With so many teas available on the global market, it can be challenging to make sure the tea you’re purchasing was ethically sourced. Various certifications stamped on tea packaging seem to indicate something about fair labor practices or environmental sustainability, but what exactly do those certifications promise? 

Fair trade

Fair trade-certified products promise that the laborers involved in producing the tea had safe working conditions and were paid enough to sustain their livelihood. There also is usually some element of funding for community development in the area where the tea was produced.

Those sound like good things, especially compared with the centuries of exploitation, poverty, and even slavery that tea harvesters have suffered in certain parts of the world. But there is some debate about the validity of fair trade certifications. Fair trade-certified products are sold at a premium, and there’s considerable evidence that only a small portion of that extra profit makes its way to the farmers, with the majority of it going to the corporation.

In addition to that, fair trade certification is inaccessible for many small tea companies because the certification itself is expensive and requires certain business practices that can only be achieved at enterprise scale. Many of the smaller tea companies are often the most ethical and the most sustainable, but the certification system becomes a barrier to official credentials.

Rather than seeking out only those teas that have a fair trade certification and going no further, it’s worth doing some research on the brands you like — whether or not they are fair-trade certified — to learn as much as you can about their labor practices and any public criticism they have received. 

Organic

There are numerous institutions that certify agricultural products around the world as organic, and they all have different standards. The main organic certification on teas sold in the US market is USDA Organic. On packaged products such as tea, the USDA Organic seal promises 95% of the product was grown without synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers and dyes, and the product was processed without industrial solvents, irradiation or genetic engineering. There is a list of certain chemicals that are approved for growing and processing the product.

Companies are fined if they sell products with the USDA Organic seal and then are found not to be in compliance with the standards. But it can be difficult to monitor, especially for a product like tea, which is grown on the other side of the world from the US. So while an organic certification certainly gives you a much higher chance of pesticide-free tea, it is not necessarily an absolute guarantee.