Barry’s Tea Company was founded in 1901 by James J. Barry, grandfather of Peter Barry. From the outset, the company specialized in high quality tea and in 1934, Anthony Barry - father of Peter Barry - was awarded the Empire Cup for tea blending.

Until the 1960’s, Barry’s Tea was sold mainly from our Cork City shop in Prince’s Street, but because of its increasing popularity with the tea-drinkers in the locality, we decided to widen the wholesaling and distribution of the brand. The company began selling tea to shops in Cork City Center, expanding into the suburbs and then out to the rest of the country.

At the same time, Barry’s Tea tasters began to sample exciting new teas coming from East Africa. When these new teas were introduced to the Barry’s Tea blends, it became more apparent to our customers that the qualities of freshness, flavor and distinctive color were very much unique to Barry’s Tea.

Simply, by word of mouth, the reputation of Barry’s Tea continued to grow and by the mid-1980s it had become a significant national brand.