Plastic Free Tea
/We thought we would celebrate National Tea Day by getting to know our teas a little better! We’ve worked with Martyn and Martina from Westcountry Tea Co since we started Incredible Bulk. We love how they are committed to being plastic free and we enjoy working with a local company as it means we can use reusable containers for all of our deliveries so we completely avoid any single use packaging! We asked them a few questions which we thought we would share with you:
In 2018 you became one of Britain’s first 100% plastic free tea companies, how did you do this?
We started Westcountry Tea Co offering loose leaf tea, however the market demanded tea bags. When we looked at the quantity of tea that is packed in tea bags drunk in the UK, we were shocked by the quality which prompted us to want to develop a great quality tea bag product. In 2017 we started trialling the world’s first 100% plastic free heat sealable tea bag material. The tea bags are made from corn starch, which is a 100% natural fibre, so they do not contain any petroleum based synthetic fabrics, making them 100% biodegradable / compostable. Ideally, they would like to be put into an industrial compost “Council food waste collection”, however if you do compost at home, it is possible but it can take up to 3 years and only on a well-maintained compost heap. If they end up going to landfill or being burned, at least there is no plastic going into the ground or atmosphere.
At the same time as developing our tea bags there was another innovation, where we could change from clear plastic bags used to keep our teas fresh to a 100% natural clear bag, made from Eucalyptus cellulose. We had been looking into other forms of clear bags for many years, however most of it was either plastic with added chemicals, to make it break down into micro plastic or the other alternative had a shelf life of around 12 months before it would break down, which is no use to us!
We're trying to be more aware of where our food comes from and the processes involved in getting it to us, could you share with us a bit of history about your teas before it arrives on the shelves for customers to buy?
Teas are moved around the world on container ships, rather than air freight. We order our teas in bulk from tea merchants, who deliver the teas to us on pallets via road transport.
Rooibos only grows in South Africa and cannot grow anywhere else in the world. This tea is dried naturally under the sun (solar).
Our Earl Grey is a Blend of Chinese tea, which can only grow in China and is mainly dried naturally with the last 25% finished off with gas heat to preserve its taste. It is flavoured with Bergamot oil, which comes from the Bergamot orange, which mainly grows in Italy and some parts of France.
Peppermint leaves are solar and wind dried and depending on the quality we source from farms in the UK, Germany or Egypt, depending on their season and what the quality is at the time. Taste is crucial for us so quality is key.
Our English Breakfast loose leaf and the Every Day tea bag is a blend of Kenyan (from Kenya), Assam (from India) and Ceylon (from Sri Lanka), which we then blend & pack here in Cornwall. The difference between the loose leaf and tea bag is the size of the cut leaf, loose leaf being larger. These 3 teas are mainly dried naturally (as they have much hotter weather than here!) with the last 25% finished off with gas heat to preserve its taste. The reason they finish it off with heat is, that if they would let it dry naturally 100%, it would loose over 50% of its taste.
There are issues with the tea industry with regards to its trading and workers rights, how do you ensure your tea is traded fairly and that workers aren’t being exploited?
The teas and herbs we use for our blends are sourced from all over the world. Our tea merchants are some of the largest fair trade supporters within the tea industry. Not all of our teas are certified fair trade however all producers have been vetted to ensure the farms/plantations all comply with national and international laws, meaning no forced or under age labour and workers are paid a correct wage.
How about environmental practices within the tea industry?
Some if not most of our teas are organic, however we are unable to advertise or sell them as such, as we are not organic certified ourselves. As we process the ingredients in blending we would need to be certified and unfortunately this is a very expensive route to take and not an option for us at the moment. We work with a variety of tea farms, from small scale to large and currently we are in discussions with a small farm in Cornwall to produce various herbs for our blends. As a company we are dedicated to producing quality teas at affordable prices that don’t cost the earth. All of our packaging from our tea bags to our packing tape and everything in-between is 100% plastic free!
We hope you have enjoyed finding out a little more about the teas available from Incredible Bulk, you can check out our full plastic free tea offering in our products page and find out more about Westcountry Tea Co and National Tea Day.
