Ten years ago in Taipei, a small cup of tea served without milk or sugar completely changed my idea of what tea could be. Its flavour and fragrance so captivated me that when the tea shop owners told me the tea came from a nearby mountain, I asked for directions and set off the next morning to learn more.
Journeys to other tea growing areas in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China, India, and Sri Lanka followed as this appreciation of tea turned into a profession. First with East Teas which Alex Fraser and I started at Borough Market in 2000 to sell specialist green and oolong teas imported direct from tea producers and experts in east Asia. And now with Postcard Teas which works with tea estates in the north east of India and the south of Sri Lanka to bring some of the world's best black teas to Britain.
Teas from both companies can be tried and bought at the store or by mail order. We also sell tea accessories, ceramics, and postcards, some of which are reproductions of old tea postcards from my collection. Postcard collecting runs in the family - in the downstairs gallery, my father Anthony will be soon show early postcards from around the world.
Timothy d'Offay
Coffee Blossom Tea - the world's first Coffee Tea!
While revisiting Handunugoda Tea Estate in the south of Sri Lanka last summer I came across a coffee bush in full bloom and was overwhelmed by the amazing aroma of the white blossoms. Knowing how jasmine flowers are used to scent tea, I thought it would be interesting to try the same process with coffee flowers so I talked to Herman Gunaratne whose family have been growing tea and cinnamon at Handunugoda for over a hundred years about making this innovative tea.
Delighted by the sweetness and aroma of our first samples, we decided to start limited hand-production of the tea when the blossom became available which is not often as coffee bushes flower for a day or two just twice a year. The coffee blossom contains caffeine and as some of the flowers used to scent the tea are left in the tea, it may be the first time caffeine from both plants can be enjoyed without simply mixing tea and coffee together like they do in the wonderfully sweet milky "Yin-Yang" teas of Hong Kong.
Postcard Teas will be selling the initial small hand-production of Coffee Blossom Tea in a special limited edition commemorative tin containing 15g of each type of tea. It costs £9-95 and can be bought at the store or ordered by telephone for the same price plus postage and packaging to anywhere in the world. For more information please see our Tea List page.
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Traditional Tea Caddies from Kyoto in brass, copper, tin, and silver.
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Kaikado Tea Caddies Exhibition From December 5th
Kaikado, a family of craftsmen making these beautiful containers for 140 years will be showing their work for the first time in the UK at Postcard Teas from December 5th.
Takahiro Yagi, the seventh generation of the family, will be at the store for the first few days to explain how the caddies are hand made and to engrave customer's names in Kaikado's beautiful tea scoops.
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