News

What exactly does first flush tea by air mean?

First flush by air is traditionally used to describe the very first pickings (DJ1 to DJ20) from the Darjeeling growing region, which are flown to the importer by courier or air freight, immediately after production.

Darjeeling is located in northern India and borders Nepal, another very interesting growing region. Both are situated at the foot of the Himalayas.

The idea of first flush by air originated in the 1960s. Tea lovers from all over the world were eagerly awaiting the new harvest and wanted to enjoy fresh first flush Darjeeling tea as soon as possible after the winter production break.

The expansion of transportation and especially airfreight made it possible to transport individual batches, also called invoices (DJ1 = Darjeeling batch 1 of the respective garden), to fly to Europe in a very short period of time and thus make it available to consumers.
Today, only a few days pass until tea arrives from the garden to the specialist shops.

Available approx. mid/end of April

Dive into the world of teas with our new catalogue: Be enchanted by our novelties like the relaxed hemp tea blends and try our sparkling cold brew teas!

We would be pleased to send you – as a commercial reseller – our current product catalogue.

For new customers: Please attach your trading licence.

Our services and offers are directed exclusively to entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 BGB. Orders from consumers within the meaning of § 13 BGB will not be accepted and executed.

Conventional packaging made from a combination of paper and various plastic or aluminium foils, however, is difficult to recycle and cannot be composted. Plastic, for example, has an extremely long decomposition time of up to several hundred years with the known problems for our environment. Around four million trees are felled each year to meet Germany’s paper requirements alone. We did not want to accept this circumstance either.

The search for alternative packaging has been very difficult in recent years, which is why we are now particularly

proud that we have succeeded with our partners in developing a new, absolutely sustainable packaging concept: our new grass paper and NatureFlex film packaging, a real revolution in the tea packaging market.

In our grass paper, fast-growing grass from regional production replaces more than 50 % of the pulp used in conventional paper, which is usually extracted from wood. This minimises the carbon emissions and water consumption during treatment of the raw material drastically. Instead of 6000 litres of water per tonne of pulp, only 2 litres are needed; carbon emissions are up to 75 % lower than in classic paper production. Chemical substances can be completely dispensed when processing the grass.

NatureFlex is a new film based on renewable raw materials, which is 100 % compostable and has all necessary barrier properties for flavour protection.

Together, grass paper and NatureFlex are an unbeatable team in the quest for sustainable tea enjoyment. See for yourself. Your customers will also be delighted to finally be able to buy the natural product tea in a natural packaging.

At the moment, the news about the new Corona virus is rapidly spreading. Many consumers will want to know whether teas from China are still safe. We can reassure them, as the current batches were already in stock long before the outbreak.

The tea harvest in China will not begin until April, and shipments will not be made until June at the earliest. The corona virus has a very low environmental stability. Many months will pass before the teas are put on the market.

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has published an FAQ with information on the transmissibility of the corona virus. In the FAQ, the BfR answers, among other things, the question of whether imported goods from regions where the virus is spread can be a source of infection in humans. The answer is:

“Due to the transmission pathways identified to date and the relatively low environmental stability of coronaviruses, it is unlikely, according to the current state of knowledge, that imported goods such as imported food or consumer goods and toys, tools, computers, clothing or shoes could be a source of infection with the novel coronavirus”.

Conclusion:

The BfR considers a corona transmission through imported food like tea to be unlikely.

Further information can be found on the websites of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (bfr.bund.de/en), the Robert Koch Institute (rki.de/en), the German Federal Ministry of Health (bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/en) and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (bmel.de/en).

You would like to place an order? Do you have questions about our assortment or our services as a tea wholesaler in general? Or would you like to arrange an appointment?

Please contact us at +49 (0) 4121 7912-6, send us an e-mail or use the contact form. We will contact you immediately!