Where Our Herbs Come From: A Sourcing Story

By Magic T | Auckland, New Zealand

Every Magic T blend begins somewhere specific. Not in Auckland, where the blending happens, but somewhere much further away: a rose farm on the edge of a desert, a spearmint field along the Mediterranean coast, a cocoa plantation in the Solomon Islands. The herbs in your cup have travelled a long way to get there, and the story of how they were grown and sourced is not incidental. It is the whole point.

How it started

Magic T was founded by Ehsan and Frida, two Iranians living in New Zealand. The idea for the company came not from a spreadsheet or a market analysis, but from a moment on a farm.

Frida was visiting Kashan, an ancient city in the heart of Iran, famous for its rose gardens, its carpet workshops, and its position along the historic Silk Road. She met local farmers who had been growing Damask roses the same way their families had for generations: handpicking the flowers in the early morning before the dew dried, shade-drying them carefully to preserve the essential oils and the colour. She tried the tea brewed from those petals, and she said to Ehsan: "We have to show this to the world."

That sentence became a company.

Two years on the road

Before Magic T launched, Ehsan and Frida spent two years travelling across Iran, through Turkey, into India, visiting farms, meeting growers, and tasting. They were not looking for the cheapest source or the most convenient supplier. They were looking for the best herb, grown the right way, by people they could build a genuine relationship with.

This is not the way most tea companies source their ingredients. The standard approach is to buy from brokers or commodity suppliers, companies that aggregate herbs from multiple farms and sell them at scale. This is efficient and cheap. It also means the company buying the herbs has no idea who grew them, how they were grown, or whether the growers were fairly compensated.

Ehsan and Frida went the other way. Every supplier in Magic T's range is a direct relationship: a family farm, a small cooperative, a traditional grower who they have met in person and return to visit. It is slower and more expensive, and it produces better herbs.

Kashan, Iran - Rose Buds and Persian Garden

Kashan sits in a valley between two mountain ranges in central Iran. The Damask rose has been cultivated there for over a thousand years. The city is famous for its rose water production, and the surrounding villages have been growing roses for export for generations.

The roses used in Pure Damask Rose Buds and Persian Garden are handpicked in May, during the brief few weeks when the flowers are at their peak. They are picked in the morning, before the heat of the day, and shade-dried to preserve the essential oils. This is the same method the farmers have used for centuries. It cannot be mechanised without damaging the flowers.

The flavour of a properly dried Damask rose bud is nothing like rose flavouring. It is light, slightly sweet, gently floral, a reminder that roses were always a culinary ingredient before they became a symbol of romance.

The Mediterranean - Spearmint

The spearmint in Pure Spearmint comes from farms along the Mediterranean coast, an area where spearmint cultivation goes back to ancient times. Mediterranean spearmint is considered among the finest in the world for its high rosmarinic acid content, the compound most associated with spearmint's potential hormonal benefits.

The leaves are handpicked and shade-dried. Spearmint loses its essential oils quickly in direct sunlight, which is why shade-drying is not just a traditional preference but a quality requirement. The difference between properly shade-dried spearmint and commercially dried spearmint is immediate and obvious, in colour, in fragrance, and in the depth of flavour in the cup.

The Solomon Islands - Cocoa Husk

The cocoa used in Cocoa Romance and Minty Cocoa comes from the Solomon Islands, where cacao farming is an important part of the local agricultural economy. The husk, the outer shell of the cacao bean, is a by-product of chocolate production that would otherwise be discarded. Using it as a tea ingredient gives it a purpose and reduces waste.

The flavour of cocoa husk is earthy and rich, with a natural sweetness and a very mild bitterness. It contains theobromine, a gentle stimulant found in chocolate, but no significant caffeine. It brews a warm, dark cup that tastes genuinely of chocolate without any added sugar or flavouring.

Turkey and India

Turkey contributes dried apple pieces, cinnamon, and cardamom, ingredients central to the Turkish breakfast tea tradition where a strong, warming morning brew is a daily ritual. Turkish apple tea has been part of hospitality culture for centuries, offered to guests as a gesture of welcome.

From India come herbs with roots in Ayurvedic medicine: ginger, cardamom, and other botanicals that have been used medicinally and culinarily on the subcontinent for millennia.

What direct sourcing actually means

When a company talks about ethical sourcing or fair trade, it can mean many things. For Magic T, it means the farmers know who is buying their herbs and why. Prices are negotiated directly, not through brokers who take a margin from both sides. When quality standards require specific growing or drying practices, shade-drying, handpicking, minimal processing, those practices are agreed on and compensated accordingly.

This is not charity. The farmers Magic T works with are skilled producers who grow exceptional herbs. Fair prices for exceptional produce is just how good trade works.

From Auckland to your cup

The blending happens in Auckland, in small batches, usually less than a week before the product ships. There is no warehouse full of pre-blended product waiting to age on shelves. The herbs arrive, they are checked, they are blended by hand, and they go out.

Designing a blend, as Ehsan has said, is like writing a poem. It takes time, knowledge, and inspiration. The result, on a good day, is a cup that tastes like somewhere specific. Kashan in May. A Turkish kitchen in the morning. A Himalayan hillside. These places are real. The people who grew these herbs are real. That is not marketing; it is just what it means to take sourcing seriously.

Magic T's full range is available at magict.co.nz. Every blend is hand-crafted in Auckland from ethically sourced whole herbs. No additives, no artificial flavours, no shortcuts.