August is designed to please all five senses. Our tea has wild and intense flavors you might not expect in tea. It has beautiful, whole leaf tea and natural ingredients you can see, touch, smell and taste. Alongside tasting notes, you'll find mood notes inspired by art, music, cinema and natural landscapes. Our brewing method is designed to maximize flavor and help you create your own modern ritual for every tea.
August is a small, family-run company. We are committed to making better tea, and to making things better in our world, as a product, a brand, and a business. Our team is proudly comprised of individuals of all colors, identities, and needs. While we are a small company, an important part of August's growth is finding opportunities to improve quality of life for our team and in our large and diverse Los Angeles community.
We’re one of the only companies in the US to focus on super-premium blended flavored teas. Flavored tea has a bad image among tea aficionados because they're often made with terrible ingredients. But when done right, flavored tea is like a wonderful cocktail of complex, layered flavors. All our blends are original, so whenever you drink August you always drink something unique.
Our tea is ethically sourced from tea-producing countries all over Asia and Africa. It’s blended to our specifications in Germany by a company that has been producing and sourcing tea for over a hundred and fifty years and follows the most stringent quality standards available. All our blends are original and available nowhere else.
There are already so many great versions of classic tea blends available everywhere. We want to surprise and stimulate our customers' senses with new flavor experiences. We want to create new taste sensations, not something you’ve tasted before.
We created a simple brewing system we call One-cup Brewing. At the center of the system is the one-cup infuser, which is cleaner, easier to use, and better tasting than other brewing methods. Follow our step-by-step guide to learn how.
There is roughly one third the amount of caffeine in a cup of tea as the same size cup of drip coffee. It’s hard to know exact quantities of caffeine cup per cup because it depends on how much tea is used and how it’s prepared. Tea also has an additional chemical compound (L-theanine) which slows the absorption of caffeine. That means you experience more gradual stimulation than the sudden ups and downs of coffee.
The decaffeination process has byproducts that we don’t want our customers to ingest. That’s why we created our Herbal Teas, which are naturally caffeine free because they contain no tea plant (camellia sinensis).
Some of our teas are produced in limited edition, small batches. Because tastes and trends also change over time, we try to keep things fresh and exciting. We're always testing out new flavors to see what we hope will become a modern classic. If you would like to see your favorite tea reissued, write to us at hello@august.la. We can't promise that we'll bring back every tea, but your feedback helps us make decisions.
Flavoring is the finishing touch in our blends. Most of the flavor in our blends comes from flavorful tea and whole natural ingredients. We add flavoring to achieve the perfect balance of aroma and flavor. Think of how a chef starts with great ingredients and adds seasoning to bring everything together perfectly.
Yes. Flavored teas are our specialty, but we do have several unflavored options. Shop ourSingle Origin category and also check out our unflavored blend Cult of Demeter.
We use both natural and artificial flavorings in our teas. Artificial flavoring is as safe to drink as natural flavoring. Nearly half of our blends are naturally flavored. If a blend is labeled as organic or all natural, then it uses only natural flavoring. If it is not labeled all natural, it either contains a mix of natural and artificial flavoring, or only artificial flavoring.
You can find our all-natural teas with only natural flavorings here:https://august.la/collections/tea/needs_all-natural
There’sless difference than you might think. The difference between artificial and natural flavoring is source material. Both are chemically identical. Natural flavoring is regulated and defined by the FDA as “flavoring extracted or fermented from a spice, fruit, vegetable, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, or dairy products.”
Artificial flavoring starts with a purified chemical source, but arrives at the same end product: A concentrated, purified flavor extract.
For people with food allergies, synthetic flavoring allows them to enjoy flavors they would not tolerate in their natural form. For instance, someone with an almond allergy would be able to drink tea with synthetic almond flavoring.
No. Flavorings contain no toxins, preservatives or sweeteners. All of our flavorings adhere to FDA standards and EU regulation1333/2008/EC which are stricter than the US regulations. Our allergen labeling exceeds the standards of the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004. If you have serious allergies, always consult with a health care professional before consuming a product that may pose a risk.
In our tea, flavoring constitutes less than 5% by weight. So, in 100g of tea, there is 5g or less of flavoring. Flavoring constitutes less than .001% of a finished cup of tea.
No. We’re not about to give away our secret recipes! The specific combination of flavoring in our teas is a proprietary trade secret. This policy exists to prevent other tea brands from copying our unique blends.
Because our tea is produced in Germany, it complies with strict European Union standards of agricultural toxins, including pesticides. In most cases, the EU is less tolerant of pesticides. The American FDA allows for higher levels of pesticide and for more than half of pesticides, there are no FDA restrictions whatsoever. Here's a link to detailed information about the differences between US and EU pesticide control.
Our priority is to make the most naturally delicious tea blends. When one of our blends can be produced with 100% organic ingredients, we do it.
Yes! Our tea is sourced by a supplier in Germany that adheres to the International Labor Organization regulations. These include:
This means that all of our tea is non-GMO, ethically sourced and fair trade as part of the German Tea Association and International Labor Organization terms.
Each tea package and respective web page clearly displays all ingredients and allergen information. Some of our teas are not gluten free, and some contain nuts and dairy. We clearly label all ingredients in our tea. Our tea is packed in a facility that processes nuts, tree fruit, dairy and gluten.
When stored properly in a dark, cool place and inside an airtight container, tea can taste good for up to two years after opening.
Our tea is most flavorful before this date. But because tea is non-perishable, it does not go bad or expire.
During the current health crisis, we are experiencing heavy demand and taking extra precautions for the safety and wellbeing of our staff. This means that it will take longer than usual to ship orders. It currently takes about two weeks for your order to ship. Our orders ship from Southern California. We appreciate your patience as we work to keep our team safe. You'll receive an email when your order ships. Please write to us at hello@august.la for questions about your order.
