After over 10 years of organic certification, we ended our relationship with certifying agencies.
Want to know why?
- Wording
- roadblocks
- wild
- Red tape
what does organic mean?
For us, organic tea means tea grown without the use of chemicals. In the organic industry, a product can be labeled "organic" if only 95% if its ingredients are. But that's not how we see it.
Relying on an outside organization to dictate which of our offerings can be labeled organic was not allowing us to tell the whole story of each tea.
ROADBLOCKS TO CERTIFICATION
LACK OF CONGRIGUITY
While organic certification exists all over the world, there is still not a global governing body. This means that each tea farm that wants to be labeled organic needs to meet each destination country's paperwork standard and/or apply for certification through their national certifier.
This means each farm has to pay for soil testing, product testing, and provide traceback logs, which is an enormous amount of work and comes with a high price tag.
Tea producers, who buy tea at auction and then blend and/or and finish it, would have to make sure that each tea farm is independently certified, something most small farmers can't do.
SMALL FARMS
Most of the tea farmers and producers we work with are small collectives or family farms. Some of them are even certified in their home countries, but due to the red tape from country to country, aren't able to apply their organic status in the States.
This puts a huge amount of work and costs on the farmers themselves, many of whom have never used chemicals in their gardens.
Many people have told me that the costs of becoming certified are not worth it, so they forgo certification.
WHAT IS WILD TEA?
Ecological sustainability isn’t just about what is done to the plants and soil. It’s also about what isn’t done.
Preserving and fostering a healthy balance between wild and curated ecology is crucial in maintaining a beneficial relationship for both.
For thousands of years, tea trees have grown wild amongst the forest. They are a resilient and beneficial plant. When allowed to grow from seed, their roots reach deep into the soil and help not only bring nutrients to the surface but help prevent soil erosion as well.
Wild tea trees are both recipients and contributors to their natural surroundings. Realizing the tea plant’s inner resiliency and contributions helps us better support its ability to thrive naturally.
CATEGORIZING WILD TEA
Wild tea is categorized by a few characteristics:
- It refers to tea trees literally growing wild in the forest, on land that may or may not be, owned by someone.
- It refers to trees that are not manipulated, fertilized, or undergo any pruning other than being plucked.
- They are not grown in gardens or estates, or farms. They are spaced apart, grow in tree form and sprawl out with untamed branches.
- Many times, you will have to hike to reach them
CAN'T CERTIFY WILD
Because many wild tea trees are growing literally wild and are spaced far apart, you physically can't test the soil, like you can with a tea garden. You would have to take a sample from the base of each tree and test them individually. The costs associated with this are astronomical to a small farmer.
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT'S ORGANIC?
RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST
For over 10 years, Ali has been making annual trips to visit the farms we source from and build relationships.
It is in the best interests of the farmers to care for the land in ecologically sustainable ways, as most farms are passed down from generation to generation.
When visiting, we are able to discuss soil health, organic practices, and ways the community and government work together to keep organic farms organic, and help more farms transition to organic practices.
VISUAL SIGNS
It's no secret which tea farms use chemicals. The signs are visible to anyone passing by who knows what to look for.
A healthy tea garden in a thriving ecosystem has bugs, including lots of spiders, who help keep the "bad bug" population under control.
Moss, ferns and native weeds growing at the base of the plants and on the trunks of the tea trees is a good sign there are no herbicides being used.
Dead and brown grasses around the tea gardens is a sign of pesticide use as well, as is seeing lots of dead bugs around the perimeter of the garden.
TESTING
All of our teas test clean for chemicals of they are listed as organically grown, and follow EU standards of safety (which are much more stringent than the standards in the US)
SHIFT TO ORGANIC
In the last several years, we have made huge efforts to replace our teas with organic equivalents whenever possible.
One by one, we have found alternatives that are equal to, or better than the conventional teas we carried.
When we bring in new teas, we put an emphasis on sourcing from farms who operate without chemicals.
When that's not possible, we ensure the teas test clean and are within our standards for responsible practices.
What about conventional teas?
What does it mean to use chemicals in farming responsibly?
knowing your land
The best way to make responsible decisions about using chemicals is knowing the natural cycles and ecosystem you are growing in.
The farmers we work with live in a close relationship to the land and know the consequences of over utilizing hemicals could lead to greater issues for themselves and their community.
Responsible Usage
For the farmers we work with, resorting to chemical use is never the first option. It is used in small amounts in conjunction with alternative methods for caring for the plants.
Many of our teas that do utilize chemicals also test clean in labratory test, meaning there is no tracebale redidue left in the tea itself.
Timing it right
One of the biggest concerns we have is around pesticides. Because tea is not washed after being harvested (except in few cases), what is on the leaf stays on the leaf.
If pesticides are used, the best timing is to spray during winter, so that there will be rains to wash away the residue long before the teas are plucked.
We always make sure that the tea trees are sprayed well before being picked to ensure the cleanest tea.
bottom line
Tea should make you feel good
The health and vitality of the ecosystem and farmers are as important as crafting great tea.
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