H and H Tea

H and H Tea sat in the same non-coffee grocery family as H and H Spices, H and H Cocoa, and H and H Extracts—lines named beside coffee on the Welcome post and About page. Drying, blending, and carton or tin packaging could ride on equipment and artwork pipelines already tuned for H and H Blend and High Grade coffee, which is why tea labels sometimes echo paper-label and Art Deco coffee eras on the same shelf.

Tea tins and cartons are much scarcer here than coffee tins; each new example is written up as its own post.

Products

H and H Tea (house mark)

  1. High Grade Orange Pekoe (and related Orange Pekoe & Pekoe) — cardboard cartons (e.g. San Clemente, 2015; sealed 3½ oz example, 2017)
  2. Choicest Quality Orange Pekoe & Pekoe — 3 oz carton — small black/red/gold carton with “Choicest Quality” banner; not in collection, documented via a reference photograph on the Reference gallery (staged beside an H and H Crystalvac coffee jar and a High Grade Vacuum Packed Coffee tin).
  3. Early cylindrical tea tin — paper-label era with Orange Pekoe / Ceylon & India banner and lightning TEA mark (2025 addition)
  4. H and H Orange Pekoe Tea — referenced in older advertisements as early as 1927 (dating on retail pieces is worked out per post)

H and H Blend (tea)

  1. H and H Blend Ceylon-India Tea (1921) — on the reference / Wanted lists; no packaging for this line has been photographed on the site yet.

Master Chef (tea)

  1. Master Chef tea bags (1950s) — listed under Master Chef Coffee as a target format; no physical example in the archive so far.

Packaging

Chronological feel: early tin, then the 1930s-style Orange Pekoe carton, then a second sealed carton. See Collection posts for full narratives and extra angles.

  1. Early H and H Tea tin (paper-label era)

Early H and H Tea tin with Orange Pekoe Ceylon and India banner

  1. High Grade Orange Pekoe carton (face panel)

H and H High Grade Orange Pekoe tea carton

  1. Same carton — side panel (mentions key-wind coffee tins)

H and H Orange Pekoe tea carton side panel

  1. Sealed 3½ oz Orange Pekoe & Pekoe carton (2017)

Unopened H and H High Grade Orange Pekoe and Pekoe tea carton

Ephemera

H-H Tea cartons appear in a rare trade-show photograph with Master Chef coffee: Manufacturers association booth (black-and-white table shot with stacked cans and tea boxes).

Collection posts

Wanted

From Wanted and the “Known products” tea block:

  1. H and H Tea, Orange/Pekoe — 3 oz (Choicest Quality carton documented via Reference gallery only — no physical example yet), 4 oz, and 6 oz (and other 6 oz variants called out in the list)
  2. H and H Blend Ceylon-India Tea (1921) — bags, tins, or cartons with readable copy
  3. Master Chef tea bags (1950s)
  4. Advertising, menus, or photographs of restaurant or hotel tea service under Hoffmann-Hayman brands

Contributed photos only still help—use contact if you have a lead.