Where to Buy Green Tea Leaves Online

Most people don’t have a good tea store in their neighborhood. Most neighborhoods don’t have a tea shop at all, but even if they do, the tea leaves they sell are often low quality and overpriced. Luckily, there are many online tea stores—too many, in fact. It can be hard to find a trustworthy one. If you’re looking to buy some loose leaf green tea, but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
Eisai’s Choice Sencha from Art of Tea
I’ll begin with, my favorite online tea purchase. If you love the taste of green tea, you’ll want a sencha. This Japanese green tea has the quintessential green tea flavor: grassy, crisp and clear. The best value I’ve found is Eisai’s Choice Sencha from Art of Tea. The leaves are high quality, but the price is very reasonable, with a sample tin costing $5 and an 8 oz. pouch (makes about 120 cups) going for $40.
If you prefer the slightly milder Chinese green teas, I’d definitely go with a Dragon Well tea. It is the classic Chinese tea with a gentle, mellow flavor. Once again, Art of Tea has the best value with their organic Dragon Well. At the time of writing, this tea was sold out, so I was not able to check on the current prices. You can expect to pay a bit less that you would for the Sencha.
This is actually the main problem with any good Dragon Well tea. The Longjing (Dragon Well in Chinese) region in the West Lake area of Hangzhou is very small, meaning that the year’s harvest sells out quickly and once any store has sold all its stock, they won’t be able to replenish it until the next year. You can still find a lot of cheaper Dragon Well, but it will come from other regions and thus not be a true Dragon Well, even if it carries the name.
Generation Tea has a good alternative if Art of Tea’s is sold out. Actually, make that a great alternative, as their Early Harvest West Lake Royal Longjing is the best Dragon Well you’ll find outside of China. Naturally, it is also much more expensive (ranging from $28 for 2 oz to $200 for 1 lb). Because it is so expensive, it doesn’t generally sell out nearly as quickly. The main problem with this tea is that you have to put up with Generation’s hideous website. It looks like a leftover relic from the early days of the internet.
The Uji Gyokuro from Art of Tea
Gyokuro is the best green tea money can buy (apart from Matcha, but that is a matter for a different article—specifically, this one). This shade-grown Japanese tea will not come cheap, generally costing twice as much as a Sencha or a Dragon Well. The Uji Gyokuro from Art of Tea is the best value. It ranges from $24 for 2 oz (~30 cups) to $160 for 1 lb (~240 cups).
Virtually everyone has an account on Amazon, making it a convenient place to buy tea. The main problem is the extremely large selection, most of which is not very good. It can be hard to find the quality offerings among all the junk, but they are there.
For sencha, the best option is the excellent organic Sencha from Rishi tea. It is reasonably priced at under $12 for 2.1 oz. For Dragon Well, try the 4 oz box from Serendipi Tea which also goes for around $11. Aiya sells a good organic Gyokuro on Amazon. 80 grams cost $35.
Silver Leaf Tea has the lowest prices on loose leaf green tea, but the quality is low and their website looks terrible. Their tea works well if you make large amounts to carry around all day in a thermos or something, but I would not recommend it for brewing on a cup by cup basis. Their Sencha is only $29 for a pound.
Alternatively, you could try some of the cheaper options on Amazon. I haven’t tried any myself, so I can’t give you any advice. Chances are you’ll end up with a horrible tea, but you won’t spend much to get it, so it might be worth trying a few until you hit the jackpot.
If you’ve been asking yourself, “Where can I buy green tea,” I hope I was able to offer some good suggestions to get you started. If you have any questions or if you’ve found a great tea you think I would enjoy, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact me through my contact page.

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