According to Taha Bouqdib, co-founder and president of TWG Tea, the partnership between the luxury tea company and the purveyor of epicurean foodstuff, wine and kitchenware happened quickly.

“Dean & DeLuca was very keen to start introducing our brand with teas from source gardens throughout the world, which is a new concept for their customers,” he explained. “It took three months from our first meeting to getting our first teas on the shelves.”

Currently, TWG Tea’s 12 U.S. products are available at Dean & DeLuca’s flagship store in SoHo, New York City, as well as its Madison Avenue location. In January, this will expand to include all of Dean & DeLuca’s retail outlets.

In addition to the retail stores, products can be found online at Dean & DeLuca’s Web site.

The partnership will work, Bouqdib believes, because of a mutual devotion to quality products. Dean & DeLuca’s “consistent appreciation of quality resonates throughout their choice of products,” he said. “Since TWG offers only the finest teas from around the world, we are confident that Dean & DeLuca will properly appreciate and represent each of our products in their stores.”

While TWG Tea carries more than 600 varieties of whole-leaf teas from around the globe, only 12 products will be unveiled in the U.S. for now. The products include various loose leaf tea blends such as Alexandria Tea, a green tea scented with Mediterranean mint and vanilla, and Lucky Tea, a limited-edition tea made with black and green teas blended with Caribbean spices, wild cherry blossoms and leaves of pure gold. Hand-sewn cotton teabags and other tea accessories, like TWG Tea’s white porcelain and stainless steel tea pot (MSRP $125), will also be carried.

“Tea has become a fashion accessory,” Bouqdib said in a statement, “an ornament, and an elixir that will continually and elegantly evolve with the taste of times.”

With the introduction of TWG Tea’s products, Bouqdib predicted that “a new image of refined American tea appreciation and taste will be born.”