A Quick Guide: How and Where to Buy Good Loose Leaf Teas Online
Welcome, my tea fiend.
I MEAN, my tea friend. :)
If you’ve landed at this website, you’re probably ready to take your tea drinking to the next level. I’m cheering you on!
Yes, you are ready to move past getting stale teas from the beverage aisle at your local grocery chain. I’m with you on this.
With so many online retailers these days online (or if you’re thinking “which tea shops should I start with?”) and with so many types of teas, you might be a bit confused as to where you might want to get your teas if you want to start ramping up your personal tea ritual. I get it. I am too a lot of the times.
Fortunately, I’ve had a decent amount of experience purchasing tea online in the past year, during the pandemic when most small shops were closed and going outside for anything “non-essential” was scary. Though I will say it on the record here, tea is an absolute essential for any crisis.
Due to shipping difficulties from my tea school ITEI, I ended up ordering a lot of the teas I needed online—like $400+ in teas just for me. Cowabunga! It’s a lot of tea.
I’ve also ordered many teas for my family and friends in the past year as I’m finding it to be a great gift item. People hesitate to buy nice tea for themselves. I was also comforted knowing there’s been multiple sources citing the role that tea has played throughout history in mitigating human epidemics. (Seriously!) I shall uncover more of this later. My point here is, I now have a few tips to shed on this subject of purchasing tea online.
I also understand that when buying tea online, you want to taste good teas without breaking your wallet on a product you haven’t even tried yet. Or even if you decide to spend a bit extra, you want to know that you’re getting decent quality tea leaves. So how do you know what’s good and where to get some of the good stuff without having to travel all the way to China? Keep reading…
While it will would be overwhelming and neither helpful for me to list out a long list of tea stores that ship nationally in the US or internationally to wherever you are, I decided to put together a list of Online Tea Shops I’d Recommend + My April 2021 Tea Review.
I hope it’s is a good starting point for you as you get started with your loose leaf tea collection or if you’re expanding your current collection.
Points to consider when purchasing tea online:
If you’re not sure what teas you like or want to purchase, start with sample sizes and tea assorted collections. That way you can sample a variety and won’t be stuck with a huge bag of tea you won’t drink. Typically you can choose from Black, Green, White, Oolong, Pu-erhs, and Herbal varieties at any retailer. I’d say go nuts and get a variety of teas. Mix some bolder teas (Black and Roasted Oolongs) with more delicate teas (Green and White Teas) and throw in a herbal. Often these assortments are already pre-assorted into a pack. If not, follow the above formula: Bold + Delicate + Herbal.
Try 2-3 brew methods before you decide whether you like a tea or not. Depending on the tea ware, brew time & method, your mood, what state your taste buds are in—for example: following a spicy meal—and a few other factors, the flavor and experience of a tea can range quite a bit across brew sessions. Give a new tea a chance. It’s like making new acquaintances, typically I would hope one gets to know a new person before making rash judgments about them from first impressions. One of my best friends for about a decade now, was someone who I didn’t think I liked at all upon first impressions! Same can be applied to a new book you just picked up as another example.
Decide on a budget before you purchase teas. Buying teas online, like anything else online, can easily go overboard if you’re anything like me. The prices can really range. Oo, I need to try that, and that…aaaaand that! To avoid overdoing it, if you decide what your tea budget will be beforehand and stick to it, you can satisfactorily sip your teas when they arrive, guilt-free and with fat-smile like those coffee commercial people when they sip their gross coffee by a windowsill. 👹☕️
It almost seems redundant for me to advise you on how to spend your money. I know you know what your budget is, it’s just that tea straddles between being an everyday pantry item, and simultaneously, a luxury good. Just to give you some numbers that you are welcome to ignore if you’re a baller:
If you want to do a modest sampling, start around $15-$20. It’s good enough.
A more than enough sampling budget of quality teas can range from $40-65.
If you’re looking to sample more than a few luxury teas plus maybe adding a new brewing accessory to your precious Teaware Family you’re looking at something around $70-$100 or up. (Nerd alert: my tea sets are like my friends. Before you judge, I just have to say that 2020 had some lonely times in it, OK?! 🥺 *Music cue* “All by myseeeeelf…”
Ways to tell if a tea company is mindful of quality and sourcing of their teas:
1. They tell you what region the tea is from. Sometimes they will get as specific as what estate it is from as well as relevant information about the terrain and deets on the geographical location, or what we fancy tea sommelier people like to call “terroir.” Extra-extra bonus points for learning how to pronounce that word correctly. [Terr-wrarrrr.] Rawr. ;)
2. It will indicate the harvest year and/or month. For teas in the green category, it’s crucial to know what the tea harvest year or month is as green tea tends to have a shorter shelf life (about 1.5 years) than the other types of teas. It can also reveal information about its flavor. Fun stuff huh?
3. They can go as far as telling you the information of the tea farmer. How sweet is that?!
Life of a tea farmer can include long 10-hour days, 6 days a week, in all-weather conditions. In an increasingly globalized economy where price competition is king, cheap labor abroad continues to open up for exploitation. Some of the best geographical climates for producing tea (sub-tropical regions), also happens to be where some of the poorest countries are located. Many of these countries’ economies rely heavily on tea exports. See Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries, or LIFDC, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations. *Paragraph Source: World Atlas of Tea by Krisi Smith (2016)
We have a responsibility as consumers to at least be aware of the origins of the food and drink we consume. By being aware, one would hope that we may not be buying a product solely because of its low-cost, but because it was produced by people who were paid fairly and therefore live better, healthier lives to keep producing their products with passion, rather than out of out of desperation.
Summing it up…
I’ve listed quite a few tea vendors and tips to use when purchasing teas.
Remember:
start with a small purchase
brew with the tea ware you already have at home and try a few different methods on the same tea before you declare you don’t like something.
know ahead of time how much you want to spend.
look for information on the origin of the tea
In no way is this exhaustive of course. It’s just a start for you new and continuing hobbyists out there. I’m really grateful you are willing to join me on my tea discovery and learning journey thus far. What’s your favorite tea? I always want to know. Drop me a line below or at IG @minimalisttea.
xOO MinTea