What is the difference with 'supermarket tea'?
The difference is comparable to that between artisanal ice cream and "supermarket ice cream," or between a freshly made pizza and a frozen version. In the former, you're dealing with the original, pure product. In the latter, you're dealing with a commercialized version—often focused on low costs and mass production, where quality and nutritional value are subordinated to shelf life and margins.
Supermarket tea often contains residual tea leaves, fillers, added flavors, and sugars. Such products not only lack the health benefits of real tea, but they can even contribute to unwanted health risks in the long run.
All in all, you can make a good comparison yourself by, for example, comparing the tea leaves and taste.
Furthermore, tea is an inspiring product, and we believe it loses a lot of value in the process of commercialization. We've often noticed with our customers that loose-leaf and organic tea provides a trigger to explore this wonderful world, even though they hadn't previously felt this need.
What are your own experiences?
It's also fun to share your own experiences. We'd like to briefly address the following personal points:
There are hundreds of teas and brewing them correctly is a huge art and science, so delving into the wonderful world of tea and herbs is a truly stimulating and enriching journey for us.
Tea is a perfect gift for all occasions. We find it's greatly appreciated by others, and it's often an eye-opener for friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who see the enormous difference compared to the tea they used to consume daily.
We hardly drink tea outside the home anymore because the quality is often disappointing. When we travel, we bring our own tea and tea filters.
We clearly notice the health benefits of our products ourselves. Specifically, we notice the calming effect of certain teas during stressful moments. Â
How do I know how to brew a specific tea?
Brewing tea perfectly is a real art and science, so we provide helpful information on the correct amount, temperature, and time, but we also encourage you to experiment. The ideal brewing method, including temperature, amount of tea, and even the equipment used, varies from person to person. Some also prefer stronger tea, and teaspoon sizes naturally vary slightly. Overall, in our experience, our information is somewhat conservative, and more tea can actually be brewed for a given amount.
We also offer various products that you can use to make tea, such as kettles and filters. Specifically, we also have cups with built-in filters that you can easily take with you when traveling.
Do you also sell coffee?
Verkopen jullie ook koffie?
Yes, we also have premium quality coffee beans. You can find these in a separate section of our webshop.Â
We do not currently sell coffee grinders ourselves, but we can recommend good coffee grinders.
Which tea does not contain caffeine?
Tea from the tea plant always contains caffeine, so we recommend the following to customers:
Herbal or plant teas don't contain caffeine. Popular examples include rooibos and chamomile tea.
Tea leaves contain much less caffeine if you reuse them to brew tea. This is especially useful if you're drinking tea with others.
I see many types of tea on the site, what is the difference?
Although there are hundreds of types of tea, it helps to distinguish between the following:
The term "tea" traditionally refers to the leaves of the tea plant (camellia sinensis), but is now used more broadly. A tea variety is labeled with ingredients such as herbs and plants.
There are also many different varieties of tea from the tea plant, generally related to the degree to which the tea leaves have been oxidized/fermented. This process involves the (intentionally) damaged tea leaves undergoing chemical reactions with oxygen, altering their composition. This process can be stopped by heating the tea leaves. Green tea exhibits minimal oxidation, while black tea exhibits extensive/complete oxidation. Oxidation changes the color, aroma, and flavor (more spicy and earthy) of the tea leaves.
We source our teas from just about anywhere in the world, so it's advisable to consider the geography of the tea, as tea from a specific region often has a distinctive flavor.
Some teas are pure while others contain a combination of ingredients, such as fruit. Depending on your taste, keep this in mind.
If you're having trouble choosing, we recommend ordering a combination of different teas and trying them out, or asking us for advice. We've listed our favorite teas and bestsellers.
Can't find the information you need here?
Email us, and we'll do our best to help. Of course, we don't know everything; we also try to learn a lot from our customers. So, if you have any suggestions or comments, we'd love to hear them.
