If you know anything about Red Blossom Tea Company, we hope it’s that we source pure teas. We spend our sourcing trips seeking out small farms, building relationships with growers and crafters, and tasting a massive variety of teas to cultivate a selection of delicious, unadulterated tea leaves.

But right now, none of the teas on our shelves are certified organic by the USDA. While we do have preliminary certifications from the National Organic Program for several teas, we also know that in the world of Chinese tea, an organic label doesn't always indicate the best quality.

Why is this, you ask? Isn’t organic tea farming definitively superior to “conventional” methods? Does the lack of organic certification indicate that these teas are contaminated with chemicals? And if a tea farm is using natural growing methods, why wouldn’t they be certified as an organic farm?

To answer these questions, we first need to define the difference between traditional and organic teas. Then, we’ll discuss why organic certification is not always the best indicator of quality, and how we personally ensure the farms we work with are growing responsibly.

If you’re a tea lover, you may already know that all tea is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. But if you’re new to the world of tea, this concept may seem mind-boggling. How can one leaf be transformed into such a variety of flavors? What steps does that leaf need to go through in order to produce the incredible infusions we know and love?

In China, tea crafters have been refining the answer to this question for millennia. In each region, people have developed unique methods for growing and crafting tea. Variation in local taste and techniques has driven tea innovation through the ages.

Today, we are able to source and learn from a wide range of diverse areas. With this perspective, it is possible to distill the tea-making process into just a few essential steps, described here in their broadest terms.