If any company could convert me to tea, it’d be Art of Tea.

This Beverly Hills-based company’s all about yummy teas — which often go hand in hand with organic and fair trade practices.

The tea’s so tasty that it’s served at many high-end restaurants in the LA area: Shutters on the Beach, Casa del Mar, Fred Segal, Tea Garden of Beverly Hills, Wolfgang’s Spago, Yamashiro, W Hotel — among others.

Sometime last year, I went to a tea tasting hosted by Steve, CEO of Art of Tea, at Barefoot Restaurant. I got to taste many of the gourmet teas, including a blooming tea — the kind that looks like a small ball at one moment, then like a flower in full bloom the next. If you’ve seen Marie Antoinette, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Dave of Art of Tea says that the majority of its herbal teas — aka tisanes — are certified fair trade: “this is due to the fact that our rooibos and honey bush is certified fair trade and organic.”

However, Dave says “where it gets tricky is that we hand custom blend ingredients such as real pineapple and certain botanicals that are not [certified fair trade]” because TransFair USA, which provides fair trade certification for products sold in the US, are not yet providing certification for these non-tea ingredients.

Tea purists and environmentalists will be happy to know that most of the teas are served loose leaf. Art of Tea does offer some bagged teas in little satchels — which I’m guessing are gonna be a bit tough to recycle…. Seriously — a good tea infuser lasts a long long time; and if you have a french press you use for coffee, you can use it for tea too –

For pure fair trade certified tea with no as-of-yet uncertified ingredients, try one of the Darjeeling teas. Otherwise, go with the more flavored, gourmet teas, knowing that the Art of Tea peeps do appear to be honestly concerned about the fair trade movement AND clearly aware of what can and cannot be fair trade certified at this point.

Art of Tea. Beverly Hills. 877.aot.teas.

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