We were wrong about so many things.

Wrong about how much people would be prepared to pay for tea. About how much they would care about tea. Where it came from. Who grew it and picked it and packed it. How it was treated. How it was handled. How it should be poured – and experienced.

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That was ten years ago.

Now people care. They care the way we do. And it’s incredible.

It’s not that tea is the new coffee. It’s more than that. Tea can be mesmerising, intoxicating, romantic. Real tea isn’t cheap and dusty, stacked high in the supermarket. It’s truly beautiful. Steeped in ancient history.

People who drink Canton know this.

They know tea the way we always have. Since we first tasted what started it all: Pouchong Taiwanese tea.

For more than a decade, a family friend with a farm in the mountains of Taiwan had been giving us a tin of his delicious tea every year. Big, fat, juicy whole leaves with the most sumptuous flavour. Stunning.

Eventually, we decided we wanted to share it. To bring it to the UK – where tea is etched into the national psyche. It was at this point we discovered just how much this pouchong tea was worth. We’re talking £500 a pot in a London hotel. But there were other options. All top grade, yet more affordable. So we went for it.

It was hard graft, from the kitchen table at first. We grew our contacts in Taiwan and developed relationships with some of the finest and most experienced tea masters on earth. We travelled. We explored. We worked and worked. It was an adventure – it still is.

Canton is now served in some of the most exclusive hotels and restaurants in the world. “Luxury” doesn’t do it justice. Everything is high grade. It’s beyond premium. It’s a work of art. Our tea is still sourced direct from small, authentic farms and every leaf is treated exactly the way it should be.

We got a lot of things wrong in the beginning. But we always got the tea right. Always.

Jen

Canton Tea – Founder and CEO