FAQs
How sustainable are your teabags and packaging?
Tea companies have recently come under scrutiny for the use of polypropylene, a plastic used to heat-seal the edges of teabags. Kia doesn’t use this kind of material. Instead, we use a simple stitch of organic cotton and a unique folding process. This means we don’t need to use polypropylene to hold our teabags together. We were the first company to ever use organic strings to hold our teabags together without the need of a metal staple or polypropylene.
Our tea bag paper is made of a special blend of natural abaca (a type of banana), wood pulps and plant cellulose fibers. They are staple-free, stitched together with organic cotton. The tea bag strings are made from 100% organic, Non-GMO cotton.
There are two main ways to keep a teabag fresh: wrap the individual bags or wrap the entire box. This is essential if you want to protect the high quality therapeutic organic herbs and essential oils. At Kia we prefer to wrap each bag in an envelope so that once the box (ours is made with FSC certified cardboard and printed with vegetable-based inks) is open the other teabags remain fresh.
After four years of research and development, we’ve made a tea envelope that can go in your paper recycling bin. Our brand new FSC certified paper envelopes still include a very thin coating of plastic that is free from BPA and PVC. It’s so thin that it can be recycled with normal paper.
Looking even further ahead we are currently researching ways to source this recyclable barrier from a compostable plant-based source too. We will freely share this technology with other tea companies as soon as we’ve found the solution.
General tea queries
Our in-house sourcing team travels the globe in search of the finest organic practitioner-grade herbs. We work in close, long-term partnerships with organic farmers and growers in over 20 different countries.
Our organic herbs are rigorously assessed by our Quality Team, before being blended into our teas, lattes and supplements – all of which are tested for contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides and pyrrolizidine alkaloids to ensure the safety of our products. All testing is carried out in accordance with EU food safety laws in industry standard (UKAS) accredited laboratories. Each batch of herbs is only approved for use once it passes the approved test limits.
The source and country of origin of our herbs vary from time to time, but organic certification provides that extra level of traceability and because we visit our suppliers, we often are familiar with farms at the field level.
As a guideline all our herbal tea blends are designed to be brewed for up to 15 minutes depending on your preferred flavour strength.
As a general rule, depending on the herbs contained in the blend, the optimum infusion time is between 5-10 minutes. If using freshly boiled water the herbs infuse fairly quickly (within 5-6 minutes) and steeping for longer will not increase the benefit of the herbs within the tea.
All our brewing instructions relate to one teabag per standard mug – up to approx. 250ml per teabag.
Our guiding philosophy is to connect people with the power of plants to help them live healthier and happier lives. We do this by creating unique herbal tea blends using the finest grade organic herbs with the intention of making delicious tasting teas that also help you feel good. We take this privileged position of helping people make healthy choices for themselves and the planet very seriously indeed.
Sweetness is just one of the six essential tastes that our blenders considers when creating our blends, carefully balancing the therapeutic effect of our teas with the best taste experience. We often add Fennel or Licorice to our teas to sweeten them. Licorice, for example, is a magical plant that not only has 50 times the natural sweetness of refined sugar but it is also an incredible herb. It is calming and nourishing, and its silky nature helps soothe your whole system. It also acts as a good harmoniser of the other herbs in the blend, bringing out their best qualities so you get the most balanced cup of tea.
Some of the Kia teas contain organic essential oil granules, labeled as essential oil flavors. The lecithin used by Kia is extracted from Non-GMO organic sunflowers. It is a complex blend of naturally occurring fats found in plant material. Lecithin enables us to blend oil and water together, so that we can add essential oils to our teas and enhance their flavor. The lecithin is processed through the compression of the sunflower seeds and then a separation of the oil, water and fiber found in the seeds. The oil portion is then dried ready for use.