Quality China Tea

In the current ongoing war between the legion of independent new tea shops and dealers opening in Shanghai and the horde of ‘could be anywhere, feel like nowhere’ chains of Starbucks, Coasta, Coffee Bean and their ilk, I’m obviously cheering for the victory of tea and culture over a faux notion of yuppie globalised froth in a mug.

Packaging helps and Starbucks seems to think vacuum packing is classy. Not so The China Tea Company of 67 Kiangse Road (Jiangxi Road) in 1926 who did rather better with their tin caddies.