Philosophy

What is the real value of goods, which price is the right one? This question can hardly be answered anymore today, yet still it keeps popping up in everyday life: do I pay too much for these goods, this service? Should this work not be paid much better? Basically it should be clear that the quality, the goods’ or the service’s, should be paid adequately, out of fairness towards the people involved, in order to keep the standard of quality and also for the best of our planet Earth. In real life this is unfortunately quite often only theory, as in praxis diverse manipulations of prices like protective duties, subsidies etc. for example create manifold distortions of prices.

Our conditions of purchase are really clear and straightforward.

We know where the tea comes from and how it is produced: either through personal peering or through information of reliable people. As it is, personal relationships and confidence grown over time cannot be replaced by anything.

Some of our teas are bought at German wholesale distributors who we have known for decades. They send us samples several times a month, for us to select teas that fit our assortment, or just for us to compare the quality and price of our own teas on stock.

Specialties, rarities and very good qualities of classical teas are almost unavailable on the wholesale market, though. We travel every year to China, and sometimes to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand in order to go and look for these teas by ourselves. We thus see the places where the tea is cultivated, see the tea pluckers and get to know the tea masters who make and sell the tea. We taste the teas on the spot and take samples home to compare them. By the time being we have knit many close contacts with tea cultivators, tea traders and tea masters. The rarer and more special a tea is, the more important is the personal contact to the people who make it.

At LaenggassTee our teas are well packed and stored under the right specific conditions. This means e.g. that the fine green teas and green Oolongs are kept at low temperatures in order to preserve their freshness. We taste our teas regularly as a quality control – and to enjoy them!

We offer a broad range of qualities from the low priced everyday tea to the exclusive rarity.

Reflecting on "organic"

Organic, bio and all the other terms used for the very natural growing of food-stuff is very generally speaking the normal, environmental friendly and in the long term efficient way of producing food. It is thus a peculiar situation, where the natural way of doing things has to be certified; instead of labeling what is unnatural and not sound.

But things being the way they are, we have to deal with the situation as it is. Regarding this situation it is necessary to remember that the labeling and certification is also a business that includes a great deal of money. All this focused on a piece of paper with a stamp on it. And there the question arises, if we'd rather trust a person that we can meet, that we can see at work or a piece of paper. We at Länggass-Tee prefer to follow our own judgment, as far as this is possible and to build long lasting relationships with our providers.

"Paper is patient", as it is said, but also: "Better safe than sorry". Although this may not be how we feel personally, we know about our responsibility and the expectation towards us - hence we regularly submit tea from our providers to testing - and so far, we have not been disappointed. Many of our best, rarest and most precious teas grow wildly in remote places and are treated traditionally. In the traditional way of tending to the plants, all contaminants are kept clear from the plants and the soil, but also from the production. The treating of tea plants (and their surrounding) with pesticides and such happens, where the profit is the sole aim, in order to obtain the most efficient production; which has a negative impact on the quality. But when the tea producer is truly dedicated to tea and to achieving the highest quality and genuineness, then he will refrain from using harmful chemicals. It basically boils down to the opposition between quality and quantity.

Thus certified teas fulfill specific rules. Non-certified teas are just that - not certified. But they can fail these specific rules, achieve them or surpass them. Minimally, our teas are within the legal framework; some fulfill the Swiss or even the German (which are more demanding) requirements to be certified as organic and yet others are completely natural, in the sense we described above.

On top of this, one should not forget that tea is made of 98% of Water; it is thus advisable to care as much about the water as about the tea. At our shop, we only use Grander Water.
For more information, see: www.grandervertrieb.ch.

Responsible trade with tea

The question of working and living conditions of the people producing tea is one that is very present for us at Länggass-Tee; and for us, this is directly linked to what type of tea we want to trade.

Digging a bit further, the complexity of the question becomes apparent and one realises how deeply the issues are linked to the historical context and the currently dominant economical system. To fully explain them would go beyond the aim of this short text, so in a nutshell.

There are different ways of trading tea. For us, the main distinction is between China on the one side and India and other countries where tea is heavily influenced by their colonial history on the other side. In China, tea and its production are deeply rooted in its culture. A tea producer in China will sell most of his tea within the country and is a respected person.

In India and other countries with a colonial past, on the other hand, tea production was introduced by the colonizing countries (mostly Great Britain and the Netherlands); this in order to counter the Chinese monopoly on tea and the resulting trade deficit. Hence, the growing and production of tea has been planned for large scale production and (mostly) for the export from the start. Cheap and replaceable labour are the norm, producing tea of simple quality at low prices, destined for the world market.

Whereas in China simple teas as well as very expensive and qualitatively outstanding teas find buyers, the Indian teas move within a lower price-range in order to compete globally.

Out of this a political movement started in the 1970s, with the aim to establish a fair trade, by promoting “fair” prices and with this ensuring sustainable production methods and acceptable living conditions. Nowadays, a considerable number of labelling Organisations trade Fair-Trade products in ever increasing quantities; but this new, economic situation may lead to new conflicts, which in turn affect the initially improved living conditions of the producers. This shows how complex the question is, and how difficult it is to find an adequate solution.

Where do we position ourselves in this maze of questions? We realize how little impact we have on the wholesale of teas from India and other countries with a colonial past. So we focus on what we know best, which is to trade teas of a quality that we, as a specialized shop, want to guarantee. All the while we are constantly open for independently produced tea, keen to learn about the story behind them.

In China, on the other hand, we can proceed very differently. There we have the possibility to buy the tea ourselves, to visit the tea gardens and the producers. This allows us to buy traditionally grown and produced teas, while increasing our knowledge and building long lasting relationships. All this following the ensuing train of thought:The better the quality of a tea, the more care went into its production.

• The better the quality of a tea, the more carefully it is produced

• The more careful the production, the more important is every step of the production

• The more important every step is in the production, the more knowledge is required to produce the tea

• The more knowledge is necessary, the more the producers are valued

• The more the producers are valued, the fairer are the working conditions

• We add to this the fact that small scale, family businesses generally act in a more careful and social way