Tea seems simple on the surface: dried leaves in hot water.
You boil the jug, brew it for a few minutes, and down it goes. But getting tea that actually tastes incredible—without overpowering bitterness, flat flavour, or synthetic aromas—takes a surprising amount of care behind the scenes.
Most people know tea bags tend to be cheap, but few people realise why they’re cheap, or why hand-picked, organic loose leaf requires a different level of care.
Here is an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what actually goes into our tea, from origin to your mug, and why we do things the way we do.
1. Sourcing with Trusted Partners
Like wine or specialty coffee, tea is shaped entirely by where it grows.
Rather than buying bottom-dollar filler from commodity auctions, we work with long-term partners built on fair pay and mutual respect. This connects us to certified organic estates producing the best version of each variety:
Green Tea: Sweet, clean Sencha from Zhejiang, China.
Black Tea Blends: Rich Assam and high-grown Darjeeling from India, blended with bright Ceylon.
Herbal & Native Botanicals: Pure herbs and botanicals sourced from around the world where each variety thrives best (like South African Rooibos), paired with local Kawakawa and Mānuka from the Bay of Plenty.
You simply can’t make great tea if the base leaf is second-rate.
2. Orthodox Whole Leaf vs. Industrial Dust
There are two very different ways to harvest tea:
CTC (Cut, Tear, Curl): Mechanised rollers shred and crush tea leaves (and stalks) into fine pellets and dust. This is what commonly fills standard tea bags. It brews dark and very fast, but it strips away delicate aromatic oils and releases harsh, bitter tannins almost immediately.
Orthodox Hand-Picking: Skilled pickers selectively harvest the tender top two leaves and a bud. The leaves are carefully withered, rolled, and dried whole.
We only buy orthodox hand-picked loose leaf tea. Because the leaf remains intact, it retains its natural essential oils, releases subtle, complex flavours slowly, and brews smooth rather than bitter. Orthodox harvesting is labour-intensive and relies on the skill of experienced pickers, which makes all the difference to what ends up in your cup.
3. Why Certified Organic Sourcing Matters
Tea is unique because the leaves are never washed after harvesting. They are picked, withered, rolled, and dried.
That means whatever pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilisers are sprayed onto the crop in the field stay on the leaf... until you add water to your mug.
Every tea leaf and botanical we buy is certified organic—even our natively grown Kawakawa and Mānuka. Growing organically means lower crop yields for farmers and more manual weeding and soil management. It requires more care and dedication from growers, but it guarantees you’re drinking pure tea without chemical residues.
4. Storage: Guarding Freshness
Tea is sensitive. It absorbs surrounding moisture and aromas like a sponge. If it's exposed to extreme fluctuating temperatures in transit, or left unsealed in cardboard boxes, it quickly loses its essential oils and ends up tasting flat.
We ship our tea in airtight barrier-sealed units by sea. Once it lands, it heads straight to our warehouse in Te Puna, where it stays sealed, cool, and stored out of direct light until we blend and pack it.
5. Blended, Packed, and Dispatched in Te Puna
Once our ingredients arrive, we blend, pack, and dispatch every order ourselves right here in Te Puna.
Doing the entire process in-house means nothing gets handed off to a third-party warehouse. We keep our own eyes on every batch before it leaves the workshop, pack parcels with genuine care, and handle our own customer service. It takes more work, but it allows us to maintain a level of freshness, quality control, and personal service that simply can't be replicated when you outsource.
The Bottom Line
We’re not the cheapest, and we don’t cut corners to be so. From fair pay and hand-picked leaves to certified organic ingredients and packing every order ourselves in Te Puna, every step is intentional. Ultimately, all that care means a delicious cup of tea that’s genuinely worth savouring.
Enjoy!
Mark
