TeeGschwendner

TeeGschwendner is the tea chain of Germany, run from a head office in Meckenheim near Bonn and sold through independent franchise partners, about 120 of them in Germany and abroad, in shops the company itself describes as averaging 55 square metres. The company's own timeline puts the first shop in Trier in 1976 and the switch to franchising in 1982; the founder's son has led the firm since 2019. In Berlin its store finder lists five shops: Friedrichstraße 67 in Mitte, Wilmersdorfer Straße 46 in the Wilma Shoppen centre in Charlottenburg, Breite Straße 20 in Pankow, Klosterstraße 3 in the Spandau Arcaden and Schloßstraße 31 in Steglitz.

The range runs to some 350 loose teas, nearly half of them certified organic, and almost everything is priced by the 100 g with 250 g and kilo options behind it. The everyday German shelf is cheap: Ostfriesische Broken-Mischung at 4,70 €, English Breakfast at 5,80 €, Earl Grey Nr. 69 at 6,60 € and an Assam Brahmaputra second flush at 6,80 €. Above it sit the named lots: a Himalaya first-flush Darjeeling at 9,50 €, Keemun Finest Chuen Ch'a Bio at 7,80 €, Lung Ching Bio at 12,90 €, Sencha Extra Fine Bio at 17,90 €, Yin Zhen Bio at 29,50 € and a Japanese Gyokuro Bio at 34,70 €. Herbals come in packets by weight, from a 50 g hibiscus at 4,90 € to a 110 g ginger at 7,90 €, and matcha in a 30 g tin at 23,90 €.

Two things make the chain work as a Berlin shop rather than just a web shop. One is Reserve & Collect: an online order can be reserved at four of the Berlin shops, free and without obligation, and paid in cash or card when it is picked up; delivery in Germany is free from 29 € and otherwise costs 5,50 €. The other is the counter itself: since August 2026 the shops refill customers' own tins, every tea carries a dosing and steeping tip measured with the house Teelamaß spoon, and the staff come through the company's own academy, which has trained tea sommeliers with the Bonn chamber of commerce since 2007.