Tea Seller Roundup

I thought it might be a neat idea to post a round-up of the various places (mostly online) where I get my tea, so in no particular order,  here goes:


Loose Tea

Culinary Teas, where I currently get most of my loose teas; they also do some bag tea.  Culinary Teas is a smallish company that sells a lot of flavored teas, but has a pretty decent selection of traditional teas as well.  Some of their flavored teas are repackaged Metropolitan Tea, but they do blend some of their own teas too.  Culinary Teas is the source of all those "x and cream" teas I've written about.  Their service is good; we've never had even the slightest problem with an order.  They usually offer a :free gift" with most orders, which is usually just a couple of tea bags.  I know, no company is obligated to include a "free gift," I guess I got spoiled by Special Teas, who used to throw in a free 2 oz. sample of loose tea for every order.  Still, these guys are a great company that I've been very pleased with.  They also have a nice enough blog, where they highlight current specials and sales, and do the occasional raffle giveaway.

Harney and Sons is a more recent find.  They do bag tea as well as a great selection of loose teas.  Though Harney and Sons offers some flavored teas, their emphasis seems to be more on unflavored traditional teas.  They offer some estate teas, and some excellent blends.  As I've mentioned before, Harney and Sons' tea and especially their packaging makes them seem an old-fashioned British tea seller, but they're in fact located just over the Connecticut border in New York.  I haven't actually purchased anything online from Harney and Sons, mostly because they show up quite a bit at Mrs. Bridge's, our local tea house, but the impression I get is that their service is excellent, and I really love their teas so far.

Bird Pick Teas is a much more recent find.  My brother gave me a birthday present last year of some Oolong tea and a wee little gongfu clay teapot that I've sadly yet to review from Bird Pick Teas,  a small tea company originally founded in Chinatown, LA that specializes in traditional Chinese and Taiwanese teas.  I've yet to purchase anything from them online yet, but the few teas of theirs I've had were excellent.  The folks at Bird Pick also have a blog, which I don't believe is updated all that often, but has some nice info about some of their teas.

Teavana is a company that I hesitated to include, since I've never bought or consumed anything from them.  They have a reputation for being rather expensive, but they do have an interesting selection and some rather nice teas.  Teavana bought out my old goto for all things tea, SpecialTeas, which was a company based down in Stratford, CT, and had a great site, with a nice selection and some really cool blends that I can't find anywhere else.



Bag Tea

Two Leaves and a Bud makes some pretty great bag tea.  They focus on whole leaf tea in a large, pyramid tea sachet that lets the leaves bloom.  I've had nice experiences with the three teas I've tried from Two Leaves and a Bud, but I do find them a hair expensive.  Their tea tends to end up in discount stores like TJ Maxx or Marshalls, and it's usually a pretty fair price there.

Republic of Tea is similar to Two Leaves and a Bud, but has round tea sachets.  Republic of Tea does a few nice flavored green teas, and some rather strange stuff like chocolate teas, but falls short when it comes to black teas or more traditional, unflavored blends.  Their fruit teas do make nice iced tea, and they're a bit more affordable than Two Leaves and a Bud.  Republic of Tea makes a nice tea to take to work in the summer time.

Tea Nation showed up here in a review on Vanilla Almond Ceylon that discussed the merits of bagged tea vs. loose tea, and while the tea bag from Tea Nation isn't as fancy as the two above, they still make a pretty quality cup.  I've only actually had a couple of teas from this company, but as with the other two above, a nice tea bag to stash in your lunch for work.

Mighty Leaf is another pretty high quality bag tea company, utilizing leaf tea in a large, sachet-type tea bag.  They also sell loose tea, which I didn't realize until today.  Mighty Leaf makes a good cup of tea, but I think their bag selection could be a little bit better.  I think they go heavy on the fruit and flavored stuff, to the detriment of more traditional tea.  They do make a Darjeeling that I actually quite like, and browsing their loose tea selection, I have to note, they have some pretty good stuff in there.  I'll have to check them out in the future, though I don't think they're cheap.  They are the only tea available at Victoria's Station, our local coffee shop, but really, if I'm there, I'm usually getting coffee.  Mighty Leaf also has a blog which is updated rather sporadically, but is usually worth the read.


Bentley's Tea shows up in these pages from time to time, but oddly doesn't have a website.  You can buy the tea from Amazon, or any number of sites, but the company themselves are nowhere to be found on the web.  They do a decent selection of teas, in old fashioned meh teabags, but they're really not that bad, good for a serviceable cup in a hurry.  We tend to find Bentley's in TJ Maxx, though I know I've seen them elsewhere as well.  Bentley's may or may not be made by the Boston Tea company...it's kind of vague and confusing.

And of course, there's Stash Tea, or the wretched Bigelow Tea I find at work, or the surprisingly decent Red Rose.  I don't think this stuff is really exciting enough to warrant more than a mention, though Stash tea does have a nice selection, and I'll always have a soft spot for Red Rose (it's what got me drinking tea, plus they always put an animal figurine in the box, which my mom used to collect).



Tea Shops

Around here, we sadly only have the one:  Mrs. Bridge's Pantry, so named for character on the BBC.  Mrs. Bridge's is a really nice shop/restaurant, offering a pretty wide selection of teas and traditional British lunch fare.  Food can run a little pricey, but is excellent...they do a great Plowman's Lunch, but have sadly stopped offering Scotch eggs.  They do serve tea in the perplexing infinite-steep teapots, so it's best to order a tea that can take the long soak, or I guess drink your tea rather quickly.  Mrs. Bridge's features a lot of tea from Metropolitan Tea, Harney and Sons, Republic of Tea, and a few of their own blends.  Always a great place to gift shop or stop in for lunch.



Stuff I'd Like To Try...

...but haven't gotten around to yet. 

Kusmi Teas is a Russian tea company, based in Paris that offers a lot of traditional Russian blends that look really interesting.

Upton Tea Imports, based right here in Massachusetts, has a large and varied selection, with several teas I'd love to try.  They feature East Frisian tea, which I'm dying to review, and have had trouble finding lately, and it looks like they have a pretty substantial bit of reading material on their website.  Sadly, no physical retail location, which is a shame, as the idea of browsing through a pleasantly cluttered old tea shop is a nice one.

Courtesy of Jacob's review, I'd really like to try out Sakuma Bros. and The Charleston Tea Plantation, particularly the green and white teas from Sakuma Bros.

Adagio Teas has a nice website, fairly standard selection, but also offers "custom blending," where you can create your own blend (with no obligation to purchase) from any number of constituent teas.  I think that's a really cool idea, but I do wonder how effective it is to create a blend over the internet, without the trail and error factor of iterative testing.  Still, a neat idea that no one else seems to offer.

teadog.com appears to be a reseller of teas from all different companies.  I don't really know that much about them, but they get points with me because their name reminds me of Brewdog, a really unique Scottish brewery that makes some "interesting" beers.

And last but not least, Virtuous Teas, who seem to have a pretty good selection, and an actual brick and mortar store pretty much around the corner from where my brother lives.


Huh, that ended up being more extensive than I thought it would.  If I'm missing anything good, let me know!