Every tea I sell comes in a few different sizes, and it’s not always obvious which one you want. So here’s the logic — it’s really a little journey, and once you see it, choosing is easy.
Start small: the slide tin
About six cups’ worth. This is the “let’s see if I like it” size, and it’s the perfect place to start if you’re unsure. No commitment, no half-empty caddy haunting the shelf if it turns out not to be your thing. If you’re exploring, or buying for someone whose taste you’re not certain of, the slide tin is almost always the right answer.
The slide tin has a second life, too: keep an empty one for going out. Refill it, pop it in your bag, and you’ve good tea at work, on holiday, even camping. No more being stranded with a sad teabag.
Settle in: the caddy (regular tin)
Closer to forty cups, and this is the one built for keeping tea at its best. It has an inner stopper as well as the lid, so the leaf stays fresh and protected from air and light. Once you’ve found a tea you love and know you’ll come back to, the caddy is your home base. It’s the format I’d point most people towards for the teas they drink regularly.
Stock up: the refills
For the teas you’ve truly fallen for. Refills come in 100g (the same amount as a caddy) and 250g (for the ones you never want to run out of), and they work in a simple, satisfying way: pour the refill straight into your empty caddy and you’re away. Better value, less packaging, same lovely tea.
One thing worth knowing: the refill pouch is for topping up, not for long-term storage. It won’t protect the leaf the way the caddy does, so decant it into your caddy and pop the empty pouch on the compost.
A quick word on why some teas aren’t 100g
You may notice that some of my teas come in a caddy of less than 100g — an 80g here, a 50g there — and I want to be straightforward about why, because it’s a good thing, not a shortfall.
It comes down to the leaf. Teas vary enormously in how much room they take up for a given weight. Some are made from large, whole leaves (Long Jing or Da Hong Pao, say); others are light and airy (delicate white teas like Tinderet Kenya White, or whole flowers like my Camomile). A tightly-rolled or broken-leaf tea packs down small and dense; a big, intact or featherlight leaf simply doesn’t. There’s only so much of it you can fit in a caddy, so the weight that fills the same tin varies from tea to tea.
It’s a quirk of buying tea that’s been left whole and handled gently rather than chopped small to pack tightly. If anything, a caddy that’s full to the brim of big or delicate leaf is a sign you’re getting the real thing: proper, intact tea, exactly as it should be. You’ll still get plenty of cups from it, and the brewing guide on the tin will see you right.
Still not sure?
Start with a slide tin. It’s the lowest-risk way to find out whether a tea’s for you, and everything else follows from there. And if you ever want a steer, just drop me a line — I’m always happy to help you find your way around.
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Tea Sommelier, Team Tea