The ultimate guide to tea drinking in France

Local France

10-06-2025

Yes, France is a coffee country. It has been since an Armenian fellow who went by the name of Pascal opened a coffee shop in Paris less than two years after King Louis XIV was gifted a bag of beans in 1669 by the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire that made what he described as a 'magical beverage'.
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France even has a coffee roast bearing its name – French roast coffee tends to be darker than many modern roasts, and it's not as fashionable these days in many parts of the world, but it's probably what you'll get if you ask for
un café
.
But what about the French and their
thé
(tea) consumption?
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Tea history
It's not just Britons who consume vast oceans of tea. It's popular with the Irish, Turks, Moroccans, Pakistanis, Japanese, Chinese, Kenyans and New Zealanders, among many others.
The irony is that tea reached France before it got as far as Britain. The Dutch, another European nation not particularly noted for their tea drinking proclivities, introduced it to France in the 17th century.
Meanwhile, they even grow tea in France. There are plantations as far north as Brittany.
Louis XIV - who later received that gift of the 'magical' coffee - encouraged tea drinking in his court and one of his chief ministers, Cardinal Mazarin, drank it as a cure for gout.
Perhaps because of that history, tea is often still considered
a luxury drink, or a health drink in France – far removed from the dark brown builder's tea Britons are used to.
So what's the modern tea scene in France?
The French tea-drinking tradition tends towards fine teas, in particular heavily perfumed varieties - usually served without milk. You're spoiled for choice if you like tisanes, green teas, or infusions.
If you order tea at a café in France, you're more likely to get a herbal or fruit tea, known as
une tisane
or
une infusion
, or perhaps a green tea (
thé vert
).
Most big cities will have specialised tea shops and several come up if you do an internet search. Meanwhile there are famous French brands such as Mariage Frères and Dammann Frères (tea seems to have been a brotherly business in the 1800s), although they tend to specialise in the highly perfumed teas that that the French enjoy. They do also ha
ve fruit and herbal teas, as well as some Asian-style offerings too.
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There is also the
salon du thé
(tea shop) - this is a nice alternative to a classic café for the afternoons, usually selling teas, coffees and cakes and other sweet treats. As with other French tea venues, however, it's unlikely to serve you a cup of British/Irish style tea - by which we mean black tea so strong you could dance a donkey on it, with a dash of cold milk added and definitely, definitely no lemon.
So if I want 'builder's tea'?
If you're a tea drinker of the builder-strength persuasion then probably don't bother with the packets of
thé anglais
you might see in the supermarket. An entire box might satisfy your tastebuds, but it's an expensive way to get your tannin fix.
You could look for
thé noir.
But the good news is that British teas are routinely available in French supermarkets.
You'll generally find them alongside the
tisanes
, while it's also worth checking the 'British' bit of the world food aisle, if there is one. That's where you'll also usually find the brown sauce, too, and the Worcestershire sauce. And the Colman's mustard sometimes. But not, sadly, Lancashire sauce.
You can always order monster-sized boxes of Tetley, PG Tips, Yorkshire Tea, and – good news, Irish tea drinkers – Barry's online.
Meanwhile you will be happy to know that tea is not covered by the EU rule on food product imports, so you can beg or bribe friends travelling from the UK to bring a box with you.
Do you have any (PG) tips for finding good tea in France? Share your recommendations in the comments section below