Common questions about Tea and two leaves and a bud tea Co.
What is a single region tea?
Most teas on the market are blended with less expensive teas. Two leaves and a bud teas are pure single region teas meaning they come from one specific growing region. We never blend with cheap “filler” tea.
Is your tea certified organic?
Yes. We are certified through CERES and QAI. We are currently in the process of adding the USDA logo to our boxes.
Is your tea Fair Trade and if not why?
Two leaves and a bud is Fair Trade Certified. We are looking to increase our range of Certified Fair Trade Teas every day.
We are also a founding member of the Trust Organic Small Farmers Initiative. In the global market, small family farms are at a disadvantage, even if they are certified Fair Trade, because they produce on a smaller scale. If they compete with large Fair Trade Certified farms, they can not be as cost effective. Therefore, new roads of marketing these products have to be paved and new paths to implement innovative grass-root projects for sustainable development have to be opened. The TOSF initiative builds markets for these farms.
Are the tea sachets GMO free?
Yes. There are no genetic material in the our biodegradable tea sachets.
Is the tea quality safe since it is coming out of China?
Absolutely. Only a few of our teas are actually grown in China. Mostly, we pack our tea there. That means we take the bulk tea, put it in the sachet, put our sachet in the sleeve, put the sleeve in the box etc. Additionally we have our own staff on site in China to inspect each shipment, everyday. Finally, the majority of our teas are third- party certified Organic. Ceres is the most stringent certifier in the world. They only certify to European standards which are generally more stringent than US Organic standards.
Why package in China rather than the US?
We package in China because we can pack the tea much fresher there. We don’t face the transit and trans-shipping delays that most tea companies who pack in the US do. Our tea goes from the garden to the store shelf in less than 6 months, which is about a year faster than most tea companies.
What does the number mean on the side of the box?
This is our lot number/packaged date. Each lot of tea packed is carefully inspected and dated. This allows us to know what specified garden the tea in a specific box comes from and when and where it is packaged.
