Quality thanks to orthodox tea production

You can enjoy Ronnefeldt teas in the best hotels and restaurants of the world – and in many countries at home as well. Tea connoisseurs appreciate our hand-crafted, superior quality teas – every production step is executed carefully, incorporating traditional methods from the picking of the leaves in the tea gardens, blending and tasting of the tea all the way to filling and packing in bags and caddies. We ensure perfect tea quality for your enjoyment through continuous monitoring of every single step.

In the tea garden

Tea is cultivated in many parts of the world. This is why we have high standards regarding quality and taste when we select our producing countries. We work together with our suppliers, the NGO Ethical Tea Partnership and the Childaid Network foundation to improve social and environmental standards in the tea growing countries so that we can continue offering our clients delicious, premium quality Ronnefeldt teas for many years to come.

»Two leaves and one bud«

We produce our black tea in several steps using orthodox methods.

First the tea is carefully harvested by hand in a continuously monitored process and according to the global principle – two leaves and one bud. The fresh green leaves enter the five-step process of orthodox tea production immediately after harvesting:

Withering

The tea leaves “rest” for approximately 12-18 hours in withering troughs – at times exposed to forced (heated) air – until the leaves lose most of their moisture content and volume. The tea leaf must become flaccid and pliable for further processing, so it is crucial for the moisture to be removed in a gentle way.

Rolling

A rolling machine with rotating discs breaks the cells of the tea leaves without destroying them. The cell sap is released in the process. The combination of cell sap and oxygen leads to fermentation. We call this process “fermentation” in the tea industry, but it is actually “oxidation”.

Fermentation

The fermentation triggered by the rolling is an oxidation process that takes approximately 2-3 hours, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity. The cell sap oxidises when it combines with oxygen, the leaves turn a copper colour and the typical tea aroma results.

Drying

The residual moisture is removed from the tea in a rack drier at approx. 90° C. The oxidised cell sap dries on the leaf. Now the tea gets its dark colour. This process takes about 20 minutes and is carefully monitored to ensure that the tea develops a pleasant taste. The residual moisture is about 3 per cent at the end of drying.

Sorting

In the final step the tea is sorted into leaf grades using vibrating screens. This sorting produces four main leaf grades: High-grade leaf teas, broken teas, fannings and dust. Tea dust does not meet Ronnefeldt’s quality requirements and is therefore not purchased.

Leaf grades: What the abbreviations mean

English terms and letter combinations have been used in the tea industry for many years to describe the various qualities of tea. The following quality designations are specifically used for Indian teas.

F T G F O P

Fine, Tippy, Golden, Flowery, Orange, Pekoe

A carefully sifted tea with many light and golden-brown tips, very flowery aroma and fine leaves of the highest quality grade.

Did you know that there are different tea qualities based on the leaf grades? We’ll explain.

Fine

Fine, excellent quality.

Tippy

This refers to the light leaf buds. They contain less cell sap and are therefore lighter in colour after fermentation.

Golden

The reference to golden brown teas is used only for Indian teas.

Flowery

This describes the fragrance and flavour of the tea.

Orange

A characteristic of high quality. It is traced back to the royal house of Orange and means royal, exquisite or simply “very good”.

Pekoe

Chinese word meaning “white fluff”, describing the fine, thin hairs on the serrated leaf edge of young, tender tea leaves.

Excellence as an overall seal of quality

Our responsibility does not end with the blending of our fine teas; it also includes the way how our products are presented and served. As it is the case with the purchase of our raw material, we exclusively work with reliable partners and use only high-quality packaging materials.

Our packaging is both innovative and appealing in terms of its look and feel. Thus the perfect preparation of our teas is guaranteed and a unique and pleasurable experience is ensured thanks to easy handling.

»Each sip of tea rekindles my wanderlust.«

Alexandra Sippel, Sales

Tea tasting

Our tea tasters are highly trained experts and connoisseurs with a keen sense of taste. Using all their senses they examine and taste the prepared tea as well as fruits and herbs, blending these into creations that meet the most discerning tastes of tea lovers all over the world. Our tea tasters sample hundreds of teas every week, carefully testing each and every one according to the highest standards.

Loose tea in the shape of a heart with an organic flag

Organic quality

Organically cultivated products are becoming increasingly popular. Ronnefeldt meets this demand with a large selection of organic teas. The organic label guarantees controlled organic cultivation, i.e. the tea is grown without genetic modifications and without the use of chemical and synthetic pesticides. Moreover, we have all of our teas tested for residues at accredited German laboratories.

Controlled materials

We apply the highest quality standards for selecting and using all packaging materials. Most of our paper and wood-based materials that are used, for example, for the boxes and labels of our LeafCup®, Tea-Caddy® and Joy of Tea® products are FSC® certified and come from sustainable forestry. We also limit our use of materials to what is actually needed.

Like in our Teavelope®, which does not have any aluminium clips. Our SimpliciTea® tea capsule is a brand new product that entices our customers with a modern method of tea preparation. Get the perfect cup of tea in a matter of seconds: Our premium tea capsule can be used in all Nespresso®* capsule machines. The aluminium capsule and the synthetic material are completely recyclable.

Trademark of a company that is not associated with J.T. Ronnefeldt KG.

»Gaze deeply at the amber colour in the cup, enjoy the fragrance and taste of the first sip and get carried away for a moment – that’s how I enjoy my tea.«

Gabriella Barili, E-Commerce Manager

Variety and premium quality for our clients

We are constantly working on ways to make it possible for our clients to experience the many facets of tea. Important factors here include: You need to be patient and passionate if you want to make it in the tea business. We promote sustainability in our daily actions and business relationships and take a long-term approach – just like our founder Johann Tobias Ronnefeldt did.

Ensuring the quality of our products

We take responsibility for our products seriously throughout every stage of production: The health of our clients is always the highest priority for us.

We comply with the EU Health Claims Regulation and make no claims as to the effectiveness of our products.
We adhere to the EU Food Information Regulation and communicate all ingredients, allergens, nutritional values and batch numbers.
Independent, accredited laboratories test our teas for consistently high quality.
Non-food items and materials are tested for food safety.
Our production in Worpswede is kosher and halal certified.
Our hygiene management system is HACCP compliant.

This includes adherence to laws and regulations such as:

Legal requirements concerning plant protection products and pollutants,
All applicable laws, regulations and industrial minimum standards,
Compliance with conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations as well as
All other relevant legal provisions on occupational safety and environmental protection.

Black Tea

37,2% Loose Tea
35,0% Pre-portioned Tea

Green & White Tea

25,2% Loose Tea
18,0% Pre-portioned Tea

Herbal Infusion

19,3% Loose Tea
32,1% Pre-portioned Tea

Fruit Infusion

14,6% Loose Tea
13,1% Pre-portioned Tea

Oolong Tea

1,4% Loose Tea
0,5% Pre-portioned Tea

Chai

1,7% Loose Tea
0,8% Pre-portioned Tea

Other Teas

0,7% Loose Tea
0,6% Pre-portioned Tea

Our varied range of products

Excellent tea from around the world is in more demand now than ever before. This is why our assortment includes a variety of traditional teas such as black teas, oolong teas, green teas and white teas as well as various herbal infusions and a large selection of fruit infusions. Our tea tasters create aromatic tastes and flavours throughout the year for the enjoyment of diverse teas that perfectly fit every season. In addition to loose tea, we also offer pre-portioned solutions to meet the needs of our clients.

New materials

We continuously test new, environmentally sound materials and make sure that they are suitable for our production machines and for the contact with our teas. We are currently in the process of switching over to simple, unpainted materials for our sales packaging and are testing whether we can use compostable, biodegradable materials instead of films and filter papers. Our goal is that 50 per cent of our new products will be compostable in the next two years. Currently, recycled paper is not an alternative for us as it is not food safe due to impurities and therefore not suitable as a packaging material for our teas.

For product displays or porcelain we furthermore use only secondary raw materials certified to be food safe, such as artificial leather. We want to do what we can to protect the environment, so even our office supplies like stationery and printer paper or wood merchandise displays are FSC® certified. By mid-2019 we will verify that our partner printing companies use eco-friendly inks and FSC®-certified wood and paper only.