Category:Tea Companies

From Mystic Tea Room

Williams "The At Home Tea Rooms," Llanfairtalhaiarn, Denbighshire, Wales, exterior, RPPC postcard front. The signs advertise that the shop is also a grocer's, selling and serving Lyon's tea. For a larger view and a complete description, see the Tea Rooms of Wales.

Tea Wars

In looking over old exterior views on vintage tea room postcards from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, it appears that between World War One and World War Two, the tea rooms of the British Commonwealth were experiencing something like the American "cola wars" of the 1970s and 1980s, only with respect to tea.

During this era, British tea shops and tea rooms displayed prominent exterior signage advertising the brand that they sold or served exclusively. This implies that regional and local distribution exclusives were being rammed down the throats of the tea room proprietors.

Judging by the number of signs photographed, the leading player in the "tea wars" of the 1920s and 1930s was Lyons.