About Us
At Noble & Sunday we are a modern-day tea merchant, here to bring a little timeless ritual into your busy daily life.
Founded in New Zealand, we honour our nation’s long tea history, while reinvigorating the drink for the modern sipper. Our bespoke loose-leaf blends are the result of years of dogged global trekking, seeking the most exciting, inspiring teas from the world’s finest independent tea gardens. Our finds are characterised by singular origins, long woven histories and unique flavours that reflect the landscape of their growing locale.
The friends and growers we source from share our philosophy of fine teas with a conscience: sustainable, ethical and grown using organic farming principles so it’s kinder to the planet, the people that make it – and the people who drink it too. Designed for the curious and made for exploration, our small batch process means tea comes to you faster, fresher and better than you’ve ever tasted before.
You can’t pour from an empty cup, (though many of us try) so we’re here to help with that. Observing our daily life from the slow and mindful pace of a favourite Sunday, N&S’ tea rituals encourage you to slow down, be present, fill your cup and find that balance – whatever that looks like for you.
Our Name
Drawing from the noble ethics of the small determined few changing the tea industry for the better, and the welcome break in pace that tea brings to the daily routine.
The Beginnings
Noble & Sunday Tea Merchants was little more than the kernel of an idea when two chums met for a bit of a chinwag over tea. Rupert and Alan felt that most teas within most of our slice of paradise lacked quality and taste while being hard to find any teas that celebrated and embraced the uniqueness of each growing season, aka Terroir.
After a few years of traveling and building relationships with tea farmers and estates, Rupert registered the business in early 2015 and the plan was (and remains) to develop and distribute a range of premium accessible loose-leaf tea products that New Zealanders could buy and love. One that all Kiwis could be proud to drink anywhere, anytime.
What made this concept unique was the sheer dedication to discovering and promoting new and little known teas in the west. These unique teas are characterised by singular origins, long woven histories and different tastes that make them as outstanding.
Wanting to show tea the respect it deserved along with highlighting what makes them special from each part of the world. So with that in mind we set about bringing in quality loose leaf tea and encouraging people to slow down and enjoy what is around them. It was crucial to the companies values that Alan and Rupert build a company that is founded on its relationship to the growers and to the consumers of this fine beverage.
Along the way, Rupert and Alan made sure guiding principles such as ‘making human connections’ and ‘giving back’ were woven into the fabric of N&S not very corporate culture. And so it is that these two guiding principles have become a clear and conscious element of every project the company has ever undertaken.