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How to Write a Tea Specification That Gets You Comparable Quotes
If three suppliers quote three different prices for "Chinese black tea, good quality, 1000 kg", you have not received three quotes. You have received three different products. Here is how to write a request that produces numbers you can actually compare.
Updated 2026-08-03 · 11 min read
A tea specification is a written description of a product precise enough that two suppliers reading it would make the same thing. Most buyer enquiries fall well short of that, and the consequence is not merely inconvenience: an underspecified request guarantees that the cheapest quote you receive is for the cheapest interpretation of what you asked for.
This is worth stating plainly, including from a supplier's side: vague specifications are commercially convenient for us. They let a supplier quote against the least expensive reading and stay technically honest. A buyer who specifies well removes that latitude — from everyone, including their incumbent.
The nine fields that move the price
Dozens of attributes can be specified. Nine of them account for most of the price variation in Chinese leaf tea.
| Field | Specify it as | What happens if you leave it open |
|---|---|---|
| Plucking standard | Bud only / one bud one leaf / one bud two leaves | The single largest price lever in the whole specification |
| Harvest window | A date range or a named solar term | You are quoted the cheapest season available |
| Cultivar | Named cultivar, not just "local variety" | Blending across cultivars, and no repeatability next year |
| Processing style | Orthodox whole leaf / broken / CTC / cut for teabag | Quotes that are not comparable at all |
| Particle size | Mesh range, or a physical reference sample | Dust and fannings arriving as "broken grade" |
| Moisture | A maximum, e.g. ≤ 6.5% | Higher moisture is heavier and cheaper per kilo, and stores worse |
| Residue standard | The destination regulation, by name | Testing against a standard that does not protect you |
| Packing | Carton weight, liner, pallet configuration | Freight and shelf-life outcomes you did not price |
| Sensory target | A reference sample plus 3–4 descriptors | Endless sample rounds with no convergence |
Sensory descriptors: use a reference sample, not adjectives
"Smooth, malty, not too astringent" is a real preference but not a specification: it is unverifiable, so it cannot be the basis of a rejection. The workable approach is to nominate a physical reference — a sealed retained sample, agreed by both parties and held by both — and then use words only to say how a delivery may differ from it.
In practice: "to match retained sample XG-2604, permitted variation: liquor may be one shade lighter; no smoky character; no stalk above 2%." That is a sentence a quality manager can act on at the point of shipment. Adjectives alone are not.
Tolerance bands are the part everybody forgets
A specification with single-point values is a specification that will be breached. Agricultural products vary within a season and between them. Stating a target with no permitted band means either you reject good tea or, more commonly, the band gets negotiated informally at the moment of shipment — which is exactly when you have the least leverage.
| Parameter | Target | Accept | Reject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture | 6.0% | ≤ 6.5% | > 6.5% |
| Stalk content | ≤ 1.5% | ≤ 2.0% | > 2.0% |
| Bulk density | 0.32 g/ml | 0.30–0.36 g/ml | Outside band |
| Liquor colour | Match reference | Within one shade | Beyond one shade |
Ask for evidence, not adjectives, and name the method
A certificate of analysis is only as useful as the method behind it. "Pesticides: pass" tells you nothing — pass against what list, at what limit of quantification, by which laboratory? Specify that the report must name the laboratory, state the method, list every substance screened, and report detections below the limit as well as above it.
The same applies to origin claims. If provenance matters to your product story, ask what document supports it and whether that document is publicly checkable. A registered mark with a searchable registration number is checkable. A photograph of a plaque is not.
A specification template you can copy
- Product name and intended use — e.g. "Chinese black tea, whole leaf, for premium retail loose-leaf packing".
- Origin — country, province, and the specific production area if it matters to you.
- Cultivar — named.
- Plucking standard and harvest window.
- Processing — orthodox / broken / CTC / cut; withering and oxidation notes if relevant.
- Physical parameters — particle size or mesh, stalk maximum, moisture maximum, bulk density band.
- Sensory — reference sample ID, permitted variation, explicit disqualifiers.
- Analytical — residue standard named by regulation and destination; heavy metals; microbiology if the product is a powder or an extract.
- Packing — carton net weight, liner material, cartons per pallet, pallet type, marking requirements.
- Documentation — certificate of analysis per lot, certificate of origin, phytosanitary certificate, and anything specific to your market.
- Quantity and delivery — total quantity, split by shipment if phased, required delivery window, Incoterm and named place.
- Commercial — payment terms, sample and retained-sample arrangements, and what happens on a failed lot.
How to read the quotes that come back
When responses arrive, three signals separate suppliers who read the specification from those who skimmed it:
- They quote against your parameters, restating them, rather than pasting their own product sheet.
- They tell you which of your requirements they cannot meet. A supplier who can meet every line of an unfamiliar specification without a single qualification has probably not checked.
- They ask at least one question that shows they understood the trade-off — for instance, whether you would rather relax the particle size or the harvest window if both cannot hold at your target price.
A supplier saying "no" to one line is more useful than one saying "yes" to all twelve. The first tells you where the real constraint is; the second tells you nothing until the container arrives.