About us

We are Friends of Tea – a small team from Meschede in the Sauerland region of Germany. Since 2018, we have been bringing high-quality tea straight from the tea gardens to your home. No long trade chains – instead, real stories and real people behind every bag.

How it all began

The idea for Friends of Tea was born in the highlands of Darjeeling – at the Glenburn Tea Estate, among tea bushes on the slopes of the Himalayas. That is where the question came up: why not bring tea straight from the garden to the people who drink it?

The tea trade is shaped by long chains. On its way from the garden to your cup, a tea often changes hands many times. Every step costs money – and in the end you pay a lot for the steps in between, not for quality.

Our story

• The idea: A visit to the Glenburn Tea Estate in Darjeeling – and the wish to trade tea without detours.
• 2018: Friends of Tea is founded. The first teas come straight from Darjeeling to Meschede.
• The years that followed: We travel to the growing countries and get to know new tea gardens and the people there. Our range grows – from Darjeeling and Assam to oolong and matcha from Kagoshima.
• Today: Around 50 teas and tea accessories, a tea blog (in German) with lots of recipes and guides – and still the same standards as on day one.

Direct instead of detours

We talk to the people who grow and process the tea – not to wholesalers. That way, we know exactly where a tea comes from and how it was made.

Because there are no intermediate steps, we can offer you very good quality at a fair price. And the tea gardens benefit from a direct, long-term partnership.

How we choose our teas

Before a tea joins our range, we taste it extensively – ideally right where it is grown. It only makes the cut if it meets three criteria:

In addition, we have our teas tested for residues on a regular basis. Only if everything is flawless does a tea go into a Friends of Tea bag.

Who is behind Friends of Tea