Tea Company Tins
From Mystic Tea Room
In this installment of "From the Land of Tea," we take a look at a web page that was funded by my Patreon supporters, who had access to it one full year before the public.
- Patreon Release Date: January 7th, 2025
- Public Release Date: January 7th, 2026
- Patreon Release Date: May 21st, 2025
- Public Release Date: May 21st, 2026
- Patreon Release Date: January 7th, 2026
- Public Release Date: January 7th, 2027
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Tea Company Tins
To read tea cups you need tea, a tea cup and saucer, a tea pot, and, of course, a pretty container to store the leaves in. On this page i present you with a gallery of images of antique, vintage, and retro-style tea tins. Some of these are still being manufactured, and some are quite rare.
There have probably been ten thousand different tea tins made in the past 125 years, and what you see here are those that i personally love. My focus is on beautiful or amusing graphic art, splendid lettering, rich colours, unusual tin shapes, quirky brand names, and historical tea companies. These tins do not always speak to the quality of the tea they once contained, but they carry eye-appeal.
The printing on many old-style tins uses a method called tin lithography, which collectors call tin litho for short. Thin sheets of metal are printed and varnished, then machine cut and bent into the shape of the sides, the bottom, and the lid. The bottoms are soldered on, the tea is packed in, and the lids are pressed down tight.
Some tins are not printed, but simply varnished, and then a printed paper label is wrapped around the sides and glued into place. This is particularly true of larger 1 lb. tins intended for the retauurant trade.
If handled carefully, litho tea tins retain their colours for decades. If they are left in the sun, however, the colours will fade over time. If they allowed to get wet, the printing ink may peel off the metal in spots and rust may form along the seams. If roughly handled and scraped against other metal items, they will collect scars that mar the lithographic designs.
As a graphic artist, i personally collect and use vintage litho tea tins to store fresh tea that is sold in chipboard boxes. Why have a chipboard box when you can have a little work of art to hold your tea?
If you are interested in buying vintage tea tins, either to connect or to use, i recommend eBay -- but you will have to look through hundreds of tins to find old ones that are in good condition. It's a fun hunt, though, and the prices are usually reasonable. Good luck!
Installment Number One: The Aesthetes' Picnic
Cleaning up digital images of the scratched and dirtied tea tins of yesteryear is one of those ephemeral duties that aesthetes such as my husband and i feel called to perform at random intervals ... for the good of all sentient beings everywhere. Logging the names and places of their origin for the future use of internet wanderers is a librarian's task i willingly embrace.
 Challenger Brand Tea Tin, maker unknown, circa 1920s; the Rooster perches on a box of Challenger Tea bearing the image of a rooster. |
 Araban Tea, Orange Pekoe and Pekoe Tea, Araban Coffee Co., located at 65-66 Commercial Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts in the 1920s. |
 Teakanne Mit Citrone, Black Tea with Orange, Dresden. Founded as R. Seelig & Hille in 1882, in 1888 renamed Teekanne, German for "teapot." |
 Old Judge Gunpowder Tea, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1930s; the David Evans Company and its flagship brand, Old Judge Coffee, started in 1858. |
 Nabob Pure Indian and Ceylon Tea, 3 Lb. Tin; Kelly Douglas and Co., Vancouver, British Columbia; probably for hotel or restaurant use. |
 Betsy Ross Tea, Plunkett Jarrell Grocer Co., Little Rock, Arkansas. Betsy Ross is credited with sewing the first American flag. |
 Arbuckles' Orange Pekoe Tea, Arbuckle Brothers, Chicago, New York, Kansas City. Arbuckle Borthers distributed to small grociery stores. |
 Flowery Tea Colombo, Kulik, Czechoslovakia; Colombo is in Sri Lanka, so this would be Ceylon Tea, possibly with added Jasmine flowers. |
 Monarch Light of Asia, Darjeeling Pure India Tea, Reid Murdoch, Consolidated Grocers Corp., Chicago, Illinois; this label features a Tea Plucker. |
 Brooke Bond Tea Tin, Brooke Bond and Co. Ltd.. London, Calcutta, Columbo; this is a very old 1/2 lb. Brooke Bond tea tin, probably circa 1910; the company still exists. |
 Brooke Bond Tea Tin, Brooke Bond and Co. Ltd.. London, Calcutta, Columbo; this is a very old 1 lb. Brooke Bond tea tin matching the one at left; the letterer deserves a medal for artistry. |
 Rosemary Black Tea Tin, Samuel Kunin and Sons, Inc., Importers and Packers, Chicago, Illinois, 1920s; Rosemary is not an ingredient; it is the name of the young woman. |
 Royal Richmond Tea, Lid, Sheffield, England; Yonkers, New York; this octagonal tea tin was marketed during the 1980s British tea tin revival era and is a very nice example of retro design. The tea was good in quality as best i recall -- a hearty, dark English blend, as expected. |
 Royal Richmond Tea, Bottom. "Genuine British Tinplate, Produced in Association with Sari Fabrics; Huntley Boorne & Stevens Sole Manufacturers; Reading & London; Producers of Metal Containers Since 1830; The Original UK Producers of Lithographic Tinplate Containers From 1872; Container Made in England in the Royal County of Berkshire." |
 Twinings English Breakfast Tea Commemorative Tin, bearing the inscription, "Twining Tea, Est. 1706." The central image is captioned "Twinings Motor Delivery, 1909," and beneath that is the motto, "Teamen to Connoisseurs for Over 275 Years," which means that this particular tin was made in 1981. |
 Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice Herb Tea 1982 Tin Lid. Celestial Seasonings began in 1969 when Mo Siegel and John Wyck Hay began wildcrafting local tea blends in the Rocky Mountains; it was incorporated in 1972, purchased by Kraft Foods in 1984, acquired by Vestar Capital Group in 1988, and in 2000 it merged with the Hain Food Group to form the Hain Celestial Group. |
 Swee-Touch-Nee Tea Chest Tin Lid, Consolidated Tea Co. New York, founded in 1880 by Samuel Zechnowitz, a Russian Jew from Minsk; Swee-Touch-Nee is a transliteration of the Russian word "tsvetochnyy," which means "flowery," but the tea itself is a strong Orange Pekoe Black. In 1966, the company moved from Brooklyn to Lynbrook, New York; in 2015, Consolidated Tea was dissolved and the Swee-Touch-Nee brand was acquired by Eastern Tea. |
I am deeply indebted to Petr Vnoucek of the Czech Republic, whose web site World of Tea Caddy, is home to 2,393 tea containers, both antique and modern. Thanks also to my husband nagasiva yronwode for helping with scans and cleanup. I couldn't have done it without you, dear.
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
