What I Learned Exporting Indian Tea to the World (And Why I Would Do It All Over Again)!!

I did not plan to become an exporter. I planned to sell good tea.

When I started Brew Soul Tea and Spices, my focus was simple: source the best teas directly from Indian gardens, cut out the middlemen, and get them to people who actually cared about what was in their cup. I was thinking about my city, maybe my country. Export was something I assumed happened to bigger businesses, with bigger teams and bigger budgets.

Then an inquiry came in from the UK. Then one from the UAE. Then a wholesale request from a specialty grocer in the United States. And I realised, slowly and then all at once, that the world was already looking for exactly what I had. I just had to figure out how to reach it.

Here is what I have learned along the way — the honest version, not the polished one.

I Underestimated How Much the World Wants Authentic Indian Tea

I used to think that Indian tea was already everywhere globally. CTC blends in supermarket teabags, mass-market Darjeeling on every shelf. What I did not realise is that authentic Indian tea — single-origin, auction-sourced, traceable to a specific garden and flush — is genuinely rare in international markets.

When I started sharing the story behind our teas — the elevation, the harvest date, the garden name, the tasting notes — the response from international buyers was immediate. They were not just buying tea. They were buying provenance. They were buying a connection to something real in a market full of generic product.

That was my first lesson: the story is the product. Especially when you are selling across borders to someone who cannot walk into your store.

I Had to Learn a New Language — The Language of Export Documentation

I will be honest. The paperwork nearly broke me in the beginning.

Phytosanitary certificates. FSSAI compliance. Certificate of Origin. HS codes. Customs declarations. Each market had its own requirements, and I had to learn them one shipment at a time. The UK post-Brexit had different rules than the EU. The UAE had specific labelling requirements. The US had FDA registration requirements for food importers.

What I eventually built was a documentation checklist for each major market — a template I could run through before every shipment. It took time to build, but once it existed, it removed the anxiety. I stopped dreading export orders and started welcoming them.

If you are a food brand thinking about export, my advice is this: do not wait until you have an order to figure out your documentation. Build the framework first. It will save you from the worst kind of stress — the kind that arrives with a customs hold and a deadline.

I Learned That Pricing for Export Is a Different Calculation Entirely

I made the mistake early on of pricing my export products the same way I priced my domestic ones — cost plus margin, simple. What I did not account for was the full landed cost: freight, insurance, import duties, the buyer's local taxes, and the currency fluctuation that could quietly erode my margin between invoice and payment.

I now price export orders with a completely separate model. I factor in the destination country's duty structure, the freight cost to that port, and a currency buffer. I also moved to USD invoicing for most international orders, which simplified things considerably and gave buyers a familiar reference point.

The lesson: export pricing is not domestic pricing with a shipping line added. It is its own discipline, and getting it right is the difference between a profitable international business and one that looks busy but bleeds margin.

I Discovered That B2B Export Relationships Are Built on Consistency, Not Just Quality

My best international wholesale relationships did not start with the best product I ever sent. They started with the most consistent product I ever sent.

A specialty retailer in Europe told me something I have not forgotten: “I can find good tea. What I cannot find is a supplier who sends me the same good tea every time, with the same documentation, in the same packaging, on the same timeline.”

That reframed everything for me. I invested in standardising our blending process, our packaging specs, and our lead times. I built a simple CRM to track each buyer's order history and preferences. I started sending proactive updates when a harvest was delayed or a garden had a quality variation — before the buyer had to ask.

Trust in export is built in the small moments. The email you send before there is a problem. The sample you include without being asked. The invoice that arrives exactly when you said it would.

I Am Still Learning — And That Is the Point

I do not have export figured out. I have markets I have not cracked yet. I have had shipments delayed, buyers who went quiet, and seasons where the harvest did not meet the standard I needed. There are regulatory changes I am still navigating and logistics partners I am still evaluating.

But I also have buyers in four countries who reorder without being chased. I have a private-label partner who trusts us with their brand. I have learned more about tea, spices, logistics, and international trade in the last few years than I could have learned any other way.

If you are a food or beverage brand sitting on a genuinely good product and wondering whether export is worth the complexity — my honest answer is yes. Not because it is easy. Because the world is larger than your domestic market, and there are buyers out there who are actively looking for what you make.

You just have to be ready to meet them properly.

We work with wholesale and private-label partners across the US, UK, UAE, and Europe. If you are interested in sourcing premium Indian teas and spices for your business, reach out at brewsoultea.com.