The short answer
Choosing a tea supplier comes down to verifying four things: who you are actually talking to, where the material comes from, how quality is held, and how the paperwork and freight will behave when your order is real. Suppliers rarely lie in answers; they fail in the questions nobody asks. Ask directly about role - garden, facility, trader or desk - about lot traceability, about who cups and against what reference, about which documents ship with the goods, and about what happens when a lot disappoints. Write the answers down, ask the same questions of two or three candidates, and compare. The ten below are the ones we would ask in your place, and the ones we expect to be asked in ours.
Role and identity: four questions
First: what is your role for this order - growing, primary processing, refining, packing, or coordination? Every role is legitimate; blurred roles are not. A garden that claims to also run a high-speed teabag line and a customs brokerage is telling you nobody checks its claims. Second: who produces the tea I will receive, and where? You want names down to facility and county, and consistency between the sample's lot record and the bulk's. Third: who do I call when a lot is wrong, and what authority do they have? A named person with authority to replace a lot is worth more than a glossy catalog. Fourth: can I see the floor that packs my tea - live video now, on-site later? A supplier confident in its partners makes that easy; the factory audit page describes how this desk handles it.
Origin and material: two questions
Fifth: which seasons and which lots will my program actually draw from, across the year? Tea is seasonal; a supplier who implies otherwise is selling you a snapshot. A good answer names the harvest window for your category - spring for most greens, autumn for some oolongs - and explains what changes between harvests and how they manage it. Sixth: how do you keep the cup consistent across lots? You want to hear about blending, master samples and batch retention, not adjectives. The mechanics live on the blending and customization page; what matters at selection stage is that the supplier has an answer with nouns in it - sheets, samples, retention lots - rather than reassurance.
Quality control and documents: two questions
Seventh: who runs your quality checks, on what protocol, and what do they do with failures? The trade's standard is the five-factor sensory evaluation on fixed ratios, backed by lab panels per batch; a serious supplier cups every incoming and outgoing lot and can show you a failed-lot log, which is a healthy document, not an embarrassing one. Eighth: exactly which documents ship with the goods - batch records, lab panels, certificates, packing material specs - and who owns getting them right for my market? Compliance is where timelines quietly die, so you want the document stack listed, not summarized. The working panel is described in the note on tea testing parameters, and certificate chains on the certifications page.
| Question | Weak answer | Strong answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who packs this tea? | "We have our own everything." | Named facility, county, and what it is good at |
| How is the cup held across lots? | "Very consistent quality." | Blend sheets, sealed counter-samples, retention per lot |
| What ships with the goods? | "All certificates included." | A listed document stack keyed to your market's rules |
| What if the lot disappoints? | "That never happens." | A defined process: joint cupping, replacement or credit |
Customization and logistics: two questions
Ninth: what can you customize in-house versus coordinate - blends, roasting, packing formats, labels - and at what typical minimums? You are listening for honest boundaries: a partner that packs retail cans but sources gift boxes from a specialist is more credible than one claiming every format under one roof. Tenth: what are the realistic lead times and freight options for my order profile - samples, first bulk, reorders - and how do they shift in spring? Ranges belong in the answer, with the caveat that each is confirmed in writing per order; the reference table sits on the MOQ and lead time page.
Running the comparison fairly
Questions only work if the comparison around them is fair. Send every candidate the same one-page scope - category, style reference, format, market, planned volume expressed honestly - and give them the same few days to answer. Score the ten answers in writing before opening any quote, because a low number arriving early has a way of charming buyers into skipping questions. Check two references per candidate: a client in a similar channel, and one supplier or partner the candidate works with upstream. And weight the answers you can verify - lot numbers, documents, video walks - above the ones you must take on faith. A disciplined comparison takes a week and saves seasons; an impulsive one takes an afternoon and costs them.
Red flags worth walking away from
Some signals outweigh any sample. Claims to be everything - garden, factory, trader, lab - with no verifiable address for any of them. Certificates produced as images without issuing details you can check. Answers that change between people on the same team. Quotes that arrive suspiciously below the field for a named grade - the shortfall is real, and it is coming out of your program somewhere. Refusal to hold a sealed counter-sample, which makes every future dispute unwinnable. And any pitch structured around urgency - a price that evaporates at week's end. None of these proves dishonesty by itself; together, they describe a supplier whose process you cannot audit, and unauditable processes fail quietly.
How this desk answers the same questions
For completeness: Camellane is a sourcing desk, not a single factory - we coordinate partner gardens and packing facilities, cup-check lots against sealed references, and assemble the document stack per destination market. Our role, the about page and the note on our factory audit checklist say the same thing in more detail, and every MOQ or lead time in our quotes is a typical reference range confirmed in writing per order. Bring these ten questions to any candidate, including us; a supplier who resents the questions has already answered them. When you are ready to compare answers in substance, send your program scope through the quote form.