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AMAZING TRACE continued from page 27 knew it, and as a result, quite a bit more 'Darjeeling' was sold in the world than was actually produced." Though it's not impossible to get close to the source—the importers interviewed for this story constitute examples—it isn't easy, and tea companies can't always verify that what they're selling is what they think it is. "There is no policeman in this," Spillane says. "It's hard to establish a fair playing field because a lot of the players don't have access to information to know if the tea they're getting is real or not." TRACKING TACTICS While tales of injustice can rattle the cage of any well-inten- tioned specialty tea professional, several tea companies are trying to improve traceability in specialty tea, and they're doing it by banking on relationships. Many origin-involved tea buyers combine two elements: direct relationships with growers and certification labels (such as organic and fair trade) that enforce standards at origin. Joshua Kaiser, CEO at Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea, says certifi- cations provide an entry point for tracking tea. "There's a lot less transparency involved when you get into conventional, non-certi- fied supply chains," he says. One reason for that is that certifying agencies use third-party verification, in which parties at the farm level enforce that standards are being met. "Organic products with the third-party certifier do pretty much cut to the chase," says Spillane. "You have to have a transaction certificate that says who sold it, who bought it, who shipped it and when they did it. So it's very clear where it's coming from." Rishi Tea's Joshua Kaiser (center, at an organic tea garden in Kagoshima, Japan) says the key to knowing where his company's tea comes from is having long-term relationships with carefully chosen farms. Spillane adds that the traceability cause has been helped by a U.S. federal government rule called the Importer Security Filing that went into effect in January 2009. It requires importers to list several details on every tea imported, including where it came from. "This has cleaned up some of this deception," says Spillane. "They're watching it, and that's helping." 28 Tea Almanac 2013 COURTESY OF RISHI TEA