Grown at altitude and prepared according to age old tradition under the guidance of a renowned grand Tea Master, Qi Teas are naturally sweet with high levels of antioxidants. Once the tea farmers pick the tea (scattered throughout the surrounding mountains), everyone walks back to the village so the processing of the tea can start within 2 hours. This halts the oxidation of the leaf and prevents any bitterness from developing.
Qi Detox Tea has been Australia's most popular cleansing tea for years. Now with the introduction of our newest natural blends - Qi Slim and Qi Digestif - we have created a program of teas that target your gut health. With Detox for cleansing in the mornings, Slim to help boost metabolism in the afternoon, and Digestif to assist with reducing bloat and aiding digestion after meals, Qi's organic cleansing program was created in collaboration with Dietician and Nutritionist Ashleigh Feltham APD.
At Qi Tea there is a huge focus on the lifecycle of their products. The wrapping outside your box of tea is compostable cello (plant-based). The tea bag paper has a high percentage of plant fibre, and you will notice the tea bags are natural in colour, meaning they're unbleached and staple-free.
ME TIME with Nicole Lamond - Owner of Qi Tea Australia
INSPIRATION I made the decision to start a fair trade business in 1998 after returning from a trip to East Africa.
In Kenya, I had the opportunity to visit some families that worked on a tea plantation. They were aid recipients as part of a World Vision project which helped give them access to education, clean water and other resources; yet both of the parents worked full time and seemed intelligent and hard working, but they couldn’t afford the basic essentials for their children such as healthcare and education. If tea is worth making, buying and consuming, then why were the people making it not able to live without aid?
In 2002, I worked with two other women to set up the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand and to bring the International Fairtrade Certification Label to Australia. That’s when we introduced Qi Tea - one of the first Fairtrade products to get national ranging in supermarkets - to Australia, and the rest is history!
RESET This is when I usually turn to my “Relax” blend. Qi Relax is a modern take on chai with no calories. It combines warming and uplifting ingredients such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger and a hint of orange. Unlike most chai teas, Qi Relax does not need milk or sugar.
Aside from the delicious warming taste, cinnamon and cloves have traditionally been used in Ayurvedic and other traditional medicine to treat colds and intestinal upsets. It’s my go to ‘TLC’ blend and is perfect for a warming cuppa on the couch in the winter months.
INDULGE Well, I definitely know what I do after I indulge a bit too much! I just introduced a new blend to our range called Qi Digestif - it’s an award winning combination of soothing oolong tea, fennel, anise and liquorice to aid your digestion and ease bloating.
I use Qi Digestif Tea as a calming alternative to an after-meals coffee, with its fresh taste of mint leaf for cleansing the palate and ginger to target inflammation and encourage healthy digestion. Menthol, found in mint leaf, has also been shown to relieve spasms in smooth muscle tissue, relaxing your stomach muscles to help alleviate bloating.
We were so excited when Qi Digestif Tea was awarded a prestigious Gold Star from judges at the Great Taste Awards!
WINTER WARMERS My favourite winter warmer is our new Qi Oolong Slim blend. SLIM combines the rich taste of oolong tea with the subtle spices of cinnamon and burdock root for a warming cuppa that can increase the heat your body produces (called thermogenesis).
Our nutritionist, Ashleigh Feltham, is great at describing this warming effect:
“Thermogenesis increases the energy your body burns and specifically the amount of fat your body uses. These fat burning effects may not only be of short term benefit to your body; long term changes to fat burning levels have been studied and the mechanism behind the fat burning potential of these teas has been suggested to be a change in the expression of your genes, which play specific roles in fat metabolism.”
And it’s delicious too!
