Dutch Harvest Hemp Tea

Growing and harvesting hemp plants

The hemp plants from which Dutch Harvest makes the hemp tea are grown in Oude Pekela in the north of the country. The seeds are sown in early May and by mid-August the plants are over 3 metres high and ready for harvest. Then the harvesting crew arrives with huge harvesting machines. This neatly separates the leaves and flowers from the other useful parts of the plant. The plants are then immediately cut and dried.

Packed at the sheltered workshop

At the sheltered workshop, Dutch Harvest Hemp Tea is packed. A cosy workplace where they specialise in this kind of challenge. With great attention, employees work on every step of the process. This workplace meets all standards around food safety and HACCP, so we can rest assured that the hemp tea is packed cleanly.

Hemp herbal tea blends composition

Dutch Harvest hemp tea is available in three hemp blends and a pure variant. With the help of tea sommelier Karlijn Dapper, the tea blends have been carefully composed. Only pure and organically certified herbs are used in the blends. No sugar, no flavourings, no additives!

Eko and Organic certified

The hemp is 100% organically grown. Hemp does very well without pesticides or other herbicides and needs no fertiliser. Weeds are overgrown by the hemp plant because it grows very fast so fast. The smell of the plants is also unattractive to insects.

Dutch Harvest Hemp Tea therefore has SKAL organic certification, which ensures that all ingredients are fully traceable organic.

Dutch Harvest also has the EKO label. Besides the fact that the products have to be certified organic, additional sustainable efforts have to be made. These include using a local raw material: hemp, the packaging being compostable and working with a sheltered workshop.

Sustainable packaging

Paper made from agricultural waste
Based on the motto "nature knows no waste", PaperWise makes paper from agricultural waste. Think, for example, of the leftovers from sugar cane production. In this way, two products come from the same agricultural land and even the same crop: food and raw material for paper. As a result, the paper even has a considerably lower eco-footprint than FSC paper or recycled paper. And so we can just leave the trees standing. Excellent material for sustainable packaging.

Cellulose-based bioplastics
Still, a plastic layer had to be added to the packaging to keep the tea shelf life as well as a viewing window. But for sustainable packaging, Dutch Harvest naturally prefers not to use petroleum-based plastic. They found a 'bio-plastic', based on cellulose, which is compostable. And they found a printer willing to combine these materials into sustainable packaging especially for Dutch Harvest.

Compostable and plastic-free
This combination of packaging materials makes it compostable according to standard 7P0466. It can be composted in industrial composting plants, but also at home composting facilities. The packaging can therefore go in the organic waste (note: the reclosable clip is made of iron. So this cannot go with the compost! You can reuse it or separate it with the scrap iron). By using bioplastic, the 'Plastic free' label can be placed with the product in the shop.

With this packaging innovation, Dutch Harvest won the HOW design award! Thanks in part to designer Arjan van Woensel's original design.