As is often the case, it is the downstream stages of tea manufacturing where the big profits are made: blending (selecting the different types of tea from different places to mix together), packing (making it into tea bags, or into packs of loose tea) and marketing. Beyond the bag, have you thought about where your tea is sourced? The Ethical Tee Company has brought together the leading Fairtrade, Fairwear, & organic apparel suppliers under one roof to offer you the widest range of ethical products. Buy it: Peppermint tea and Mao Feng green tea, £3.99, teapigs.co.uk 10 Fair Trade Tea Brands With Smart Sustainable Practices By. There has always been controversy about Fairtrade certifying large estates, due to the likelihood of problems like this arising. Not to mention they only use organic, ethically sourced ingredients to make their teas. Her work has been featured on MindBodyGreen, Green Matters, The Penny Hoarder and several other publications. Is it from a devoted Fairtrade company? Personally, I really love their classic green tea and chamomile blends. Not all tea is created equal and many high-street brews contain plastic hidden in their tea bags – this means they can’t be composted and may leech microplastics. This post was sponsored, some of the links below are affiliate links, for more information please see my disclosure policy. Coffee Lovers, Do You Know the Difference Between Direct Trade and Fair Trade? However, the estate owners claim that they are on the verge of financial collapse. Plus, as stated earlier, organic farming is very important for biodiversity! Katie. After years of stagnation, since 2015 the agreed wage has risen somewhat in Assam. We provide practical information for consumers on how to keep your ethics while you travel. The box is made from FSC, recyclable card and printed with vegetable ink. Many sources have reported that certification (of all kinds – Fairtrade, Utz and Rainforest Alliance) doesn’t mean better conditions in the Indian tea estates. Welcome to Ethical Teas (Pvt) Ltd – Processor & Exporter of Premium Quality Ceylon Organic Teas, Organic Black, Green & White Teas with Ceylon most precious spices, fruits & herbs, Ethical Teas (Pvt) Ltd is a passionate company who is devoted in manufacturing high quality Ceylon Organic & Fairtrade certified Black, Green & White teas. It might surprise you to learn most tea bags are made from plastic. Traidcraft Exchange (the campaigning part of Traidcraft) is running a campaign called ‘Who Picked my Tea?” to get the big six UK tea companies to reveal the names of all the tea estates from which they source. 10 Ways to Make Your Home More Sustainable, 8 Sustainable Denim Brands That Make the Best Jeans, 5 Eco-Friendly Ideas for Your Home Office, 12 Tips for All Natural, Zero Waste Curly Hair. Full online access to our unique shopping guides, ethical rankings and company profiles. From origin to origin type of tea & taste profile changes brining the uniqueness of the tea growing region. Camellia Sinensis is a sub-tropical plant that grows best in deep soils & high altitudes with sub-tropical climate. Assam has very hot and humid weather which gives its tea a strong, malty flavour. There are specific teas to help with digestion, women’s issues, cleansing, relaxing and so much more. Guest Post: Ariana Palmieri is the founder of Greenify-Me.com, a blog dedicated to zero waste living and sustainability. We have a separate guide to herbal teas. I love arbor teas for the great taste. Not to mention they’ve installed 870 solar panels at their Connecticut headquarters. This makes their packaging biodegradable! Ethical Superstore stocks two of our Best Buys for tea, Cafedirect and London Tea Company. To strengthen our transparent business activities we are equipped & certified under EU Organic, USDA/NOP, Bio Suisse, Demeter, ISO 22 000, Fairtrade & SPP certifications. The company sells only loose leaf tea, and many varieties are certified Fair Trade, which means that the tea was produced without harming workers or the environment. I can feel good about a lot of things while sipping their tea, that’s for sure! Tea is the most popular manufactured drink consumed in the world. (It is too soon to see any results of this yet). There's 15 organic teas in the collection, ranging from single estate black teas to speciality green and white and herbal wellness blends - all grown sustainable and certified by the Ethical Tea Partnership. This is a product guide from Ethical Consumer, the UK's leading alternative consumer It is useful for workers to know who their tea is getting sold to. We always check the ethics of our advertisers. These tea bags are folded then sewn instead of being glued or stapled. Relying on purchases alone. The company lost marks for making political donations in the USA (93% to Republicans), as well as for having unaccounted for subsidiaries in tax havens, and operating in countries which required animal testing. Most importantly all our teas are from our own small organic tea framers. Upton Tea Imports has been selling tea in this manner since 1989, long before most companies were willing to jump on the eco-friendly bandwagon. The tea is sold both loose leef or in sachlets--teabag alternatives made from eco-friendly hemp paper. It does so in an ethical and environmentally-friendly manner. That has fair trading and attempts to go beyond it, working with suppliers on the ground, rather than one which just certifies a few products? James Finlay-owned tea estate in Kericho, Kenya, which supplies Fairtrade tea to The London Tea Company. Bigelow is also a certified B corporation, meaning they’re all about accountability and transparency, protecting the environment and supporting communities. Upton Tea Imports. Brands of the same company group are shown together. They also use organic rooibos leaf from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in 7 of their tea blends. The tea industry of the Raj was famous for extremely brutal treatment of workers, and we still seem to be living in its very dark shadow. My go to teas are Teatulia for loose tea and Celestial Seasonings for bagged teas. If you put cow’s milk in your tea, it can easily amount to about the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as the whole of the rest of the drink. The tea companies do have Supply Chain Codes of Conduct but, while nobody knows which bit of tea comes from where, nobody is in a position to call out estates who are flaunting them. As if that weren’t awesome enough, Arbor Teas has a solar-powered packaging facility they pack everything in. One thing that you can do is join Traidcraft’s campaign and write to the two tea companies who haven’t yet revealed which tea estates they source from. Each year, the solar panels produce about 200,000 kWh, which is equivalent to the energy needed to power a home for 16 years! Love loose leaf tea but want it delivered in sustainable packaging? This Massachusetts-based tea company has been around since 1989 and is completely committed to ethical tea production. (Arbor Teas, from $7), Widely-available Bigelow only offers one Fair Trade variety -- this organic ceylon tea -- which it says has the same "rich, smooth, mountain-grown flavor" that makes ceylon a worldwide favorite. Fairtrade is not a panacea, but it may help slightly. Teatulia is all organically grown. -Lisa Mills, Founder, Elephant Origins and co-founder of the Certified Elephant Friendly™ Tea program. According to the company's website, all Rishi tea is grown "according to ancient artisan practices using organic cultivation techniques.". Bigelow’s tea ingredients are all-natural, but not always organic. Sri Lanka. However, the tea bags do come in a foil wrapper, which is trickier to recycle. After you’re done drinking your tea, you can plop the bag right into your compost pail. I also adore how each tea box comes with a yoga pose to try. (Starwest Botanicals, from $9), Not sure what kind of tea you'd like? The box it comes in is cardboard and compostable too. Everything is of the highest quality. However, it is still very low. Would highly recommend! But the company does more than produce healthy, refreshing beverages perfect for summer. It is considered to add ‘body’ to a blend. As a devoted Organic & Fairtrade certified Tea Company, we strictly adhere to international Organic standards, Sri Lankan Tea Board standards & practice Fairtrade concept throughout our value chain to create a sustainable business model in the long run. Teas are available in black, green, white, oolong, and Pu-Erh varieties. I really recommend their pure green tea though – it wakes me right up every morning and tastes delicious! I live in Ann Arbor, home of Arbor Teas, and recently fell in love with the company. Yet tea is generally exported as dust or leaves and all of these high-profit downstream activities occur in importing countries. All rights reserved. Learn more, here. Plus, there’s always an inspirational message on their paper tags – too cute! If that’s not enough, they’re also fair trade certified. bigelow: I really love this brand of tea. London Tea is black and green tea in teabag form. That means that they won’t be reaping much of the financial benefits of certification – they won’t get much Fairtrade premium. A post shared by Upton Tea Imports (@uptonteaimports) on May 24, 2017 at 2:24pm PDT. 8 Eco-Friendly Alternatives for a Sustainable Celebration, Find Out Which Toilet Paper Is the Most Sustainable, 11 of the Safest Laundry Detergents on the Market, A post shared by republicoftea (@republicoftea), A post shared by Upton Tea Imports (@uptonteaimports), ethical and environmentally-friendly manner, How and When to Harvest Garlic: Everything You Need to Know, Our Favorite Vegan Wines and Champagnes, for a Totally Ethical Sip, Here's Which Type of Wine Packaging We Think Is the Most Sustainable. We appreciate you reaching out and are happy to answer your question. Good thing too because this brand is amazing! All Rights Reserved. Good & Proper Tea makes compostable tea bags, packaged in recyclable card and a compostable Natureflex wrap. Since 1989 we've been researching and recording the social and environmental ——–Thank you for contacting Yogi! However, a growing number of ethical alternatives makes it easier than ever to switch to a sustainable bank account or pick an insurance company with an ethical policy. Equal Exchange. For that reason, it scores top points from the panel and wins our Readers’ Choice award. They do have some certified organic teas, but those are harder to find on grocery store shelves. This means Pukka makes an ongoing commitment to meet high standards of transparency, accountability, and performance.