Canton Tea Co.

Canton Tea was set up in 2007 by Jennifer Wood, who left a career in branding to build a company around a single, specific attachment: fifteen years of drinking Pouchong tea before she ever considered selling it. The business started, as many of this kind do, from her kitchen table, and has since grown into a dedicated Bristol warehouse carrying more than 120 teas.

Canton's stated approach favors direct relationships with producers and visits to origin over buying through intermediaries, on the argument that honesty in sourcing matters more than complexity in presentation — the company's own line is that great tea "doesn't need to be complicated, it needs to be honest." That sourcing has carried it into wholesale relationships with Michelin-starred restaurants, hotels and department stores including Harrods, alongside a direct-to-consumer shop and a subscription service, the Canton Collectors Circle.

For a company whose founding motivation was one tea a person kept coming back to for fifteen years, the eventual reach into some of the UK's most demanding restaurant kitchens is a specific validation of a very personal starting point.