Reaching Beyond Wholesale

We have mostly described Kopius Teas as a resource for resellers, that is wholesalers and distributors who purchase our bulk teas for resale. In reality, our market also includes institutional food service and federal, state and local governments who may use our bulk teas, herbs and spices for culinary and quick service dining. Some of our core capabilities in this area include the following:

1. Bulk tea bags. We can now produce food service, bulk pyramid tea bags directly in our facility. The advantage of this step is the avoidance of shipping charges to a third party for packaging. Our clients select their teas, the weight per tea bag, and the number of total tea bags. The pyramid bags are manufactured and bagged in bulk (without wrappers) and sent directly to our clients.

Not only is this helpful in reducing the carbon footprint for individual wrappers, but it also gives our clients the flexibility to take a single order of pyramid tea bags and use them in a combination of retail repackaging, wholesale distribution, and food service tea preparation.

2. Pre-packed institutional pouches. Food service bulk distribution of loose tea need not carry the same polish as finished, retail packaging. We have many coffee roasters and tea distributors who simply want 1-2 lb bags of bulk tea labeled with the name of the product, lot number, date, and weight. This goes on generic packaging, which is often less expensive than pre-printed foils. We offer this as a more cost effective way to ship volumes of tea to different elements of the distribution channel.

3. Filter and cello tea packs for iced tea. Iced tea continues to be the most popular form of tea consumption in the US. We can manufacture 1 - 3 oz bags of tea for use in automated iced tea brewing machines, such as Fedco, Curtis, and Bunn. 1 oz typically produces 1 gallon of iced tea.

4. Formulation services. All of the above can begin with our formulation services which are specially designed to create a finished product that has a predetermined leaf appearance, taste, texture, color and price. Whether we are designing an artisan blend with flowers, fruit, tea and spices, or a simple tea bag cut blend for high volume, low cost targets, our master blenders devote significant energy towards constructing a recipe that is both consistent and scalable.

Optional formulation considerations include ingredients that are Organic, Fair Trade, Biodyamic, and Rain Forrest Alliance certified.

5. Documentation. We continue to see greater demand among our larger buyers for documentation of quality and food handling. This includes Certificates of Analysis, Product Specifications, and sometimes third party laboratory testing.

Kopius Teas can now accept GSA Smartpay and GSA Smartpay 2 credit cards with the VISA or Mastercard logo. We continue to support federal, state, and local governments with the ability to conveniently purchase our products in bulk or tea bag formats. Kopius Teas is registered as a Certified Small Business by the United States Small Business Administration and the State of California. Government institutions and Prime Vendors are invited to contact us for a formal capabilities statement, including potential bids for subcontracting of GSA or non-GSA procurement.

SpecialTeas Substitutions / Replacements

As many of you may have heard, SpecialTeas is closing down their wholesale and retail web site. We enjoyed their teas and we wish them much success in their future endeavors.

For those of you who don't know us, Kopius Teas (www.kopiusteas.com) is a business to business distributor of fine teas and herbs. We offer the finest selection of Certified Organic and Fair Trade teas and blends, all shipped direct from our blending and packaging facilities in Southern California. In addition, we stock an abundance of conventional products as well.

We thought it would be helpful to create a quick chart of SpecialTeas equivalent teas to see how many we could match. The traditional unflavored teas should be fairly close in character. The blends will vary slightly based on the percentage and nature of the flavoring used.

In researching the SpecialTeas list, I was quite impressed by the range of teas and non-teas they stock. Of course, we're not Kopius (Copious) Teas in name alone.

Here's our initial view. It's slightly over 75 at first glance. Not too bad. If you're a business in need of a replacement for a SpecialTeas tea or tisane, you can use the chart below to find our closest equivalent. If you're a retail customer, shoot us a message, as we may still be able to assist you.

We'll try to update this list when we get a chance - this is a preliminary view. Do you have a favorite that's not shown below? Let us know...

SpecialTeas Product / Item	Recommended
No. 249 ASSAM TGFOP-1	Assam FOP
No. 220 MALTY FBOP	Organic Banaspathy GBOP
No. 264 MANGALAM FTGFO	Satrupa SFTGFOP1
No. 317 KENILWORTH OP1	Kenilworth OP
No. 318 DIMBULLA OP	Kirkoswald Full Leaf
No. 311 KOSLANDA OP	Koslanda BOP
No. 316 LOVER’S LEAP B	Lovers Leap Pekoe 1
No. 304 NUWARA ELIYA B	Mahagastotte FBOP
No. 321 VITHANAKANDE F	New Vithanakanda Extra Special
No. 319 VITHANAKANDE F	New Vithanakanda FBOPF Special
No. 310 PETTIAGALLA FO	Pettiagalla
No. 502 KEEMUN IMPERIA	Keemun Black OP 1276
No. 501 KEEMUN SPECIAL	Keemun Black Superior
No. 515 SUPERIOR TI KU	Organic Tie Kuan Yin Oolong Ex Special
No. 511 FINE TI KUAN Y	Tie Kwan Yin K103
YUNNAN FBOP	Yunnan Black 6112
No. 507 YUNNAN IMPERIA	yunnan Black Needle
No. 142 MARGARET'S HOP	Oaks TGBOP
No. 135 SELIMBONG FTGF	Selimbong
No. 104 JUNGPANA FTGFO	Jungpana
No. 882 DECAF ENGLISH	Decaf English Breakfast
No. 871 DECAF CHAI WIT	Decaf Rockin Chai
No. 895 DECAF SENCHA G	Decaf Papaya Green
No. 928 RASPBERRY WITH	Berries & Rose
No. 908 ALMOND COOKIE	Fortune Cookie
No. 916 GINGER PEACH A	Ginger Peach
No. 927 PEACH WITH PEA	Ginger Peach
No. 915 COCONUT WITH C	Hula High
No. 917 SWEET LEMON WI	Lemon Drop
No. 919 MANGO WITH MAN	Mango Swirl
NO. 933 WILD CHERRY WI	Persian Delight
No. 867 GREEN TEA GREE	Apple Pear Green
No. 940 GREEN TEA SWEE	Lovely Lemon Drop
No. 946 MOROCCAN MINT*	Moroccan Mint
No. 771 GREEN TEA ORAN	Orange Spritzer
No. 712 SWEET CRANBERR	Crimsonberry
No 725 Lemonade Sonata	Lemonade
No. 755 GREEN ROOIBOS	Cape Carnival
No. 750 PURE GREEN ROO	Green Rooibos
No. 976 AFTER DARK	Chamomile Blend
No. 987 LEMON VERBENA,	Lemon Verbena
No. 977 PEPPERMINT, CU	Peppermint Organic
WHITE PEONY (PAI MU TA	Bai Mudan Ex Special
No. 655 GENMAI-CHA	genmaicha
No. 700 GYOKURO SUPERI	Gyokuro
No. 654 HOJI-CHA	Hojicha
No. 591 BOLD-LEAF PU-E	Organic Pu-erh #2
PEACH BLOSSOM WHITE TE	Peach White
STRAWBERRY WHITE TEA	Pomegranate White
SILVER NEEDLE (YINZHEN	Silver Needle
No. 551 China Silver N	Silver Needle White Down
No. 800 ENGLISH  BREAK	Venture English Breakfast Organic
No. 705 MATCHA 30g tin	Yame Matcha
LAPSANG SOUCHONG ORGAN	Organic Lapsang Souchong
No. 966 MATE TIRAMISU	Chocolate Vanilla Mate
No. 963 MATE ROASTED	Roasted Yerba Mate
No. 960 MATE GREEN	Yerba mate
No 350 Himalayan Golde	Organic Gurance SFTGFOP1
No 354 Himilayan Tips	Organic Gurance SFTGFOP1
No 351 Himilayan Mount	Organic Gurance SFTGFOP1
No. 331 TIGER HILL OP	Chamraj FOP
No. 952 ROOIBOS CHOCOL	Chocolate Mint Rooibos
No. 760 ROOIBOS CHAI (	Herbal chai
No. 950 PURE ROOIBOS,	Rooibos Short Cut
No. 763 ROOIBOS WHITE	Rooibos White Chocolate Melange
No. 956 ROOIBOS SIMBA	Safari
No. 562 JASMINE ORGANI	Jasmine #4 DZS
No. 565 JASMINE PHOENI	Jasmine Pearls
No. 569 CHINA ROSE CON	Rose Congou
No. 522 CHINA CHUN MEE	Chun Mee 9371
No. 533 LUNG CHING (DR	Dragonwell Extra Special
No 547 Superior Lung C	Dragonwell Extra Special Organic
No. 520 GUNPOWDER SPEC	Gunpowder
No. 527 PI LO CHUN SEL	Organic Bi Luo Chun
No. 618 TUNG TING JADE	Organic High Mountain Oolong
No. 614 FORMOSA POUCHO	Paochong

Reordering Wholesale Teas and Herbs

We recently posted a video on how to quickly reorder products from the Kopius Teas website. If you order from us frequently, give it a look. We're sure it'll save you much time and energy.

3 new organic flowering teas

We just added three NEW organic flowering teas to the menu.

Solstice

White Affair

Silver Wedding

Personally, I like the presentation of the Solstice the best.  We'll be loading some videos of the flowerings opening to the www.kopiusteas.com site shortly.

 

QTrade Teas & Herbs Awarded Five First Place Winners at North America Tea Championship 2010

SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif., Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- World Tea Media has awarded QTrade Teas & Herbs five first place awards from over 200 submissions at the North America Tea Championship - Hot Tea Class. An independent, expert panel of seasoned tea professionals granted top honors to QTrade across a wide range of tea categories and origins.

QTrade's first place finishers included:

Best Ceylon - New Vithanakande Supreme, Sri Lanka
Best Darjeeling - Jungpana 2nd Flush, India (3rd year as Best Darjeeling)
Best Blended White Tea - Organic & Fair Trade Silver Serenity
Best White Tea - Organic & Fair Trade Silver Needle Supreme
Best Pan-Fired Green Tea - Tunxi Green Tea, China

"We're quite pleased the panel selected not only five exceptional teas from QTrade, but that two of the entries originated from Certified Organic and Fair Trade tea gardens," explains Manik Jayakumar, President, QTrade. He adds, "QTrade continues to work at the forefront of socially responsible, sustainable agricultural methods. Organic Silver Serenity and Organic Silver Needle Supreme finished top in their class, signifying how organic methods can often lead to superior tasting teas."

"We wish to commend QTrade on their continued participation and success in these tasting competitions," exclaims Ronald Eng, President, Kopius Teas. "If you look at the thirteen first place awards and the twenty-eight total awards from the past three years, it's clear that QTrade not only has the global network to acquire some of the world's finest teas, but that they also have the expertise to consistently identify best-in-class entrants."

About QTrade Teas

QTrade Teas & Herbs (www.qtradeteas.com) is a direct from source importer of quality ingredients serving the middle to upper tier food and beverage industries for over fifteen years. QTrade is the largest importer of organic teas in the United States, and also offers a growing selection of organic herbs, spices, fruits and flowers. Augmenting the products is a complementary set of custom formulation, blending, and private label services.

About Kopius Teas

Kopius Teas (www.kopiusteas.com) specializes in providing premium teas, herbs, and accessories for the startup to middle tier wholesale markets. The website features a broad selection of over 400 teas and blending ingredients from QTrade Teas & Herbs and is designed for tea merchants, coffee roasters, cafes, and specialty retailers.

Contact: Ronald Eng, 1-949-766-0070 x500.

Yame Matcha (new!)

Today we are announcing a new variety of matcha - Yame Matcha from Japan's southern island of Kyushu. This matcha features a vivid, bright, natural green matcha tea at an affordable price. To ensure freshness, the matcha is packaged in 30 gram sealed canister.

Matcha is extremely healthy. When you make a fresh bowl, you are consuming all the goodness of the entire tea leaf, and not just those antioxidants which dissolve in water.

To make matcha, place about 2 grams into a bowl or cup. Add hot water. Traditionally the beverage is made by creating a tea suspension with a bamboo whisk (see left), but you can also blend by hand with a spoon or whisk. A good quality bowl of matcha ready to serve is shown above.



You can also add matcha to your favorite smoothie or dessert recipe. In fact, we went to dinner to a sushi restaurant where they offered matcha salt!

We recommend you store opened matcha tightly sealed in the refrigerator to preserve freshness. The matcha will begin to clump as it gets repeatedly exposed to cold and warm temperatures, so it is best to limit exposure at room temperature. Typically we just scoop what we need and quickly return the matcha back to the refrigerator. Some retailers sell matcha sifters to help disperse the matcha back to a fine powder - particularly useful if you are having a hard time whisking a proper bowl.

In our retail store, people have told us matcha helps them concentrate better (for poker and studying), become more regular in their metabolism, and generally feel much healthier than drinking coffee.

Kopius Teas offers Yame Matcha in your choice of :

• TeaSentials retail ready tins
• Private label tins
• Unlabeled tins

Updated flowering / display tea photographs

We just updated the photographs for our display teas. Some people refer to these as flowering teas. Whichever name you prefer, they are a class of hand tied teas which blossom in your cup.


This Christmas Tree display tea reminded me of the holidays. Very festive colors and the shape is triangular, like an actual Christmas tree.

Wholesale Iced Tea CTC - loose or restaurant food service tea bags

Sometimes we move so quickly we forget to mention an entire product line that's been added. Such is the case with our wholesale CTC flavored blends, available in loose, 1 and 3 gallon (cello) tea bags. The loose option lets you portion the tea to the precise strength you wish for your iced tea program. The 1 and 3 gallon tea bag sizes are pre-portioned for use in commercial iced tea brewers, such as Bunn, Bloomfield, Cecilware, Grindmaster. Perfect for commercial kitchens. Minimum quantities are 1000 tea bags per order. Please call for pricing.

Flavors include:

• Acai Berry Iced Tea Loose CTC
• Chai Iced Tea Loose CTC
• Foundation Iced Tea Loose CTC
• Lemonade Iced Tea Loose CTC
• Mango Iced Tea Loose CTC
• Pomegranate Iced Tea Loose CTC 
• Rose de Jamica Iced Tea Loose CTC 
• Peach Decaf Iced Tea Loose CTC  
• Pineapple Iced Tea Loose CTC
• Vanilla Earl Grey Iced Tea Loose CTC 

As we enter the colder seasons, we all think of Florida, California, Hawaii, where iced tea is enjoyed all year long.

Case Quantities of Teas

If you've viewed our warehouse video, you may have noticed our teas most often arrive on pallets. These pallets contain multiple cases (or chests). When you purchase in quantities less than 50 lbs, you are often purchasing in less than case sizes. Essentially we break the case open to weigh the amount of product required to complete an order.

Kopius Teas is now expanding its operations to handle the sale of intact case quantities. Intact cases are easier to redistribute and customers enjoy considerable discounts over our sub-case pricing. Please contact us for more information or a quotation.

To facilitate ordering, you will find the case quantity of our wholesale teas and tisanes listed on the individual product page's "case size" tab (found underneath the product photo).

Rainforest Alliance Certified Teas

The Rainforest Alliance works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Rainforest Alliance Certified farms have reduced environmental footprints, are good neighbors to human and wild communities and are often integral parts of regional conservation initiatives.

Under the auspices of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), an international coalition of leading conservation groups, the Rainforest Alliance works with farmers to ensure compliance with the SAN standards for protecting wildlife, wild lands, workers' rights and local communities. Farms that meet these rigorous standards are awarded the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal.

Kopius Teas (www.kopiusteas.com) purchase tea from three plantations that produce Rainforest Alliance certified teas. These include Korakundah, Chamraj, and Allada. We ask that you support the Rainforest Alliance by purchasing these certified teas or asking your local tea merchant to offer these products.

Conversation with Manik Jayakumar, Qtrade Teas & Herbs

You can listen to an archived recording of a recent interview with Manik Jayakumar, President, Qtrade Teas  & Herbs. The broadcast is featured on our internet talk radio channel, TeaCast.

Many of us buy and sell organic, fair trade, and biodynamic products, but we don't always have an opportunity to see or understand its impact on the actual tea gardens. Manik discusses changes on the tea plantation when they convert from conventional to organic farming methods. In addition, he notes the range of activities and products that Qtrade Teas & Herbs now performs. We think this is a unique opportunity to feature one of the true pioneers in the specialty tea industry.

Kopius Teas is a distributor for Qtrade. We have streamlined the ordering process to allow small to mid-tier companies to purchase from Qtrade's extensive range of conventional and organic teas, herbs, spices, fruit, and flowers.

Pyramid Tea Bags

We just added photos of the pyramid tea bags with white tag and string. We were reminded of how elegant these bags are and how they can make such a nice, see-through presentation of loose leaf tea. Quite elegant and convenient. As a reminder, we sell these tea bags in bulk for quick service restaurants and private label packaging for gifts and gift baskets.

Berry Rooibos Pyramid Tea Bag

Six New Premium Teas

Organic Jasmine Pearls - NEW shipment!

Slightly larger, darker leaf than our standard organic jasmine pearls. Steeps with a strong essence of jasmine. Light liquor color. Easily steeped multiple infusions.

Gurance Hand Rolled

Exquisite leaf presentation, very sweet aroma and taste, with lingering fruity notes. High quality. The most outstanding of these six new additions.

Jasmine Needle Guangdong

A jasmine white tea. The jasmine is slightly strong for a white tea, but some may prefer this. Good quality leaves. 

Namring First Flush Darjeeling

Bold first flush with heavy body and texture. Very appealing, well balanced.

Organic Dragonwell Special

Light and dark flat, pan fried leaves. Lighter body in the liquor, but still a classic, distinctive green dragonwell with medium astringent finish.

Imperial Spring Green

Misty green, young leaves, reminiscent of a huang shan mao feng in its woodsy character. Beautiful steeped leaves deliver a wonderfully full aroma.

Best selection of organic loose leaf teas at extremely competitive wholesale prices

Kopius Teas (www.kopiusteas.com) offers a tremendous range of loose leaf teas and tea blending ingredients. Our specialty is in offering organic, fair trade, and sustainable agricultural products for the retail beverage industry. We believe our buying power and overall range of products originating from more than 35 countries puts us in a very special class of vendors. Logical, fair, targeted buying, with respect for our business partners and our clients are our basic principles for long term growth.

Most of our clients purchase in smaller, sub-case quantities, where freshness, selection, value, storage, service and quality are major supplier characteristics. Kopius Teas strives to adopt new technologies wherever feasible to reduce overhead expense and continually improve quality.

You will see most of our interactions, including trouble tickets, are handled electronically. Nevertheless, we are only a telephone call away.

Let us know how we are doing.