Understanding the Essentials of High Quality Loose Leaf Tea

More and more, people look for quality loose leaf tea, realizing the flavor is better and the health benefits more promising. If you love tea and want to purchase only the best quality possible, it is important to know that numerous elements determine whether you end up with high or low quality tea, such as:

Source of the Tea
Process of Manufacturing
Purchasing, Quality Control Measures, Customer Service/Support

Source of the Tea

The first element determining if you end up with the worst or the best green tea or other type of tea preferred. As mentioned, the four primary types of tea, loose green tea, loose black tea, loose white tea, and loose white tea all come from the Camellia plant. However, various factors that start from the time the plant is put in the ground to the time it is brewed would decide the degree of quality you enjoy.

For the highest quality loose leaf tea, the leaves are carefully chosen and then taken through a process slowly, which involves the leaves being handled delicately by hand. You need to look at exotic tea much like fine wine. The way it is grown, harvested, and processed to bring it to the final product state determines the level of quality for flavor, aroma, and texture. For the highest quality loose leaf tea possible, the plant would need the best growing conditions that include soil, climate, altitude, weather, and even the season in which the leaves are plucked.

Interestingly, a single pound of tea in the form of loose leaves consists of about 3,000 leaves that have all been carefully plucked by hand. To ensure quality, workers pull off only the youngest buds and most tender leaves from the plant. Once plucked, processing starts, which would vary depending on the type of tea involved.

Process for Manufacturing

The most common type of processing is known as CTC, which is the acronym for “Crush, Tear, Curl”. In this case, the leaves end up being tiny pieces that are used for making things such as tea concentrate or green tea bags, or any variety tea bags. Remember, of all the tea in the world, only 2% or less is considered superior quality. Tea that falls into this category is processed by hand, a time-consuming method that has been used for hundreds of years.

Reputable tea suppliers work hard to ensure that only the finest loose leaf tea is provided to customers. With this, the leaves retain their delicious, natural flavor and aroma, which for true tea connoisseurs is important. For the best tea possible, the leaves and buds would need to be hand plucked. This process takes time but it is also a meticulous craft performed in places like China for thousands of years.

For instance, the way in which leaves would be plucked to make Chinese black tea, they would need to be handled in a specific way to retain the character of the leaves, resulting in fine flavor, aroma, color, texture, body, clarity, and complexity. Obviously, real tea lovers understand the difference between low grade tea bags and high quality loose leaf tea, and when compared, the difference is dramatic.

Understanding the Supply Chain

The first element associated with high quality loose leaf tea is having access to it. Typically, tea of this quality is not sold at conventional stores. Even when purchased through specialty tea shops and online tea companies, expect to pay a higher price, but worth it.

One of the more convenient and efficient methods is to buy tea online. In fact, because e-commerce websites exist for companies all over the world, this increases the chance of finding high quality loose leaf tea for an affordable purchase and shipping price.

Keep in mind, as you look at various online tea companies, those with interactive capability, easy navigation, and innovative features tend to offer the best experience. For instance, multiple shipping options and automated shipping, gift shipments, flexible delivery, and multiple destination options make the buying process easier.

The bottom line is that for loose leaf tea, quality is the key to outstanding flavor and rich health benefits. Tea suppliers have a distinct role of maintaining quality control over tea being shipped. To ensure they provide their customers with a wide selection of tea and only the best quality, they receive tea from various countries to include China, Sri Lanka, and India, three of the top producers.

Quality Control

In addition, a reputable tea supplier would perform what is known as “tea cupping” on each shipment of tea received. This means that s sample is taken from the shipment and checked for quality. With this, the supplier maintains a sound quality control measure. Therefore, anyone looking to buy from a supplier needs to ask if the cupping process is used.

Another quality control measure has to do with customer service and support. Obviously, the supplier and his or her customer, being a restaurant, hotel, hospital, coffee house, etc needs to be trusted and professional. Building a long-term relationship is imperative to success for both parties, ultimately to ensure the consumer is being presented with the highest quality tea possible, whether green tea, Jasmine tea, or some other variety.

The tea supplier that is skilled in the area of customer service and support would have great communication skills and the ability to listen to both good and bad input from customers so appropriate changes could be made, if warranted. That way, the level of quality for loose leaf tea is consistent.