END-TO-END SOLUTIONS
FOR THE SPECIALTY
TEA INDUSTRY

Your specialty tea brand's partner, from garden to cup

QTrade is passionate about enabling specialty tea brands deliver some of the world's most unique and complex flavors and aromas to their customers. Each sip of specialty tea is a trip to the land of its origin, offering the taste of seasons and gardens from all over the world.

A fast-growing enthusiasm for this richness in a cup is creating a modern global renaissance in tea, with consumers eager for innovation. They demand on-trend, natural and organic ingredients, in innovative blends and flavors. QTrade is a leading contract manufacturing partner, enabling the industry's biggest brands to deliver these experiences to a demanding market. 

Started in 1994 by a former tea grower with over 50 years of experience, QTrade is North America's largest organic and specialty tea supplier. It has deep expertise formed at the garden level, and a multi-country sourcing network, with relationships built over several decades. Based near Los Angeles, California, QTrade offers on-shore facilities and services that meet GFSI standards, with organic and validated-sustainable supply chains. These include Organic, Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certified sources.

QTrade works with clients ranging from promising start-ups to the world's largest multinational beverage brands in the hot, iced, and bottled tea segments. QTrade partners don't merely receive a portfolio of services, they gain an expert external tea department for their brand.

Formulation

QTrade is passionate about converting natural ingredients into sensory experiences that customers crave. Its a culture of innovation, and deep sourcing connections, enable rapid development of supply chains to support innovative formulations.

Building a successful recipe goes beyond simply developing a creative fusion of appearance, aroma, and flavor. QTrade's multi-award-winning product-development team uses a carefully considered three-dimensional approach to formulations. The team builds the critical commercial backbone every recipe needs: an appropriate supply chain, a rigorous quality profile, and a pricing structure that will support a safe, regulated, profitable, and scalable product for brands. 

QTrade offers innovative and functional products and services that meet all of a brand's day-part and channel needs.

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Sourcing

QTrade's origins were on a tropical tea plantation over 30 years ago, founded by an industry veteran who knows tea from the ground up. QTrade understands terroir, and knows how to optimize an ingredient at the garden level to get the precise taste and quality a market demands.

This intimate knowledge allows partnerships with suppliers whose quality-control and scalability perfectly match a recipe's needs. Also, QTrade has long-standing relationships with innovative and well-established flavor houses, and can source an array of natural and organic flavors.

QTrade offers the unique combination of multi-country garden expertise and a deep understanding of the North American specialty tea market.

Manufacturing

Unlike much of its competition, QTrade is based in the US, near Los Angeles, California. An on-shore manufacturing facility means QTrade is flexible and accessible, offers quick lead times, and meets US food-safety standards. It does not use third-party manufacturers.

The 70,000 sq ft QTrade facility meets the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmark, certified to SQF Code Level 2.

QTrade offers on-shore toll and turn-key manufacturing solutions, and provides multiple packaging formats.

Events

QTrade actively participates in industry and beverage industry trade shows. Recent and upcoming events:

Sep 24–Sep 26: Expo Café, Mexico City

Sep 29-Oct 1: Annual North American Tea Conference, Niagara-On-the Lake, Canada

Oct 15-18: World Tea Expo, Denver - Booth #706

Jan 17-19, 2021: Specialty Food Association Winter Fancy Food Show, San Francisco

Contact us to schedule an appointment.