The 120-year-old speciality tea and coffee chain has had a long run of poor sales

All takeover talks to buy Whittard of Chelsea, the struggling tea and coffee specialist, have collapsed.

If you grind your own coffee, you probably use one of those ubiquitous chopper-type grinders that employ little blades akin to those in a blender. So did the What's New team, until a chance visit to the Whittard shop in Cheltenham brought us face to face with this magnificent new piece of hardware: an authentic, albeit bite-sized, burr mill grinder.

Whittard of Chelsea, the tea and coffee retailer, plans to open an outlet in Moscow and is 'talking to people' in Shanghai with a view to taking its tea shops to China.

A takeover is brewing at Whittard of Chelsea, the purveyor of fine teas, which saw its shares surge 38% yesterday on news of a bid approach.

The craze for dotcom may not be everyone's cup of tea but for Whittard of Chelsea, purveyors of the finest leaf, it has left an agreeable aftertaste.