What are your favorite non US-based tea companies?
I’d also like to try stuff like Dammann Freres (France):
http://www.boutique-dammann.com/
Haven’t tried any yet, but that’d be pretty awesome to eventually order from as well!
There’s an English button somewhere in there… it’s pretty tiny, but it’s there! One of the flags.
There are a couple Dammann Freres teas that I am dying to try, specifically Jardin des Tuileries and Figue Fraiche. I can’t find the Jardin des Tuileries on the Dammann website and instead was directed to tea-discount.com (also in French) and much to my dismay they apparently can not ship to me in Georgia! I am looking to join in on a group order from Dammann Freres if anyone is ordering!
ebay vendors
Yunan_Colorful
Red Lantern Tea
teas straight from china!
Have the eBay vendors you’ve dealt with been reasonably trustworthy? I’m mildly paranoid of that place. ;D
quite trustworthy and comunicative. Yunnan_Colorful doesn’t speak english well but they all answered my questions and threw in some samples with my shipments and they offer money back if the stuff doesn’t arrive!
I’d also like to add:
Yunnan Sourcing LLC which is the most recommended ebay shop for pu-erh teas
Some New Zealand tea companies…
t leaf T – http://www.tleaft.co.nz
The T Shop – http://www.thetshop.co.nz
Tea Total – http://www.teatotal.co.nz
Stir Tea – http://www.teaglobal.co.nz/catalog/B9_Stir_Tea.html
And there is Zealong (New Zealand Grown Oolong), which I haven’t had the pleasure of trying yet – http://www.zealong.com
Since I live in Belgium, all my favorite tea companies are not US-based.
Favorites per country:
- France: Mariage Frères, Dammann Frères, Le Palais des Thés
- The Netherlands: Simon Lévelt
- Germany: TeeGschwendr
- Japan: O-Cha.com
- China: TeaSpring
Dilmah, without hesitation. I love Ceylon tea and their business has done a lot to help the people of Sri Lanka. The money they make stays with the people who did the work. Dilmah has also opened a school that teaches people how to know and serve good tea.
I’m kind of biased but www.cloudwalkerteas.com gets its tea directly from China and Taiwan. They don’t do blends though and stick to purely chinese/taiwanese oolong, pu erh and cliff teas. They also offer a free sample of their fresh oolong tea with every order. They also have a sample tea pack for $25 which includes free shipping. Worth looking into anyway!
I really like Hibiki-an for their wonderful matcha. Also, their shipping is fast and reasonable (free for orders $38 or more!) and customer service is great. They’re based in Kyoto, Japan and the teas come from their own tea farm. I placed an order for more matcha on Monday and they shipped it out the same day!
I haven’t seen anybody mentioned yunnansourcing yet! Or did I skip? It is probably the non-Chinese tea company that I admire the most. I haven’t seen any non-Chinese company that can beat it on puerh in general terms. And I like it because it’s based on the ideas that I adore: sourcing directly from producing region, cutting short trade chain, pursuing quality/price ratio instead of selling insanely expensive, starting small but solidly (ebay seller going for independent online store)… Kind of what I would like to become when I grow up :-P
One non US-based tea company for you：http://www.chineseteaart.com
If you want to have more info or tea samples from ChineseTeaArt, please just email me. Thank you!
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