I just finished a two month long journey to visit 14 different growing regions and meet with over 30 tea growers. The purpose of the trip was to find honesty in tea. I found a great deal of honesty, but we also found some pockets of dishonesty, which is no fault of the producer. During some of our experiences, I was appalled while hearing how the industry works, but I understood that the circumstances of the market have put these producers against a wall to increase their margins. If you want more conscientious tea, you have to demand it.
I first learned this from a meeting with the Indian Tea Board and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). I introduced the market that Tealet has addressed and with disbelief they responded by asking, “How many tons of CTC tea you would like to buy?” I told them I was not interested in CTC – only high quality teas with transparency. Then they went on to explain that the buyer demands CTC, but they are willing to make whatever the consumer wants. At many other farms we heard a similar story: they are making only what the buyer asks them for. Point of the story, if you really want high quality and sustainable tea, you MUST demand it. If you purchase low-priced commodity tea, you are not demanding it. High quality tea is typically made with great care and requires more resources, so prices are higher. Commodity tea is price-competitive and leads to high mechanization and low wages for labor.
Do you care deeply about the treatment of farm workers and livelihood of tea growers? Demanding high quality puts tea producers in a position where they need to develop a skilled workforce, which in turn brings more profits to the farm and a better situation for its workers. Demanding sustainability and low prices leads to a marketing band-aid like Fair Trade, you can read about what we have learned about Fair Trade certification here. If you are prepared to demand high quality tea, you need to be ready to pay the price. Demanding a low price will not get you closer to quality and truly sustainable tea.
This is education that needs to be spread to individual tea lovers and tea retailers. If you are a retailer interested in supporting high quality and ethical tea, but you feel that you are up against a wall to offer a low price to your consumers, you should provide this education. By showing videos and stories of the hard work and skill that goes into making a great cup of tea, your customers will be happy to pay the appropriate price. I’m excited to talk to you one on one about this if you email me at elyse@tealet.com. I will also be at the World Tea Expo with Tealet at Booth #436. Please stop by to introduce yourself and let me know what you think.
Image courtesy of the contributor.
That trip did you some real good Elyse. It’s nice to have someone else writing about these issues. The international tea industry knows very little about tea, and consumers know less. No one is demanding bad tea, but you can hardly blame customers when that is all they have ever been exposed too. As for as fair trade goes, and any other certification for that matter, especially organic, it’s all a multibillion dollars con, tea companies know that. Customers need to ask hard questions of tea companies, and we need to teach them the questions to ask.
I’m fascinated by your honest report. I didn’t realize that CTC was consistently low grade tea. I had been told that Earl Gray, for example, typically using CTC, was an example of higher quality tea. Yes, as consumers, it’s ultimately up to us. Personally I do demand high quality tea for myself. I think it’s time I stepped up and encouraged it for the masses, who don’t really know what they’re missing.
For 4.5 years in a retail store, we always looked for the best loose tea we could find. Now that we are concentrating on another area of the tea business, we learned what customers wanted and are trying to connect our standards of quality with the real world of the marketplace. Like any other industry, the big guys brand and market and the little guys who are artisans are caught somewhere between compromising and going out of business. Yes, there is a niche market of real tea ‘geeks’ (in a good way) who are willing to pay for premium, and then there is everybody else. Yes, the demand for good loose tea is growing, but the big guys are already grinding out the promo with TV stars, etc. Oh, how I wish it was an ideal world for true artisans and workers in every industry. This is the real world and we all have to try to survive and thrive without giving up our consciences and standards.
Really great article. Sometimes it is hard for a consumer to recognize the hard work that was put behind the final tea product that lands on your table in a beautiful box. I’m absolutely addicted to everything that is connected with teas, visit wonderful tea shops quite often, but I never really thought about the ordinary people who work as collectors of tea leaves… I will be happy to read some more info about the companies and which you would recommend more specifically. Thanks, John
Elyse, thank you for this amazing article to make the world more aware about what is behind the tea they drink. What I observe in China for high quality teas is that wages are becoming much better for tea pickers with an average salary of about 100 RMB (15 USD) per day, including meals and stay in dorms. I can remember it was only half of this a few years ago. There is a big migration of people to big cities and the negotiation power of tea pickers have significantly improved. With regards to farm owners, there is no need to worry about them. They are wealthy due to the increasing demand of the middle class for high quality tea. The trade is definitely fair to them ;)
Change definitely can come from the more conscious tea customer, but at the same time change can come from tea growers. I got a friend who is working for a non-profit and travels to tea growing countries to teach farmers in villages to setup village wide tea associations and negotiate as one unit with large tea buyers.
Retailing in US is evolving on a different footing little away from conventional tea marketing elsewhere – stories and ethical presentations of tea sources – since tea is now being seen as little more than a beverage..it is seen as a health drink and consumers want to know more about them then being in the cup. Tealet has exactly done that and lot of hard work and grit has gone into their efforts to achieve this goal – we wish them all the success
Thank you Elyse [and all commentaries ]for this unfortunate
and true story about tea nowadays and maybe even the story from the beginning.
When i read about the VOC[ the Dutch organisation from the beginning that treated the the people like animals ]for tea coffee and spices]I feel deeply ashamed.
I really appreciate the things you have done until now Elyse.1