Why Tea, Like Coffee, Needs Transparency

Ever wondered why you can get a single origin coffee in most high street cafes these days, and yet when it comes to tea you are offered just a cheap tea bag? 

When it comes to speciality coffee, knowing the origin of what you’re drinking has long been the norm for consumers. Walk into any Starbucks and you can order a single origin coffee from a particular region in a far-flung part of the world. Yet when it comes to tea, we’re still told very little about what we’re drinking.

At Karma Tea we feel that highlighting the origins of tea can be a selling point in the same way as it is for coffee and other products like wine and chocolate. Here’s why….

It’s a tour for the tastebuds  

Knowing where a tea is from and who made it tells you a lot about its flavour. Just like a quality single origin coffee, a single origin tea is an expression of its terroir, i.e. the soil the tea was planted in, and the seasons the tea grew through.

The particular characteristics of a garden can give nuances in taste and add more depth and complexity than a standard mass-produced tea bag which for the most part are produced by blending many unknown sources to all taste the same. 

Offering a product which has fully transparency around its origin provides the end consumer with a deeper experience of the product and takes the consumer on a journey of discovery.

It questions the ethics of production

Conscious consumerism is a growing theme in the food and drink sector, and providing full transparency is an important step in the move to a more ethical industry, particularly for products that span international supply chains like tea.

Sadly, much of the tea trade especially from South Asia and Africa still operates on a very opaque system where tea is sold in bulk at auction and passes through several hands before reaching the end consumer. The exact provenance is often concealed, especially when it comes to blends.

Knowing where your tea is produced gives you knowledge about its environmental and labour practices. This is much harder when you’re buying form an unknown source as a lack of transparency makes it easier to turn a blind eye to whether everyone along the supply chain is being paid and treated fairly.

It also means that if farmers are not recognised or paid more for producing better quality leaves (as most will be sold as a commodity at auction and later blended), there is little incentive to do so, and so growers struggle to move up the value chain and enhance their incomes.

It helps build a sustainable path for tea 

Full transparency on tea origins can help the tea industry on its path to become more environmentally aware and sustainable. Most tea from South Asia and Africa is sold as a commodity crop and is produced on large monoculture estates. To meet market demand for cheap commodity grade tea, growers have come under huge pressure to produce more tea, at cheaper prices, and this has created a wide-scale dependence on chemical inputs. There are exceptions of course, but overall the system has become more and more untenable.

If we consumers become more connected to the origins of what we’re drinking through transparent reporting on the origin, we can seek out tea from gardens that has been grown in a way that helps to sustain the soil quality, minimise erosion and maintain the biodiversity of the gardens for example.

We know clean and sustainable environments are becoming more important for consumers today and it’s our responsibility as consumers to help clean up the environment and ensure that we’re making the best choices when it comes to buying tea.

What does transparency look like?

While it’s clear that tracing ingredients is important, it can still seem easier for businesses to quietly ignore the potential issues along the supply chain of a product than take action. So what are some small steps we can take to provide more transparency today?

Firstly, we can seek out tea brands that provide as much detail as possible about the provenance of the tea on their labels such as the name of the maker, the region where the tea is harvested. Try to source from brands that have a close communication with their suppliers and ideally by via direct trade.

It is important to bear in mind that certifications like Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and organic, whilst important, are only partly effective. A "Fair Trade" label doesn't always mean a better deal for primary producers. Full transparency does go deeper than a certification or marketing logo.

Let's help raise tea standards  

Sometimes too much information may seem like a lot for consumers to understand, but if a supplier is transparent about the origins of their tea, it does show that care has been taken to source the tea carefully and this will be reflected in the quality of the product.

Ultimately, the coffee industry can play a vital role in the shift to more transparent and fair tea industry.  If we all buy tea in the same way as we buy coffee, with a focus on provenance and taste, and not just price, then the speciality corner of the tea market can thrive and not be stuck in a perpetual race to the bottom in terms of price and quality.