Twinings

Thomas Twining bought Tom's Coffee House on the Strand in 1706. By 1717 he had acquired two neighbouring houses and turned one into a shop for loose tea, the Golden Lyon, so that women, who by custom did not enter coffee houses, could come in and buy tea for themselves. That building is today's 216 Strand. The doorway followed in 1787, commissioned by his grandson Richard: two Chinese figures for the origins of tea, and a golden lion for the Golden Lyon, lying down as a sign of respect to his grandfather.

The shop stands exactly opposite the Royal Courts of Justice and carries the whole Twinings range, from boxes of tea bags to loose leaf. Its sampling bar pours a daily selection of loose teas and infusions chosen by the staff, usually four or five at a time, and you can ask to taste before you buy. A Pick & Mix wall of tea-bag envelopes lets you build your own assortment, loose or in a wooden box. The tasting room holds the Hogarth portrait of Thomas Twining that, as the family tells it, settled the painter's unpaid account.

Downstairs, a tasting room for up to ten guests hosts the Classic Masterclass: two hours on where tea comes from, how it reached Britain and how professionals taste it, with white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pu'erh teas in the cup. It runs every afternoon at 15:30, with an extra 11:30 session at weekends, and is for over-18s. The loose-leaf range covers the same six families, from Long Jing and Tie Guan Yin to a white made for Twinings in Yunnan, a Huo Shan Huang Ya yellow tea from Anhui and an Imperial Pu'erh from Xishuangbanna.