Follow the Leaders: Defining Specialty Tea

• Specialty tea celebrates ‘character’, the collection of attributes that makes a tea unique; be it the appearance, aroma, taste, or physiological effect.  Commodity tea strives to be ‘neutral’, i.e. free of defects, and a lack of unique character is often regarded as a positive.
• Specialty tea generally is produced in limited quantities, shows unique characteristics due to its origin (people & nature), and is difficult to substitute for.  Commodity tea is generally larger quantities, has few unique characteristics, and is easy to substitute with another tea.
• Specialty tea commands a higher price on the market vs. commodity tea.
• There are low quality specialty teas; teas that are unique but unpleasant, or have had production mistakes, or are stale.  Conversely, there are high quality commodity teas; teas that exemplify the (modest) pinnacle of quality of that particular type, and are not surpassed by their peers.
• Culture has a say, too.  Specialty teas are associated with ritual, stories, teaware, history, and art.  But nobody ever wrote a poem about a 40’ container of off-grade CTC.
• There is a vast range of specialty teas, while commodity teas are much smaller in range (though larger in volume).

—Eliot Jordan Tea Master, Mighty Leaf

—Tony Gebley Founder, American Specialty Tea Alliance