Nick and Louise started teapigs in November 2006 with one mission – to get the nation drinking real tea again. They met whilst working for a really big tea company, where they learned all about tea and drank lots of it. And the more they learned, and the more they drank, the more they came to realise something: that there's a whole world of quality teas out there that simply aren't getting the attention they deserve. And so teapigs was born.

Nick describes himself as a tea evangelist (although much nicer than those shouty ones on American TV). Louise, an experienced tea taster who has travelled the world tasting teas, is a self-confessed tea addict (not seeking rehab).

We make a big thing about using quality real tea. By quality real tea, we mean whole leaf tea, whole leaf herbs, whole berries, whole spices and whole flowers. Not the dusty stuff you’ll find in regular paper teabags.

It's all about the flavour. The tea in regular tea bags has been squashed, chopped and manhandled so, by the time it reaches your cup, almost all the flavour is lost. We don't think that's very nice.

The whole leaves, berries, herbs, flowers and spices in our tea temples have been handled gently and with love, to maintain every drop of that precious flavour.