The wholesale-retail tea relationship.

Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, May, 2005 by Altman, Randy

The consumer who buys from upscale teashop or catalogue may give thought to the exciting origin of the tea, but hidden from the buying public is the wholesale source of the tea that supplies the retail establishment. The consumer, including those knowledgeable about tea, tend to assume the immediate source of the tea is the growing estate.

While the estate is at times the supplier, often wholesalers sell the tea to shops, catalogues, web sites, restaurants, and the like. This area of the tea business is perhaps the most obscured from public view. Randy Altman speaks with several ...