Postcard Teas
If you really care where your tea comes from, this shop run by well-travelled tea expert Timothy d’Offay is for you. Postcard Teas on New Bond Street claims to be the only shop that reveals the true origins of its teas, marking every tin with the maker or estate’s name and the place of production. You can send someone a “tea postcard” by posting a packet into the shop’s own red postbox.
Top tea: The rare Ancient Tree Teas, including a blend from four 100-year-old trees on Wuyi Mountain in China. Only 5-7kg of Oolong tea is made from them every year.

Yumchaa
Yumchaa believes the key factors for a great cup of tea are “the leaf, the water and the freedom for the two to mingle”. So it’s loose leaf or nothing across its four shops - one on Tottenham Street near Goodge Street station, two in Camden and one in Soho.
Top tea:  Berry Berry Nice, a Rooibos tea with notes of blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, rhubarb, kiwi, vanilla and rose petals. It should be drunk while wearing sunglasses, according to Yumchaa.

Twinings
Thomas Twining bought this flagship Twinings shop on The Strand in 1706, as tea became an increasingly popular alternative to the coffee houses springing up in London. It still operates today, albeit in a slightly more modern form. It has a loose tea bar with unusual and expensive teas, a sampling counter where you can try warm teas, and even a small tea museum with old teapots and artefacts from the Twining family.
Top tea: The Cutty Sark blend, created to celebrate the reopening of the world’s last remaining tea clipper ship in Greenwich. The black version is a mixture of two Chinese teas: strong sweet leaves from Yunnan province and Keemun tea from Anhui province.

Tea Palace
This queen of modern tea shops sits in the Market Building in Covent Garden. It sells tea bags and loose leaf tea in regal purple tin caddies. Among more than 160 whole leaf teas, Tea Palacecreates limited edition blends for special occasions – such as an Ultimate Antioxidant Tea Trio to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Top tea: The Diamond Jubilee Blend – although Tea Palace keeps the exact blend of black teas involved a secret.

If you fancy some tea and cake, here’s our list of the best afternoon teas in London.

This has made me feel rather peckish this Friday lunchtime – a gorgeous new video of a traditional afternoon tea at The Savoy. There’s also a little taster of what’s on offer at The Savoy’s lovely bijou tea store, Savoy Tea.

Read more about afternoon teas in London

When we started looking to Sri Lanka for our World in London series, we came across Lanka Cake Shop and Tea Salon. This popular café and shop keeps the thirsty residents of Primrose Hill happy with a range of teas from Sri Lanka.

Lanka is partnered with the Euphorium Tea Salon in Colombo, Sri Lanka and serves up specialty infusions that can’t be found anywhere else in the UK.

These pure Ceylon teas are characterised by their delicate colour and rich flavour and are served at selected tea salons and shops in Sri Lanka. You can enjoy a pot of tea in the Lanka café or pick up loose leaf or silken tea bag varieties to try at home.

You can even sample the teas in cake form such as the shop’s Earl Grey tea flavoured crème brulee.

Let us know where else you can find a Sri Lankan experience in London.

Last week I headed along to the Drunken Monkey for a taste of their new Tea Party Menu.

In contrast to the normal heaving nature of the upstairs bar area, the downstairs dining nook was an oasis of calm.   

We sampled the Quince Asian Tea, a tasty hot infusion with liqueurs served in a teapot that went down very easily; the Citrus Iced Tea with gin and plenty of vitamins for the Christmas season from the fresh juices; and the range of three organic cakes from private baker A Little Peace. 

Personal favourite was the lemon and ginger drizzle cake and the hot cocktail tea, I love the idea of a cocktail in a teapot!

The afternoon tea needs to be booked in advance so your tasty cakes can be whipped up for you.  It’s £11 for tea (they have twelve different teas to choose from) and cake. It’s extra if you decide to add cocktails.

The giant LoveUK teapot is looking around London for The World’s Perfect Cup of Tea as decided by the fans of www.facebook.com/LoveUK.

In this video, Mr Teapot takes in some of London’s best sights, including Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, Shakspeare’s Globe Theatre, Trafalgar Square and Leake Street.

Best of all, his choice for the perfect cup of tea is Teapod in Shad Thames: refreshingly close to VL Towers!

Yesterday I enjoyed a rather spiffing game of croquet on The Goring hotel’s beautiful lawn. The hotel is celebrating its centenary this year, and is marking its 100th summer in London with a croquet and afternoon tea package.

As someone with absolutely no hand-eye co-ordination (I’ve played entire games of bowling without knocking down a single pin), I didn’t have very high expectations for my croquet skills. Despite croquet experts Jaques of London being in attendance, I admit I didn’t pick up much in the way of rules (in fact I’m not sure there were any!)

Croquet involves attempting to hit the ball through various hoops on the lawn using a mallet. One must assume the most unladylike of positions in order to hit the ball – straddle it, bend your knees and whack it as hard as you can! But I didn’t do too badly, and happily cheating (“nudging” the ball, pushing opponents’ balls out of the way) seems to be entirely acceptable!

It all made for a fun evening and I can imagine how lovely it would be to spend a leisurely afternoon trying to finish a game.

In typically British style, everything stopped for tea after a couple of hoops and we were treated to delicious sandwiches, scones, cakes and Fortnum and Mason tea.

Afternoon tea and croquet at The Goring, available 22 July to 26 August 2010, £45 per person

Living in London, we’re used to doing everything at twice the normal speed – lunches on the go, speed-dating and of course, grabbing a quick morning brew.

Newly opened tea shop Yum Chaa is encouraging us to slow down and take a bit of me time over a cup of their specially-blended, loose leaf tea. While tea bags may be more convenient, they constrict the movement of the tea, releasing bitter tannins which spoil the flavour. So you’ll only find the loose leaf variety when you sit back and relax at Yum Chaa.

The teas on offer range from the familiar Earl Grey and Assam, to more exotic varieties such as Egyptian Nights and Chilli Chilli Bang Bang. There’s also a naughty selection of cakes on offer.

Yum Chaa is located in Soho, just a few minutes walk from Oxford Street, making it the perfect place to take a break from shopping.

And if you really are too busy to be away from your email, the café has free Wi Fi so you can tap away to your heart’s content (or have a loose-leaf to go if you must dash!)