Loose leaf tea

Supermarket tea bags often contain finely ground tea dust, also known as fannings, and that turns bitter quickly. Loose-leaf tea consists of real tea leaves, flowers, herbs and coarse pieces of fruit.

Because loose-leaf tea isn't squeezed into a tight little bag, all the ingredients have room to unfold in the hot water. That gives a deeper, richer flavour. Loose-leaf tea doesn't just mean tea blends, but also caffeine-free herbal and fruit infusions, with flavours like hibiscus, lemongrass or vanilla. With a tea strainer or filter you decide how much to use, so every cup is exactly as strong as you like.

Our guideline is 3 grams per cup of about 220-250 ml, and 12 to 15 grams per litre. For herbal tea and fruit blends you can be a little more generous, towards 4 grams.

Every product shows the brewing advice, with the amount, the steeping time and the water temperature. That temperature matters more than you might think: white tea likes around 60 to 65 degrees, green tea around 70, while black tea and herbs can take 100.

Black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong, rooibos, honeybush, herbal tea, chai and single origin Darjeeling. Plus fruit blends and flavoured blends.

Our blends carry names from stories, but every product simply states what you're buying: the type of tea, the ingredients and the brewing advice.

Our shop is at Van Oldenbarneveltstraat 142A in the centre of Rotterdam, within walking distance of Eendrachtsplein. Every tea there sits in a glass jar, so you can smell it before you choose. That helps, because a blend that sounds good on paper can turn out differently in real life.

You can also simply order a pot of tea and sit down. We're open Tuesday to Thursday from 10:00 to 17:30, Friday from 10:00 to 19:00, Saturday from 10:00 to 17:30 and Sunday from 12:00 to 17:00. We're closed on Mondays.