts by author Lisa Shearin. She has some tea recommendations in earlier posts.
Credentials:
I am a serious tea drinker. I have purchased very expensive teas and very inexpensive teas. I once worked for a tea company and frequently tasted new blends on my lunch hour, for the R&D team. I drink almost exclusively loose leaf brewed tea but once in a great while, I will make it with a bag. I find the world of tea fascinating. Such strong opinions about a drink that’s been around for so very long and is routinely sipped or gulped by so many!
Anyway, I used to drink a Chinese black tea blend in the morning, something like a Monkey King blend. Brands varied, Then, I had a job that involved traveling frequently to Canada and became hooked on Breakfast blends. English, Irish, Scottish, whatever – that toasted tea directly connects to my brain. I enjoy green tea in the afternoon and a white tea in the evening. I sometimes enjoy blends with flavors, fruits, mint, etc. I’m extremely allergic to bergamot , so I avoid all the “Greys”.
I have a friend who always recommends Harney and Sons. I personally like the convenience of bagged teas, but when I buy loose I do tend to buy Stash. We have one of their stores nearby. There’s also a place in Corvallis, Oregon called Oregon Coffee & Tea that has some nice loose tea options.
I will throw out Mimi’s Teas in Fircrest, WA. She is my “local” lady. I have moved 3+ hours away from her but I still stop by her shop when I visit and I order online/via phone from her and she ships. Great prices and excellent selection. She also is great at reccomending new blends that I would like. She has taken many classes and knows her stuff. I have call saying, “I want something that is smokey and fruity and black tea.” and her selection was perfect.
If you can find a local person who knows their stuff I think that is the best.
As a Brit, I’m a tea drinker.. And whittards do excellent tea and I have seen branches of whittards on my travels in the states..
Water quality can affect the taste a lot and American water tends to be more chlorinated than ours. And then there is the milk argument… In the mug before or after the 🍵 😂
Harney & Sons – try the Hot Cinnamon Spice, The Art of Tea – try Earl Grey Creme, Mighty Leaf – try Bombay Chai Tea. Have fun.
Harney and Sons Cinammon tea is actually amazing, though I’m not sure what the bags are made of, but definitely something for the collection
I love Revolution Tea (www.revolutiontea.com). They have organic loose leafs and those triangle bags but made of fabric (they have a page for them on their website).
More importantly they have a Lavender Earl Grey that makes my mornings a little brighter.
I’ve been drinking tea my whole adult life and loose leaf tea is all I use, the flavor is just so much better than teabags. Though I do tend to use teabags for herbals since I only brew it a cup at a time rather than a entire pot. My go-to for loose leaf tea is The TeaSpot http://www.theteaspot.com as I like their selection of black teas. They have some good organic black teas that I enjoy very much, their Shagedelic English Breakfast is particularly good. Given the list of other sources provided by the BDH I may take a look at other options soon!
I have to agree on the water quality variable. We have excellent water here in the Pacific NW where we live, but when we lived in Texas – Houston specifically – I wouldn’t use that water for tea or for regular drinking/cooking consumption. It tasted vaguely chemical and even the dogs wouldn’t drink it. The water certainly does make a difference in brewing tea.
As does the pot…I have used many types over the last 40 years. My favorite is still the heavy pottery British brown-betty teapot that I got in Canada. It’s large, holding four good size mugs of tea; has a nice round shape that provides for plenty of water movement and due to the type of material it’s made of, it retains the heat of the tea quite well even if you don’t use a tea-cozy. I’ve also used the Bodum teapots – the round ones with the metal infuser basket and those work well too but I keep breaking the darn things and at $35 a pop that got expensive. I still use the infuser baskets though in other pots because they allow plenty of room for the tea to expand and brew properly. I would never put any glass pot like Bodum or the one you picture above on the stovetop even if they say it’s possible to do that. The chances of it breaking, being forgotten on the stove, or someone getting burned by picking it up just seem too high.
Good luck in your search for tea and tea related love….Thank you BDH for the additional tips for tea sources!
If you want to buy authentic single estate loose leaf teas direct from India (Assam/ Darjeeling/ Nilgiri/ some Northeastern and Nepalese teas too), I suggest Teabox. I have bought different teas from them several times. When the new spring and summer flushes arrive they even post the leaf picked date.
My brother once brought home some random “gift tea” (no other name mentioned on package) from China. My dad loved it and it reminded him of his childhood and the teas his dad used to bring home from Sri Lanka. Ever since then I’ve been on a quest to find something similar and have been buying different teas for my father, which he then proceeds to make in traditional chai manner, always! Be it oolong or white, makes him no never mind. By now for somebody who lives on coffee, my head is way too full of tea terms like chinary, golden tippy, seasonal flush, rolling, fermenting methods :l
I know this is not online, but I seem to remember a tea bar at HEB’s version of World Market (is it Central Market?) in Austin that I spent a lot of money on loose teas at. It is also fun to go to tea bars that sell loose tea when they do tastings! (and then you might could order refills online?)
Yes! Central Market used to have a great selection of loose leaf teas, but I haven’t been there in a couple of years so I don’t know if they still do.
I love tea!!! I haven’t read everyone’s responses so I’m sorry if I am repeating but in northern Michigan there is a farm that grows teas that are good. It’s call light of day organics. I believe they sell loose leave.
I love harney and sons teas. I am an early grey person so I love their tea but I know you aren’t a fan so I’m not sure if their green teas. I also love Argo tea. I have some friends in Chicago send me some and I really enjoy it.
I order my tea from Harney&Sons. I get loose tea and sachets for when I don’t want to mess with loose leaf.
Ditto: Harney & Sons have high quality teas.
I’m also in love with another online company Spice and Tea Merchants. I get my Moonlight Earl Grey by the pound from them.
+1
I adore Harney & Sons Tropical Green – bagged or loose, both are great.
It’s not online, but there is a Chinese tea house in Austin that sells very good Chinese loose leaf tea called Guan Yin tea House. They have some excellent green teas. It can be expensive depending on the kind of tea but most are reasonably priced.
Chinese tea shops would be the best! My go to for real loose leaf tea is a local seller, World Tea House. But this is Halifax Canada and I never asked if they sell on line. He does have a Facebook page, so you can check him out. It was the only place in my area that I could find Russian Caravan.
I’ve loved hot tea for going on 80 years. The English an d Irish members of the family are fine with this. The Swedish contingent suspects I was adopted. If I buy bags, I buy P&G tips. It’s OK , but for a nice loose tea and a lot of good choices try Hartney & Sons tea in CT. I strongly recommend their North Frisian blend. It’s a strong black tea pick me up made for stormy weather or stormy times. There are many other excellent teas available from Harney other than the cutesey, fruitsey or flowers in a teacup types. Skoal!
I too use Harney & Sons, at least for last 20 years, and have always been happy with their teas and customer service.
Somehow a stray “t” slipped in. It’s Harney not Hartney. Apologies.
Did you ever just consider growing your own?
There’s many a slip between the tea plant and the lip – or at least, most of making tea isn’t the growing but the processing, and it’s a little involved? There are some decent English language sources up (heck, I put a blog post up about my second attempt: https://tylik.dreamwidth.org/952934.html#cutid1 ) but when I was first trying to figure it out, I did a lot of reading things in Chinese, because a lot of the English sources omitted critical processing steps.
I have the same struggle you have. I bought a french press. We have some lovely tea restaurants here and its become something one of my friends and I do to relax is go have traditional tea. They sell some loose leaf teas at decent prices so you might find luck with a local shop down there. Please, if you can, post a link if you find a good online shop. Tea is one of my happy places (books being the other).
Thanks,
Check out Upton Tea. Most teas are affordable, some teas are crazy expensive and all teas come in a sample size. As a bonus, the tea descriptions are fun to read. Happy drinking 🙂
A good resource for growing your own tea plants.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/growing-tea-at-home-766090
…but they leave out essential processing steps! Tea leaves have a waxy coating, and if you dry them without some kind of agitation to remove it, the waxing coating will prevent the good stuff from escaping, and you won’t get any flavor out of them. (Of course, the details of that processing vary a lot!)
Eh I’m lazy & just buy bagged tea from Walmart– I like Bigelow Constant Comment & Lipton green orange passionfruit jasmine, and English Breakfast. The only reason I even own a tea ball is this tea I buy from my local coffee shop: Montana Gold. Which is a tasty mildly spicy tea that is great for cold winter days, brrrr!
If you’re still coming over to London for that RARE event, you should have a look in Whittard’s (https://www.whittard.co.uk/ ). They’re a bit of a chain, but I’ve always loved all the teas I got from them.
Bird and Blend Tea Co. also do brilliant tea mixes of all sorts, and they’re small and independent (I think). https://birdandblendtea.com/uk_en/ I’d say they’re probably more expensive than Whittard, but they apparently ship worldwide, so it might be more suitable.
It’ll still probably be a touch on the expensive side compared to buying from the States, but I’d love to help if you want to try things from this side of the pond. 🙂
I used to sell loose tea from Tealightful. They have a variety of types and they do them in small batches. There is a free app that has a tea timer for every type of tea that is great so you don’t overbrew
I am from New York and there is really only one supplier (for us anyway) you could get “real ” tea from and that would be Ten Ren.
The original store is at 79 Mott St. In Chinatown and they have been there for about (or more than) 5 decades.
They also have the tea categorized by “Crop” (as in this year’s harvest).
I just checked and they have a site , http://www.tenren.com.
They also have tea equipment if you collect teapots (which are totally gorgeous so I avoid looking at their shop window when I go there.) Or need regular stuff.
Hope that helps you out.
Lately I’ve been exploring Tea Pigs, I really enjoy their herbal teas, not as much of a fan of their black teas ( I like mine stronger), but the Licorice and Peppermint is one of my favorites!
Also I saw someone earlier mention Harney and Sons, I definitely agree, their tea is great.
Avid tea drinker, always use loose tea at home. I have been buying from Upton Tea Imports for years. Quality, selection, and price.
I’m a loose leaf tea drinker and have been for some time. I buy my tea exclusively from Upton Tea Company in Mass. They have wonderful quality teas and accessories. I love the place.
I buy Adagio loose leaf tea. Excellent Chinese and Indian. My favorite is Yunnan Gold.
I also buy from Adagio. If you’re adventurous, they have a ton of fun “fandom” tea blends created by their customers. The Dr. Who and Harry Potter fandom blends have been enjoyable.
https://www.rakkasantea.com/
sourced only from post-conflict areas and veteran-owned and Dallas-based
‘We find the hidden gems. Unlike most premium loose-leaf tea bought and sold in the U.S., we import solely from carefully selected estates in post-conflict countries as a way to promote peace and economic growth.’
‘If you want to catch them in person, Rakkasan has a booth at the Coppell Farmers Market each Saturday, or you might run into Brandon and TK at Revolver Taco. And if you’d like to pick up some Rakkasan Tea, you can stop by 1890 Marketplace in Dallas, Fair & Square Imports in McKinney, or Women’s Gift Exchange in Sherman.’
I highly recommend thenglishteastore.com. They have tea of all types, you can order samples, and even get purchase credits. Their shipping is sometimes a little slow, but if you aren’t in an “ it absolutely positively has to get there overnight” frame of mind, they’re great
I’m not sure if the economics would work out for you, but my go-to tea vendor is http://www.teatotal.co.nz
Whole Foods downtown Austin has a decent selection.
I’ve also bought from the farmers market that is at Barton Creek Mall on weekends.
I discovered the owners of Tea Punk Teas(teapunkteas.com)at a writer’s workshop in August. They are from Granbury, TX.
Plum deluxe tea. https://www.plumdeluxe.com/
(No they do not have plums in all their teas.) I have not had any tea from them that is not absolutely delicious! They are a small company from Portland, OR. Everything is done in small batches.
My taste in tea is similar to yours. Online look for Golden Tips tea. I have a second flush 2018 Darjeeling I could just consume by smell. So rich. They sent some samples of 2019 first flush teas with my order that were also wonderful.
I am a huge tea fanatic and very picky about what I drink. I have dozens of kinds and have tried many different places to get my team from. I keep returning to Adagio teas. They have a large variety of teas, you can get them lose, in the pyramid bags, collections or small samples. They also have their Masters collection where they put teas that have a great overall rating from customers. I have yet to try a Masters blend that I didn’t like.
https://www.adagio.com/masters/index.html
If you like fruit teas, I especially recommend the Green Rooibos Blueberry. Everyone that has tried it around me has loved it. It has real dried blueberries in the mix.
https://www.adagio.com/rooibos/green_rooibos_blueberry.html
Here is another company that I have ordered 3 different kinds from on Amazon. Their teas are very high quality and rich.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N33BMXJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1