London Tea Shops

Want a change from your usual flat white? Sally Gurteen scours London for the best places to explore the wide world of tea.

- Sally Gurteen

Step aside coffee, there’s a new hottest beverage in London town: tea. It’s not the tea you think you know, either; there’s a whole world of leaves to discover beyond the bog-standard British cuppa. The rising trend for quality loose-leaf tea is happening across the country, but especially in the capital where tearooms are opening at a rate once reserved for third-wave coffeehouses.

If you would like to explore the wide world of tea but don’t want to venture too far from what you know and love, many coffeehouses have embraced the new and upgraded their offerings to reflect teas that align with their own identity. In these cafés, tea complements rather than competes with coffee. Esters (55 Kynaston Road, N16) serves Postcard Teas, which sources its leaves exclusively from small and interesting gardens, while branches of Grind brew with Jing Tea, which looks for not only the most authentic taste of origin, but the freshest tea too.

Those are just a couple of the capital’s cafés that have joined the tea revolution, not taking into account the increasing number of dedicated teahouses. Here we take a closer look inside the latest wave of tearooms that have cropped up in the past few years and meet the people behind them.

Good & Proper Tea

One day, Emilie Holmes – a lover of café culture but not of coffee – realised she was sick and tired of trying to find a good cup of tea at the majority of coffeehouses she visited. Rather than moan about her lack of choices, Emilie decided to do something about it. She launched her plan on Kick starter for a mobile tea van and was overwhelmed not only by the amount of kindred spirits looking for better tea, but by their generosity.