FAQ

Empire Tea Services LLC is a USA-based tea importer, blender, and wholesale distributor. The company was founded in 1989 by Lalith Guy Paranavitana, who brought over 45 years of hands-on tea-growing and estate management experience to the business. Empire Tea offers wholesale tea, private label/white label tea, co-packing, and tea education services.

The company’s warehouse and showroom are located at 4525 Progress Drive, Columbus, Indiana 47201. Visitors are welcome to stop by the showroom.

You can reach the team by phone at (812) 375-1937, by email at sales@empiretea.com, or through the Contact Us page on the website. Business hours are Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM.

The founder personally managed a 1,250-acre tea estate in Sri Lanka’s Nuwara Eliya region and later directed a government tea corporation of 12 estates before starting Empire Tea. Rather than carrying hundreds of generic options, the company curates fewer than 200 carefully selected teas to ensure freshness and quality, and many blends are micro-blended in-house in small batches.

Yes. Many of the company’s teas are micro-blended in-house in small batches (under 10 lbs), and these blends have been refined over years before earning a permanent place in the catalog.

The catalog includes loose leaf tea, pyramid tea sachets, traditional tea bags, blooming/flowering tea, and iced tea. Varieties span Black, Green, White, Oolong, Herbal, Rooibos, Decaffeinated, Mate, Chai, Matcha, Puerh, Wellness, and Seasonal/Holiday teas.

Yes, the site has dedicated collections for Herbal, Rooibos, and Decaffeinated teas for customers looking to avoid caffeine.

Pyramid Sachets are a premium style tea bag with more room for whole-leaf tea to expand while steeping. Empire Tea offers Biodegradable Pyramid Sachets across white, green, oolong, black, chai, herbal, decaffeinated, holiday, and wellness varieties, including flavored and blended options.

Yes, the Gifts & Accessories section includes teapots, steeping vessels, and other accessories that the founder has personally tested and approved.

Yes. Empire Tea offers tea samplers, including Premium, Fancy, Starter, Traditional, Herbal (decaf), and flavored Green, Black, and Oolong samplers, as well as a Rooibos Sampler and a Tea Festival Sampler. If you are a wholesale customer, you can purchase individual samples from our catalogs after you register for a wholesale account.

Blooming tea is hand-tied tea that unfurls into a flower-like shape when steeped. Empire Tea carries several varieties, including Flower Fairy, Royal Candlestick, Jasmine Fairy, Golden Calendula, and Rising Flower.

Yes, wholesale is the company’s main focus. Empire Tea has supplied wholesale tea to tea rooms, tea shops, coffee shops, restaurants, gourmet food stores, spas, cafés, home party businesses, and farmers market operators for over 30 years.

Send your full name, business name, address, and phone number via email (sales@empiretea.com), the Contact Us page, or by phone at (812) 375-1937. The team can also email you a wholesale catalog and discuss custom blend options.

Yes, the company can create new or custom blends tailored to your business and your customers’ needs. Minimum order requirements apply. Ask for details.

Private label tea is tea that Empire Tea imports, blends, and packages, which you then sell under your own brand name. Empire tea specializes in this part of the business creating and fulfilling packaging customized to the customer’s needs. This is popular with tea shops, restaurants, spas, gourmet food stores, and smaller businesses such as home-based sellers or farmers market vendors.

The minimum order is 16 tins or 16 stand-up pouches per flavor, with a total minimum of 96 tins or stand-up pouches — so you can mix multiple flavors to reach that minimum. This applies to teas available in our catalog. For custom blends the minimum order quantities are higher. Please ask for details.

Every private label option includes a front and back label with your logo and company information; UPC and QR code can be printed if needed. You can send your own artwork or use Empire Tea’s template with only a change for the Logo and company information. Starting prices are: Loose Leaf — $5.50 (pouch) / $5.90 (tin); Pyramid Sachets — $5.50 (pouch) / $5.90 (tin); Iced Tea — $4.90 (pouch only). Label charges etc., will apply. Ask for details by filling in the Contact Us page.

Yes, co-packing is one of the company’s core services alongside wholesale and private label tea — reach out via the Contact Us page for details specific to your project.

Yes, free ground shipping is available on orders over $50, with a few exclusions: iced tea products, Tea Temptations brand tea bags, and tea accessories/gifts do not qualify. Orders with free shipping will ship via standard ground service. If you want expedited shipping, you can select and pay for that option at checkout.

No… if you want to purchase at retail prices shown on the website. If you want to purchase at wholesale prices, you need to fill in the Contact Us page and we’ll send you a wholesale catalog for review. Wholesale orders should be emailed to sales@empiretea.com.

Use the “Tea” menu at the top of the site, which is organized by format (loose tea, pyramid sachets, tea bags, blooming tea, iced tea) and by variety (black, green, white, oolong, herbal, rooibos, chai, matcha, etc.). You can also use the Search bar to look up a tea by name.

On any product page, select your quantity using the +/– controls and click “Add to Cart.” A confirmation message will appear, and you can click “Go to Cart” to review your order.

Yes, the site has a Wishlist feature. When browsing a product, you can add it to your Wishlist to save it for later instead of (or in addition to) adding it to your cart.

Yes. $50.00 conditions apply for FREE shipping. Please check the information page for details.

Yes, Empire Tea offers several tea samplers (Premium, Fancy, Starter, Traditional, Herbal, flavored Green/Black/Oolong, Rooibos, and Tea Festival) specifically so you can try a range of teas before committing to a full-size purchase. If you are a wholesale customer, you can purchase individual samples from our catalogs after you register for a wholesale account.

Click the cart icon or “Cart” link to review your items, then proceed to checkout, where you’ll enter your shipping address and payment details to complete the order.

You can reach the team directly by emailing sales@empiretea.com, calling (812) 375-1937, or submitting the Contact Us form on the website. Business hours are Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM.

Yes — free ground shipping applies to retail orders totaling more than $50, with a few exceptions. Please see the information page for details.

Free shipping does not apply to orders containing Iced Tea category products, Tea Temptations brand tea bags, or items from the Gifts & Accessories category.

Yes, but if your order qualifies for free shipping, it will automatically ship via standard ground service. To get expedited shipping, you need to select and pay for an expedited option at checkout instead of using the free shipping default.

Orders ship from the company’s warehouse at 4525 Progress Drive, Columbus, Indiana 47201, USA.

Reach out via the Contact Us page, email sales@empiretea.com, or call (812) 375-1937 for any questions about an order’s shipping or delivery.

Private label orders (where tea is packaged under your own brand) aren’t simple, add-to-cart purchases — they require coordination on labeling, flavors, and quantities. Contact the sales team directly to start a private label order rather than using standard checkout – sales@empiretea.com or (812) 375-1937.

Regular retail orders can go through the standard cart and checkout process. For ongoing wholesale purchasing or larger recurring orders, it’s best to first set up a wholesale account by contacting sales@empiretea.com so you can be given appropriate pricing and terms.

Yes, accessories and gifts are part of the standard catalog and can be added to your cart and purchased alongside tea — just note that this category is excluded from the free shipping threshold.

For any changes, cancellations, or questions about an existing order, contact Empire Tea Services directly by email (sales@empiretea.com), phone ((812) 375-1937), or the Contact Us form as soon as possible — the site does not list a self-service order-editing option, so the team will need to assist directly.