A while after writing that second article, I noticed a note on Teas Etc about direct trade tea. Until then, I hadn’t heard of this concept; intrigued, I asked Beth Johnston, Teas Etc’s tea purveyor, if she would mind sharing a bit more about what direct trade tea is, how it compares to fair trade, and her thoughts on fair trade tea in general. I hope you find her responses as interesting as I did!

Beth Johnston from Teas Etc

What is direct trade tea?

Direct trade is a term that refers to the sourcing and buying relationship of a supplier who works directly with the farmer or processor. While many tea sellers believe that they are going ?direct?, true direct trade is not a trading company or broker which is the case in many instances.

In what ways is direct trade different from fair trade tea? How is it similar?

Direct trade is different from Fair Trade because of the transparency for us as a buyer. It allows me the peace of mind to know exactly where my tea purchasing dollars are going and that any premium I am paying (which is often the case) is going to the grower and processor not to run an organization. Conceptually they are similar in that there is a desire to pay a fair price to those responsible for the tea in our cup. I believe that direct trade is more substance over form.

Why do you believe direct trade is important?

Direct trade is important to us for a number of reasons. One important distinction is my insider knowledge of the authenticity of the tea and its origin. For example you can buy Bi Lo Chun from a variety of different growing areas in China and now even in Taiwan. True origin authentic Bi Lo Chun comes only from East West Mountain, outside of Suzhoug. So while you may be buying a Bi Lo Chun (Pi Lo Chun or Green Spring Snail) it is only going to represent a varietal that is truly authentic if it comes from the area that it originates from.

Direct trade is also about building relationships with my growers. This gives me a better overall understanding of my teas, the culture and people who produce them. It provides a sense of intimacy with my teas and positive well being knowing that we (Teas Etc) are paying a fair price for the hard work and effort that is put in to the teas we buy and sell.

Lastly, that intimacy absolutely helps me sell more tea! I would like to sit here and tell you it is all because I am a nice person but that really wouldn’t be honest. Consumers want a more global connection to the products that they purchase and as a supplier of direct trade teas it allows me to truly supply that experience. As specialty tea grows in popularity we are finding that wholesale clients are beginning to recognize the value of that direct trade relationship and are requesting more and more information and images of the teas. They want the ?story? and that gives us a competitive edge.

Should tea drinkers sacrifice quality in favor of fair trade?

I wouldn’t sacrifice quality in the cup for Fair Trade or any other certification on the label! Just because a tea does not carry the FT logo does not mean that it is produced under deplorable circumstances. I have traveled extensively and I have yet to see any indication of slavery or the exploitation of children in relationship to the production of tea.

The other part of the story that is often overlooked is how opinionated we are about how other people live around the world. Just because we (the US and other developed nations) believe that circumstances should be changed in a way that fits our lifestyle or ideals we fail to recognize that people may be quite content with the way they live despite our thoughts or lack of understanding. They are likely to be happy to have a job and given the choice may not wish to live the way we do.

I believe that while the intentions are good and may have been born out of kindness it is unconsciously a bit arrogant. Our way is not necessarily the right way.

What does 2010 hold in store for Teas Etc?

2010 is going to be an exciting year for Teas Etc. We have some new products on the horizon that I am personally very enthusiastic about and frankly are long overdue! While I had hoped to be announcing many of these in the beginning of the 2nd quarter we need a bit more research and development to get things right before launching. I wish I could reveal more but at this point that would be premature.

I can tell you that our new Tea Traveler, due out the last week of April, is 100% BPA free, has a newly designed finer mesh to accommodate even the smallest cut leaf and will be available in 3 new designs. This remains our number 1 selling accessory and we believe these changes will make it even more popular.

***

Thank you Beth for taking the time to share about direct trade tea and your perspective on fair trade.

On a final note, I wanted to mention an article I read earlier today on the T Ching blog: Behind the curtain of tea wholesale. I think it exposes some of the major flaws with tea businesses that don’t source their tea directly, but instead just order from wholesalers in the US (and often without trying the tea first). It further shows just how valuable direct trade can be in providing consumers with tea that is of a higher quality, while also offering greater benefits for the growers themselves.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Direct Trade Tea: Interview with Beth Johnston from Teas Etc | One comment |
Post categories: Fair Trade tea, Interviews
Post tags: Beth Johnston, direct trade, fair trade, Teas Etc

Fair trade is a tricky thing. I’ve written before about why I believe fair trade is important, but there’s a flipside: too often, fair trade tea is of lower quality to similarly-priced, non-fair trade tea. Which leaves a tea lover to decide between sacrificing quality or sacrificing an ethical stance.

Over the past year I have bought primarily non-fair trade tea, for one big reason: there are very few fair trade tea options around here in Melbourne, and the ones that I can find tend to be in teabag form. But one goal I’ve set for myself over the next few months is to explore some of the fair trade tea options available online. Here are four online tea stores that sell fair trade tea.

1. The Tea Spot

The Tea Spot have four fair trade organic teas:

• Organic Blue Mountain Nilgiri ? Single-estate black tea from India’s Nilgiri tea region.
• Organic Green Twisted Spears ? Hand-twisted spears from Sri Lanka.
• Organic Monkey-Picked White ? A buttery white tea from Fujian Province, China.
• Organic New Moon Darjeeling ? Autumnal Darjeeling tea. It’s single-estate, but they don’t specify which estate.

You can also get The Tea Spot’s Black Label Organic Teas set, which includes all four of the teas above and ends up saving you about 20%.

2. Numi Organic Tea

Numi Organic Tea have quite an extensive range of fair trade teas, most of which are organic as well:

• White Rose – Velvet Garden ? A white tea combined with rose petals. Also available as tea bags.
• White Nectar – Osmanthus Spring ? Organic white tea with Osmanthus flower. Also available as tea bags.
• White Orange Spice – Moonlight Spice ? White tea mixed with orange, berries, lime and spices. Also available as tea bags.
• Ginger Sun – Lemon Decaf Green ? Himalayan grown green tea combined with lemongrass and ginger. Also available as tea bags
• Jasmine Green Tea – Monkey King ? Jasmine tea from Jiangxi Province in China. Also available as tea bags
• Mate Lemon Green Tea – Rainforest Green ? Yerba Maté blended with lemon myrtle and chun mee green tea. Also available as tea bags
• Decaf Black Vanilla – Indian Night ? Organic black tea blended with vanilla. Also available as tea bags
• Breakfast Blend – Morning Rise ? A breakfast tea blended from Ceylon, Assam, Keemun and Darjeeling teas. Also available as tea bags
• Aged Earl Grey – Bergamot Black ? Full-leaf Assam tea blended with natural Italian Bergamot, not oils or flavorings. Also available as tea bags
• Berry Black – Raspberry Darjeeling Black Tea ? North American forest fruits blended with Darjeeling tea. Also available as tea bags
• Golden Chai – Spiced Assam Black Tea ? Numi’s chai tea. Also available as tea bags
• Lapsang Souchong – Smoky Tarry ? From the Wuyi Mountains in China comes Numi’s Lapsang Souchong.
• Chamomile Lemon – Sweet Meadows ? Egyptian chamomile tea blended with Australian lemon myrtle.
• Ruby Chai – Spiced Rooibos is a rooibos chai blend. Also available as ]tea bags.

Also check out Numi’s Velvet Tea Caddy, which has four of their fair trade teas and could make a great gift idea. (Click here for more tea gifts).

3. Art of Tea

Art of Tea have a small selection of fair trade teas, all three of which can be bought together in their Fair Trade Tea Gift Set, which includes:

• Biodynamic Darjeeling ? Black tea from the Makaibari Estate.
• Egyptian Chamomile ? Chamomile tea from Egypt.
• Gunpowder ? Gunpowder green tea from Zhejiang Province, in northern China.

4. Rishi Tea

Rishi Tea have made a name for themselves with quite a huge range of fair trade teas. You can see all their fair trade teas listed here. Also be sure to check out their store on Amazon , which has some great discounts.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | 4 Places to Buy Fair-Trade Tea Online | 5 comments |
Post categories: Black tea, Fair Trade tea, Green tea, Oolong tea, Organic tea, Pu-erh tea, Tisanes, White tea
Post tags: Art of Tea, buying tea online, Numi Organic Tea, Rishi Tea, The Tea Spot

A passage from Peter Singer’s and Jim Mason’s The Ethics of What We Eat has been resounding with me lately. The passage comes after a detailed exploration of the ecological and ethical costs of intensive chicken farming, especially by Tyson Foods.

Tyson produces chicken cheaply because it passes many costs on to others. Some of the cost is paid by people who can’t enjoy being outside in their yard because of the lies and have to keep their windows shut because of the stench. Some is paid by kids who can’t swim in the local streams. Some is paid by those who have to buy bottled water because their drinking water is polluted. Some is paid by people who want to be able to enjoy a natural environment with all its beauty and rich biological diversity. These costs are, in the terms used by economists, ‘externalities’ because the people who pay them are external to the transaction between the producer and the purchaser.

Consumers may choose to buy Tyson chicken, but those who bear the other, external costs of intensive chicken production do not choose to incur them. Short of moving house – which has its own substantial cost – there is often little they can do about it. Economists – even those who are loudest in extolling the virtues of the free market – agree that the existence of such externalities is a sign of market failure. In theory, to eliminate this market failure, Tyson should compensate everyone adversely affected by its pollution. Then its chicken would no longer be so cheap.

What does any of this have to do with tea? This ain’t Chicken Finely Brewed after all.

Singer and Mason focus primarily on the meat industry in their book, but I believe that this passage has resonance for us as tea drinkers. When we purchase cheap supermarket tea bags, we save money; but who is paying the price?

The majority of tea produced worldwide is sprayed with a plethora of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, all for the simple purpose of increasing crop yields. The people who work these plantations, picking two leaves and a bud morning to night, year-round, pay for our cheap tea with their health. They pay for our cheap tea as they come into contact with hazardous chemicals. They pay for our cheap tea as their water supply grows contaminated. They pay for our cheap tea as the skies grow silent, birds forced to move on because of the chemicals.

And you know how much they get paid? On average, workers are paid between 60 cents and $1.50 per day. That is, if they pluck their daily quota. If they’re sick and unable to work, or if there just isn’t any work to do, they are paid less or not paid at all.

We save. They lose. We are shielded from the true cost of our tea by artificially low prices. And when a new tea label appears on our supermarket shelves selling fair trade, organic tea, but for a dollar extra, too often we shrug and keep buying the cheaper labels because we can’t “afford” the other label.

The Case for Fair Trade Organic Tea

I choose to buy fair trade organic tea as much as possible because I believe it goes part of the way to restoring balance to the tea trade. If me paying an extra dollar for my tea means that a tea worker’s conditions are improved, it’s worth it. The equation is stacked so heavily in our favour in the first place, that paying more for tea that ensures a better deal for the workers is a way of narrowing the gap.

Let’s not get caught in naivety here. There are flaws to the fair trade system, as there are flaws to the organic system. Workers don’t always see their lives improve as much as the fair trade label promises. As organic tea becomes a mainstream phenomena, big business latches on and may lower the standards of what it means to be organic.

The fair trade and organic movements are imperfect, but they’re a step in the right direction. Ultimately, deeper systemic changes need to be made to give tea workers a fair wage, good living conditions and the freedom to live their lives as they’d like to.

For now though, I’m happy to invest the extra dollars into buying fair trade, organic tea.

Learn more

If you’re interested in learning more about fair trade, organic, or the plight of tea workers, I recommend checking out Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West by Beatrice Hohenegger. I just finished reading this and the final chapters, provide a great overview of these issues. Suffice it to say that reading her book was part of the inspiration for putting this post together.

One website which I strongly recommend – and which I want to explore more myself – is Raisa Rasheeka’s blog, which is about tea plantation workers in Bangladesh. Seriously, for a first-hand perspective of life on a tea plantation, Raisa’s blog is amazing.

And, lastly, The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason is an eye-opening exploration of the modern meat industry. I didn’t agree with every conclusion they came to, but it was easily the most influential book I read last year.

© eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Fair Trade Organic Tea and the Ethics of What We Drink | 8 comments |
Post categories: Fair Trade tea, Organic tea
Post tags: ethical tea, tea plantations, tea workers, the ethics of what we eat