How it all started
Though tea remains the nation’s favourite hot drink, the quality on offer in cafés, restaurants and homes across the UK has long been underwhelming. For decades we’ve been settling — for dusty tea bags, for blends chosen for strength and colour over flavour, for a cup of tea that’s distinctly average.
As a lifelong tea drinker, our founder Emilie wanted more. While her coffee-loving friends were enjoying thoughtfully sourced, single-origin beans and barista-crafted experiences, tea was being left behind. She wanted to change that.
In 2012, she bought a 1974 Citroën-H van, crowdfunded on Kickstarter to convert it into a mobile tea bar, and started serving loose-leaf tea by the cup from markets and events around the UK. The first cup of Good & Proper Tea was poured in Shoreditch on December 3rd that year - brewed fresh to order, using carefully selected, whole leaves. People immediately tasted the difference - and she knew she was onto something.
Doing things properly
Emilie didn’t set out to build just another tea company - she started Good & Proper with a mission: to show the world just how good tea can be, when it’s done properly. That starts with obsessing over quality and flavour. We source single-origin, whole-leaf teas from growers we know and trust, paying well above Fairtrade prices and building long-term relationships with producers who care about quality as much as we do. From Assam to Matcha, Earl Grey to Darjeeling, every batch is tasted and selected by Emilie — and if it’s not a cup of tea worth talking about, it doesn’t make the cut.
We then make sure those leaves are brewed properly - sharing with our customers the knowledge and tools they need to bring out the best possible flavour in every cup.
Over a decade later, the mission remains the same, and what began in that little silver van is now a certified B-Corp supplying thousands of the UK’s best cafés, restaurants and hotels, as well as a fast-growing community of tea drinkers at home.
