Frequently Asked Questions

This is usually because the supermarket has decided to no longer stock that product, even though we probably still make it. As much as we want to keep all our products on supermarket shelves it's often out of our hands. The nature of tea is that there are so many varieties that no store could possibly stock them all and it has become a very competitive space in supermarkets now.

Other times a store may simply be out of stock or in some cases an individual supermarket might stock some of a Dilmah range and not others. It's always best to first enquire with the store manager to find out.

However the diversity of tea is what we all love and because the availability can at times be so inconsistent throughout New Zealand we also sell through 'The Dilmah Shop' - our online shop based from the Dilmah NZ office in Auckland www.thedilmahshop.co.nz

This is not a physical store so purchase is online only (though you can select pickup instead of courier if you're local). Through the online shop we will often stock de-listed supermarket lines but we can't guarantee those will remain available and if so the price may not be as competitive as the supermarkets... to understand why read on.

The nature of production and economy of scale means that to be able to provide teas at the competitive pricing found in supermarkets we need them stocked by at least the two major chains in New Zealand, Progressive & Foodstuffs. When that's not possible it becomes unrealistic to continue bringing them into the country and if we do they will cost considerably more. The point of difference for Dilmah is that our tea is grown, perfected and packed fresh in the country of origin so is mostly 'made to order'. This is a big part of why our tea is so fresh and tastes so great. The cost per-pack spread across a production run to fill a few container loads for supermarkets works out considerably more competitive compared to ordering a few cartons for online sales alone.

We get this question fairly often, even when we've not changed the profile of the tea. We say the 'profile' because it's important to remember that unlike so many other beverages which are 'made' from a specific recipe of fixed ingredients that can be precisely controlled... tea is a natural agricultural product which by nature changes with the seasons. Depending on the variance of rainfall, sunshine, temperature and soil conditions the same tea from the same tea estate can differ. For many tea enthusiasts this is exactly why they love such a diverse and natural product... like wine it is influenced by Terroir. 

However, the mass production of tea and the commoditization of tea over the centuries has resulted in a demand for a consistent product and even the tea aficionados will admit that when they find their favourite everyday cuppa they want to know they can come back to that familiar comfort anytime. The skill of our Tea Tasters in Sri Lanka is amongst the best in the world and it is their key focus to maintain both quality and consistency. Because of the changing conditions, they taste approximately 11,000 teas every single week from around Sri Lanka to find the exact character required to match the specific taste 'profile' in our English Breakfast for example. They do this by tasting up against older samples of the blend and rigorous quality control methods.

As superhuman as tasting 11,000 teas week after week might sound, they are of course only human and the Camellia Sinensis plant is simply a product of nature... so there is potential for variations to occur. This would inevitably be the same if you stick with any brand of tea for long enough and if not you have to question not so much the calibre of their tea tasters but the quality of their tea, for the best tea has more pronounced character and fresh flavour and therefore the harder to keep it consistent. If there's one thing we value over consistency it would be freshness and flavour.

When people say the tea tastes different we don't doubt that can happen, though in many cases the query has been prompted by a change to the design of the pack. We understand how that can lead people to think the product has changed but the two are never related. On the rare occasion that we deliberately changed the core tea itself, we do so for good reason and we splash the message that it's a new tea on the front of the pack. An example of this is when we changed from sourcing our green teas from China to producing them ourselves at the home of Dilmah in Sri Lanka. We communicated this prominently on pack and in media. Pack design changes happen every few years for a number of reasons.   

We pay close attention to complaints of this nature when they come in because it really is critical to our ongoing success to deliver to our long term and loyal tea drinkers that familiar and satisfying comfort.

On occasions, we have worked with a customer to discover that the cause has come down to the smallest variation in either the environment the tea is being prepared in or the way the tea has been prepared. Often it is just a small difference which they hadn't realized could make such an impact on the taste such as the water itself. 

A few common factors that can change the taste of your tea are:

1. Water quality, changes in your surrounding water supply, piping etc. Levels of chlorination have a huge effect on the taste of tea. Even with good quality water in New Zealand, we have a lot of changing water qualities and some regions vary the amount of chlorination to the point that you might taste it in the afternoon but not in the morning. TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels vary a lot in New Zealand which is why in some places you get more limescale built up. This hugely impacts the taste of tea, water with higher minerals makes the tea taste heavier and look darker. Water with lower TDS makes tea taste lighter, brighter and doesn't look as dark. Whenever possible use a filter for your water, even just a Britta water jug to filter water before filling the kettle.
   
   
2. New kettle, often new kettles take time to lose that 'new' packaging flavour.
    
3. Different type of milk, a new brand of milk. The varying fat content and composition will alter the taste of tea and milk that is closer to its expiry will change taste considerably when it's heated up (by adding to hot tea).
    
4. New teapot of cup/mug. Yes, even that can alter flavour for a number of reasons, from how porous the surface is, to a new dishwashing liquid or powder that is leaving a very minimal film on crockery which can alter the taste.
     
5. Moving house, new pantry, cupboard or storage box/location can change the flavour of tea if it's not kept in an airtight container from the moment it's opened. Tea is extremely quick to pick up surrounding aromas that will change the taste.

Unfortunately, our wider Organic Range is not currently available in New Zealand. Organic standards relate to the consumable elements of the product. In the case of tea the only part that releases dissolved solids into the liquid that you consume is the tea leaf itself. All other parts are considered to be packaging either not intended for direct contact with the water such as the printed label/tag or materials which are made from food grade components that don't release anything into hot water such as teabags, allowing for a pure extraction of tea alone.

Dilmah Organic tea is purely from organic agriculture certified to the requirements of European Union directives, USDA National Organic Program and Japanese Agricultural Standards for Organic Plants. Even though there is no specific organic standard for packaging materials, it is a requirement to ensure that any substance used in packaging will not impact the safety and suitability of the contacted food. Hence, we ensure that the packaging materials used in direct contact with Dilmah Organic tea meet the below mentioned food packaging standards and regulations:

1.       REGULATION (EC) No 1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food
2.       REGULATION  (EC) No 2023/2006 on good manufacturing practice for materials and articles intended to come into contact with food
 
Systems are in place to ensure that the requirements specified in Organic regulations are addressed throughout the manufacturing process from which ordering and handling of packaging materials too is controlled to ensure food safety and organic requirements. The effectiveness of the system is periodically confirmed through verification.
 
Packaging for food has to be compatible with the food product packed within, and food standards and regulations must be met. For instance, the migration of harmful substances from packaging material in direct contact with food must be avoided. Thus, materials used for food packaging, handling and storage must be chosen accordingly.
 
Organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs, taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems. This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfill any specific function within the system.
 
The Packaging for Dilmah products:

• Meets Food Safety standards and regulations by keeping tea secure from the beginning of the production process to the time when it reaches the customer.
• Meets performance criteria
• Sourced in a responsible way
• Sourced, manufactured, transported and tested for its intended use.
• Manufactured using clean production techniques and best practices;
• Designed to minimize the need for additional materials.

Globally, Dilmah produces around 4587 tons of tea bags annually. We have a number of different teabag formats using different materials such as tagless, string & tag, luxury leaf bags (pyramid shape bags). Over the last few years we have moved a number of our string & tag teabags over to plant-based bio-degradable PLA material (see below for details). Our tagless teabags currently consist of approx 2% non-biodegradable fibres woven into the paper which enables heat sealing of the paper but we are in the process of changing ALL our teabags (Including tagless bags) over to bio-degradable plant-based PLA material.  

NONE of our teabags are made with nylon plastics or polyethylene terephthalate plastics (PET), commonly used in the older style of pyramid nylon bags. Those nylon and PET bags have been the focus of research and media attention related to micro-plastics leeching into the water but rest assured we don't use those materials. Our pyramid style Exceptional range use a material derived from maize starch which is treated by an enzyme to create the compound poly-lactic acid (PLA) which has a 'plastic-like' character which can be spun into fibre. PLA material will bio-degrade in a commercial composting facility much faster but over a longer period, they will also degrade in a home compost environment.

Our standard teabags (non-pyramid bags) i.e. Dilmah Premium, Ceylon Green Tea and Infusions are composed mostly of natural cellulose fibres which contain no plastic coating such as epichlorohydrin and do not use chemical paper bleaching. Currently, these tagless teabags which do not use a staple or string to seal the bag contain 2% of polypropylene fibres used only for the heat seal that joins the bag together. These polypropylene fibres are a food-safe material which does not leech into water (like nylon or PET). For environmental reasons however, some choose to use loose leaf tea or organic teabags. This means our tagless teabags are not yet compostable or biodegradable yet but the imminent move to PLA material will eliminate the need for this 2% of polypropylene fibres as PLA can also be heat sealed. Our outer packaging and sachets for individually wrapped tea bags are not currently compostable. The inner foil wrapper/pouch used in most of our products is crucial in maintaining the airtight freshness so important in tea but is not currently biodegradable as it uses a thin film of plastic-lined foil. However, that is soon moving to a new plastic-free alternative as well.

Our Organic range tea bags are free of plastics but unfortunately, these are not widely available in the New Zealand market at present.

As a part of the ongoing Dilmah family commitment to sustainability, a plastic upcycling plant was recently inaugurated, to use plastic waste at Dilmah to make decorative and construction material.  As a part of this effort to eliminate the use of environmentally harmful plastics, Dilmah will this year recycle 10 times its total workplace plastic footprint by extracting and recycling plastic from the ocean and other sensitive eco-systems. The process of recovery and recycling of plastics in marine and terrestrial ecosystems will continue as a part of Dilmah Conservation/ecosystem restoration programme even after Dilmah achieves 100% compostable material in its manufacturing process.  

Please follow our sustainability work at: www.dilmah.com/sustainability

FOOD SAFETY
All primary material that comes into direct contact with tea complies with worldwide food safety legislation and best practice guidelines for food contact packaging and specifically for hot beverage filtration. It is confirmed that there is no hazard to health for their use in a teabag application using hot water extraction approach which provides a direct assessment of the real application and using a wide range of analytical methods specified in legislation and best practice recommendations and guidelines. Primary material used in our tea bags comply with the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 of the European Parliament. Dilmah tea bags are manufactured in a state of the art manufacturing facility that complies with FSCC 22000, BRC Global Food Safety Standard, ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14000 Environment Management System.