Not to be a bummer, but even a seemingly harmless cup of tea is steeped in big business, environmental desolation, and capitalist exploitation. So I’ve been looking for ethical tea companies instead.
Tea has been a mainstay in my daily routine since early adolescence. I didn’t become a regular coffee drinker until college, when my go-to for surviving early mornings and dull classes was a large, dry cappuccino (sometimes with an extra shot of espresso if my soul was particularly suffering that day).
But even then, I still turned to my vat of piping hot peppermint tea to get me through late-night study sessions at the library. (Pro tip: I saved money by bringing my own tea bags with me so I only had to hand over fifty cents for a cup of hot water.)
Usually, those tea bags weren’t organic. While I grew up in a family that believed in regular exercise and three well-balanced meals a day, those meals typically comprised lean protein, frozen vegetables, and a standard rice, pasta, or potato product (thanks, mom!). Nutritious and delicious—but not certified organic.
It wasn’t until I started buying my own groceries and the like that I realized most of the mainstream crap we consume every day can have dire consequences on the environment and the safety and wellbeing of others.
In other words, as I entered early adulthood, became more interested in politics, and attempted to expand my worldview beyond my own tiny borders, I learned that even my simple cup of tea was tied up in the throes of big business, environmental desolation, and capitalist exploitation.
Dismayed and disheartened by the dark side of my morning Earl Grey, that’s how I found my way to ethical tea companies, i.e., ethical tea brands that prioritize environmental and social responsibility—ya know, like paying people a living wage and not needlessly wrapping every single little tea bag in a piece of plastic that will immediately get thrown away—and then haunt the Earth forever.
And good news: These brands aren’t prohibitively expensive. They’re not difficult to find. And they taste damn good.
After some careful research, I’ve weeded out the posers to identify six truly ethical tea companies that allow you to indulge in a delectable pot of herbal goodness—without the guilt of environmental destruction or poverty hanging overhead.
I also share why it matters where you buy your tea from and the importance of voting with your dollar.
The shortlist: the 6 most ethical tea companies for fair trade tea bags & organic tea
- Traditional Medicinals—best for functional herbal teas
- Numi Tea—best for 100% plastic-free packaging
- Yogi Tea—best for a wide variety of flavors
- Pukka Herbs—best for organic, Ayurvedic blends
- Equal Exchange—best for worker-owned, fair trade tea
- DAVIDsTEA—best for loose-leaf blends
My favorite ethical tea companies for indulgence without the moral consequences
These are my favorite ethical and sustainable tea brands that I’ve added to my tea repertoire over the years.
Whether I’m tucking a few fair trade tea bags into my purse to prepare for a future on-the-go tea emergency or going all-out at home with loose leaf tea and the antique tea cups I found at a flea market, these ethical tea companies let me enjoy the healthy, heart-warming benefits of a cup—without a guilty conscience.
What’s that—not a tea lover? You just haven’t found your perfect match yet.
I wrote an incredibly detailed, 3,000-word guide on how to start drinking tea, breaking down the basics of tea, the 10 best teas for non tea drinkers, and how to find the best tea(s) for you.
Join the thousands of other readers who have learned how to start drinking tea with my guide on the Best Tea for Non Tea Drinkers. (It’s free.)
1. Traditional Medicinals—best for functional herbal teas
Traditional Medicinals has been in business since 1974, long before “wellness” and “clean living” became the buzzwords at which so many of us roll our eyes today.
It was founded by herbalist Rosemary Gladstar and community activist and environmentalist Drake Sadler—the former of which is apparently something of a rockstar in the herbal community. Gladstar founded the California School of Herbal Studies, United Plant Savers, and Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary. She’s also written 27 books, including a few on my reading list:
The company goes more into their certifications and environmental projects in their annual impact report, but here’s a little taste: They are certified FairWild, Fair Trade, Fair for Life, USDA Organic, and a B Corp. On top of that, Traditional Medicinals is also a registered California Benefit Corporation (like Patagonia) and has been named among the Best Places to Work in the North Bay Business journal for seven years in a row.
Beyond these impressive credentials, what I like most about Traditional Medicinals is (as the name suggests), their tea blends are rooted in functional herbal practices—and if you’re totally lost on what that means, they explain in their Herb Library, where you can get a deep dive into the properties, health benefits, and traditional uses of different herbs, such as raspberry leaf, lemon balm leaf, and licorice root.
Key Takeaways:
- Certified organic, FairWild, Fair for Life, Fair Trade, B Corp, and a registered California Benefit Corporation
- Functional herbal teas, lozenges, and capsules
- Award-winning workplace culture
Where to find Traditional Medicinals Tea?
My favorite Traditional Medicinals tea is their licorice root tea.
2. Numi Tea—best for 100% plastic-free packaging
Numi Tea has a pretty stacked resume when it comes to evaluating ethical tea companies. The brand was founded in Oakland, California in 1999 by brother-and-sister duo Ahmed Rahim and Reem Hasson who chose the name in memory of the steeped desert lime they drank during their childhood in Baghdad.
Unrelated, but one thing I always find inspiring is people who have diverse educational and professional backgrounds—and that’s Ahmed and Reem. Ahmed studied theater and psychology in the USA before working as a filmmaker and photographer and running teahouses in Europe. Reem, meanwhile, has a BS in bio medical engineering, a Diploma d’Arte from Lorenzo de Medici Art Institute in Florence, Italy, and an M.F.A. in Arts & Consciousness Studies from JFK University in California.
They both contribute to the Numi Foundation, a non-profit organization that’s provided global assistance for COVID-19, water access, and education in California and Iraq.
Other things I like? Numi Tea’s tea wrappers are 100% compostable and completely plastic-free, which means they contribute 67% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional tea wrappers.
And they’ve got credentials in spades: Fair Trade Certified, Verified Fair Trade, Climate Neutral Certified, and B Corp certified. (In fact, they were among the first 30 companies certified as B Corps back in 2006.)
Key Takeaways:
- Tea wrappers are 100% compostable & plastic-free, leaving 67% lower emissions than conventional tea wrappers
- Fair Trade Certified, Verified Fair Trade, Climate Neutral Certified, certified B Corp, and active in community development through the Numi Foundation
- Also makes organic whole leaf teas in gallon-sized pouches, specially made for brewing iced tea
Where to find Numi Tea?
My favorite Numi Tea is their Moroccan Mint.
3. Yogi Tea—best for a wide variety of flavors
On their website, Yogi Tea claims they’re more than a sustainable or ethical tea brand: They call themselves a “wellbeing company.”
This is due in part to their focus on Ayurveda, where they lean on ancient Indian practices and modern scientific research to create tea blends that restore energy, calm your mind, support digestion, etc., depending on what you need in the moment. And they’ve been at it for a while.
In business for over 50 years, Yogi Tea offers 40+ tea blends from 140+ different plants—and every tea they sell has been certified organic since Day 1.
Also cool? They’ve been a certified B Corp (which means they must meet certain social responsibility and environmental standards) since 2014. And their Oregon production facility was actually the first LEED-certified tea factory in the whole world, which means it meets the U.S. Green Building Council’s framework for efficient, cost-saving green buildings.
You can see more proof of Yogi Tea’s responsible business practices in their annual sustainability report, where the tea company spells out how they’re reducing waste by making their packaging lighter, shortening the distance their tea has to travel, and supporting regenerative agriculture.
Believe it or not, Yogi Tea has reduced the carbon footprint so much that the greatest source of emissions during the lifecycle of one of their teas is now actually the energy we use at home to boil water to brew a cup!
Key Takeaways:
- Offers 40+ tea blends from 140+ plants with a focus on wellness and flavor
- Certified B Corp and home to the world’s first LEED-certified tea factory
- Continuously upgrading packaging and supply chain practices for greater sustainability
Where to find Yogi Tea?
My favorite Yogi tea is roasted dandelion spice detox.
4. Pukka Herbs—best for organic, Ayurvedic blends
Pukka Herbs is a certified organic tea brand founded by an ex-business consultant and a conservation and herbalism enthusiast. Together, the pair supposedly took inspiration from the Hindi word pukka, which means “real, authentic, or genuine.”
These are principles the company says they aim to uphold—and it looks like they’re staying true to their word.
For one, they’ve got third-party certifications to back up their claims.
Pukka Herbs is certified by Fair for Life, which ensures their supply chain is socially and environmentally responsible, guaranteeing fair wages and safe, respectful working environments, among other benefits for local families and communities. The tea brand also bears the FairWild certification, which verifies that wild plant ingredients are harvested legally, ethically, and sustainably. Plus, all of their tea is 100% certified organic, as verified by the Soil Association.
One thing that sets Pukka Herbs apart is their dedication to Ayurveda, what John Hopkins Medicine defines as “a whole-body (holistic) system of medicine that began in India more than 3,000 years ago” and “a natural approach to all aspects of health and well-being.” For example, some of the Pukka Herbs blends include ingredients like turmeric, ginger, holy basil, and licorice root, which are believed to support digestion, reduce inflammation, or calm the nervous system.
I also like that this tea brand donates 1% of their annual sales to environmental and social projects; their tea bags are certified compostable; and they’ve planted 1.6M trees in partnership with Tree Sisters, a reforestation charity.
(Plus, the packaging is pretty delightful-looking, which we all know shouldn’t be a selling point, but is.)
Key Takeaways:
- Certified organic, Fair for Life certified, and FairWild certified
- Blends are inspired by Ayurvedic tradition
- Tea bags are compostable and free of plastic
Where to find Pukka Herbs?
My favorite Pukka Herbs tea is their Love herbal tea with rose, chamomile, and lavender.
5. Equal Exchange—best for worker-owned, fair trade tea
Maybe most impressive among these ethical tea companies is Equal Exchange (and actually, they make a lot more than tea, also offering coffee, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, and olive oil).
Founded all the way back in 1986, Equal Exchange has a fascinating history. The founding trio was intent on creating an organization that valued every stage of the supply chain and gave farmers economic control of their future. So they made the bold (and risky) decision to import fairly traded coffee from Nicaragua—at a time when the US had an embargo against the Sandinista government.
They went all in on their decision, quitting their jobs and investing their own money in the company. By 1991, Equal Exchange reached $1 million in sales.
There’s much more to the history of Equal Exchange. Beyond the company’s commitment to partnering with farmer cooperatives and building economically and environmentally just trade partnerships, it is organized as a worker co-op. This is an alternative business model where every worker-owner gets one vote, invests an equal share in the business, and participates in profit distribution at the end of the year.
Treating people fairly and making decisions together as a team? Those are the kinds of values I like to see. Knowing I’m supporting those principles with my single cup of tea makes every sip that much more enjoyable.
If you wish, learn more about Equal Exchange’s mission, history, co-op model, and the alternative trade economy.
Key Takeaways:
- Worker-owned cooperative using direct and fair trade practices
- Partners with democratically-run farmer co-ops in 40+ countries
- Sells fair trade coffee, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, and olive oil
Where to find Equal Exchange?
One of my favorite teas of all time (not just from Equal Exchange) is their organic rooibos tea.
6. DAVIDsTEA—best for loose leaf blends
Founded in 2008 in Montréal, DAVIDsTEA is a tea and tea accessory shop and Canada’s largest tea boutique. At one point, the brand had 200+ stores with about 60 locations in the USA, but COVID-19 troubles forced them to shutter most of their storefronts.
While that’s a bummer for my fellow analog living enthusiasts who like to sniff and shop their tea in person, it’s super easy (a little too easy) to do a big old tea haul online directly from DAVIDsTEA.
What I like most about this shop is their wide selection of loose leaf tea blends—including black, green, oolong, white, and many herbal blends.They even sell matcha, maté, and all manner of different accessories to brew your perfect cup the way you want it—think teapots, tea cups, travel mugs, infusers, iced tea pitchers, you name it.
It’s worth noting that only about 60% of DAVIDsTEA is certified organic, but the company is taking steps to improve sustainability. They’re Fair Trade certified and a member of ETP, a global membership tackling economic, ethical, and environmental issues in the tea trade.
And they have other social projects of note, like financing supporting the installation of sustainable water filtration systems in Nepal and donating tea to frontline workers and educators.
Key Takeaways:
- Huge variety of loose-leaf teas
- Members of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) and Fair Trade certified
- Sells a big selection of brewing accessories
Where to find DAVIDsTEA
My favorite DAVIDsTEA is their Winter Earl Grey.
Why your choice of tea matters
A cup of tea seems pretty harmless, right? It’s just a few dried leaves in water. But the journey those leaves take to get from plantation to processing facility to your home can be a treacherous one.
I’ll keep the doomsday talk to a minimum, but here’s some food for thought:
As I entered early adulthood, became more interested in politics, and attempted to expand my worldview beyond my own tiny borders, I learned that even my simple cup of tea was tied up in the throes of big business, environmental desolation, and capitalist exploitation.
Large tea companies (including Starbucks) have been linked to plantations with human rights abuse. According to the 2022 report from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, employees on farms were “reprimanded or dismissed for union activity or protesting for better treatment.” SOURCE: Food Dive
Third-party certifications that are meant to ensure ethical working conditions aren’t always trustworthy. Per an investigation into the third-part Rainforest Alliance certification, Foreign Correspondent found workers on Sri Lankan estates were “without access to drinking water and toilets in the tea field.” The same investigation revealed “children working in vegetable gardens instead of attending school.” SOURCE: ABC News
Organic tea can significantly reduce environmental harm (and not just because of the pesticides). In a study on soil ecology, tea yield, and tea plan organic cultivation, converting conventional tea gardens into organic tea gardens improves soil health in several ways: pH balance optimizes; organic nutrient levels rise; beneficial enzyme activity increases; and microbial communities becomes more diverse, which is all needed to enhance the functional compounds in tea leaves. SOURCE: Frontiers
Consider the importance of voting with your dollar
I’m a big believer in voting with your dollar. When the world is spiraling out of control, simply reading about politics kills your soul, and it feels like you’ll never be able to effect change in a society caught in the dirty clutches of billionaires and AI, look to the money.
I think it’s (unfortunately) pretty obvious to most of us that money is power—which is why I think twice about who I give my money to.
For example, rather than letting my love of reading contribute to Jeff Bezos’s increasing wealth, I support local, independent bookstores and ethical online bookstores with these 5 Amazon Alternatives for Books.
(Also: long live the library.)
Ultimately, voting with your dollar is what the Loner Mindset is all about: bucking trends, choosing intention over convenience, and not letting the algorithms decide what you bring into your home.
Opting for ethical tea companies instead of mainstream brands like Lipton or Bigelow is another way I can use my money (even if it’s as little as $7) to stand up for what I believe in: fair labor, environmental sustainability, and socially responsible business practices.
Yes, sometimes organic, fair trade tea is a little bit more expensive than the cheaper brands. But I would rather drink one high-quality, ethically-sourced cup of tea than mindlessly consume five plastic-wrapped tea bags from a company that exploits the Earth and their workers.
Ultimately, voting with your dollar is what the Loner Mindset is all about: bucking trends, choosing intention over convenience, and not letting the algorithms decide what you bring into your home.
Conclusion: Into tea? Prioritize brands that do right by you, their workers, and the environment
Any tea fiend will tell you that a warm pot of tea is more than a beverage. It’s the gentle friend of difficult mornings, the balm for aching throats and breaking hearts, and the cozy companion for rainy days and quiet nights.
Some people really suffer to give us these special moments, though.
The tea industry is wrought with exploitative labor conditions and nefarious business practices that take advantage of workers and our precious Earth. Sadly, ethical shopping can sometimes get a bad rap as overly expensive and overly righteous—but that doesn’t help anybody.
There’s no need to feel guilty or pressure yourself to overhaul your entire pantry this afternoon. Just start small. One box of tea means a few more dollars funding sustainable farming, clean water access, or workers co-ops—and fewer dollars inflating Amazon’s shareholders’ pockets.
And bag by bag, cup by cup, we fund the better world we wish to see.
Next Steps:
Find more ways to shop more ethically. For my fellow bookworms, I encourage you to explore 5 Amazon Alternatives to Books, so we can enjoy reading without funding Amazon and unfair labor conditions.
Curb the itch to consume, altogether. Read How to Stop Wanting Things for a mindset shift that’s helped me crave less and live more.
Expand your tea palate. In this 3,000-word guide, I help the tea curious understand the tea spectrum and find new flavors to enjoy: How to Start Drinking Tea.
Ethical Tea Companies: Common FAQs
What makes a tea company “ethical”?
“Ethical” is, of course, a subjective term, but ethical tea companies generally have three things in common: 1) They treat workers fairly; 2) They minimize their environmental impact; 3) They contribute to social and environmental progress. One way to gauge a tea company’s ethics is to look for third-party certifications, like USDA organic, Fair Trade, and Fair for Life.
Are ethical teas more expensive?
Ethical teas can be more expensive than mainstream or store-brand teas—but not always. For example, Pukka Herbs, Yogi Tea, and Numi Tea are all easily accessible ethical tea brands you can find at Target. Other companies like Traditional Medicinals have a rewards program where you earn Plant Power Points and discounts every time you shop, which can help bring the price down.
Can I still get fast shipping from ethical brands?
Yes! These days, it’s quite easy to get quick shipping from ethical brands (Amazon isn’t the only company who offers free shipping!).
What are the healthiest tea brands?
As a general rule of thumb, tea is a healthy drink with numerous studies pointing to reduced inflammation, better heart health, and even cancer prevention, largely due to the high antioxidant levels in tea. So no matter what kind of tea you drink, you’re likely already on the path to better health. For the healthiest tea brands (note: I am not a doctor and this is not health advice), I’m personally a fan of brands that put the focus on herbal infusions, like Traditional Medicinals, Yogi Tea, or Pukka Herbs.
What are some brands of bagged tea that tea lovers recommend?
Diehard tea lovers like myself often look beyond the supermarket staples like Lipton or Bigelow for tea brands that offer organic ingredients and more varied flavor and herbal varieties. My personal favorites are Traditional Medicinals, Yogi Tea, or Pukka Herbs.
Discover how the merry loner lifestyle makes life more enjoyable:
LONER MINDSET: fresh perspectives on learning to genuinely enjoy your own company
BOOKS: reading lists for people who love being alone with a good story
ANALOG LIVING: inspiration to step back from the screen and live a life offline
SOLO TRAVEL: guides on where to go and how to enjoy it alone
MINDFUL CONSUMPTION: vetted recommendations for a simpler, less wasteful life
LONER Q&As: interviews from global voices on how to live a meaningful, enjoyable life
Merry
Merry is the blogger behind A Merry Loner, a full-time freelance writer, and a lifelong bookworm. Since kindergarten, it was her dream to become a novelist. (She likes to think she's halfway there.) Born and raised in Rhode Island, where she earned a triple-major BA in writing, communication, and French from the University of Rhode Island, she moved to Toulouse, France after the pandemic to complete a master's in creative writing at Univeristé Toulouse Jean — Jaurès. She now lives in Paris with husband.
