KNOW-HOW In search of the finest teas
For over 30 years, we've been building close, solid and lasting relationships with producers who place as much importance on respect for their terroirs as they do on the quality of their production. In our view, small-scale production areas and organically or biodynamically grown tea bushes are the basis for producing high-quality, healthy teas with a rich organoleptic profile.
Careful, attentive selection
We regularly visit our producers to taste and select teas with them. The way we work with each of them means that, as the harvest progresses, we have access to more choice, constantly improving tea quality and a wide and truly interesting range of tastes. These efforts have led to widespread recognition, and our teas regularly win awards in national and international competitions: Best Organic Product, Les Épicures de L'Épicerie Fine Award, AVPA Les thés du monde competition in Paris, Great Taste Awards in London. These awards confirm our belief that organic and fair-trade products, produced by small-scale producers, can also rise to the rank of exceptional products.
China
By Arlette Rohmer, founder of Les Jardins de Gaïa
On my first trip to China, after a few days visiting tea gardens and learning how teas are made, I said to myself "it's going to take me ten lifetimes to understand".
In every factory, in every village, the Chinese hold ancestral know-how.
Chinese tea growers are so knowledgeable that they know how to produce every tea and every harvest, according to demand. There are still a multitude of highly artisanal and manual manufacturing techniques. This knowledge and this tea culture exist nowhere else.
Every trip to China teaches me a great deal. To our great delight, the passionate producers are extremely creative. Hard-working, they are always discovering new ways to perfect their methods and improve quality.
From the mountains of Da Zhang Shan, through those of Hubei, to the heights of Yunnan, the landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful and boast incredible biodiversity. Insects, birds and rare flowers are everywhere.
Tea and health are closely linked. A condition is often associated with a specific tea. Tea must be consumed at the right time, by the right person at the right season.
What also appealed to me about our partners in China was the ease with which they work together. They're all very small producers and they combine several crops: tea, fruit, flowers, vegetables. They are incredibly kind and always welcome you with a smile, serving succulent dishes made from flowers, fern tops, mushrooms and fresh bamboo shoots. Interaction with nature takes place on every occasion, celebrating poetry, inventiveness and simple, delicious flavors.
My adventures in the field lead me to a simple conclusion: contrary to what is often said about this country, in China too there are farmers who respect the earth and the women and men who work it, a multitude of wonderful people who defend the common sense of a simple and just life, in harmony with nature.
South Africa
By Arlette Rohmer, founder of Les Jardins de Gaia
Les Jardins de Gaia have been working alongside the small Wupperthal cooperative in South Africa for many years. It's been a powerful and enriching experience, colored by many changes and often uncertain and difficult situations, both for them and for us.
And yet, together, we managed to get through it all! We've learned so many wonderful things from this fantastic human experience, from working together and sharing our daily experiences.
Vietnam
Les Jardins de Gaïa has been working with Vietnam since 2005. Links have been forged with small tea producers in the Van Chan district of Yen Bai province, in the north-west of the country. These high mountains are home to the Dao and H'mong ethnic minorities. Poppy growing was very popular here for many years, but then projects were set up to try and offer alternatives.
The alternative adopted by the Van Chan Organic Club, a cooperative of small-scale producers from the villages of Suoi Bu, Ta Nanh and Lien Son and a partner of Les Jardins de Gaïa, is to produce tea from wild tea bushes, some of which are hundreds of years old. When Arlette Rohmer first visited in 2005, she was captivated by these people with their unchanging smiles, who, starting from very little, have trained themselves over the years to produce better quality tea, enabling them to escape from extreme poverty. Today, they are certified fair trade and organic.
In this unique region, original forests are home to Shan Tuyen tea bushes, and it is from these trees, sometimes 8 m high, that the local people harvest their tea.
Supporting them is a way for Les Jardins de Gaïa to protect this exceptional natural heritage and enhance the value of the work done by small-scale producers, while helping them to produce ever tastier teas.
India
By Arlette Rohmer, founder of Les Jardins de Gaïa
It was when I tasted my first cup of Darjeeling tea (it was a Singell) that I fell "in love" with tea! I remember a sublime fragrance of flowers and refined, fruity flavors.
If I had to describe Darjeeling, I'd call it: emotion, spirituality, know-how and quality.
When I founded Les Jardins de Gaïa, I was lucky enough to be able to travel to this region, discover it and immerse myself in it.
What incomparable pleasure it is to walk through these gardens in the foothills of the Himalayas, to admire them, to feel, smell, taste and savour all the nuances, differences and treasures of these terroirs!
The generosity of these lands, of all their inhabitants in all these enchanted gardens, has left its mark on my palate, my eyes and my heart. Fragrances ranging from rose to jasmine, vanilla, chocolate, spices and ripe fruit have never left me....
I'm often asked what my favorite tea is. It's really an impossible question to answer.
I love tea, the real thing, the good stuff! It depends on the moment, the mood, the season....
Singell, Potong, Mineral Springs, Selimbong, Seeyok, Samabeong, Subarna, Teesta, Snowview... which one to choose?
They're all different, but each has something beautiful and good about it, and conveys the energy of the men and women who produce it.
What's certain is that I can't start the day without my teapot filled with a spring Darjeeling (ff - first flush). Wherever I go, I always take some with me. It fills my palate with the flavours produced by all the beautiful people in my life, and the joy I get from working with this magical beverage that is tea!
To be continued, many more destinations will be added to this list... ✈️
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