If there were ever a tea brand that captures so completely what it is, who it serves and why it succeeds on so many levels, it is London Tea Exchange.
For nearly a decade, London Tea Exchange has evolved to own an enviable niche in the growing luxury tea market. For it is here that luxury is experienced through the richness of purity and authenticity, discovered in the beauty of artistry and delivered with an intuitive response to personal expectation.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Our philosophy and attitude is founded on the need for continuous improvement, whilst satisfying our own passion for quality tea. Our vision is to create luxury tea stores with unrivalled attention to detail with a traditional and vibrant environment, where high quality premium teas can be found and clients can receive the ultimate hospitality experience. We understand that our clients take comfort in knowing that quality is at the heart of everything we do. The success of our London store has revealed that clients are able to distinguish the superior quality of our teas which has led to an overwhelming demand for our products and services. No one delivers that kind of tea experience quite like London Tea Exchange and it would be our privilege to welcome you to our London store.
London Tea Exchange offers one of the widest selection of single estate premium tea’s from across the globe. We have had longstanding relationships with individual tea estate and have developed a trustful cooperation spanning over a decade. Our large portfolio of ovter 300 varieties of premium teas and rare teas are sourced directly from twenty different countries and includes some of the rarest teas in the world, many of which are exclusive to London Tea Exchange. We are privileged to offer our customers some of the most delicate and distinctive teas in the world, many of which are extremely sought after by tea connoisseurs from across the globe.
London Tea Exchange is an ethically responsible brand and we source all our teas using fair trade principles ensuring that all tea gardens we source from have good working conditions, fair wages and support the local community in some way. All our packaging is recyclable or biodegradable and where possible, we avoid air-freighting products, to minimise our carbon footprint.
You can e-mail London Tea Exchange at: [email protected]
Surprisingly, the English took a while to catch on to this novel trend of tea drinking. The first coffee house in England opened in London almost half a century after the first Dutch import, and even at that point, tea was a relatively unknown entity. The catalyst for England’s inveterate love for tea came in the form of Charles II’s marriage to Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. Catherine was an unashamed tea addict and her love for loose leaves soon spread amongst the aristocracy. The East India Company recognised the lucrative trading opportunity and from 1664 began to import tea into Britain.
Century, Britain received the vast majority if its tea imports from China. However, the East India Company decided to fragment China’s comprehensive monopoly on the tea trade, by developing plantations in the Assam region of India. The takeover of the East India Company by the British Government in 1858 sparked the established of a multiplicity of tea estates scattered around the Indian subcontinent. Ultimately, by 1888, British tea imports from India began to supersede those from China.
Altitude also plays a significant role in shaping the taste and textural profile of tea. In the elevated, cooler regions, the tea naturally grows at a slower pace. The protracted harvesting time enables the characteristics of the tea to develop more efficaciously, therefore guaranteeing a much higher quality of the finished product.
The process of plucking the tea requires meticulous attention and dexterity, and is usually performed by women. Usually, plucking yields approximately 16 – 24 kg of green leaves daily. Ultimately, this amount produces between for 4 – 6 kg of finished tea. The green leaves are transported to the factory which is normally located on the plantation 2 to 3 times each day, where they will undergo stages of production which will determine colour, texture, taste and appearance.
Stages of the tea production
After the harvest and the arrival of the fresh leaves to the factory, the withering process is set in motion, in which the humidity content of the harvested leaves is decreased by around a third. Withering typically takes place in specially measured troughs that can be as long as thirty metres. Large fans ventilate these troughs and can be set to variable temperatures and intensities dependent upon the humidity content of the leaves. Within each trough, the leaves are laid out on a wire mesh grid to go through a thorough withering process that usually lasts anywhere between 12 and 18 hours. By the end, the leaves become sufficiently soft and malleable for the next stage of production to take place: rolling.
The initial stages of the fermentation process occur in the prior phase of rolling. In order to complete the fermentation stage of production, leaves are dispersed out on tables in layers of around 10cm and the surrounding space is humidified by rotating ventilators which sprinkle water. The colour of the leaves is gradually transformed to a copper-red hue, during fermentation which normally lasts between two and three hours. As the quality of the finished tea product is heavily influenced by the dynamics of the fermentation, the tea maker is required to punctiliously scrutinise the degree of oxidation of the leaves.
Following the rather lengthy withering process, the leaves are rolled in large rolling machines. These machines generally comprise two heavy-duty metal plates, which rotate against each other in order to break open the cells of the leaves. Consequently, the cell fluid is brought into contact with the air, and the leaves gradually become oxidised. In turn, the fermentation process commences which develops the essential oils of the leaves. These oils are integral in moulding the idiosyncratic scents and flavours of the finished tea product.
