Hello!
I'm Valerie, a qualified Tea Sommelier, and Team Tea is essentially me. I taste, choose and write about every tea before it goes on the site. I started Team Tea to bridge the gap between everyday teabags and the speciality tea world, good tea, explained in plain English, with none of the gatekeeping.
Ashmolean × Team Tea
As an Oxfordshire brand, partnering with one of the world's great museums has been a genuine honour. Since 2021, I've created two exclusive teas and a gift set for the Ashmolean, each drawing on objects from the collection. The gift set goes further still: six teas, each paired with an object and the story behind it. Because just as a museum piece comes alive when you hear its story, tea becomes more than a drink once you understand its context. The Ashmolean range is made to inspire a little curiosity, one cup at a time, and every purchase supports the Museum.
Buy Women Built
European Speciality Tea Association
Independent Oxford
Let customers speak for us
This is fast becoming one of my favourites. A lovely, rounded flavour, with a hint of smokiness. I add a dash of milk out of habit, but it's not necessary.
A unique Lapsang with distinctively rich and complex flavours. Absolutely superb.
This tea is cooling and calming, I would definitely buy more
I was quietly impressed by the Malabar Java — malty and a genuinely interesting black tea — and delighted by the Digestive Boost — but the real standout was the Jasmine Dragon Pearls. Good for at least three steeps, they took me right back to my childhood in Beijing and the smell wafting from my schoolteachers’ huge enamel thermoses. Can’t wait to see what’s in the second month’s selection.
A lovely item, & an excellent service, from Team Tea. Thank you
This is such a subtle and delicious tea. Just right for an afternoon boost.
Very stylish but super practical. Love it! Teamtea also great!
Whenever I whip out my selection box of Team Tea slide tins, Orange Blosson Oolong is the most popular request - and everyone who tries it loves it. I enjoy it in for my first brew of the day, with an apple, or in the early evening, with a fruit shortcake or jammy dodger.
I can see why other reviewers have said it is now their go to tea.
Team Tea's Club
Each month, I hand-pick three loose-leaf teas for you to brew and enjoy. Some will be familiar classics done properly; others will be single-estate teas you might never have thought to try. All chosen to suit the season, and to take you somewhere new without leaving the kitchen. Each one comes in a sustainable slide tin that keeps the leaf fresh, and fits rather neatly in a handbag.
Treading lightly
I try to run Team Tea gently: tea sourced ethically, leftover leaf on the compost, and behind the scenes, solar, ground-source heat, and a fair bit more I won't bore you with here. Here's the honest version, including the bits still on my to-do list.
A gift for the tea lover in your life?
The right teapot or strainer or the job
While a dash of milk in a cuppa remains a firm British habit, trying some teas black can be a revelation. You’ll discover subtle notes of fruit, flowers, spice or chocolate that would otherwise be hidden. These ten teas demonstrate just how rewarding it can be to enjoy black tea black – pure, nuanced and full of character.
