Single Origin

What Makes Single Origin Tea Special

Most of the tea drunk in Britain comes from blends — carefully assembled combinations of teas from multiple estates and regions, designed to deliver a consistent, reliable cup whatever the season. Blends are a great achievement of the tea maker's art, but they inevitably sacrifice one thing: individuality. Single origin teas take the opposite approach. A single origin loose leaf tea comes from one specific place — one estate, one garden, one harvest — and the result is a cup that reflects the unique fingerprint of that land. The soil composition, altitude, rainfall, temperature and the skill of the people who tend and harvest the bushes all leave their mark in the flavour and character of the tea in a way that no blend can replicate. Think of it as the terroir of the tea world.

Understanding the Grade

Many of our single origin teas carry a grade such as FTGFOP1 or STGFOP1 on the label. These are not simply marketing terms — they are a precise shorthand for the quality and character of what is inside. FTGFOP1 stands for Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1, the highest standard of whole-leaf orthodox tea, indicating that the leaves are unbroken, hand-plucked and include a generous proportion of golden tips — the young, delicate leaf buds that contribute sweetness and complexity to the cup. STGFOP1 — Special Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1 — sits above even that, denoting a tea of exceptional rarity and character from a single outstanding harvest. In both cases, you are holding the finest work of a specific garden in a specific season.

Our Assam Selection

The Brahmaputra Valley in Assam produces some of the world's most celebrated black teas — bold, malty and deeply satisfying. Our Assam Harmutty STGFOP1 comes from an estate established in 1870 beside the Dikrong River, bordering the wild forests of Arunachal Pradesh. Harvested only during the prime early spring flush in March and April, it delivers a full-bodied, malty cup with a gently spicy warmth that is utterly distinctive. Our Assam Tonganagaon FTGFOP1 Organic comes from an estate near the Himalayan foothills, revitalised since 2008 by the Chamong group who transformed neglected land into flourishing organic gardens. The Assam Mangalam FTGFOP1 (Special) rounds out the Assam selection with a tea that has earned an international reputation for Orthodox excellence — particularly prized by connoisseurs in Germany, where it regularly commands the highest prices at auction.

Our Darjeeling Selection

If Assam represents tea at its most robust, Darjeeling offers something altogether more delicate and complex — teas of such extraordinary character that the region earned the title of the Champagne of the tea world. Our Darjeeling Margaret's Hope FTGFOP1 comes from an estate with one of the most poignant stories in all of tea. Originally founded in 1864 as Bara Ringtong, the garden was renamed in 1927 by its owner Mr Cruikshank in memory of his daughter Margaret, who fell in love with the estate during a visit and hoped to return to make it her home. Tragically, she died on the voyage back to England before she could. Grown at elevations between 3,500 and 6,000 feet in the Kurseong valley, Margaret's Hope produces teas of superb fragrance and elegance. Our Darjeeling 2nd Flush Organic FTGFOP1 Singell Estate comes from one of the oldest gardens in the region, established in the 1860s and practising organic cultivation since the mid-1980s. Overlooking the Eastern Himalayas and surrounded by pine forests, Singell's second flush is a full-bodied, velvety tea with a soft muscatel character and notes of honey and clover that are unmistakably Darjeeling at its finest.