Tea

Finding ethical and sustainable tea brands

As a nation we drink over 100 million cups of tea a day, about 36 billion a year, according to the UK Tea & Infusions Association (UKTIA). With 98% of us drinking some type of tea daily, most of our routines are bound to workers across India, Kenya, and beyond. Britain’s love affair with tea was brewed in empire, with many tea estates established by colonial powers to meet the demand of the British market.

Despite changing regimes, extractive labour systems have lingered – nowhere more starkly than in Assam, India. Tea’s role in rural incomes is prominent, but the sector remains overwhelmed with poverty wages, unsafe housing, and gender-based violence. 

Yet all hope is not lost. 

While the industry remains steeped in inequality, there are brands working to shift the balance and prove that a fairer brew is possible.

With massive differences in ethical scores between the best and worst scoring tea brands, there are many options to switch to a more ethical tea, and avoid the worst brands. 

Who tea brands are in the guide?

This guide covers black and green tea. The scoretable and Best Buys also feature herbal brands. A more detailed standalone guide to herbal tea is on our website and will be updated shortly.

In UK grocery retail, the big four brands remain Yorkshire Tea, Twinings, PG Tips, and Tetley. We cover all these brands, plus, who their ultimate parent companies are. 

The growing popularity of Yorkshire Tea has extended its lead with a record 37% share of the black tea category in 2023/24, while PG Tips and Tetley have struggled. Most of the other brands in the guide are small by comparison.

You’ll also find the addition of Bird & Blend, which offers matcha tea. While the UK black tea sector is still worth £377m annually it’s only seeing half the growth of fruit and herbal teas. The days of the classic builder’s brew could be numbered with both the older and younger age groups: the former looking to wellness blends to help combat ageing and the latter seeing a generational shift towards matcha, bubble tea, and herbal infusions.

We haven’t re-rated supermarkets here as they are covered in depth in the supermarkets guide.

Organic, fair trade, sustainable teas: certification schemes

Many of the teas in this guide use one or more types of certification, such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and organic labels. But do they work?

Read our feature on tea certification schemes for profiles on Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, organic and other certification schemes.

Whilst these schemes can be beneficial, low incomes and poverty wages are still widespread in the production of tea, as we discuss below.

Indian tea plantations

Around 15% of Britain’s tea comes from India, the world’s second-largest producer of tea after China. 

Yet our tea carries a heavy colonial aftertaste. 

The tea industry is deeply woven into Assam, and the state’s tea tribe, or Adivasi community, form around seven million of the state’s total population.

The Adivasi community has been the backbone of the famed Assam tea for over 200 years and depend on tea estates for their income. However, poverty wages and gender-based violence remain routine features of daily life. Most workers are descendants of families taken or coerced by the British East India Company in the 19th century to populate these remote plantations.

More than a century later, that inherited isolation still defines the region: miles of tea stretching between the Brahmaputra and the Barak, and workers trapped within it.

Tea worker's pay in India

In 2025, the situation on the ground has barely shifted since we last reviewed tea. 

The Assam government raised daily wages to around £2.40 in the Brahmaputra Valley and £2.20 in the Barak Valley, a move hailed by state officials as “historic”, yet still far below what campaigners say is needed for a decent life. 

In 2023, research found that tea workers in Assam earn barely half of a calculated living wage, while Fairtrade’s Living Wage Risk Map puts the wage gap at around 81% (meaning workers earn only around one-fifth of what a living wage should be). Many households rely on government ration cards – official acknowledgement that full-time tea work doesn’t feed a family.

Meanwhile, the legal framework meant to protect them has aged into limbo. The 1951 Plantations Labour Act, which required estates to provide housing, sanitation, and crèches, was effectively folded into India’s new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. On paper, the reforms modernise oversight. In practice, enforcement is toothless.

In a 2024 audit, numerous shortcomings and areas of concern were described in the implementation of labour laws and worker welfare provisions, including inadequate housing, water, and sanitation – not the protections promised. It was concluded: “efforts to improve the lives of the workers have fallen short of making any substantial change”.

Women tea workers bear the brunt

Women make up more than two-thirds of Assam’s tea workforce yet earn less than men. 

Plucking tea means walking across steep, often slippery slopes, carrying 25kg baskets of leaves, working under pressure to meet targets. 

Meanwhile, essential facilities are missing: there are rarely toilets in the fields, many women skip work during menstruation and lose pay. Crèches, promised under law, are often shuttered or non-functional, forcing mothers to work with infants tied to them. 

Even within the labour lines — the cramped estate housing where women workers live — unions and organising are still dominated by men, and attempts to secure maternity leave or menstrual breaks are met with inertia or intimidation.

Tea trade unions

Trade unions do exist on most estates but they are frequently aligned with management or local political parties. Researchers describe a landscape in which collective representation is weakened by informalisation, casual labour, and limited worker control.

Recent protests organised by the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) highlight this dynamic: in May 2022, workers at a tea estate under the ACMS banner protested over unpaid wages and inadequate housing. Meanwhile an investigative feature observed that low wages, restricted mobility, and dependency on estate-provided housing keep workers in a state of structural vulnerability.

The industry continues to promote heritage and Assam’s renowned flavour, yet in 2025, the same old colonial power structures persist under modern supply chains: cheap labour, poor housing, and suppressed worker voices. 

Kenyan tea farmers

Kenya supplies around 40% of the tea drunk in Britain, with its high-altitude farms marketed for their quality. 

Tea is one of Kenya’s largest exports, yet many of the people who pick it remain trapped in poverty. 

Around 60% of the country’s tea comes from smallholders – farmers who rely on family labour and sell their leaves to local factories through the Kenya Tea Development Agency.

For most, the price paid for green leaf is a fraction of the retail value earned overseas.

Rising fertiliser costs, erratic weather, and the falling Kenyan Shilling have pushed many families deeper into debt. Families often supplement their income with casual labour, while many rely on children or family help during peak plucking seasons. Estimates from labour researchers say child labour is around 15% of total tea labour in Kenya.

Human rights abuses

Large estates – those operated by multinational suppliers like James Finlay (now Browns Investments) and Williamson Tea – have also faced legal and human rights challenges. 

In Scotland, hundreds of former Finlay Kenya tea pickers continue to seek compensation for back and spinal injuries allegedly caused by carrying 30kg of tea leaves across steep terrain for 12-hour shifts. The case, paused in 2023 pending related hearings in Kenya, has already revealed a systemic pattern of overwork and inadequate safety measures.

Perhaps the most shocking revelations came from the BBC’s 2023 Panorama investigation, which uncovered more than 70 reports of sexual exploitation on Kenyan tea estates owned by Unilever and James Finlay & Co. Filmed over two years, the exposé found that supervisors had coerced women into sex in exchange for jobs or promotions. In its aftermath, both companies suspended sourcing from the implicated farms and announced a series of reforms. 

Yet, two years later, women’s groups say little has changed, with one of the men named in the investigation elected as a director of a smallholder tea factory, underscoring how impunity continues to pervade the industry.

The Kenyan government celebrates tea as a symbol of progress and export pride. Yet, for the people who pluck the leaves, the promise of prosperity remains out of reach.

Human rights abuses across East African tea plantations

In September 2025, Kenyan tea-estate workers in the Rift Valley erupted in protest when Sri-Lankan-owned Browns Investments announced plans to remove over 2,000 employees from its Kericho, Bomet, and Kiambu estates. The company said it was offering a voluntary early-retirement package under its collective bargaining agreement, including severance pay of 23 days of salary per year worked and a one-way bus fare. 

But the unionised workers contended that the move targeted union-organisable staff, bypassed meaningful negotiations and threatened to outsource labour, undermining job rights and pay levels. County governors and union leaders accused the firm, acting less than a year after acquiring the estates from earlier owners, of shunting aside the local workforce. 

For British tea drinkers, the Kericho layoffs are not an isolated labour dispute but a glimpse of the volatility behind familiar supermarket brands. 

Browns Investments continues to supply tea to UK buyers, including those trading under Lipton Teas & Infusions. 

The episode reveals how the pressures of global pricing ripple through every level of production.

Rating tea companies on their workers' rights

The brands that scored highly in the Workers category formed long-term relationships with suppliers. 

For example, Qi sources its tea from farming co-operatives in Wuyuan, Jiangxi province, while Transform Trade and its distributor True Origin were open about their Kenyan supply chain – consisting entirely of smallholder co-operatives.

Most of the rest are sourcing from plantations, where the low prices paid by consumer brands are linked to serious issues.

Best for workers' rights

These brands scored full marks for this rating (100/100):

• Hampstead
• London Tea Company
• Postcard
• Qi Teas
• Steenbergs
• Traidcraft
• True Origin

These brands scored worst for workers' rights (0/100)

• Bird & Blend
• Brooke Bond
• Good Earth
• Jacksons of Piccadilly
• Lipton
• PG Tips
• Pukka
• T2
• Teapigs
• Tetley
• Twinings
• Yogi Tea

Fair trade doesn't always correspond with ideal conditions

Rainforest Alliance certification recently came under scrutiny when the Kenyan government ordered audits to be suspended saying that the cost of certification is adding strain to smallholders, rather than being paid by customers. On the other hand, no certification is a guarantee that a company has sourced from a responsible plantation.

Although some companies in this guide stated that certification ensured their suppliers met minimum environmental and social standards, they received criticism for workers’ rights abuses on their plantations.

An ABC news investigation in early 2025 found failings in living and working conditions at Sri Lankan plantations which were certified by Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, and supplied Twinings, Tetley, Lipton, and Yorkshire Tea.

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) also reported in 2022 that twenty major plantation companies in Sri Lanka had challenged wage rises on tea plantations on the grounds that paying the uplifted minimum daily wage would lose them money.

With the average price of a teabag at just 2-3p, producers are being squeezed too hard. The Brew it Fair campaign by Fairtrade International calls for governments and businesses to raise low tea prices, increase pay and demand human rights for the people behind the tea we drink. 

Sign the Brew it Fair petition.

Supply chain transparency

In 2021, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) launched the Tea Transparency Tracker. At the time, the organisation stated that 13 million workers who worked on tea plantations suffered from human rights abuses, while tea companies kept their supply chains hidden. 

BHRRC contacted 65 tea companies requesting they disclose their supply chains and respond to a survey on their due diligence processes. Of these, seven feature in this guide. 

The companies and brands in this guide that disclosed (fully or partially) their supply chains were:

• Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate (Yorkshire Tea)
• Ecotone (Clipper Teas)
• Associated British Foods (Twinings)
• Unilever (former owner of PG Tips, Pukka Herbs)
• Typhoo (new owner Supreme plc)
• Yogi Tea. 

The one company in this guide that did not respond to BHRRC was Tata (Tetley, Teapigs).

The tracker also includes seven supermarkets with a presence in the UK.

Supermarkets which disclosed their suppliers:

• Marks & Spencer
• Morrisons
• Tesco 

 Supermarkets which didn't disclose suppliers: 

• Aldi
• Booths
• Lidl
• Sainsbury’s.

The tracker lists also 3,177 facilities. Almost one third of the facilities supplied more than one of the companies in the tracker. The BHRRC concluded this provided leverage to improve working conditions.

How do tea brands score for agricultural policies?

In this category, we were looking for evidence of organic standards, that the company prohibited GM ingredients, their policies on biodiversity and ecosystems, or evidence of reducing pollution.

Several companies sourced tea that was certified organic by the Soil Association.

Hampstead Tea was 100% organic and sources most of its tea from the Makaibari Tea Estate in Darjeeling which, like the tea sourced by Clearspring, employed biodynamic methods – a regenerative, holistic approach to farming that encompasses the health of the soil, plants, animals, and humans.

Hambleden Herbs, Heath & Heather, and Pukka Herbs were also certified by the Soil Association – the latter stated that it had committed to zero deforestation by the end of 2025. Pukka, however, did not perform well in our Workers category, due to criticism over the practices of its parent company.

Plastic free tea?

If you’re looking for a cuppa that doesn’t contain plastic, we recommend old-school loose leaf tea.

Unfortunately for those people who prefer teabags, some are made from, or contain, plastics and the brewing process can result in their breakdown into microplastics.

Two types of plastic are commonly used in teabags – polypropylene and polylactic acid (PLA). Polypropylene is derived from fossil sources and is often used in the heat sealing process to make teabags. The plant-based PLA is used to make teabags themselves. Although PLA sounds a better option to plastics derived from petrochemicals, there are questions over its compostability.

If you have a food waste collection, this might be preferable to home composting, which doesn’t achieve the high temperatures of local council facilities. Local authority anaerobic composters also screen and remove plastics from food waste.

Plastic free tea bags

The good news is that many companies have taken action on the issue and provide information on their websites about the materials used in their teabags. 

Hampstead is one company that openly states its intention to de-plasticise tea. Its home compostable teabags consist of unbleached folded paper bag and organic string. The company does not glue the teabags together, thereby removing polypropylene or PLA from the product. The company states only its Earl Grey and Green Tea & Jasmine tea envelopes contain thin plastic coatings to provide a barrier for the organic bergamot oil used in these teas, although Earl Grey is available in plastic-free loose-leaf form.

Below, we have included a selection of companies covered in this guide, including some of our Best Buys, showing which sell loose leaf tea and whether their teabags are plastic-free or use PLA.

Best: plastic-free

• Clearspring Loose powders, such as matcha.
• Essential Some loose leaf. Paper bags,
• Hampstead Tea Loose leaf and plastic-free bags.
• Postcard Loose leaf.
• Steenbergs Loose leaf.

Middle: uses some PLA (or switching, with clear, dated plans to switch)

• Dragonfly Teabags and some loose leaf. Some sealed with PLA.
• PG Tips Teabags contain PLA. Also loose leaf.
• Tetley Teabags and loose leaf. PLA teabags.
• Tick Tock Teabags and loose leaf. PLA teabags.
• Twinings Teabags and loose leaf. PLA teabags.

Worst: still uses some plastic, or no/unclear information

• Traidcraft Teabags. Unclear.
• Typhoo Teabags and iced tea. No information.
• Yorkshire Tea Teabags and loose leaf. Bags contain 25% polypropylene.

Is tea vegan?

Yes, in theory.

We haven’t rated companies for their approach to animal products for this guide, as many of the brands just sell tea. But there are some bigger players to highlight that are involved in the sale of animal-derived products.

Twinings and Jacksons of Piccadilly are owned by Associated British Foods, whose subsidiary, AB Agri, manufactures and supplies animal feed to the farming industry. On its website, the company prominently displays a leaflet boasting about its sustainable soya production and its stance against deforestation, although it fails to adequately address the impacts of beef production on climate change.

Typhoo’s new owner Supreme Plc manufactures and distributes protein powders and meal replacement shakes which contain milk products. Clipper owner Ecotone has a subsidiary, Bonneterre, that specialises in pork products.

Some higher scoring brands sell some non-vegan items. For example, True Origin sells products that contain honey and dairy products, while Essential Trading Co-operative sells eggs and dairy.

Non-vegan ingredients in tea

Some brands include animal-based ingredients like honey or sodium casinate (casin) or unknown flavourings in their teas, particularly fruit or herbal teas. 

Twinings' website states that "almost all our teas and infusions are suitable for vegans" apart from those which include honey. This isn't always obvious in the name, as it can be in the flavourings, making their boxes of Pomegranate Green Tea, Mango & Coconut Green Tea, Superblends Digest Ginger & Turmeric, Soulful Blends Quiet Mind, and others, not suitable for vegans. 

I get my loose leaf tea from ... . Is it ethical?

We often get this kind of question, when someone buys from their local wholefood shop or from companies we haven't covered in the guide.

With tea, there are many online loose leaf tea companies, and some local shops also sell unbranded loose leaf tea by weight. 

You can ask the shops where they source the tea from, and what those suppliers are doing about the issues covered in this guide such as workers' rights. 

Additional research by Richard Stirling.