Teaching languages and communication skills requires solid studies, pedagogue qualities, and the capacity to share your passion for the topics with your students, a talent Jane Pettigrew possessed as a schoolteacher as well as a tea educator, and the global tea industry is better for it.

After some ten years of teaching French and English in the UK and Germany, Jane decided she needed a change and a new challenge. Looking for new activities that fitted with her knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, an opportunity appeared: to acquire and refurbish a big five-floor building facing Clapham Common, a very popular and sought after area in the South West of London, and open a tearoom there, together with two friends, who were also looking for a change. In 1983, Jane and her friends worked on their project, and their tearoom, Teatime, opened its doors to welcome neighbours, tourists and the many foreigners, mainly Americans and Japanese, who lived as expats in the area. In this beautiful art deco environment, Jane’s first job was to bake cakes for the afternoon tea times, which she did with great success. Soon customers were queuing up for a table in this new and exquisitely original tearoom, run by a smiling team who greeted each customer before they indulged in afternoon tea with a choice of delicious sandwiches, scones and cakes.

Jane quickly fell under the spell of tea, gradually discovering its incredible wealth of fragrances and colour shades, stemming from quality grades from different origins, specific plant varieties, the various plucking methods and seasons, the processing of the leaf and brewing methods. A fascinating world ready to be explored in depth had swiftly emerged from these tearoom activities, and Jane dived into it with purpose, method, and energy. Taking stock of what information was available in order to respond to the many queries from customers that needed to be answered, it appeared that there weren’t many readily available reference documents. So, Jane started to inquire, explore, analyse, compare and assess, writing down her notes for future compilation, while getting up every morning at 4am, baking scones and cakes and managing the shop.

Looking back at those years, when tea had become her main focus, Jane smiles. “It was a wonderful time, we loved looking after all our customers, who were happy in our tearoom. We were praised by the press, and several famous actors, rock stars, and TV personalities came in for tea and were regular visitors. It was truly hard work but highly enjoyable.”

She sold her shares after five years, exhausted but happy with the success and decided to put that immense experience to good use.

Beyond the Tearoom

The fame of the Teatime tearoom had reached the press, and Jane was asked by the National Trust if she could write a collection of afternoon tea recipes for the tearooms in National Trust properties in England, Ireland, and Wales. Many of these recipes were traditional regional specialties, such as oatmeal flapjacks in Yorkshire and saffron cakes in Cornwall.

Jane was happy to travel around the three countries to research with those in charge of the tearooms, and the resulting books were published by the National Trust as: Traditional Tea Time Recipes, Good Old-fashioned Cakes and Good Old-fashioned Tea Time Treats. The books were all attractively illustrated and contained many historic culinary traditions closely linked to afternoon tea. These publications attracted attention and earned Jane respect and recognition from other culinary experts and authors in this field, which allowed her to build an international network of tea lovers, tea experts, tea travellers, tea writers, and tea historians, while she wore all these different hats during her many activities linked closely to the cup.

In addition to the recipe books, Jane authored The Social History of Tea, which launched on 14 September 2001, three days after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. The launch party began with three minutes of silence. “I’m sure that was the only book launch ever that started like that,” she shared.

The Social History of Tea was a major achievement. It involved several years of studying history, geography and trade routes, wars and politics, carving out how the supply of tea to the United Kingdom and North America generated important political upheavals, economic progress, and shifts in trade — quite unbelievable when looking at the lowly teapot sitting on a kitchen table. This book brought great insights into the understanding of tea. A second edition (2014) was expanded and edited together with Bruce Richardson, a well known American tea culture historian from Kentucky.

A prolific writer, Jane published more tea books in the early 2000s such as the Tea Lover’s Companion, which was re-edited and updated in 2009. Collaborating again with Richardson, they wrote Tea Classified, which explains the various categories of tea – green, black, white, yellow, dark and blue-green, aka oolong – with many illustrations of leaves, brewed liquors, and origins. Furthermore, two guidebooks, Tea in the City, allowed tea lovers to explore tea sipping and tea shopping in London and in Paris.

The culmination came with Jane Pettigrew’s World of Tea, which was awarded Best New Product at World Tea Expo in 2018 and Best Tea Publication at the 2019 show. In the book, Jane explores more than  60 tea-producing countries, explaining their history,  tea terroirs, the various cultivars, the manufacturing processes, and local tea cultures and rituals. There are detailed maps for each of these countries and many beautiful photographs, a major achievement and highly useful compendium. The target readers were both tea lovers and also tea professionals, be it in retail or out-of- home, where you may not travel but are in charge of storytelling. In total, Jane has published 17 books on tea – and another 19 on food history, British social history, and English language course books. She earned her the title of most prolific European tea writer with her tea friends in China and Japan.

Masterclasses and Founding the UKTA

During the years that followed the Teatime tearoom, Jane gained many followers who were keen to share her experience and benefit from her knowledge; hence she was not only asked to publish, but also to train and teach. Companies called on her to train their staff, and to hold masterclasses in teas and herbals. Many of these missions required travel and bringing all the equipment for demonstrating the leaves, brewing the teas, and tasting the cups, which is always a cumbersome undertaking. Thus, there was a need to find a place in London where teaching sessions could be held and the equipment and teas could be properly stored. Jane partnered with Jennifer Wood, a premium tea retailer who was familiar with logistics for organising and management, and in 2016, they established the UK Tea Academy, aka the UKTA.

Over the years, tea experts from various producing countries joined the team of specialist tutors. Easily accessible through their website, the many courses allow tea professionals and tea lovers to study tea from the basics of where and how the leaf is grown, plucked and processed, before exploring more refined details of single origins, blends, mainstream and premium cups. The UKTA is proudly celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

The Leafies

Launched in 2022 by the UK Tea Academy  in cooperation with Fortnum & Masons, The Leafies is the only formal competition that is dedicated to tea in the UK. Tasted by a jury of internationally recognised tea experts (including Jane), the awarded teas celebrate outstanding teas from across the world, be they produced by small family-run gardens or established estates in both traditional and emerging tea regions. The Leafies recognises excellence across categories including Primary Production, New Regions, Experimental Teas, Blends, Herbals and Retail Teas.

Winning an award at The Leafies is recognised across the industry as a mark of quality and distinction. Selected winning teas are showcased at the Fortnum & Mason Rare Tea Counter at its flagship Piccadilly store. The Leafies 2025 received a record 411 tea entries, from 21 countries and 44 regions. They were blind tasted by the international panel of tea experts resulting in 21 Gold Awards, 52 Highly Commended Awards and nine Special Awards.

Numerous Accolades

All these achievements did not go unnoticed, given Jane’s huge network and the many connections she made around the world with producers and consumers alike. In 2014 she was voted Best Tea Educator at the World Tea Awards, and at the 2015 World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada she was named Best Tea Personality.

In January 2016, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II awarded Jane the British Empire Medal for services to Tea Production and Tea History, the announcement appearing in the UK’s New Year Honours list and entitling her to add BEM to her name.

Ceaselessly continuing with her writing, travelling, teaching, and operating as the UKTA’s driving force and director of studies since its inception, Jane decided to step down from the UKTA at the end of 2025, in order to manager her health and take life a little more slowly after many years of hard, albeit joyful and gratifying work with and for tea.

To those who express their admiration for this incredibly rich professional career as tea teacher, tea consultant, tea writer, and tea historian, Jane gives her lovely smile, underlining that “it all happened in a serendipitous sequence, with my driving focus set to explore and research, to share knowledge and set up a network of peers, always trying to make sure that everyone enjoys and celebrates the cup, from bush to sip.”

Summing up her life’s work in tea, Jane added, “My work in the world of tea has been a really exciting, amazing journey, and has taken me to so many different countries around the world and has introduced me to so many friends. It has been truly incredible.”

We are delighted that Jane Pettigrew is joining the 2nd Women in Tea & Coffee Conference on 6 May 2026, London, as a panellist in the Careers in Tea & Coffee session.

Barbara Dufrêne is the former Secretary General of the European Tea Committee and editor of La Nouvelle du Thé. She may be reached at: b-dufrê[email protected].