Living in the EU I used to get tea from the tea makers of London and was pretty happy with it.
Ever since brexit however, ordering stuff from the UK has become a painand so I’ve been trying different online shops (and also the stuff one finds on amazon), but none seems to have good enough quality without being too overpriced.
So… do you have any tips on where to buy tea?
From my experience, it’s pretty goddamn hard to find high quality tea that ships from inside the EU. Almost all of the vendors carry a wide variety of teas, but they’re all low quality, since they usually order from wholesalers and not directly from the farmers. If you’re okay with that, you can try scouring the r/tea vendor list for something that fits your needs and is based in the EU. Your best bet if you want the real top-shelf stuff is to order from a specialized international store. I did just order some teas from https://beautifultaiwantea.com/ yesterday, can update about the quality and shipping once they arrive.
It would be pretty cool to have some kind of community vendor list here too. Maybe one that wasn’t as static as the one on r/tea, people would be able to add new vendors, post reviews and such. Just an idea…
Edit: forgot to mention this, search for vendors that list as much information about the tea as possible, stuff like the month or at least season it was harvested, the village it originates from, the altitude, the cultivar, the harvesting method (hand/machine picked) etc. Also make sure the tea is as fresh as possible, ideally spring 2023 or winter 2022, since most teas will start to degrade after around 2 years if they’re not stored properly.
Depends on the tea.
I’m in the UK and if shopping outwith I tend to just buy from China, Japan, India or wherever I want tea from.
Yunnan Sourcing is good value and pretty reliable for Chinese tea.
O-Cha or Ippodo for Japanese tea.
TeaSpring in the US offer most stuff in small sizes and have a flat $3.80 worldwide shipping charge.
I’ve heard good things about Marriage Freres but have never tried them.
Essense of Tea or Liquid Proust may be worth a look if you like that sort of thing.
Depends on the types of teas, but for natural green tea (mostly) I enjoy Palais des thés and for blends, the more expensive Mariage Frères. Dammann is consistently disappointing. These are the main big brands that I know in France.
