Journey To Cup


Part of our revitalisation journey has been about articulating our intent and what we stand for as an organisation. Byron Bay is a unique region in its concentration of views towards a more socially, politically and environmentally aware consciousness. We reflect this in more than just our name, but our commitment to bring about positive change.

This revitalisation in branding is the continuation of a 14-year journey. Our ethos and philosophy are centred around improving the wellbeing of the individual as well as the planet.  It’s a continual journey we are committed to with our customers to find better ways to deliver our love of teas with the best and freshest ingredients we can find, whilst honouring the rich history of tea across cultures.

 

Certified Organic: Herbs Taste Better Naturally!

We take great care in selecting tea, herbs, fruits, and spices of exceptional quality. We believe that natural, certified organic, wild-crafted and pesticide-free ingredients are better for you. This means also that there is no use of flavourings or additives in our range -  just the real ingredient.

 

Sourcing of our Teas: Black, Green, Oolong & White

Tea is the world’s most consumed drink after water. It has become a heavily traded commodity worldwide in the last few hundred years. To keep up with this increasing demand, tea has become increasingly grown for high harvest yields, not for distinctive flavours or unique qualities, like traditional teas. Tea farming and production practices have been focussed on keeping up with supply and keeping prices down.

At Byron Bay Tea Company, we select teas for our range from countries and regions where Traditional farming practises are still employed. Sri Lanka, India, China and Taiwan have traditional tea making, utilising hundreds of years of knowledge and experience in the crafting of fine tea. No two tea producing countries produce tea in exactly the same way.

Fairly Traded: Adding Value From Leaf To Cup

We select tea in an ethical and sustainable process. Our tea comes from small family-run tea plantations, small village production, and tightly controlled tea co-operatives. We pay them a fair price for their tea. Traditional tea farmers/producers must be in harmony with nature and have such great knowledge and ability to deal with problems and situations that arise during the harvest times. For these people, tea is their life and their life is tea.

Sustainable Production: Being In Harmony With Nature

Traditional tea production is sustainable on many levels. A traditional tea plantation does not make use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. It uses time-honoured methods of pest control such as;

  • Tea plantations where the elevation is high, away from the pests that plague low elevation tea plantations where commodity teas are grown.

  • Encouraging the presence of birds in the tea plantations.

  • The introduction of plants that discourage the presence of certain pests

  • Organic farming practices (soil enrichment, worm production and natural fertilizers made from food sources and manure).

Save The Bees

Without our glorious bees, we would not have a product. Bees pollinate the countless varieties of herbs and plants we use in each of our blends. Often our herbs such as dandelion, are considered weeds and the use of pesticides on these plants is having a large effect on the health of bee populations worldwide.

We have teamed up with Save the Bee’s to support and preserve one of our most vital natural resources. They do this in two ways;

  1. Educating society on the importance of Bees and the factors that are harming them.
  2. Relocating swarms that are in harm's way to new locations so they can thrive and survive.

And finally, native honey is a great addition to all of our teas. We advise for you to use local raw honey that is produced in harmony with the environment. If you haven't got into the bee way of thinking, we urge you to learn more and be aware of the importance of this amazing creature!

Reusable and Recyclable

Freshness and quality is a driver of what we want to deliver to our customers. Our products from the time they are packaged, have a 24 month best before guarantee. This lifespan is heavily dependent on the packaging removing light, moisture, air, and protection against infestation by unwanted pests.

Unfortunately, biodegradable plastics rightly degrade after 3-6 months, especially in the humidity of Byron Bay! We didn't want to contribute to single-use plastics, so we have opted for resealable packaging. Or at least until a clever innovator comes up with a solution we can adopt!