London - Postcard Teas

On a very busy day in London, I'd allocated 5 minutes to spend in Postcard Teas.  I left the shop an hour and a half after I'd arrived, wishing I'd given myself even more time in this great shop!  It's a minute's walk from Oxford Street and is the antithesis of that packed and crowded street.

The owner of this business is Tim d'Offay, who is an authority on anything to do with tea.  It's called Postcard Teas because teas are like postcards in that you can easily send both home, and Tim actually sells Tea Postcards:

I love the idea of coming home and finding one of his teas in letter box:

Throughout the shop there's an interesting collection of tea paraphernalia, including these rather fine hand made Kaikado tea caddies.

Each caddy has two layers: an inner layer of tin, and an outer layer of tin, brass, copper or silver: 

The double wall keeps the tins completely airtight and the contents dry.  It's well worth booking on one of Tim's tea tastings, which take place every Saturday between 10-11am.

I never realised there was so much to learn about teas.   Tim regularly travels out to his producers, and can tell you exactly where each tea was made, and who made it, and possibly the age of the trees!


If you want to learn even more about teas, Tim sells some interesting books on tea and also Food Lover's London (Postcard Teas is featured on page 84).  I bought a copy in the hope that I could find more shops as good as this one...

Postcard Teas Ltd
9 Dering Street
London
W1S 1AG


Tel: 020 7629 3654


Web: www.postcardteas.com