Which countries do you ship to?

We ship internationally all over the world. If your country is not on our list of destinations at Checkout then please do email us to confirm.

Note: We are currently unable to ship to Ukraine and Russian Federation. (Help those affected by war)

How quickly do you ship?

If we have the products in stock then we will endeavour to dispatch within 2 working days of receipt of order but we usually dispatch the same day for orders received before 12pm (GMT).

Which shipping services are available?

We use Royal Mail, ParcelForce and UPS for the majority of our shipping. We may use other couriers for some deliveries.

How long does shipping take to arrive?

Below is a list of the main shipping options available and their delivery times. These times are from the date of dispatch (not the date of order) and are estimates provided by the shipping services. The number of days quoted is working days and do not include weekends. 

UK Europe US & Canada Rest of World
Economy
not tracked
2 - 5
business days
5 - 10
business days
7 - 14
business days
10 - 14
business days
Standard
tracked
1 - 3
business days
4 - 10
business days
7 - 14
business days
9 - 14
business days
Express
tracked
1 - 2
business days
3 - 5
business days
3 - 5
business days
5 - 7
business days

Should I pick an untracked service?

We advise you not to! Tracked delivery allows us to follow your products to figure out what may cause delays. We strongly advise all clients to use tracked delivery for their peace of mind and we may eventually remove the option for non-tracked delivery. If you do select non-tracked delivery then there is nothing that we can do to find out the status of your delivery. 

Please note that we will not refund you in case your parcel is lost in transit using an untracked service.

Why is non-tracked delivery unavailable for PayPal?

PayPal includes buyer protection as standard and in order to meet these requirements, we have to send the orders through tracked delivery.

What are your shipping costs?

This depends on where you are and the size and weight of the order. You will be given all the prices clearly at checkout after this has been calculated by the system.

We do not make any profit on shipping at all and we are constantly negotiating to get the best shipping rates for you whilst maintaining the quality of service.

Do you offer free shipping if I spend over a certain amount?

We have a shipping reward system called our ‘Power-Up Engine’ which rewards regular clients with Free Shipping. Find out more about our Power-Up System.

We would suggest that if a seller can offer free shipping continuously then they are factoring this into the prices of their tea and essentially overcharging for their products. This is accepted practice for online stores but we do not think that it is fair. Why should someone in France (with lower shipping) pay more for their tea so that we can ship tea to the USA for free?

Why did my order arrive in different deliveries?

We want to save you money on shipping. Sometimes the size and weight of an order can only be sent by courier but if we split the order into 2-3 parcels then this allows you to choose cheaper shipping options at Checkout.

We have designed an intelligent Checkout that is always scanning for the possibility of splitting your order into multiple (maximum of 3) deliveries to get you the best rates.

What about sales tax, customs charges and other handling fees?

This depends on your country:

For UK clients

You will be charged the appropriate sales tax and should not incur any other fees.

For international clients outside of the EU

You will not be charged sales tax at Checkout. This means that you would be likely be paying less than if you are in the UK.

Every country has their own rules regarding charging local sales tax and customs charges. We ship hundreds of parcels every week internationally and, in our experience, the vast majority of international parcels do not incur any other fees. However, this is outside of our control and the package may be stopped at your local customs. This can lead to delays in delivery and may result in local sales tax, customs charges and handling fees.

Tea is often at a reduced rate of sales tax in many countries so any local sales tax should not be much extra. Teaware may be charged at the normal rate of sales tax in your country. Customs and handling fees depend on your country.

We cannot be responsible for paying any sales tax or customs charges and we cannot accept returns due to refusal to pay sales tax, brokerage or customs charges. We are happy to help if you have any questions about any charges.

For EU clients

EU clients have a few options available when ordering – IOSS, DDP or DDU. The system has been designed to automatically pick the best options for you. Here’s an explanation of each option:

IOSS

From July 2021, the EU has enabled IOSS (International One Stop Shop). This is basically winding back the clock to pre-Brexit and is the simplest way to order.

You will be charged your local sales tax on our website (so a client in the Netherlands will be charged different tax rates to a client in France). We then send the parcel as IOSS which means it goes through a ‘Green Channel’ and should not be subjected to extensive customs clearance nor incur additional charges. However, customs may still decide to inspect any IOSS parcel. Please note that despite us submitting all the IOSS related documents, the final word is always with the local customs, including whether to process the parcel as IOSS or not. 

Having troubles with your IOSS parcel? Read our IOSS Disruptions page.

IOSS is only available to EU clients on orders of less than 150EUR (before shipping). Our Checkout will automatically choose IOSS if your order qualifies and you will see a message on the screen that this is an IOSS order.

DDP vs DDU

If your order is over 150EUR (yes you are a proper Teahead), then you can send the parcel as DDP or DDU. There will be a toggle switch at Checkout for you to choose.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means that, just like with IOSS, you are paying your local taxes at our Checkout and any other customs/handling charges are all taken care of so that you will not incur any other fees to receive your package. Great, so what is the difference between IOSS and DDP?

DDP means that customs will hold your parcel to calculate the fees (which are then charged to us and not you). This will probably incur some extra delays. The cost of DDP shipping is also higher than IOSS as it involves customs handling and disbursement fees.

All European countries have DDP available through our courier services (UPS) who charge quite high handling charges. Standard European postal services are upgrading to DDP and they charge much lower rates. The list of countries below are set up for standard postal DDP and more are coming every month:

  • Austria
  • Cyprus
  • France
  • Germany
  • Ireland
  • Malta
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland

DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) means that we do not charge you any sales taxes or customs/handling fees at Checkout. There is a chance that the parcel will get to you without further fees but it is uncertain and the parcel could be stopped and delayed for quite a while as your local customs works out the fees chargeable and collects money from you. We strongly advise you to avoid DDU to the EU but it is up to you.

If you choose a DDU service then we cannot be responsible for paying any sales tax or customs charges and we cannot accept returns due to refusal to pay sales tax, brokerage or customs charges. We are happy to help if you have any questions about any charges.

Should I Split a Big Order to Qualify for IOSS?

Great question. If you are planning on ordering over 150EUR then you may like the idea of splitting the goodies over multiple orders so that each one is under 150EUR so that you qualify for IOSS rather than sending as one DDP order.

The upside to doing this is that you should not have any delays from customs. The downside is that you will most probably pay more for shipping. We advise clients who live in countries where Standard Post DDP is available to just place one order and select DDP. We advise clients who live in countries with only Courier DDP available to split an order as it will probably work out to be a similar price for shipping but you get the advantage of IOSS Green channel delivery.

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