Lack of tea culture in Britain?

I’d say at this moment, british tea shops (or shops where the tea quality is a primary focus) are on the up. I have the advantage of dealing with lots of quality focused coffee shops – and many of them source good quality teas and focus on good brewing technique to go with them. That works both ways – for example, Waterloo Gardens Tea House in Cardiff are (unsurprisingly) experts on teas, but they also source good coffee and know how to brew that to a high standard as well. There are places to get good tea in most major uk cities now – if you’re able to find them. Given those cities are quite a bit smaller than many U.S. cities, I think we do quite well :)

My daughter’s boyfriend lives in Northern Ireland, and he lamented that he can’t find loose leaf tea! He had never had it until he drank it at my house in the USA. He is coming next month to visit and says he is planning to buy lots of tea to take back with him. There are only two real loose leaf two shops in the area that I know of, though. I told him that I do a lot of mail ordering. I think he will probably place a Harney and Sons order while here, have it shipped to me, and then take it home in his luggage.

I used to live in Northern Ireland and can confirm that it wasn’t the easiest to find loose leaf tea. The supermarkets do stock it, but it tends to be very generic stuff – no exciting blends or brilliant quality. Just trying to think if I know anywhere he may have some luck.

There are lots of brilliant places to buy online though within the UK – us included! :D

We do need something here in the UK, hopefully someone soon will find some incentive to open a shop or range of lounges selling unique and tasty tea.

So far some of the Chinese herbal remedy clinics sell Chinese tea (they use them for certain ails) but getting hold of different cultures tea is hard. I have to import most of them which is very expensive (with thanks however to those companies that don’t charge an arm and a leg such as 52teas and Butiki). I love the dessert tea’s which nobody makes in the UK :(