Thirty-five brand guides to tea — historic tea houses and modern brands — and how the package becomes the tea.
In tea, the tin or packet often carries the whole identity. These guides look at how each tea brand presents itself, with honest caveats where the record is thin.
Houses and heritage
Ippodo carries Kyoto’s matcha heritage; A.C. Perch’s has a historic Copenhagen shop; Demmers Teehaus uses a numbering system in Vienna; Ronnefeldt uses a dragon emblem; Wang De Chuan uses signature red tins; and TWG Tea’s “1837” is one of the heritage claims its guide examines.
Modern brands
Newer brands lead with design: Paper & Tea’s gallery minimalism in Berlin, Kusmi Tea’s colourful tins, Postcard Teas’ named-grower postcard packets, Xiao Guan Cha’s uniform aluminium can, and Tea Forté’s pyramid infuser.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers a brand’s visual identity — its tins, palette and voice — as design commentary, and notes where facts could not be fully confirmed. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Tea brands, part 1
Paper & Tea, Ippodo, Kusmi Tea, Postcard Teas, T2, Dilmah and DAVIDsTEA.
- Paper & Tea — The Berlin brand’s gallery-minimalist tea design, with honest caveats.
- Ippodo — The Kyoto tea house’s restrained matcha heritage, with honest caveats.
- Kusmi Tea — The French-Russian brand’s colourful imperial tins, with honest caveats.
- Postcard Teas — The London shop’s postcard packets and named-grower ethos, with honest caveats.
- T2 — The Melbourne brand’s experiential retail and bold packaging, with honest caveats.
- Dilmah — The Sri Lankan brand’s single-origin Ceylon tea and founder story, with honest caveats.
- DAVIDsTEA — The Canadian brand’s teal, playful tea retail, with honest caveats.
Tea brands, part 2
TWG Tea, The Republic of Tea, Palais des Thés, Lupicia, Ronnefeldt, Rare Tea Company and Wang De Chuan.
- TWG Tea — The Singapore house’s gold-and-black luxury and “1837” heritage, with honest caveats.
- The Republic of Tea — The California brand’s “republic” voice and round tins, with honest caveats.
- Palais des Thés — The Paris house’s connoisseur education and tea-hunters, with honest caveats.
- Lupicia — The Japanese brand’s colourful seasonal collectible tins, with honest caveats.
- Ronnefeldt — The German house’s HORECA luxury and dragon emblem, with honest caveats.
- Rare Tea Company — The London brand’s direct-trade single-estate minimalism, with honest caveats.
- Wang De Chuan — The Taiwanese house’s signature red tins and charcoal roasting, with honest caveats.
Tea brands, part 3
OSULLOC, Simon Lévelt, Teabox, Xiao Guan Cha, Newby, Tea Forté and Tea Drop.
- OSULLOC — The Korean brand’s minimalist Jeju green tea and tea museum, with honest caveats.
- Simon Lévelt — The Dutch coffee-and-tea merchant’s heritage shops, with honest caveats.
- Teabox — The Indian brand’s freshness system and garden transparency, with honest caveats.
- Xiao Guan Cha — The Chinese brand’s uniform aluminium can, with honest caveats.
- Newby — The London brand’s opulent luxury caddies and charity ownership, with honest caveats.
- Tea Forté — The American brand’s pyramid infuser design object, with honest caveats.
- Tea Drop — The Melbourne brand’s colourful café-culture tins, with honest caveats.
Tea brands, part 4
A.C. Perch’s, Sirocco, Demmers Teehaus, Companhia Portugueza do Chá, JING, teapigs and Yogi Tea.
- A.C. Perch’s — The historic Copenhagen tea house’s heritage shop and tins, with honest caveats.
- Sirocco — The Swiss coffee-and-tea house’s heritage and cotton sachet, with honest caveats.
- Demmers Teehaus — The Viennese tea house’s numbering system and salon register, with honest caveats.
- Companhia Portugueza do Chá — The Lisbon brand’s fabricated old-world design, with honest caveats.
- JING — The London brand’s minimalist single-garden tea and glass serveware, with honest caveats.
- teapigs — The British brand’s playful anti-stuffy tea and tea temples, with honest caveats.
- Yogi Tea — The Ayurvedic wellness brand’s wisdom tags and folk-art packaging, with honest caveats.
Premium and craft tea
Harney & Sons, Smith Teamaker, Rishi, Bellocq, Pukka, Mariage Frères and Vahdam.
- Harney & Sons — The family tea blender from Connecticut, its ornate heritage tins and black-and-gold look, and honest caveats.
- Smith Teamaker — The Portland craft tea maker from the founder of Stash and Tazo, its numbered blends and apothecary look, and honest caveats.
- Rishi Tea — The Milwaukee direct-trade organic tea brand, its botanical look, and honest caveats.
- Bellocq — The luxury Brooklyn tea brand, its signature yellow caddies and numbered blends, and honest caveats.
- Pukka — The Bristol organic herbal tea brand, its ornate mandala-like packaging, and honest caveats.
- Mariage Frères — The 1854 Paris luxury tea house, its black-and-gold look and Marco Polo blend, and honest caveats.
- Vahdam — The digital-first Indian tea brand shipping farm-to-cup worldwide, its colorful look, and honest caveats.
British, German and French tea houses
Yorkshire Tea, Taylors of Harrogate, Ahmad Tea, Teekanne, Tetley, PG Tips and Dammann Frères.
- Yorkshire Tea — The black tea blend launched in 1977 by Taylors of Harrogate, part of the family-owned Bettys & Taylors Group, first made to suit Yorkshire’s tap water, blended in Harrogate from teas grown in Africa and India, and reported in 2019 as Britain’s best-selling tea brand.
- Taylors of Harrogate — The tea and coffee merchant founded in 1886 by Charles Taylor as C.E. Taylor & Co., bought in 1962 by the Harrogate tea-room business Bettys, maker of Yorkshire Tea since 1977, and today the family-owned Bettys & Taylors Group’s tea and coffee business.
- Ahmad Tea — The family company founded in Southampton in 1986 by Rahim Afshar and his brothers and named after their father, now based in Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire, with a production site it says it opened in the UAE in 2012 and tea sold, it says, in more than 80 countries.
- Teekanne — The tea company founded in Dresden in 1882 as R. Seelig & Hille, bought in 1892 by Rudolf Anders and Eugen Nissle and family-owned since, rebuilt in Düsseldorf after 1945, where engineer Adolf Rambold’s machines made the double-chamber tea bag.
- Tetley — The tea business the Tetley brothers set up in Yorkshire in 1837, which moved to London in 1856, sold the UK’s first tea bags in 1953, created the Tea Folk in 1973 and has been owned by India’s Tata group since 2000, now part of Tata Consumer Products.
- PG Tips — The tea Brooke Bond launched in 1930 as Pre-Gestee, famous for its chimpanzee adverts from 1956 and Monkey from 2007, blended at Trafford Park in Manchester, owned by Unilever from 1984 and, since the 2022 sale of ekaterra to CVC, by Lipton Teas and Infusions.
- Dammann Frères — The French tea house that dates its history to the 1825 purchase of the tea trader Derode, created Goût Russe Douchka and the transparent Cristal sachet, has been majority-owned by Italy’s Illy group since 2007 and blends its teas in Dreux.
American tea brands
Bigelow, Celestial Seasonings, Stash, Tazo, Mighty Leaf, Numi and Red Rose.
- Bigelow Tea — The family company Ruth Campbell Bigelow started in New York in 1945 with Constant Comment, an orange-and-spice black tea, which moved to Norwalk in 1950 and Fairfield in 1990, and bought South Carolina’s Charleston Tea Garden in 2003.
- Celestial Seasonings — The Boulder, Colorado herbal-tea company Mo Siegel began in 1969 with wild Rocky Mountain herbs, maker of Sleepytime and Red Zinger since 1972, owned by Kraft from 1984 and part of Hain Celestial since 2000, known for boxes with artwork and quotes.
- Stash Tea — The Portland, Oregon tea company founded in 1972 by Steve Lee, Dave Leger and Steven Smith, owned since the early 1990s by Japan’s Yamamotoyama, known for Double Bergamot Earl Grey and Chai, with a compass-rose logo redrawn in 2018.
- Tazo — The tea brand Steven Smith founded in Portland, Oregon in 1994 with Sandstrom Partners, sold to Starbucks in 1999 and Unilever in 2017, now owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions, known for Passion, Zen and chai and a logo set in Exocet until 2013.
- Mighty Leaf — The California tea brand co-founded in 1996 by Gary Shinner and Jill Portman, known for whole-leaf teas in a stitched mesh pouch, bought by Peet’s Coffee & Tea in 2014 and now sold through peets.com within the JDE Peet’s group.
- Numi Organic Tea — The Oakland company founded in 1999 by brother and sister Ahmed Rahim and Reem Hassani, named after the dried-lime tea of their Iraqi childhood, a founding B Corp known for organic, Fair Trade teas and packaging shaped by Hassani’s artwork.
- Red Rose Tea — Founded by Theodore Harding Estabrooks in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1894, sold to Brooke Bond in 1932, now owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions in Canada and by Teekanne’s Redco Foods in the US, where Harris Tea makes it under licence.
British and Irish tea brands
Typhoo, Clipper, Barry’s Tea, Lyons, Bewley’s, Whittard and Fortnum & Mason.
- Typhoo — The packet tea John Sumner launched in Birmingham in 1903, later part of Cadbury Schweppes and Premier, sold to India’s Apeejay in 2005 and Zetland Capital in 2021, then bought out of administration by Supreme in December 2024.
- Clipper Teas — The tea company Lorraine and Mike Brehme started in Dorset in 1984, an early holder of the Fairtrade Mark in 1994, rebranded “natural, fair & delicious” in 2008, sold to Royal Wessanen (now Ecotone) in 2012 and still blending in Beaminster, it says.
- Barry’s Tea — The Cork tea company founded in 1901 by James J. Barry, which sold from a shop on Prince’s Street, turned to East African teas and wholesaling in 1960, became a national brand by the mid-1980s and describes itself as independent and family-owned.
- Lyons Tea — The Irish tea brand that grew out of London’s J. Lyons & Co., passed through Allied Lyons to Unilever in 1996, is now owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions, and is remembered for its Minstrels advertising and its long rivalry with Barry’s.
- Bewley’s — The Dublin tea and coffee company that dates itself to 1840 and a Quaker tea-importing family, opened the Grafton Street café with Harry Clarke windows in 1927, and has belonged to Patrick Campbell’s Campbell Bewley Group since 1986.
- Whittard of Chelsea — The London tea merchant Walter Whittard founded in Fleet Street in 1886, which moved to Chelsea after the Blitz, floated on AIM in 1996, was sold out of administration in 2008 and is controlled by EPE Special Opportunities, advised by Epic Private Equity.
- Fortnum & Mason — The Piccadilly grocer founded by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason in 1707, owned by the Weston family’s Wittington Investments since 1951, which says it created Royal Blend tea for Edward VII in 1902 and calls eau de nil its signature colour.
Global and Asian tea brands
Lipton, Brooke Bond, Tata Tea, Wagh Bakri, Ito En, Basilur and Salada.
- Lipton — The tea brand of Glasgow grocer Thomas Lipton, who opened his first shop in 1871 and sold Ceylon tea from 1890; bought by Unilever between 1938 and 1972, sold to CVC in 2022 as Lipton Teas and Infusions, while Lipton Ice Tea stays with a PepsiCo–Unilever joint venture.
- Brooke Bond — The tea company Arthur Brooke started with a Manchester teahouse in 1869, which launched Red Label in India in 1903 and PG Tips in 1930, merged with Liebig in 1968, joined Unilever in 1984, and is now owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions except in India, Nepal and Indonesia.
- Tata Tea — The brand of Tata Consumer Products, which grew from Tata Finlay, set up in 1962 with James Finlay of Glasgow, became Tata Tea in 1983, introduced its poly pack in 1985, bought Tetley in 2000 and runs the Jaago Re campaign.
- Wagh Bakri — The Ahmedabad tea brand of Gujarat Tea Processors and Packers, which traces its roots to Narandas Desai’s South African tea estate of 1892, registered its tiger-and-goat name in 1934 and is still run by the Desai family.
- Ito En — The Japanese tea company founded in Shizuoka in 1966 as Frontier Tea by the Honjo brothers, renamed Ito En in 1969, which launched canned green tea in 1985, renamed it Oi Ocha in 1989 and is now a Tokyo-listed group that also owns Teas’ Tea.
- Basilur — The Sri Lankan Ceylon tea brand of Basilur Tea Export, founded by Dr Gamini Abeywickrama, which launched its first collection in 2008 and is known for book-shaped caddies, an island-shaped tin and decorative gift packaging designed with creative director Andrey Mareev.
- Salada — The packet tea Peter C. Larkin launched in Toronto in 1892, later owned by Shirriff-Horsey, Kellogg and Unilever, and today held by Redco Foods in the US (made under licence by Harris Tea) and Lipton Teas and Infusions in Canada.
Tea from India, Sri Lanka and Europe
Taj Mahal Tea, Society Tea, Akbar, Mlesna, Betjeman & Barton, Hälssen & Lyon and Nordqvist.
- Taj Mahal Tea — The premium blend Brooke Bond launched in India in 1966, now a Hindustan Unilever brand, remembered for the 1988 “Wah Taj!” commercial with tabla player Zakir Hussain, a Mumbai tea house and musical billboards in Vijayawada.
- Society Tea — The packaged tea of Hasmukhrai & Co., a Mumbai family tea business dating to the Masjid Bunder tea market, launched around 1990–91 in a blue pack chosen against market research, and blended and packed in Sanjan, Gujarat, the company says.
- Akbar Tea — The Ceylon tea brand of Akbar Brothers, founded in Sri Lanka in 1969 by Abbas and Inayet Akbarally, a family-owned exporter that blends and packs at Kelaniya near Colombo and sells Akbar and Alghazaleen teas from the Middle East to Oman.
- Mlesna — The Sri Lankan tea brand founded in 1983 by former Brooke Bond tea taster Anselm Perera, named by reversing his first name, known for gift packaging that won packaging awards and for tea centres from Colombo’s Liberty Plaza to a Tea Castle at Talawakelle.
- Betjeman & Barton — The Paris tea house that dates itself to 1919, moved to 23 boulevard Malesherbes in 1965, was managed from 1978 by Didier Jumeau-Lafond, coded its tins red, green and black, and says the Cluizel family bought it in 2018.
- Hälssen & Lyon — The Hamburg tea trader founded in 1879 by Alfred Moritz Lyon and Gustav Vincent Hälssen, based in the Speicherstadt since 1887, owned by the Ellerbrock family in its fourth generation, which blends, flavours and packs tea for brands and private labels.
- Nordqvist — The Finnish family tea house that began in 1979 as a Helsinki tea shop run by Sirpa and Hannu Nordqvist, created the Keisarin Morsian blend in 1985, and now flavours and packs its tea at its own factory in Nurmijärvi.
At a glance: founding, base and signature
Taken from each guide’s fact panel. Follow the link for detail and caveats.
| Brand | Founded | Based | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|
| A.C. Perch’s | 1835 (Denmark) | Copenhagen | The historic shop |
| Ahmad Tea | Southampton, England (1986) | See guide | Black-tea blends, tea gifts, teabags |
| Akbar Tea | Sri Lanka (1969 (Akbar Brothers)) | See guide | Akbar and Alghazaleen Ceylon teas |
| Barry’s Tea | Cork, Ireland (1901) | See guide | Gold Blend, Master Blend, Original Blend |
| Basilur | Sri Lanka (2007 (first collection 2008)) | See guide | Tea Book, Island of Tea, Leaf of Ceylon |
| Bellocq | ~2011 (Brooklyn) | See guide | Luxury atelier |
| Betjeman & Barton | Paris, France (1919 (company date)) | See guide | Flavoured blends, Eden Rose, colour-coded tins |
| Bewley’s | Dublin, Ireland (1840 (company’s date)) | See guide | Tea, coffee, the Grafton Street café |
| Bigelow Tea | New York, USA (1945) | See guide | Constant Comment |
| Brooke Bond | Manchester, England (1869) | See guide | Red Label, Taj Mahal, PG Tips, tea cards |
| Celestial Seasonings | Boulder, Colorado, USA (1969) | See guide | Sleepytime, Red Zinger |
| Clipper Teas | Dorset, England (1984) | See guide | Fairtrade and organic teas; Fairtrade Mark 1994 |
| Companhia Portugueza do Chá | 2014 (Portugal) | Lisbon | The Braganza emblem |
| Dammann Frères | France (1825 (purchase of Derode, per the company)) | See guide | Goût Russe Douchka, the Cristal tea sachet |
| DAVIDsTEA | 2008 (Canada) | Montreal | Playful teal retail |
| Demmers Teehaus | 1981 (Austria) | Vienna | The numbering system |
| Dilmah | 1985 (Sri Lanka) | Sri Lanka | Single-origin Ceylon |
| Fortnum & Mason | London (1707 (William Fortnum and Hugh Mason)) | See guide | Royal Blend tea (1902, per the company), hampers |
| Harney & Sons | 1983 (Connecticut) | See guide | See guide |
| Hälssen & Lyon | Hamburg, Germany (1 January 1879) | See guide | Blending, flavouring and packing tea for other brands |
| Ippodo | 1717 (Japan) | Kyoto | Kyoto matcha heritage |
| Ito En | Shizuoka, Japan (1966 (as Frontier Tea)) | See guide | Oi Ocha canned and bottled green tea |
| JING | 2004 (UK) | London | The glass serveware |
| Kusmi Tea | 1867 (France) | Paris | The colourful tin |
| Lipton | Glasgow, Scotland (1871 (shop); tea from 1890) | See guide | Yellow Label tea; Lipton Ice Tea (joint venture) |
| Lupicia | 1994 (Japan) | Hokkaido | Seasonal collectible tins |
| Lyons Tea | J. Lyons and Co., London (Packaged tea from 1904) | See guide | Lyons Original, Lyons Gold, the Minstrels |
| Mariage Frères | 1854 (Paris) | See guide | Marco Polo |
| Mighty Leaf | California, USA (1996) | See guide | Whole-leaf tea in stitched pouches |
| Mlesna | Colombo, Sri Lanka (1983) | See guide | Gift-packed teas, tea centres, the Tea Castle |
| Newby | 2000 (UK) | London | The ornate caddy |
| Nordqvist | Helsinki, Finland (1979) | See guide | Keisarin Morsian, Teetaivas, Tiikerin Päiväuni |
| Numi Organic Tea | Oakland, California, USA (1999) | See guide | Organic, Fair Trade teas; dried-lime tea |
| OSULLOC | 1979 (South Korea) | Jeju | The Jeju tea museum |
| Palais des Thés | 1986 (France) | Paris | The tea school |
| Paper & Tea | 2011 (Germany) | Berlin | Gallery-minimal packaging |
| PG Tips | Manchester, England (1930 (as Pre-Gestee)) | See guide | Chimpanzee adverts, Monkey, pyramid and square bags |
| Postcard Teas | 2007 (UK) | Mayfair | Named-grower packets |
| Pukka | 2001 (Bristol) | See guide | See guide |
| Rare Tea Company | 2004 (UK) | London | Direct-trade single-estate |
| Red Rose Tea | Saint John, New Brunswick (1894) | See guide | Orange pekoe black tea, Wade figurines in the box |
| Rishi Tea | 1997 (Milwaukee) | See guide | See guide |
| Ronnefeldt | 1823 (Germany) | Frankfurt | HORECA tea |
| Salada | Toronto (1892) | See guide | Blended black tea sold in sealed packets |
| Simon Lévelt | 1826 (Netherlands) | Haarlem | The specialty shop |
| Sirocco | 1908 (Switzerland) | Schmerikon | The cotton sachet |
| Smith Teamaker | 2009 (Portland) | See guide | See guide |
| Society Tea | Mumbai, India (1933 (Hasmukhrai & Co.)) | See guide | Society Tea, Society Masala Tea, One Minute Tea |
| Stash Tea | Portland, Oregon (1972) | See guide | Double Bergamot Earl Grey, Chai, Lemon Ginger |
| T2 | 1996 (Australia) | Melbourne | Experiential retail |
| Taj Mahal Tea | India (1966, by Brooke Bond) | See guide | “Wah Taj!” campaign with Zakir Hussain, from 1988 |
| Tata Tea | India, as Tata Finlay (1962; Tata Tea from 1983) | See guide | Tata Tea Premium, Agni, Jaago Re |
| Taylors of Harrogate | Harrogate, North Yorkshire (1886 (as C.E. Taylor & Co.)) | See guide | Yorkshire Tea, Taylors coffee |
| Tazo | Portland, Oregon (January 1994) | See guide | Passion, Zen, Awake, chai |
| Tea Drop | 2004 (Australia) | Melbourne | Colourful named tins |
| Tea Forté | 2003 (USA) | Maynard, MA | The pyramid + leaf |
| Teabox | 2012 (India) | Siliguri | The freshness system |
| teapigs | 2006 (UK) | United Kingdom | The tea temple |
| Teekanne | Dresden, Germany (1882 (as R. Seelig & Hille)) | See guide | Double-chamber tea bag, Teefix, Pompadour |
| Tetley | Yorkshire, England (1837 (as Joseph Tetley & Co.)) | See guide | UK’s first tea bags (1953), round bags, Tea Folk |
| The Republic of Tea | 1992 (USA) | Larkspur, CA | The “republic” voice |
| TWG Tea | 2008 (Singapore) | Singapore | Gold “1837” roundel |
| Typhoo | Birmingham, England (1903) | See guide | Typhoo Tipps packet tea; tea bags from 1967 |
| Vahdam | 2015 (New Delhi) | See guide | Farm-to-cup DTC |
| Wagh Bakri | Durban, South Africa; Ahmedabad (1892 (company date)) | See guide | See guide |
| Wang De Chuan | 1862 (Taiwan) | Taipei / Tainan | The red tin |
| Whittard of Chelsea | Fleet Street, London (1886) | See guide | Loose tea, coffee, hot chocolate, tea shops |
| Xiao Guan Cha | 2014 (China) | Beijing | The uniform can |
| Yogi Tea | 1984 (USA) | Oregon | Wisdom on the tag |
| Yorkshire Tea | Harrogate, North Yorkshire (1977) | See guide | Yorkshire Tea, Yorkshire Gold, Hard Water blend |
Frequently asked questions
Is TWG Tea really from 1837?
Our guide examines TWG Tea’s “1837” heritage claim; see the guide for detail.
What is Ippodo known for?
Its restrained Kyoto matcha heritage, according to our guide.
See also our coffee roaster brand guidelines.
Part of our Food & Beverage brand guidelines. See also all collections.