Our busines grew out of an interest, (bordering on obsession!) with the world’s favourite drink and it continues to delight us. We are looking forward to continuing our service for at least the next ten years, so please carry on drinking! Remember, “a day without tea is like a day without sunshine” as a wise person once said!

Our range of coffees is selected only from the cream of the crop from each country. They are chosen for their extra quality and unique characteristics, which are linked directly to their growing conditions and equally importantly the way they are farmed. Special thanks should go to these farmers whose artistry in their field has enabled us to enjoy these true coffee delights. Creating a fine product is a painstaking achievement of which they are justifiably proud, especially in a market where general standards of quality are declining due to unsustainable low prices. 

We roast all our coffee in the shop in our small batch roaster, so we can give careful attention to each varieties optimum roast. This enables us to bring out the unique characteristics that our coffees are prized for. It also means you get to try truly fresh coffee.

We offer flavour notes as a guide (see the labels) but the best way to find out what they are like is to try them! We feal the best way to appreciate most of our coffees is in a cafetiere or filter but we have also stated those coffees suitable for making espresso or cappuccino. We sell as little as 125g, which can be ground to suit your requirements. For fresher coffee still, invest in a good grinder, this makes even more difference.
 
Our range of tea is chosen from thousands of samples sent to us each year from the producing countries around the world. No speciality worthy of the name passes us by and often we are the exclusive stockists in this country, if not Europe, of the world’s finest and most rare varieties. We now have a special relationship with growers and their agents in the country of origin and this gives us access to teas picked on as little as one morning of the year in the greatest tea gardens of the world and even teas that are grown only for us by special order. The following table indicates the number of varieties we import from the major producing countries and also the quantity of stock we hold from each country:

This also enables us to keep a good supply as demand for unusual teas has grown over the past ten years and there is fiercer competition for the limited stock. These rare teas are part of our range of over three hundred types. In offering so many teas that standing on their own would seem like one of the most precious things in the world can slip by unnoticed. We urge you to be as experimental as possible and to take time to discover and enjoy the little gems gracing our shelves.

Tea cultivation is as complex, if not more so than wine producing, so it should not be a surprise to see so many varieties on offer. Great variation in quality and flavour exist, even from the same bush in the same garden! These variations are a result of many things such as climatic conditions, soil type, time of year, how the leaves are picked and as importantly, how they are processed. It is a perfect balance of nature and nurture. 

Despite this almost boundless choice, most of tea drunk in this country is blended to remove these unique characteristics and provide a homogenised product where choice is limited to which shape of teabag you prefer! Although as a nation we are one of the largest tea consumers it is widely acknowledged that nearly all of the tea imported into Britain is of the “poorest quality imaginable”. For the past ten years we are pleased to have played a small part in changing this.

Our principles of business have always been to:

•	seek the finest products available
•	buy direct from known producers
•	build “Fair trade” relationships
•	allow customers to “try before you buy”
•	follow up  feedback from customers

There has recently been a decline in sales, both in the shop and by mail order. For this reason we have decided to experiment with setting up a web site and introducing on-line shopping. As we have little experience of this kind of work, we have approached a web hosting company, Hothouse Designs who will support us in developing and running the web site. I have prepared material for a presentation for the staff to keep them aware of developments.

Our contacts at Hothouse Design are the following and I suggest that these people take responsibility for the links:

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li	{color: #ff0000; font-family: times, “times new roman”; font-size: smaller}
h3 	{color: #00ff22; font-family: arial, helvetica, font-size: larger}

The number of products can be seen graphically.