Dragonfly Teas - an ethical company

At Dragonfly Teas we consider that the way crops are grown is intrinsic to the well-being of everyone.

Working with nature to achieve the best quality with little or no chemicals involved is in our view, the way things should be.

The demands of the modern world for more; faster; better has resulted in short term exploitation of the land and the people who work it, with no thought for the future.

So we prefer to do things differently.

We believe that it is important to respect the relationship to the land of those who patiently grow our food (often under great hardship).

We are aware of the difference that the ancient country artisan traditions of food–making can make. Traditions that are thankfully still used today to create high quality teas and other foods, such as fine wines and local cheeses.

There are reputedly up to 8,000 different hand-made teas in China. They are part of a 1,500-year-old tradition. These are disappearing rapidly through mechanical and chemical intervention. The world has plenty of poor quality teas with very few of high quality on offer. This is because of lack of consumer awareness of the rich heritage of taste experiences produced by the smaller artisan tea-makers.

Dragonfly Teas is pledged to bring these teas to the discerning palate and in so doing, help to keep alive the traditions and skills that have created them.

We believe strongly in the ideals of the Slow Food movement, which is growing fast throughout Europe. We think it is important that every country has a dynamic small-scale agricultural food production sector. It ensures that rural people are rewarded for their efforts and helps to stop the depopulation of the countryside.

We also support non-political Fair Trade that campaigns to ensure we pay fairly and as directly as possible to the farmers with as few intermediaries as possible. This means that more of the profits end up directly in the hands of the communities that grow the crops.

The Charities we support

To mark the millennium, Bruce Ginsberg and the company founded, funded and organised the Tree 2000 Foundation under the patronage of Mother Teresa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The charity aimed to raise awareness of the world’s desperate need for reforestation. It encouraged tree groups, communities and individuals to organise hands-on plantings as a millennium celebration around the world.

The Dragonfly Project

We established the Dragonfly Project to fund charitable projects in the countries where we buy our teas.

In South Africa where we source our Rooibos and Honeybush teas we have created and funded a unique initiative to record and archive the country music of the Khoi people.

They almost lost their language, religion and tribal identity in the tragic clash with European culture in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The work is being carried out by the Contemporary African Music Archive at the University of Cape Town who are journeying to remote country areas to record songs and dances.

We hope that this work will help the Khoi people recognise their unique cultural heritage and identity.

In China where much of our tea is bought from poor and remote rural areas we are supporting the Tibet Relief Fund of the UK who are working to help schools where the Tibetan language is still used as a medium of instruction.

In India and parts of Africa where we source our black teas we support the work of the Berkeley Reafforestation Trust. It is planting trees in the Himalayas to help reduce soil erosion on the steep slopes and in Africa it has a number of tree planting and environmental projects underway.