What Suki Tea is known for

Founded in Belfast in 2005 by Annie Irwin and Oscar Woolley, Suki Tea blends loose-leaf teas in plastic-free, compostable packaging. It became Northern Ireland's first certified B Corp tea company in 2024, scoring 98.3 against a global average of 50.9.

Suki Tea began in 2005, when friends Annie Irwin and Oscar Woolley, brainstorming business ideas on a walk into Belfast city centre, settled on tea. The original plan was a tea house, but early sales at farmers' markets convinced them to pivot toward wholesale instead, supplying loose-leaf tea to cafes and restaurants. A 2006 trade show appearance in Dublin caught the attention of Matthew Algie, one of the UK and Ireland's largest coffee and equipment suppliers, and became the company's first major break.

Two decades on, Suki Tea blends and packs its teas, black, green, white and oolong, plus herbal infusions, fruit teas and organic Japanese matcha, using entirely plastic-free, biodegradable and compostable materials. In 2024, the company became Northern Ireland's first B Corp-certified tea business, passing the assessment on its first attempt with a score of 98.3 against a global average of 50.9. It moved into a new eco-friendly production facility near Belfast in March 2023, built to grow production capacity substantially over the following decade. Both founders are Accredited Tea Certifiers, and the business still supplies its signature Belfast Brew alongside a wider retail and wholesale range that now reaches well beyond Northern Ireland.