I generally buy my tea directly from the origin of the country
throught my friends. I am from Bangladesh, and India,
Srilanka,Nepal,China all countries are not so far where i stay. I
always manage Srilankan, indian, nepalese tea fresh. But yes for
chinese tea i depend on on-line vendors such as uptontea(recently not
so happy with their service anymore), Imperialtea,gray&seddon. But
trying to get some direct connection from China. This way I also save
a lot of money. The reason i am saying because Bangladesh is also a
tea growing country and i have visited many tea estate in
Bangladesh,India and Srilanka. I have found one thing
Unfortunatly the real tea grower companies never get the good price
except some brokers. So I always prefer to buy directly from the
country. I am not sure but my understanding is on-line vendors minimum
make 150% profit on this business. One of my friend also own tea
garden and he always supply fresh indian and bangladeshi tea to me. He
always express his anger to me, how this on-line tea vendors are
making so much where as a grower they get little profit. All you need
to check couple of on-line tea vendor and take some time to order.
About shop well, same as Lew, I don't prefer to buy from them.

Ripon.