Buying tea online

Buying tea from online vendors

It is important to use trustworthy and reputable sources when buying anything on the internet – the same applies to tea. If you’re careful and you know your tea facts you can find many interesting and rare teas online, that you won’t be able to get anywhere else. Here are some of the more popular places among tea drinkers!

• O-cha – site might not look so hi-tech, but O-cha has some great teas to offer. They specialize in Japanese tea, anything from senchas to matchas. Here you can also buy kits, tea utensils and teaware, limited edition teas and organice offerings. Shipping is worldwide (from Japan), so anyone can enjoy their tea.
• Tea Spring – here you can purchase some of the best Chinese teas, especially greens. They offer black, oolong, white, yellow, green, herbal and pu-erh tea. The website has a clean look and there are pictures off all teas, so you can see what you’re buying. The orders are shipped from China to any place in the world.
• Adagio Teas –  Adagio is a very popular source for teas, it has a wide selection of teas from different regions – Japan, China, India, South Africa. On the list are also flavored teas, herbal, decaf and english classics and even more fun – you can create your own signature blends and name them! Your blend is then available for others to review and purchase. This site ships only to the United States but there is another site directed at European customers which you can find here.
• TeaCuppa – this store offers a mix of Chinese and Japanese teas – pretty much all the types and additionally you can buy tea gifts, gadgets and other accessories. Shipping is worldwide!
• Jing Tea – a UK based vendor that ships worldwide. Their website is very clean and easy to navigate, the teas here are well presented and overall it’s an enjoyable shopping experience. Here you can find great quality and rare teas from China, Japan and India. They also offer a selection of organic and fair trade teas.
• Jing Tea Shop – this is a place worth checking out for pu-erhs, greens and oolongs from China with fresh arrivals every harvest year. They ship from China to a lot of international destinations.
• Rishi – this company is not only an online vendor, as they also have stores and sell their products at various locations in the US. They have a truly rich offer including different varieties of Japanese green teas, Chinese tea, but even Chai, Yerba Mate and Iced teas. The majority of their offerings are organic and fair trade. Unfortunately shipping is only to the US and Canada.

Tea on Ebay

It is possible to buy tea on Ebay – two recommended stores are Yunnan Sourcing and Dragon Tea House. Yunnan Sourcing has black and oolong teas, but what they really specialize in are pu-erh cakes and good prices. They ship worldwide from China. Dragon Tea House on the other hand is a huge store offreing all kinds of Chinese teas and tea accessories. It’s worth taking a look at, because their listing is very rich and you certainly can’t say no to the prices.