Every season is festive at Whittard of Chelsea. In spirit, colour and pure practicality, we love the standards of elegance, beauty and fun that this brand brings to its celebration of the fine traditions surrounding tea, coffee and chocolate.

Mission to thrill.

Whittard’s mission is to surprise and delight customers with their passion for the very best tea, coffee and related home gifts from around the world. The brand is proud to be innovative and unique. There is always some new feel-good delicacy to offer, teas to smell, touch and taste, freshly roasted coffee to be ground. Shopping at Whittard of Chelsea involves all the senses.

There is no country that embraces the 'afternoon tea' ceremony quite like we do in Britain. There is something very British about a cup of tea - especially black tea with milk, served from an elegant teapot, or strained through a tea strainer, in a pretty bone china cup and saucer, maybe with a biscuit on the side. We find the colours, aromas, textures and sounds from the Whittard store encourage a take-home dollop of civilised lifestyle. It makes you want to try something a little bit different and to really celebrate your tea-time.

Being experts in tea and coffee, Whittard’s staff have stories to tell. Every day they want to pass on their many years of knowledge and experience. Founded as a family business by Walter Whittard in 1886, their origins were as a specialist tea and coffee importer trading at 165 Fleet Street.

They still travel the world looking for inspiration and new products to bring back to the 'treasure-trove' stores. They remain pioneers in the field of teas and coffees constantly introducing new flavours and embracing new trends. No journey is considered too far - travelling to Central America in search of the latest elephant-sized coffee bean, off to a far-flung corner of India to taste the first flush of Darjeeling or to learn about the ancient art of Ayurvedic practise, or simply driving to Stoke on Trent, still the home of the ultimate fine bone china.

Manager Sarah Dod: “I love our prettily packaged tea gift sets – Earl Grey leaf tea, biscuits, infuser, marmalade and strawberry preserve – because even if I didn’t work here I’d love to appreciate it as a guest.”