Melilot, a herbal tea house in Stroud. Loose leaf from £7.50 a tin.
Tea from one meadow, cut by hand before nine and on the racks by noon.
Eleven acres on the south side of the Slad valley grow everything in our tins. We dry at 38 °C and blend in batches of 40 tins, so the leaf you open was cut this season.
- 11 acres, never sprayed
- Dried at 38 °C
- Posted within two days
Three blends and a box of all three
Each tin is filled by hand from one season’s cut and dated on the base. A pot takes two teaspoons, so a 50 g tin makes about 25 pots. Prices include VAT; postage is free on orders over £30.
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Meadow leaf
Green and clean, a little sweet from the balm, with the nettle underneath. The one we drink all day in the tea house.
Nettle, lemon balm, peppermint. 50 g tin, about 25 pots.
£7.5050 g tin
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Seed
Warm and faintly of aniseed, with a dry finish from the caraway. Steep it longer than you think; it takes six minutes to open.
Fennel seed, coriander seed, caraway. 60 g tin, about 30 pots.
£8.0060 g tin
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Whole flower
Soft and apple-like with a little honey at the end. The heads are left whole, so the pot looks like the meadow in July.
Chamomile, calendula, rose petal. 30 g tin, about 20 pots.
£9.0030 g tin
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The three
One tin of each in a card box with a note on steeping times. The box we send most, and the one to start with if you have not tried us.
Meadow leaf 50 g, Seed 60 g, Whole flower 30 g. About 75 pots.
£22.50three tins, £2 off
What grows at Slad Hill
Eleven acres on a south slope at 180 m, in herbs since 2017 and never sprayed. Everything is cut by hand in the morning and on the drying racks the same day. The last column is how many kilos we pick for one kilo of tea.
| Plant | Part | Picked | Fresh to dry | Blend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nettle | Leaf | April to June | 5 to 1 | Meadow leaf |
| Lemon balm | Leaf | May to September | 4 to 1 | Meadow leaf |
| Peppermint | Leaf | June to August | 4 to 1 | Meadow leaf |
| Fennel | Seed | September | 1.3 to 1 | Seed |
| Coriander | Seed | August | 1.2 to 1 | Seed |
| Caraway | Seed | July of the second year | 1.2 to 1 | Seed |
| Chamomile | Whole flower | June to August | 6 to 1 | Whole flower |
| Calendula | Whole flower | June to October | 8 to 1 | Whole flower |
| Rose | Petal | June | 5 to 1 | Whole flower |
Drying
A stone barn with 32 racks, a dehumidifier and a fan, held at 38 °C. Leaf takes 36 hours, flowers 72. Nothing is dried in the sun, which is what turns herbal tea grey.
Last season
2,600 kg cut fresh in 2025 made 540 kg of dried tea, about 11,000 tins. We sold out of Whole flower in February and are planting another half acre of chamomile this spring.
Soil
The fields rest under a clover ley every fourth year. We do not spray, feed with our own compost, and leave the hedges uncut until the end of August for the birds.
The tea house
A room of eight tables at the bottom of the meadow, with the drying barn next door. Every blend is on the menu by the pot, and whatever was cut that week is in a jug on the counter to try.
- Where
- Slad Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire. Twenty minutes on foot from Stroud station, or the bus to the Slad Hill stop at the gate.
- Open
- Wednesday to Sunday, 9 to 5. Closed in January.
- Pots
- £4.20 a pot, refilled once with hot water. Cake from the Wednesday bake, £3.80 a slice.
- Meadow walks
- Saturdays at 11 in June and July, an hour through the fields with whoever is picking. Free, twelve places, book by email.
Stockists
- BristolPearce and DaughtersGloucester Road, all three blends
- BathLarder on WalcotWalcot Street, Meadow leaf and Whole flower
- CheltenhamFieldhouse GrocersSuffolk Road, all three blends
- CirencesterThe Ox YardBlack Jack Street, The three
- LondonHollis and VineColumbia Road, Saturdays and Sundays
The three, posted, £22.50
- Free UK postage over £30, otherwise £3.50.
- Posted within two working days, in paper, no plastic.
- A monthly box of The three is £20.25 and can be paused from the email.