Postcard Teas

Timothy d'Offay opened Postcard Teas on Dering Street, Mayfair, in 2005, having begun importing tea after several years living in Kyoto. The shop stocks tea bought directly from small growers, typically farms of around five acres, rather than from large plantations or blending houses, and in 2008 it became the first tea company to print the name and location of the individual maker on its packaging. In 2012 d'Offay stopped stocking any plantation-grown tea entirely, a policy the shop still follows. Behind the shop's black frontage, staff run tastings most afternoons and sell tea loose by weight rather than in fixed-size boxes. Postcard Teas trades from this single Dering Street address only, with no other branch in London or abroad.