High Teas London

Loose-Leaf Tea, From a Father-and-Daughter Team in Devon.

High Teas London is the work of Simon and Tash — a father-and-daughter team who have spent the last 17 years tracking down extraordinary teas from around the world, started in London in 2008, and have since decamped (rather sensibly, one feels) to the Devon countryside, taking the warehouse with them. Their position on the matter is the only properly defensible one: tea is one of life's genuine pleasures, and one shouldn't have to settle for the dusty bag in the supermarket caddy when first-flush Darjeeling estates are out there, doing their thing, just waiting to be located. Everything in the range is something they'd cheerfully drink themselves — which is the substantive version of every brand's "carefully curated selection."

The catalogue is, by some margin, one of the deepest loose-leaf selections in Britain. The classic register covers Prince of Wales (Assam, Ceylon, and blackcurrant — properly civilising at four o'clock), Tsar Nicholas Russian Caravan (lightly smoky, brightly finished, vaguely literary), the Anna Karenina blend (Lapsang Souchong with rose petals, for the more dramatic afternoons), and a brace of single-estate Assams and Darjeelings whose names rather defeat the average tea aisle (Assam Mangalam FTGFOP1, Tarajulie Estate FBOP, Uva Pekoe Saint James Estate). The herbal side is just as serious: Khartoum hibiscus whole blossoms, the 7 Chakras nine-herb infusion, and a small Ayurvedic line covering Kapha and Vata blends. Ethically sourced throughout, value-for-money pricing despite the rather alarming pedigree.

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