Need a new tea in your life? These guys probably have something to fit your palate. They have a huge selection of teas and tisanes. If you can’t decide what to choose they have a nice sized selection of Tea Collections for great prices and for all tastes.
Website: https://www.nmteaco.com/
Location: Albuquerque, NM. Online and in these locations.
Company Focus:
- To make available a wide selection of tea, so that everyone can find something they like. Whether that person is a tea connoisseur or someone who has never had a cup of tea before!
Most popular company tea(s)?
- The Blood Orange Rooibos, and the Cream Earl Grey are our most popular teas.
Does the company name have a meaning?
- The company name is what we do, and where we are.
Do you participate in any charities?
- We provide and serve tea at many charitable fundraisers throughout the year. “Afternoon Tea” is a popular type of fundraiser. With local non-profits.
What is your (or any of your other co-workers) favorite tea?
- I drink a lot of Assam with milk in the mornings. Today I am having the Golden Assam. I also really enjoy Green Kukicha and Tie Guan Yin.
What are your thoughts on transparency in the tea industry?
- There are many parts of the tea industry. You have the growers, you have the tea manufacturing factories, you have the wholesalers and you have the retailers. And In each tea producing country these are combined in different ways. For instance, in India, the tea growers and the tea factory are the same (a tea estate). In China and Japan, generally, the growers sell their leaves to a factory. There is also a big difference between tea as a commodity, which is what the big companies buy and sell, and specialty tea, which is what small tea companies specialize in.
- When someone buys tea at the grocery store in a teabag the least amount of money gets back to the actual person who picked the tea. However, at the same time, without commodity tea, the industry would probably collapse, and the person picking the tea wouldn’t have a way to earn any money at all. So it’s a tricky situation.
- I think in general working conditions and worker rights in the whole world could be improved. The internet and education are making that happen slowly. If there is a worker’s strike in Darjeeling because of bad working conditions, then the world will know about it now. 40 years ago, no one would know. At the same time, English education in a lot of these areas means that small farmers can interact directly with western buyers, who are willing and able to pay a higher price for tea.
- We try to buy our tea as directly from the source as possible. So that the most money gets to the source. This is another small way that working conditions can be improved over time. And as the world gets a taste for higher quality tea, the commodity tea will become less and less important, which will elevate the whole industry.
- I don’t think it’s possible to fix the world’s problems with a top-down grand plan. And I also don’t think it’s appropriate for us in the west to dictate to people in tea-growing areas what’s best for them. However, I do feel that people are able to make the best choices for themselves when they have their basic needs met, and in today’s world, that means having access to money. And the best way that we as a tea company can help people in these areas have access to money is to buy more and better quality tea in a more direct way. And the best way we can do that is if our customers buy more and better quality tea from us.
What role does tea play in our lives?
- Tea plays a very different role in your life and in my life. And in everyone’s life. For some people drinking tea is a very spiritual endeavor. For other people, they focus on the health benefits and drink because of how it might help their bodies. Still, other people only care about the caffeine effects and drink tea in the morning to wake up. And lastly, there are the people who drink tea because they like the taste of different plants steeped in water.
- This is one of the reasons I have enjoyed being a part of the tea industry for the last 15 years. There is such a variety not only to the product but to the people who consume it.
- For myself, tea is life. Tea has allowed me to have a roof over my head, go to the grocery store, pay for my son’s school supplies, travel to interesting places, to employ 10 people whom it also enables to do all those things. If not for tea I would have found a different path in life, but I can’t imagine what that would look like.
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TeaTiff Picks: The Essential Collection. A great collection for purists that has nine different teas from four types of tea! But if you prefer something different they have nine other collections to choose from!
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