Loose-leaf tea and freshly roasted coffee are the best souvenirs London sells: light, flat, unbreakable, and cheaper here than the same thing bought at home. Three shops do it properly, and the oldest of them has been trading tea on the same spot on the Strand since 1706.
The trap is buying the wrong thing. A tin of teabags from an airport shop is a gift, not a souvenir; a hundred grams of a named single-estate tea, or half a kilo of beans roasted the week you flew, is something you will actually finish and remember. The price difference between the two is usually a couple of pounds.
This page is about buying tea and coffee to take away, not drinking it here. For the ritual with the tiered stand, see our guide to afternoon tea in London; for where to drink a decent cup standing up, coffee in London.
The three shops, with their days and hours
- Twinings, 216 Strand WC2R 1AP
- Monday to Wednesday 11.00–18.00; Thursday 11.30–18.30; Friday to Sunday 11.00–18.00. Open seven days
- Monmouth Coffee, Bermondsey: 3 & 4 Dockley Road SE16 3AF
- Monday to Friday 8.00–15.00; Saturday 8.00–16.00. Closed Sunday. Card payments only
- Postcard Teas, 9 Dering Street W1S 1AG
- Monday to Saturday 12.00–18.30. Closed Sunday and bank holiday Mondays
- The one to know
- Two of the three close early or close on Sunday. Twinings is the only one open every day
Twinings, 216 Strand: the doorway with the lion and the two seated figures
Thomas Twining bought Tom's Coffee House on this site in 1706 and began selling fine tea as his way of standing out among the two thousand-odd coffee houses then trading in London. The business has been at the address ever since, which makes the shop front one of the oldest surviving pieces of retail in the city.
The frontage is listed at Grade II in its own right, as Historic England list entry 1236754, added to the list on 1 December 1987 under the name "Twining's". The statutory description is worth reading before you look at it: an early nineteenth-century stuccoed shop front, a single storey and one window wide, with the recessed doorway framed by Grecian columns carrying an entablature and, above it, a raised central block topped by a lion and flanked by two seated Chinese figures, the whole set against an open pediment. Almost nobody walking down the Strand notices any of it, because the shop is exactly one window wide and the traffic is loud.
Inside, the shop keeps a tasting bar: staff say they always have four or five different teas brewed and somebody on hand to pour and explain them, which is the fastest way to find out what you actually like before you buy 100 grams of it. It runs paid tea masterclasses, published as Monday to Friday 15.30 to 17.30 and, at weekends, 11.30 to 13.30 and 15.30 to 17.30; we could not read a price, so ask when you book. The shop is opposite the Royal Courts of Justice, and Temple station on the District and Circle lines is a two-minute walk.
On hygiene, R Twining & Company at 216 Strand holds a rating of 5, from an inspection on 3 February 2026.
Twinings opens at eleven, not at nine. It is the only shop on this page open on a Sunday, and the only one you can reach on a late-morning walk along the Strand, but an early start does you no good at all. Thursday is the one day it stays open past six.
Monmouth Coffee, and why Bermondsey is the one to go to
Monmouth has been roasting and selling coffee in London since 1978 and buys directly from named farms and cooperatives, which is why its bags carry a farm rather than a country. Its shops are closed on Sunday and take cards only, with no cash accepted.
| Shop | Days and hours | Hygiene rating and last inspection |
|---|---|---|
| Bermondsey, 3 & 4 Dockley Road SE16 3AF | Mon–Fri 8.00–15.00; Sat 8.00–16.00 | 5, inspected 28 March 2026 |
Bermondsey is the roastery shop, the bags are freshest there, and the hours are the giveaway: it shuts at three on weekdays because it is a working roastery with a counter attached rather than a cafe. It sits at the start of the arches that our guide to the Bermondsey Beer Mile covers, and a Saturday morning there can be combined with Maltby Street and the Bermondsey markets ten minutes away.
Postcard Teas, for one small thing chosen properly
Postcard Teas occupies a single small room at 9 Dering Street, in the lanes behind New Bond Street, and opens Monday to Saturday from midday to 6.30pm. It is closed on Sundays and, unusually, on bank holiday Mondays as well, which catches people out on a long weekend.
What it does differently is provenance: teas are bought from named, small growers and the packaging says who grew them. If somebody at home is serious about tea, this is where the present comes from, and a single 50-gram packet of something specific beats a large tin of something generic. Bond Street and Oxford Circus stations are both a few minutes away.
One note for completeness: Postcard Teas does not appear on the Food Standards Agency register. That is not a warning. A shop selling sealed packets of dry leaf is not necessarily required to register as a food business in the way a cafe is, and an absence from the register means nothing in either direction.
What things cost, and what a sensible purchase looks like
None of these shops publishes a general price list, so the figures below are our estimate for September 2026 based on how each shop sells rather than on a ticket we read. Treat them as the shape of the decision, not as quotations.
- Loose-leaf tea: sold by weight in 50 g or 100 g quantities. Our estimate: a few pounds for a house blend, considerably more for a named single-estate tea. A hundred grams of good leaf makes a great many cups, so buy small and buy better.
- Coffee beans: sold in 250 g or 500 g bags with a roast date. Our estimate: a mid-single-figure to low-double-figure sum per 250 g depending on the origin.
- What not to buy: a decorative caddy you will use once, or anything pre-ground more than a few days before you fly. Ground coffee goes stale in a fortnight; whole beans keep for weeks.
Ask for the roast date on coffee and the harvest or season on tea. Any of these three shops will tell you without hesitation, which is the simplest test of whether you are in a proper shop or a gift shop. Our guide to London souvenirs worth buying applies the same test across the city, and Fortnum & Mason is the grand-department-store version of the same purchase, with a hamper attached.
Getting it home: what customs actually cares about
Dry tea leaves and roasted coffee beans are processed, packaged plant products, and they are about the least troublesome thing you can put in a suitcase. They are not liquids, so hand luggage is fine; ground coffee occasionally attracts a swab test at security because of its density on the scanner, which is a delay rather than a problem.
Two cautions. First, the rules that matter on the way out are your own country's, not Britain's: several countries restrict plant products, and we cannot advise on another country's entry rules beyond telling you to check them with your own customs authority before you buy in quantity. Second, if you are buying something with milk in it — a chocolate-coated biscuit selection, a tea latte kit, a tin of drinking chocolate — check that separately, because dairy is treated quite differently from dry leaf. For the British side of the question, including what you may bring in on arrival, our guide to UK customs allowances sets out the current position.
Monmouth takes cards only and closes early. It accepts no cash, and its Bermondsey counter shuts at three o'clock on weekdays. Postcard Teas does not open until midday. If you are fitting this into an afternoon with a train to catch, the order is Postcard Teas first and Twinings last, because Twinings is the one that stays open on a Sunday and sits closest to the main-line stations at Charing Cross and Waterloo.
On a Sunday only Twinings is open. On a Monday all three are, which makes Monday — normally the worst shopping day in London — unusually good for this particular errand. If the tea has given you an appetite for the ceremony rather than the leaf, our page on the Ethiopian coffee ceremony in London is the other direction to take it in, and the old tea trade turns up constantly in the stalls covered by our guide to London's antiques markets, where caddies and tea chests are a standing category.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I buy loose-leaf tea in London?
Twinings at 216 Strand, open seven days a week from 11am, and Postcard Teas at 9 Dering Street behind New Bond Street, Monday to Saturday from midday to 6.30pm. Buy by weight in 50 g or 100 g quantities rather than in decorative tins.
Is the Twinings shop on the Strand the original one?
It is on the original site. Thomas Twining bought the coffee house that stood there in 1706 and the business has traded at 216 Strand ever since. The shop front itself is early nineteenth-century and is listed at Grade II, with a lion and two seated figures above the door.
Where do you buy freshly roasted coffee beans in London?
Monmouth Coffee's Bermondsey shop at 3 and 4 Dockley Road is the roastery counter and the freshest, open Monday to Friday 8am to 3pm and Saturday to 4pm, cards only.
Can I take tea and coffee home in my hand luggage?
Yes. Both are dry, packaged plant products rather than liquids, so airport security is not an issue, although ground coffee is sometimes swabbed. Check your own country's rules on importing plant products before buying a large quantity, since those rules vary and are not Britain's to set.
Are these shops open on Sunday?
Only Twinings, which trades every day of the week from 11am to 6pm. Monmouth closes on Sunday, and Postcard Teas is closed on Sundays and on bank holiday Mondays.
Sources
- Historic England - Twining's, 216 Strand, list entry 1236754 (checked September 2026)
- Historic England - National Heritage List for England, open data service (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - hygiene ratings for R Twining & Company, 216 Strand; and Monmouth Coffee, Dockley Road (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Bringing food into Great Britain (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Hand luggage restrictions at UK airports (checked September 2026)