Hello! Very intrigued by your tea tags. Do you have recommendations for how to find small tea companies? I only know about the ones specifically in the region where I live.
Hi ☀️ Thank you for the ask, I always love talking about tea!!
It can take me up to a few hours to find a new company that fits my standards, and I found that visiting the Great Taste Awards website is of great help. It's a reliable source with quick links to the companies' websites, and saves me the trouble of going through hundreds of Google search results. Though, when I'm looking for something specific (say, France based companies, or Kenyan black tea), usually a Google search is all that it takes – I open a bunch of websites, scroll right down to the "About Us" and the "Sustainability" sections (I usually look for little to no plastic packages, preferably single estate teas, handmade and/or hand-picked leaves), then go through their catalogue. Generally, the more information they give about the harvesting season and geographical coordinates, the better :)
I'll list a few of my personal favourites, whose tea I tried, or that I have been following for a while. Except for the second one, which chiefly has USA based retailers, they're UK based, and sell worldwide:
Birchall — their Great Rift breakfast blend has been a staple in my tea collection for half a decade; they make good green and flavored tea, too (I got a sample of their Green Tea & Peach and it was great), as well rooibos and other caffeine free teas; the prices are really competitive for the good quality of the products, so this might be a great start to discover loose leaf / more sustainable teas in general; the company recently went carbon neutral, and their teabags and pouches are plastic free, which is a plus!
Ajiri — a small women-led company whose goal is to create employment for [mostly widowed or single] women in Kenya, all profits enable them to provide for themselves and their children with dignity; I have yet to try it – the reviews look very promising, so I'm looking forward to it soon; it's so clear that every product is made with care – each label is a handmade artwork created with dried banana bark, which I think is really cool! They offer plain and flavored black tea, some green tea, rooibos, and coffee.
Karma Tea Co. — this company sources their "single-garden, loose whole leaf" teas from small farms in India and Nepal; with particular attention to new Nepalese gardens that are trying to renovate the tea production of the area; I found out about it through their Great Taste Award winner Silk Cloud, which is a very particular and tea, however I fell in love with their New Day Assam, that I look forward to buying more of soon.
Feel free to message me or send an ask if you'd like further suggestions/try any of these companies/want to talk about tea in general! I'm still learning, but I'm always happy to help 🍃🍵
