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For several years now, from spring through to early summer, we have made it a point to explore organic tea gardens and plantations, witness the finest harvests, meet the tea pickers and visit the tea factories.
There’s no question of settling for the teas offered by traditional importers: going straight to the source is a unique opportunity to discover the new harvests, taste all the new batches of tea and select the leaves on the spot, which will then be imported to our workshops. First come, best served!
Over the years, this has been a unique opportunity to earn the trust of the tea pickers and their families, to learn more about their expertise, the terroirs and the traditions… an incredible opportunity and a real joy!
Drawing inspiration from an ancient Chinese tradition of adding fresh flowers (rose, jasmine, chrysanthemum) to tea, our flavourists create blends to add a touch of indulgence and refinement to our teas.
Produced in Grasse – where the expertise in perfumery is recognised by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – our flavourings contain only natural, organic ingredients and are made from extracts of fruit, spices, flowers and leaves.
The work of the flavourist is similar to that of a perfumer; with great skill, they must bring out the flavour of the tea leaf and the flavour of the aroma – a combination that requires inspiration and boldness!
Highly concentrated, the flavourings are then delicately sprayed onto the organic tea leaves in our workshops in Haute-Provence.
Flavouring in Grasse made from 100 % natural, organic ingredients
The ‘organic’ certified flavourings in our peach and apricot white tea are created from a delicate, natural blend of ‘organic’ extracts obtained by macerating peach and apricot pulp.
For us, spring is the ideal time to visit the gardens and then the processing facilities to ensure that our quality policy is being implemented and that workers are provided with decent working conditions.
100 % of our producers practise organic farming, following a system of agricultural production based on respect for the environment, biodiversity, living organisms and natural cycles. These principles have been translated into strict rules set out in defined specifications.
There are a multitude of standards, varying by country or even by region! However, for our teas, as an importer into France, it is the European Union’s standards that apply; the teas must comply with the control provisions set out in European regulations.
Only teas that meet these standards may bear the European organic logo. Our producers and processors must therefore work in accordance with our standards and criteria. Once the tea has been harvested and the batches pre-selected, we commission an accredited body to carry out inspections and take samples.
Analyses are carried out in independent laboratories in France to ensure the quality of the tea and the absence of pesticides before the import procedures are completed.
It is through travelling, leafing through beautiful books and magazines, visiting museums and nurturing an insatiable curiosity that our creative team devises the designs that adorn all our packaging.
Folk art from around the world is an inexhaustible source of inspiration: a pattern discovered on a piece of fabric, an architectural detail, a colour spotted on traditional tableware, the sparkle of a piece of jewellery, the silhouette of a print, ideograms in a temple, calligraphy on a poster or an ancient manuscript…
Every fragment gleaned during these explorations fuels our creativity and is transformed, in their hands, into a unique and evocative visual world.
Oriental art: a rich and ancient source of inspiration.
To design the packaging for our Rêve Persan black tea, our creative team immersed themselves in the fascinating aesthetics of Persian art and architecture. The luminous turquoise, deep blues and subtle gold accents evoke the iconic hues of Isfahan ceramics and Persian palaces, where colours seem to shimmer in the light.
Delicate arabesques and finely openwork mashrabiya screens also inspire our visual world. Here we find the complexity of stylised floral motifs, the perfect symmetry of architectural ornamentation and the gentle curves inspired by oriental gardens and palaces.
Every detail of the décor is conceived as an invitation to travel: a journey between light and shadow, between ornamental refinement and a waking dream, where tea becomes a pretext for exploring an imaginary, precious and enchanting Orient.
Japan: a source of elegance and refinement!
We crafted the base of the box using chirimen, a traditional Japanese fabric used to make kimonos, whose cherry blossom (sakura) pattern we found utterly enchanting. Japanese kanji characters, drawn in black Indian ink, and a red ‘hanko’ designed especially for the occasion by an artist from the Maison du Japon, meaning ‘matcha’. Chrysanthemums (in fine lines), an imperial symbol, in the centre of the box, and above all the blue-green colour so beloved by the Japanese, which they call ‘aotake-iro’, meaning ‘bluish bamboo’.
China: a source of traditions and beauty
We worked using the Chinese paper-cutting technique, or Jianzhi. It is an art form practised predominantly by women. This art is passed down from mother to daughter through a long apprenticeship that begins in childhood, particularly in rural areas. It enables the finest artists to earn respect and admiration. Paper cutting is used to express moral principles, philosophies and aesthetic ideals. Today, it remains a vibrant means of expressing emotions and is enjoying an unprecedented resurgence in popularity. This technique is inscribed on UNESCO’s list of the INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF HUMANITY.
We package our teas using two complementary methods. In our workshops, some of our teas are carefully packaged into tea bags, thanks to the meticulous work of our in-house teams.
For loose-leaf packaging, we have been working for over 20 years with a local partner workshop, a sheltered workshop committed to supporting people with disabilities into employment. Filling the tea tins and preparing the gift sets enables workers with disabilities to carry out rewarding work, tailored to their own pace and skills.
This short-supply-chain approach guarantees quality, traceability and a positive social impact – all of which are at the heart of our commitments.
80 per cent of staff are recognised as disabled workers requiring adjustments (mental, motor and physical)
This initiative helps to highlight the skills of disabled workers and promotes their integration into the workplace.
