Seven spoons of loose leaf laid side by side from above, every lot a different colour and cut
A lidded bowl opened from above to show the green leaf inside
Weldrick Leaf · Oamaru · landed since 2014

Sold by the gram

Twelve teas on the shelf this month. Every pack shows its price per 100 g, how many cups it makes, and the grams, degrees and minutes that brew it.

Shop twelve teas
Anxi, Fujian$29.00 per 100 gShizuoka, first picking50 g · 100 g · 250 gNantou, winter pick10 g samples, $3.50Simao, silver budWeighed on the day it ships
Six off the shelf

Pack price on the left, price per 100 g on the right. No arithmetic required.

See all twelve
Dark wiry Rangiora Breakfast leaf tipped out of a mug onto the bench, in stock
Black

Rangiora Breakfast

Assam and Dimbula · 100 g pack
$18.00$18.00 per 100 g
About 33 cups a pack, at 3 g eachIn stock
Add 100 g · $18.00
Dark green Anxi Iron Bell leaf spilled across the table beside its gaiwan, in stock
Oolong

Anxi Iron Bell

Fujian · rolled · 100 g pack
$29.00$29.00 per 100 g
20 measures a pack, six infusions eachIn stock
Add 100 g · $29.00
A white bowl of very dark pine-smoked leaf with a scatter across the surface, three packs left
Black

Harbour Street Smoke

Fujian · pine-smoked · 100 g pack
$24.00$24.00 per 100 g
About 33 cups a pack, at 3 g each3 left
Add 100 g · $24.00
Flat green needles of Shincha Yabukita weighed out on a scale platter, sold out until March
Green

Shincha Yabukita

Shizuoka · first picking · 100 g pack
$32.00$32.00 per 100 g
25 cups a pack, at 4 g eachSold out · back 14 Mar
Join the waitlist
Pale downy buds of Yunnan Silver Needle close up, in stock
White

Yunnan Silver Needle

Simao · bud only · 50 g pack
$38.00$76.00 per 100 g
12 cups a pack, at 4 g eachIn stock
Add 50 g · $38.00
Dried hibiscus flowers and sliced rosehip, the caffeine-free house blend, in stock
Caffeine-free

Hibiscus & Rosehip No. 7

House blend · cut pieces · 100 g pack
$15.00$15.00 per 100 g
33 cups a pack, at 3 g eachIn stock
Add 100 g · $15.00
Rows of tea bushes on a steep hillside, the flush of new leaf still pale against the old growth
A landed lot set out in a white bowl for tasting, a scatter of the leaf across the bench
How a tea gets here

We buy one lot at a time and we tell you which one.

Nothing on this shelf is blended to a house standard year after year. A lot is bought, it is landed in Port Chalmers, it is tasted against the last one, and when it runs out it is gone. That is why a tea here carries a picking season on the pack and a date on the shelf edge, and why the price moves a little between lots.

Jun Weldrick buys in Fujian and Shizuoka each spring. Miriam Falkner tastes every landed lot against the previous one before it goes on sale, and writes the brewing card that ships inside the pack.

See what is on the shelf

Buying by weight, in three moves

The only decision that needs thinking about is the first one.

01
A steel measuring scoop levelled off with dark leaf on a wooden board

Pick a weight

A 10 g sample is $3.50 and makes three cups. A 100 g pack is the usual one. 250 g is for a tea you already know you drink daily, and it brings the price per 100 g down by about a tenth.

02
Loose leaf in a wooden tray on the packing bench, waiting to be weighed into a pouch

We weigh it on the day

Orders are weighed and sealed the morning they ship, into a foil-lined kraft pouch with a tin tie. Nothing sits pre-packed on a shelf losing its top note for a month.

03
A small bowl of finished liquor resting among the wet leaf it came from

Brew to the card

Every pouch carries a card: grams per cup, water temperature, steep time, how many infusions. The same numbers are on the brewing guide.

Read the brewing guide
★★★★★

I had never weighed tea before and assumed it was fussiness. Five grams of the Iron Bell, six infusions, and the last one was still better than the bag I used to drink. The card does the thinking.

Teresa Mahuika · bought Anxi Iron Bell, 100 g
★★★★★

The price per 100 g beside the pack price is the thing that got me. I could finally see that the silver needle was twice the Darjeeling and decide whether I minded.

Gordon Pyle · bought Yunnan Silver Needle, 50 g
★★★★☆

Arrived in four days to Whanganui, sealed and dated. My only complaint is that the breakfast lot I liked sold out before I reordered, which I gather is the point.

Alina Rusu · bought Rangiora Breakfast, 250 g
★★★★★

Ordered three 10 g samples before committing. That cost me ten dollars and saved me from buying a hundred grams of something I would not have finished.

Devin Oyelaran · bought a three-sample set
Read the reviews on a single tea
Glass pots and cups of brewed tea lined up for a tasting, each one a different infusion
Scented green leaf with petals through it, laid out on the tasting bench

The tasting table is open on Saturdays

Three teas are set out side by side at the Tyne Street counter every Saturday from ten, brewed at the weights on the card so you can taste what five grams actually does. No booking, no charge, and you can walk out with ten grams of whichever one won.

Find the counter →