Metolius Tea Values

As our team has grown and our dreams have grown, a mentor of mine told me, "you cannot take one step further until you write down your vision and values." While we've always considered ourselves an ethics-oriented company, we hadn't taken time to work our values out on paper.

Over the last six months, my team and I have collectively produced a vision, mission, and values statement. They have become the backdrop of every decision we make.

History

Our company was born from a love of wild medicinal and nutritive plants. After a few years of blending medicinal teas, I decided to try my hand at my favorite caffeinated tea, Earl Grey. I tried every Earl Grey I could find, convinced there must be one truly great Earl Grey on the market. I wanted a leaf and bud black tea with pure bergamot essential oil and real vanilla bean. Since I couldn’t find the perfect Earl Grey, I made it. From that moment, we have been in the business of purveying teas, herbs, and spices and designing stellar teas.

Mission

Metolius Tea sells delicious, nutritive, beautifully packaged teas. We support our customers with education that lights up their tea experience. We deliver our promises with precision and warmth.

Vision

To be the most respected wholesaler and online retailer of hand-crafted teas. To enrich the lives of our farmers, buyers, customers, ourselves and our communities.

Philosophy

Metolius Artisan Tea overflows your cup with beauty. We want you to taste a world full of rich soil, vibrant plants, bright people, and beautiful stories.

Design

We approach each plant as a whole personality, with flavor, medicinal actions, texture, temperature, and history. Each ingredient plays off the others to create an extraordinary palate experience.

Sourcing

We partner with organic, small production farms including a women’s co-op in eastern Kenya, a family farm in Southern Italy, and small mountain communities in Yunnan, China.

Core Values

INTEGRITY

• Honesty. Be courageously truthful and ethical in everything we do, whether or not anyone is watching.

• Accountability. Follow through with commitments.

• Reciprocity. Win-Win relationships or bust

ITERATION

• Create, Complete, Refine. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. We strive toward continuous improvement through every challenge and opportunity.

• Curiosity. Approach business, and life in general, willing to stand corrected, to know more, to try a different way.

CONNECTION

• Respect. The quality of our relationships is the foundation for the quality of our lives. We maintain great rapport in our wide network of life and business connections, and we maintain strong mutual respect in our inner circles.

• Communication. We use our label machine liberally, answer emails hourly, and discuss everything weekly.

• Generosity. We share our warmth, our time, our attention, and our compassion abundantly.