Many people, even those who are not tea drinkers, have probably heard that tried and true old phrase about “all the tea in China” (mentioned in our esteemed editor’s article here recently). It’s a term that has actual historical roots, hearkening back to a time, once upon a time, when there was only one game in town for anyone wanted tea. That would have been China.

In later years the British, in particular, began to grow tired of the Chinese stranglehold on the tea market and responded by growing their own supplies of tea in India and Africa. But China continued to be a major force in the world of tea and to this day are the world’s top supplier of this commodity.

Which means that the normal course of events is for supplies of tea to flow from China to the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Which makes sense, given that tea production in the United Kingdom is still something of a novelty.

But surprisingly enough, there are a few cases when the flow of tea goes in the opposite direction. The only tea producer of note in the UK nowadays is Tregothnan Estate, in Cornwall. Read more of what we’ve written about them here. As I noted briefly in a news report earlier this year, Tregothnan tea is making its way to British supermarkets and may even be turning up in China at some point. More about all that here.

As I noted in another article recently, tea production has also come to Scotland on a modest scale. According to a recent report in the Scottish press, another Scottish tea company is looking into exporting their products to Shanghai, in China, and possibly to Japan as well. While this particular company apparently does not using any native grown tea in their products, it’s quite a feat nonetheless to be exporting tea to the world’s largest tea producer. More details here.

See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles here.

© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.