Comrades, there is a revolution upon us. The economy is shifting and the proles are becoming conscious. Conscious about tea, that is.

"But we have an emotional attachment to cheap tea," explains Henrietta Lovell, founder of the Rare Tea Company, "and that's why the Revolution is going to be difficult."

The Revolution? Lovell's tea company is one of about 80 that have sprung up in the past five years. Their aim: to bring high quality tea back to Britain.

With drought in the tea-growing areas of India, Sri Lanka and Kenya expected to hike up the price of tea by 10-15 per cent next year, the revolution could be entering a new and potent phase.

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High quality and speciality tea (such as Oolong, Assam and Darjeeling) is more immune to the "drama" of the global markets than mass-produced blends, says Bill Gorman of the Tea Council, which means it could see a dramatic rise in market share in the next 12 months. High quality and speciality tea already constitutes 8 per cent of the total tea-market in the UK and "is growing about 20 per cent a year," says Gorman.

"We've lost the art of tea-making," explains Lovell from her headquarters in Camden. "One hundred years ago everyone from the scullery maid to the lady of the house would have known how to make good tea. but these days we're completely divorced from the leaf."

To demonstrate her case, Henrietta Lovell, dubbed 'The Tea Lady' by friends, customers and even by the author Alexander McCall Smith in Corduroy Mansions gets out a very familiar looking packet of big-brand breakfast tea. She tells me I'm not allowed to write down which brand it is for fear of starting a tea war (Lovell is a bit of maverick in the tea world - she wants to "break the tyranny of the tea bag").

I smile broadly because I like this brand of tea and drink it every morning. I think she's going to make me a cup.

Lovell shoots the packet of tea a scathing look. "This stuff is just ground-up and mass-produced with no flavour," she says.

"Builder's tea," I scoff, making a hasty U-turn.

"Actually my builder drinks Jasmine Silver tip," Lovell says. "And my other builder drinks White Leaf."

I try to look guilty for having made assumptions.

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