Close the loop

Posted by Teatulia on 5-27-2020

Our teas come directly from our organic garden, to your cup. Help us complete the cycle to get your tea back into the soil.

It starts with the soil.

Our tea garden is not only sustainable, but regenerative. What started as a barren wasteland, is now a thriving, lush tea garden that grows some of the best tea out there.

We apply the teachings of Japanese farmer and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. He believed that nature knows best, and to produce the healthiest land and crops, you must work with nature and not against it. Nature’s best and most nutrient rich soil comes from compost. We compost in 2 primary ways - vermicompost, and cow dung.

World of Worms

Take a look at our vermicompost plant at our garden in Tetulia, Bangladesh. Vermicomposting is the process of using worms to decompose organic material into worms castings, or worm poop. The worm castings is extremely nutrient dense and an excellent organic fertilizer for plants. 

Not only do we use vermicompost at our garden, but our CEO and Co-Founder, Linda, has her very own worm farm at her home in Denver. Meet her worms,  here.

Cow Dung

Next source of compost is cow manure.

When starting our garden we knew we needed a sustainable way to provide a steady stream of cow manure to support our 200+ acre garden, but we weren’t in the business of raising cows. This is where the cattle lending program was born. Our founder’s innovative solution was to start a cattle lending program where the women in the Bangladeshi community were loaned cows. They pay back the loan with cow dung that we use for the garden, and once the loan is paid off, the cow is theirs to keep. Win-Win! We’ve heard countless stories of families lives that have changed for the better because of this initiative, read more about it,  here.

While the process isn’t pretty, cow manure produces rich compost to enrich our plants the natural way.

Help Us Close The Loop

Our garden is on the way to becoming completely closed loop, which means everything grown in our garden has a purpose and is used. We do our best to make sure our tea is grown and packaged in the best possible way for the earth. 

Here’s where you come into play. We make our packaging almost completely compostable and recyclable, so we’re relying on you to do your part to dispose responsibly. 

Here’s how to do so: