Sustainability in the Tea Industry: What It Actually Means
Every tea brand claims to be sustainable. Here's what that word actually means — and what we're doing to earn it.
Sustainability has become one of the most overused words in the food and beverage industry. Every brand claims it. Few define it. Even fewer can prove it. We want to be different.
The tea industry has a complicated relationship with sustainability. On one hand, tea cultivation can be remarkably low-impact — tea plants are perennial, require no annual replanting, and can thrive without heavy pesticide use when managed properly. On the other hand, the industry has a long history of labor exploitation, land degradation, and opaque supply chains.
For us, sustainability means three things: environmental responsibility, supply chain transparency, and fair compensation for the people who grow our tea.
On the environmental side, we source exclusively from gardens that use integrated pest management rather than synthetic pesticides, that maintain biodiversity buffers around their cultivation areas, and that have committed to reducing their water usage. We're working toward carbon-neutral shipping for all our products by the end of 2027.
Supply chain transparency means we can tell you exactly where every ingredient in every blend comes from. Not just the country — the specific garden, the specific harvest season, the specific processing method. We visit our suppliers. We know the people who grow our tea.
Fair compensation means we pay above Fair Trade minimums for all our sourced ingredients. We believe that the people who grow exceptional tea deserve to be paid exceptionally well for it. That's not charity — it's the only way to ensure the long-term quality and availability of the ingredients we depend on.
We're not perfect. We're a new company with a lot to learn. But we're committed to doing this right, and we'll be transparent about our progress — and our failures — as we grow.