To understand this, we need to go back about fifty years. The term "specialty" is usually credited to Erna Knutsen, who first used it in 1974 for coffee. In 1982, the SCA - Specialty Coffee Association - was founded. It took about 20 years before the industry agreed on a real international standard for specialty coffee. This matters because the word "specialty" in tea comes straight from coffee.
Today there are two major organizations in specialty tea: the American ISTA (International Specialty Tea Association) and the European ESTA (European Speciality Tea Association). They see "specialty" quite differently.
ISTA focuses on traceability and the person behind the tea - the tea maker. It goes into a huge amount of detail, more than standardization really needs, in my opinion. You can see the Chinese roots in this way of thinking about tea.
ESTA originally leaned toward tracing the product and evaluating the raw leaf. Nigel Melican, ex-president of ESTA, put it this way: "We all like to put things tidily into boxes: to define them. But 'specialty tea' in its infinite uniqueness likes to defy definition. ESTA has endeavoured to encapsulate the spirit of specialty tea as 'aspiring to attain excellence…from the bush to the cup.' For me, this comes very close to defining the indefinable."
Then things got messy. Three major industry groups - the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada, Tea and Herbal Infusions Europe, and the Tea Association of the USA - criticized ESTA. Their point was simple: traceability is a basic food safety requirement, not something that makes tea "specialty." They also criticized ESTA's raw material criteria:
- The dry leaf
- The aroma of the dry leaf
- The colour and clarity of the liquor
- The flavour and mouthfeel of the liquor
- The appearance and aroma of the wet leaf
After Melican left ESTA, these definitions disappeared. At least, I couldn't find them on the official site anymore.
So this is what a new standard looks like in its early days - different industry views, different cultures, some contradictions, some scandals, some politics.
Where does that leave specialty tea?
If I compare it to coffee, ISTA leans toward something like 90+ point specialty coffee - a Geisha, say. Very detailed, almost too detailed. But it also carries a strong Chinese view of tea, which can make it harder for other regions to fit into that definition.
ESTA went the other way. Its definitions are too vague, in my opinion - too many grey areas, which makes it easy to call commercial tea "specialty."
Still, it's good that these organizations exist and are trying to do something.
The real problem in the tea industry right now is simple: where exactly is the line between specialty tea and commercial tea?
How we handled this at Terroir
For our Nepalese teas, here's what we did. Nepal has its own Specialty Tea Association, created to push farmers toward higher quality. It sets out these criteria for a tea to count as specialty:
- Only organically grown leaf
- Only high-altitude tea, hand-picked
- Only the right leaf: bud, bud plus one leaf, or bud plus two leaves
But there's a catch - even great leaf can turn into bad tea. So as a tea technologist, I added one more condition:
- Minimum processing defects - the processing has to be done without clear mistakes that show up later in the taste and smell of the tea.
From experience, I've learned that better is the enemy of good. In about half the teas I make, I can find some flaw - maybe 1-2 points on a ten-point scale. Sometimes these flaws appear spontaneously; sometimes I can pinpoint exactly why. Eight years, eight seasons really, of working as a tea technologist still isn't enough to call myself a master. But I've built my own style and when I work with the leaf, I already know what I'm aiming for, and I hit it about 8 out of 10.
At Terroir, we'll spend a week building a bamboo canopy over a 70x70 meter tea garden. Or spend a month and a half brewing beer just to use it for anaerobic fermentation. Sometimes that's the whole point.
I know a woman who's been making and drinking tea for a long time. I remember one thing she said: "Taiwanese teas are too perfect." She's got a point. Sometimes you want tea to have a bit more space in it. A bit more character. Some imperfection.
We wrote this to be as honest as we can with our customers and readers. We want you to know what you're getting, what's behind it, and why we call it SPECIALTY.
Vova Babin
Terroir CEO & Technologist