Ahmad Tea and its sub-brand Galerie du Thé are delighted to announce that they have been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up an impressive 18 stars in the 2022 Great Taste Awards. This year, over 14,000 products were entered into the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme and each of the products were put through a rigorous blind tasting process.

Galerie du Thé won a 3-star award for its Luyeh Red tea, a red oolong from Taiwan and 2-gold stars each for its Darjeeling First Flush and Dragon Pearl Tea. Ahmad Tea and Galerie du Thé won 6 and 5 gold stars each respectively for their high-quality teas. Ahmad Tea won stars for its classic English Breakfast and English Tea No.1  blends, its newly launched Kew Gardens Elegant Earl Grey and Garden Afternoon  as well as Black Tea from its new decaf range.

“At Ahmad Tea, we pride ourselves on our commitment and 100% focus on producing the highest quality teas and we’re thrilled to have won so many stars from the Great Taste Awards in 2022. Our aim is to inspire the love of tea and we hope these awards will encourage more food and drink lovers to discover the wonderful taste and aroma of premium teas.” Saleh Afshar, Head of Tea Department

Here are the award winners below together with some of the judges’ comments:

3 Star Great Taste Awards

Galerie du Thé - Luyeh Red:

The aroma on the dried leaf is fascinating - perfumed yet smoky. It delivers an extraordinary infusion, perfumey and smoky without being bakey. The palate delivers sweetness, roastiness and mineral notes, finishing on astringency tinged with smoke, but with roasted fruit notes persisting. Quite extraordinary. * More information on this tea can be found within the notes to editors section.

 2 Star Great Taste Awards

Galerie du Thé - Darjeeling First Flush

A beautiful quality of leaf, well twisted with a golden tip. The pale gold liquor with high grown, floral character is appealing. The astringency is marked. A great quality tea.

Galerie du Thé – Jasmine Dragon Pearl

Well made, evenly rolled pearls. An attractively coloured infusion yields a delicate jasmine delivery, gentle and floral. The finish is pleasantly sweet.

1 Star Great Taste Awards

Ahmad Tea – English Tea No 1. (teabags)

Golden, bright brisk cup, with a fresh flavour. The bergamot is subtle, and not too intense, which works well in the blend.

Ahmad Tea - English Breakfast (teabags)

Good strength and colour, this works very well with milk having a deep red appearance. The infused leaf is coppery and there is some body and flavour in the cup.

Ahmad Tea – Loose Cardamom
In the cup the fragrance of tea is nicely balanced with a subtle level of cardamom. The subtle florality and spice reflect the pale amber colour in the cup. Both are pleasing.

Ahmad Tea – Decaf Black Tea (teabags)

A light liquoring tea with great character and brightness (particularly noted as it's a decaffeinated tea, therefore can be more difficult to achieve).

Ahmad Tea – Kew Garden Elegant Earl Grey (loose)
A headily perfumed mix and a deeply scented version.

Ahmad Tea – Kew Garden Afternoon

The blend of teas is sound, delivering some brightness, light maltiness and gentle roundness.

Galerie du Thé – Kirimara Sunrise

A stunning quality of leaf, stylish, tippy, really well made. The liquor delivers hints of lemon and ginger root. Unusual for a Kenyan and we feel this is a tea for drinking black, rather than having its high points dulled by milk.

Galerie du Thé – Kandy Heights

A good honest quality of leaf and infusion. The neat leaf yields a clear, bright, golden liquor. Lively on the palate, indeed with a curious ginger biscuit note, a touch of fieriness, bakiness. There is some high grown character, a hint of wintergreen. A brisk, lively example, which takes milk well but would also be well suited to lemon.

Galerie du Thé – Secret Garden

A beautiful, fine, well twisted leaf. The infusion carries natural sweetness alongside umami richness, leading to a slightly short, crisp, dry finish, somewhat chestnut-noted. A pleasing tea.

Galerie du Thé – Imperial Matcha

The powder is fine on the palm, and nicely verdant, with a gently sweet aroma. The liquor is pleasingly deep-shaded, a touch powdery on the palate, but impactful. Nicely persistent on the finish, with a sound balance of bitterness, sweetness and grassiness.

Galerie du Thé – Emperor’s Peak

A fine quality of needle, delivering a light liquor with marked cucumber notes alongside a slight tropical fruit character.

For more information about Ahmad Tea or Galerie du Thé please visit: https://www.ahmadtea.com and https://galerieduthe.com

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For more information, imagery or interview opportunities, contact Esther Thompson on Esther.Thompson@ahmadtea.com

Check us out on socials https://www.instagram.com/ahmadtea/ and https://www.instagram.com/galerieduthe/

 Notes to editors:

More information about Galerie du Thé’s Luyeh Red :

Red oolong is a relatively new style of tea, the leaves are richly oxidised, as with black tea, then lightly roasted to create a distinct oolong style. Ours is made by Mr Lin at his small farm in the coastal township of Luyeh in southeast Taiwan. Mr Lin actually used to work in construction, but one day, while watching a family relaxing around a pot of tea, his worldview changed and he decided to buy a farm. It took years to re-cultivate the land, but Mr Lin and his family will be overjoyed with this 3 star award. Buy here: https://galerieduthe.com/collections/oolong-tea/products/luyeh-red

About Ahmad Tea

Ahmad Tea is an independent, family-owned and run business based in Hampshire. The company’s mission is to improve lives by bringing communities together through the experience of drinking the finest quality tea.

Drawing on three generations of blending and tasting experience, Ahmad Tea is widely regarded as one of the finest tea brands in the world, earning a reputation for ‘affordable premium’ on its ethos of taking the highest quality tea from bush to cup at an affordable price.

Having grown from humble beginnings, Ahmad Tea is one of the UK’s largest tea producers, and one of the world’s largest independents, delivering sales across more than 80 countries worldwide, through its network of independent distributors. 

The company is committed to environmental sustainability, ethical supply chains and charitable causes. A proud member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, its charitable work – including building and furnishing a fully equipped hospital in Sri Lanka – has seen Ahmad Tea donate an increasing percentage of its profits to charitable causes over its 40-year history. 

About Galerie du Thé

Galerie du Thé is wholly owned by Ahmad Tea and is headquartered in the UK. Founded in 2020, the company’s mission is to sell an exquisite selection of the freshest luxury teas. The company sources its small-batch teas from gardens in India, Sri Lanka, Japan, China, Taiwan and Africa. Galerie du Thé is pioneering production processes that preserve the tea's 'garden freshness', such as vacuum sealing the tea at source (where possible). In addition, all of Galerie du Thé’s teas are stored in a newly commissioned climate-controlled store and shipped in modified atmosphere packaging, so they reach customers will all their flavour and aromas intact.

About the Great Taste Awards

Established in 1994, Great Taste is organised by the Guild of Fine Food and is the world’s largest, longest standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers.

The full list of this year’s winners and where to buy them can be found at www.greattasteawards.co.uk and a wide range of the award-winning products are available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retail outlets across the country.

As well as Great Taste, the Guild of Fine Food is known for publishing the industry-leading magazine, Fine Food Digest, running the annual Fine Food Show North in Harrogate and the global phenomenon, that is the World Cheese Awards. Plus, further events including award ceremonies and Great Taste markets, training sessions and member initiatives throughout the year.