About Teapigs

Teapigs dragged proper loose-leaf quality into the convenience of a bag and refused to apologise for the price. Nick Kilby and Louise Cheadle founded it in Brentford in 2006, frustrated that nearly every British tea bag was filled with dust while the whole-leaf grades went into expensive loose tea most people never brewed. Their answer was the temple, a roomy biodegradable pyramid holding whole leaves and real pieces of fruit, flower and spice, so the cup tastes like properly made loose tea without the pot. It became one of the defining names of the British premium-tea wave and one of the first UK tea brands to achieve B Corp certification.

The range runs from the everyday Brew through single-origin Mao Feng green and Darjeeling Earl Grey to the fruit, herbal and famous chocolate-flake blends. Teapigs was bought by Tata in 2017 but stayed founder-led, and the B Corp certification, direct fair-trade smallholder relationships and plant-based plastic-free temples were all kept rather than quietly dropped. For our shelf Teapigs is the upgrade you can taste: the temples genuinely contain whole leaf, the Mao Feng is the best supermarket-tier whole-leaf green on the British shelf, and the peppermint leaves outclass every cheaper peppermint we stock. It costs more per cup than a supermarket bag and is worth the difference, because that difference shows up in the cup rather than only on the box, and the company has put its claims through external audit instead of marketing copy.

Key facts

The founders

Brand timeline

1. 2006 Teapigs founded in London

   Nick Kilby and Louise Cheadle found Teapigs in London with a mission to bring premium loose-leaf-quality tea into the convenient tea-bag format, using pyramid bags to allow whole-leaf expansion rather than the crushed tea-dust in standard tea bags.

2. 2010 B-Corp certification

   Teapigs achieves B-Corporation certification, committing to environmental and social impact metrics across the supply chain. Direct fair-trade relationships with smallholder farmers.

3. 2017 Acquired by Tata Global Beverages

   Teapigs is acquired by Tata Global Beverages (same group as Tetley and Good Earth) for international expansion while keeping the founder-led product team and B-Corp certification intact.

4. 2020 Plant-based plastic-free pyramids

   Teapigs transitions all pyramid bags to plant-based PLA biodegradable mesh, removing the synthetic mesh used in earlier pyramid formats.

5. Today Premium pyramid-bag specialist

   A premium pyramid-bag specialist with a broad range covering Everyday Brew, Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Mao Feng Green, fruit infusions, herbal blends and the iconic Chocolate Flake.

6. 2026 Stocked at Teas.co.uk

   Hand-picked into curator selection: the full Teapigs range from Everyday Brew through Darjeeling Earl Grey, Mao Feng Green, Chocolate Flake, Spiced Pear, Chocolate and Mint and beyond.

Sustainability

Teapigs sits at the premium end of the tea-bag category with B-Corporation certification since 2010, direct fair-trade smallholder farmer relationships, plant-based PLA biodegradable pyramid bags since 2020 (replacing the synthetic mesh of earlier pyramid formats), and fully kerbside recyclable outer cardboard packaging. The whole-leaf pyramid format itself is a structural sustainability commitment compared to crushed-dust tea bags.