Tea shops or plantations in Indonesia

[ethan]

John B., Thanks for such a thoughtful, thorough, beautifully written post. That tea sounds wonderful. Cheers

[thirst]

Thanks for the follow-up

Looking forward to trying these some time.

[john.b]

I might add that I've been in touch with the people that own and run both Toba Wangi and Harendong (two different plantations), and these are decent people, pleasant to interact with. It usually doesn't work to stereotype people from one country as all being similar but essentially all the Indonesians I've yet to meet were really nice people.

Local Indonesian pricing for tea is so low that it would seem wrong to buy teas of this quality for what they probably end up selling for. They would probably work with people on fulfilling smaller orders provided someone respected that they're not running shopping cart style small order sales websites; they make the tea, and sell to resellers, not unheard of related to other providers that aren't even actually making tea (like Hatvala in Vietnam).

Since they are tea enthusiasts too it would make sense to try to connect with them on that level. An overseas tea order for a few hundred grams would represent them doing a favor for someone, not a normal function of their business, and a request for purchase of samples would generally be inappropriate.

[thirst]

For what it’s worth, was thinking less about importing and more about giving them a call the next time I’m home

[john.b]

For what it’s worth, was thinking less about importing and more about giving them a call the next time I’m home

Cool! Let me know how that goes. I think Harendong isn't too far from there, in the same general area; you might check them out as well.

[thirst]

Cool, will do, will probably still take a while though.

[teadesa]

Hi John I was very interested in your feed about Indonesian Teas.

I'm currently in Bali and thinking about doing a trip to western Java to visit the tea plantations there for the purpose of making business connections with some of the farmers.
I have been told by tea professionals in Australia that Indonesia, although not usually known for its top quality teas has begun to produce some higher quality products in recent years.

Would you say Harendong and Tobawangi would be worth connecting with?


I am a start up company working out of Melbourne looking to source from small hold farmers producing specialty pesticide free or organic teas if possible.

Kind Regards