I'm even worse about tea than I am about shaving.
Nothing but Tea has good quality loose leaf and offers a range of
sample packs. I don't think I've seen such a wide selection of tea anywhere else, I'm drinking my way through the black tea sampler atm.
If you're feeling flush I reckon
Nada has some of the finest tea and teaware in the UK, mainly pu'erh but a few other surprises. In most cases if you want decent tea you are as well ordering from close to the source or from the US. I've heard good things about
Wan Ling for another UK option but I've not tried them myself as yet.
I tend to use what most would consider tiny brewing vessels, pots or gaiwan under 200ml. Lots of leaf, small brewing vessel, many infusions. I think the gaiwan is the most versatile and handy brewing vessel of them all, I travel with one and my 60ml plain white one is the most used piece of teware in the house. It's something like this:
Marshaln demonstrates how to use a gaiwan from one of the best tea blogs on the net.
Something like the
IngenuiTEA from Adagio might be worth considering as an all rounder, easy to use and clean:
London has some good tea places too.
Tea Smith is run by a fellow Scot, yay!, and has some lovely teas served on a tea bar with a top notch chocolate selection.
Here's a review from Cha Dao. Other options which are on my hit list the next time I'm in London are
Postcard Teas and
Yauatcha
Be careful, it can get expensive.
TeaChat is a great resource for everything tea related, aside from maybe teabags.
For great Indian tea look no further than Lochan Tea's great sample pack of
1st and
2nd flush teas.
For Japanese tea there are loads of options direct from Japan but
O-Cha is up there with the best of them.
For Chinese tea
Jing Tea Shop are tough to beat but as above there are many options.