"Premium" Means Nothing and Other Things Your Tea Tin Won't Tell You
Here's Issue #2 of The Steeped Letter.
Issue #2: "Premium" Means Nothing and Other Things Your Tea Tin Won't Tell You
Last issue, I promised we'd get into why so much tea packaging is basically decorative nonsense. So let's actually do that.
The words doing absolutely nothing for you
Walk into any store and you'll see tins covered in words like "artisanal," "premium," and "gourmet." Here's the uncomfortable truth: none of these words have a legal or industry-standard definition. A company can slap "premium" on a $4 box of dust-filled tea bags with zero consequences, because there's no regulatory body checking whether it's actually true.
This isn't a scam exactly. It's just marketing doing what marketing does, making you feel something without giving you any information you could actually verify.
Same goes for "gourmet." It sounds fancy. It means nothing.
The one exception worth knowing
"Natural flavors" is slightly different. It's a regulated term, technically. It means the flavoring compound originated from a natural source at some point in its life. But that's a low bar. It says nothing about how processed, synthetic-tasting, or genuinely flavorful the end result actually is. So while it's "more real" than a made-up marketing word, it's still not the flex the packaging wants you to think it is.
What you should actually be looking for
If a label gives you a fact you could independently check, that's real information. Here's what to look for instead:
- A specific growing region, not just "imported" or "sourced globally." Real regions (Darjeeling, Assam, Uji) tell you something about flavor and growing conditions. Vague sourcing tells you nothing.
- A harvest date, not just a "best by" date. Harvest dates tell you how fresh the leaves actually were when picked. "Best by" just tells you when the company wants you to stop complaining.
- Leaf grade, especially for loose leaf. Terms like "whole leaf" versus "broken leaf" or "fannings" tell you about leaf size, which directly affects brew strength and quality.
- Actual certifications, like Organic or Fair Trade. These have real standards behind them. "Artisanal" does not.
A quick gut check for your next purchase
Next time you're buying tea, try this: cover up every adjective on the label and see what's left. If there's a real region, a harvest date, and maybe a certification, you're looking at a company that's giving you actual information. If all that's left is blank space where "premium" and "artisanal" used to be, that's telling you something too.
One thing to actually try this week
Go check the label on whatever tea you currently have open. Does it list a specific region, or just "imported"? A harvest date, or just a vague "best by"? You might be surprised how little actual information is on there, buzzwords aside.
What's next
Next issue: why two "green teas" can taste completely different, and it has nothing to do with quality. It's about oxidation, and once you understand it, a lot of tea labeling starts making a lot more sense.
Drink something with a real answer on the label.
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