Me too buddy.
Like I said last week, we try to live simply and take things one day at a time so I’m not sure if I’m the best person to ask.
You want to know what I know about the tea business?
I’m most certain that you do not, however, for the sake of those of you reading this who would like the opinion of an amateur tea blender, I will continue… please bear with me.
My wife and I thoroughly enjoy a good cup of tea. We aren’t too picky as long as it is pleasant to drink and comes at a fair price. Seems reasonable, right? Nobody likes snobbery, but we can all agree some things do cost more due to limited quantity, costly ingredients, and fair wage labor. Most people will spend a little more to ensure that what they purchase is in fact of good quality and not actively making the world a worse place to exist for ourselves or others.
Now, here’s the skinny–spilled tea if you will; we didn’t believe that we were the benefactors of fair dealings in our tea transactions. In plain english, we felt duped. Some of these tea companies were using flavor extracts and additives in their products rather than quality ingredients in the proper quantities. Now I’m all for a bargain, but not if that means I have to sacrifice quality. Our produce comes straight from farms and farmers to our tea room where we take the time to clean, process, and slowly dry out the bounty of produce grown in our region.
That means we get our legs moving and meander through the rows collecting berries on days we aren’t at market. We also stop at roadside produce stands or purchase directly from other vendors at the area markets where we sell. Our in season strawberries come from In-Law Farms of McBain, MI, our hand picked blueberries come from Blueberry Hill in Harrietta, MI. We get our apples directly from the wonderful people of Burgtorf Farms in Conklin, MI. Ripe peaches from Sierra Farms and Pierport Orchards just north of Onekama, MI.
I digress.
I guess what I’m learning about the tea business is that we need to band together and rely on the strengths of our neighbors alongside belief in ourselves and our abilities to produce quality products at a fair price.