You're currently on:
About Art of Tea
The Story
The seeds that formed the foundation of Art of Tea were first planted in 1996 when Steve Schwartz began his journey of extensive study in preventative medicine at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico. Since then, Art of Tea has become a leading purveyor of organic and specialty teas. Each year Steve travels extensively, returning with rare and unique teas from around the world.
Steve Schwartz is known by many authoritative figures in the tea industry as a Master Tea Blender. He has blended award winning teas under our Art of Tea brand and his blends have won awards offered under our private label program for tea companies around the world. His drive and passion for expanding peoples knowledge and history of tea is captivating. Steve has lectured sold out tea blending classes for World Tea Conventions and frequently travels to offer educational programs on tea and tea blending.
Through his travels in Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East, Steve and Art of Tea have developed close relationships with farmers and distributors. These personal relationships, a hallmark at Art of Tea, make possible the offering of top tier organic teas and select botanicals, while ensuring that both employees and teas are treated with great respect. At Art of Tea, our intensive care program combines aesthetics with passion, flavor and high quality control.
The Art of Tea Experience
Through direct import, we maintain a fresh and continuously replenished inventory year round which we then hand blend, custom craft and pack by hand. With clients ranging from five-star resorts in Maui, teahouses in Beverly Hills, to cafés, retail outlets and restaurants throughout North America, our diverse experience allows us to collaborate in creating a personalized tea program.
Sustainable Tea
A process that is sustainable can be maintained indefinitely. By supporting sustainable business practices, it means that we do not take more from the world than we give back and that we consciously choose how we interact with the environment. Our reliance on renewable resources, as well as on symbiotic relationships with nature and the community, are motivated by our belief in connecting human and material resources without devaluing the integrity of the individual or the planet.Our mission is to offer the highest quality, organically grown teas available. We purchase our tea directly from small farms and co-ops from around the world, providing families in developing countries with a fair price for their goods. We also buy fair trade teas that are authorized by Transfair USA, ensuring fair working conditions, fair wages and a better life for tea workers from eleven countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
We, at Art of Tea have an optimistic vision of the future and a comprehensive strategy to implement that vision. Our sense of personal environmental responsibility is evident in our commitment to practices that contribute to the sustainability of our planet and the communities in which we live and work. Our standard procedures include:
- Recycling of viable business products as feasible, including the reuse of packaging material.
- The use of biodegradable materials for our teabags.
- On site composting, used for soil nutrification in our workplace garden. We compost teas that do not meet our quality standards, any outdated products, and teas used for taste tests.
- Business operation using only sustainable energy sources; no fossil fuels.
- Use of reclaimed office furnishings; desks and dividers.
- Use of eco friendly paint in our warehouse.
- Installation of compact fluorescent lighting in our warehouse.
- Use of energy efficient machinery and appliances.
- Use of eco friendly, biodegradable cleaning products.
- Our billing is done electronically with no paper waste.
