About Us

Canton Tea Co is a British tea company trading in high grade, whole leaf Chinese tea. We have exclusive access to some of the best jasmine, white, green, oolong, black and authentic puerh teas available. In our first year, we scooped Six Golds at the 2009 Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards. Our Jasmine Pearls won the top three star gold award, endorsing it as the best available in the UK.

Behind Canton Tea Co

Canton Tea Co is a small independent UK company founded by Jennifer Wood in 2007. Jennifer worked for many years as a copywriter - nine of them with the late, great campaigner Anita Roddick. She has been drinking fine Chinese tea for many years, ever since her partner started bringing it back from his trips to China and Taiwan.

Edgar Thoemmes, webmaster and financial specialist, joined the company in 2009. He has a powerful appetite for China's tea and food culture and a brave, exploratory attitude evident on a recent trip to Sichuan where he determined to eat what the locals ate, irrespective of its visual appeal. He is now comfortably one of the UK’s most knowledgeable tea aficionados.

Edgar visiting tea farms in Wen Shan, Taiwan

Jennifer running tea tasting workshop at Petersham Nurseries

We buy direct from farmers

Mr Xu, tea farmer, supplies all our Pouchong

We are the only specialist China tea company with full time buyers in China and Taiwan. We do not use wholesalers nor do we rely on a couple of buying trips a year to select our stock. That means we know the provenance of every tea we sell. We buy direct from the source in China and Taiwan, seasonally and in small quantities.

In China our buying partner lives locally and works with a 5th generation Tea Master. They buy direct from traditional tea gardens and small producers whose entire crop would otherwise sell on the domestic market.

In Taiwan our tea comes from the mountain farm of Mr Xu, whose family we have known for many years. All our tea is bought at the fair market price and supports small, family–run enterprises. Many are certified organic; all are grown on traditional farms without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilisers.

Our Service

We offer excellent personal service. You can call us to discuss our tea, your order, or anything else on 0844 417 6363

Or email us: support@cantonteaco.com