Est. 2019 · Isfahan to Islington

Spice, simply. Sourced from the farm,
blended by hand.

A small London tea and spice shop, named for my grandmother's Isfahan storefront. Single-origin saffron, chai, za'atar, sumac, and Damask rose petals — tasted, blended, and posted from our kitchen in N1.

Shop the Pantry Meet Leila
A spice stall in the Grand Bazaar piled with cinnamon sticks, dried fruits and mounds of saffron and sumac, warmly lit

Sourced From

Three countries. Three small farms.

Every tin in the shop comes from someone we've met — not a broker or a middleman. Small harvests, proper payment, real seasons.

A field of purple saffron crocus flowers in bloom at sunset in Khorasan, Iran
Khorasan · Iran

Saffron & Chai Spices

Pushal saffron threads picked by hand over three October mornings in a small cooperative near Torbat-e Heydarieh. Cinnamon bark and green cardamom for our chai blend come from the same supply chain.

A flat-lay arrangement of whole spices, dried herbs, ginger, garlic and chilli peppers on a white wooden surface
Bekaa Valley · Lebanon

Wild Za'atar & Sumac

Mountain za'atar, still picked wild from the limestone slopes above Zahlé. Sumac berries stone-ground at a family mill in Baalbek — tart, fruity, nothing like the supermarket powder.

A dark ceramic bowl filled with dried pink Damask rose buds, softly lit
Isparta · Turkey

Damask Rose Petals

Rosa damascena harvested before dawn when the oil is at its peak, then air-dried in shade. We buy from a women's cooperative that has kept the same twelve gardens for four generations.

The Pantry

Six things, done properly.

We keep the shelf small on purpose. Each blend is mixed fresh in small batches and dated on the tin.

Grade-1 pushal saffron threads spilling from a small glass jar onto cream linen

Pushal Saffron Threads

2g Tin · Iran

Grade-1 pushal from Khorasan. Deep red threads with a pale tip. Bloom a pinch in a little warm water or milk for ten minutes before cooking — the colour and aroma are a different creature from the dusty powder in most kitchens.

£32.00
A hot glass of red-amber Persian chai being poured from a metal teapot on a wooden tray with dried citrus and rose

Isfahan Persian Chai Blend

100g Tin · Our Signature

Black Ceylon leaf blended with green cardamom, rose petals, cinnamon bark and whole cloves. Brew 8g per pot for eight minutes over a low flame — no milk needed. This is the blend on most Nahasar kitchen counters.

£14.00
Overhead view of bowls containing sumac, coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds and other spice ingredients on a table

Wild Za'atar Herb Mix

80g Tin · Lebanon

Mountain za'atar from the Bekaa Valley, blended with sumac, toasted sesame, and a whisper of sea salt. Scatter on flatbread with good olive oil, or over roast aubergine, halloumi, or slow-roasted tomatoes.

£9.00
A glass bowl filled with mounds of sumac, turmeric, parsley, salt and pepper spices

Sumac Berry, Stone Ground

60g Tin · Lebanon

Tangy dried sumac berry, stone-ground in small batches. A dusting finish for salads, grilled meats, chickpeas, rice, or yoghurt — anywhere you'd reach for lemon, try sumac first.

£8.00
Dried pink Damask rose buds arranged in a dark cup on a wooden surface

Damask Rose Petal Tea

40g Tin · Turkey · Caffeine Free

Hand-plucked Damask rose buds and petals from a small cooperative in Isparta. Delicate, fragrant, slightly honeyed. One spoonful, boiling water, three minutes — a cup that asks very little and gives a great deal.

£18.00
A gift box of cinnamon sticks and whole spices in dark ceramic bowls

Spice Starter Trio — Gift

3 × 60g · Gift Box

Za'atar, sumac, and Urfa biber chilli, hand-packed in a kraft box with a recipe card. The set we send our own families at Nowruz — and the one most people come back for.

£38.00
Leila Nahasar, founder, holding a decorative teacup of Persian chai on her lap

Our Story

My grandmother ran a spice shop in Isfahan. This is mine.

My name is Leila Nahasar. I'm a third-generation spice merchant — although for most of my twenties I'd have laughed at anyone who called me that. I was born in Tehran, raised between Isfahan and Paris, and I moved to London in 2011 to train as a pastry chef at Le Cordon Bleu. The spice shop was a world I thought I'd left behind.

My grandmother, Maman Afsaneh, ran a twelve-square-metre storefront in the Qeysarieh bazaar from 1964 until she could no longer climb the back stairs in 2008. She blended her own chai. She sold saffron by the gram to families she'd known for thirty years. She kept the sumac in the same tin her own mother had used. When she died in 2017, the tin came to me in London — wrapped in brown paper, still half full.

Nahasar started in 2019 as a small stall at Broadway Market — three blends, one saffron tin, a handwritten sign. We moved into our own kitchen in Islington in 2021. Everything on the shelf still comes from a supplier my grandmother knew, or a child of a supplier my grandmother knew. The blends are still mixed by hand. The tins are still dated. And the sumac is still kept in her original tin, back behind the till, where I can see it when I work.

We ship from a small converted workshop on Newington Green Road, N1. Everything is posted within two working days, everything is mixed to order, and everything arrives with the blend date and the farm of origin written on the label. That's the promise. Thank you for reading — and for eating well.

— Leila Nahasar

Founder & Blender, Nahasar · London N1

From the Kitchen

Three things to cook this week.

Short recipes and notes from our own kitchen, to help the tins earn their place on your shelf.

Hot Persian chai being poured from a small metal teapot into a clear glass cup
Recipe · 12 min

How to brew Persian chai the traditional way

Two kettles, one small pot, eight minutes over a low flame. No milk. The method my grandmother used, written down properly for the first time.

A glass of amber Persian tea on a patterned woven cushion and carpet
Recipe · 25 min

Za'atar flatbread for a Sunday breakfast

Good olive oil, two spoons of Bekaa za'atar, and a slack dough you rest while the coffee brews. The fastest serious bread we know.

A decorative Persian tea glass with saucer resting on a patterned textile
Recipe · 4 min

A single cup of Damask rose tea, properly

One teaspoon, boiling water, three minutes — and a small note on why the water temperature matters more than most people think.

Kind Words

From our customers.

★★★★★

"I've ordered saffron from three places in London and I've finally stopped looking. The pushal from Nahasar blooms properly — you can actually see it happen in the water — and the aroma is the saffron I remember from my aunt's kitchen in Shiraz."

Roxana H.

Hampstead, London

Pushal Saffron Threads

★★★★★

"The Isfahan chai blend is extraordinary. We've been drinking it every evening for two months. The cardamom is a real cardamom — you can smell it when you open the tin from across the kitchen. Worth every penny of the £14."

James & Pilar M.

Bristol, UK

Isfahan Persian Chai Blend

★★★★★

"Bought the Spice Starter Trio for my mother's birthday and she's already ordered her own. The za'atar is greener and fresher than anything I've had. The recipe card made it feel like a proper gift rather than a tin in a box."

Aisha K.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Spice Starter Trio

The Nahasar Letter

A short letter, every first Friday.

One seasonal recipe, one note from the source, one small batch announcement — and nothing else. Unsubscribe any time.

Thank you — you're on the list. First letter arrives Friday.