About Us and Our Business...

RogueLeaf Tea is run by us: the Caruso Family of Highland Park, New Jersey. Tea has always been a central facet of who we are, and an enriching part of our lives. The following is an excerpt from "Our Ways," which is a compliation of our family values:

We are builders of community. • We consider the impact of our decisions on our family and our community before we act. • We posses nothing, all our labors and earnings belonging to our descendants. • We do nothing except sustainably, so the future may also thrive.• With each generation we improve the lot of the next. • With each generation we improve the character of the next. • We raise our own young. • We educate our young and raise them in a trade. • We raise neither voice nor hand to one another. • We value learning. • We marry young. • Our young and our old live together with us. • Advertising and mass media stop at our door. • We neither deceive nor break our word. • Among us, no one is left to cry. • Among us, all voices are heard, even little ones and unsteady ones. • We remember our dead.

Steve Caruso - Propriator, Webmaster, Inventory.

Nayla Caruso - Secretary, Editor, Writer, QC.

Eli Caruso (in training) - Chief of Inspiration and Distraction. The newest addition to the Caruso Family (at the time of writing this, 4 months old).

Unlike other companies that try and stock hundreds of products, we only stock a handful that we believe are most worthy for us to share with others. The few that we list we have taken a great deal of time to become intimate with, and are unsurpassed in quality.

As an example of this, not a single image of our products is a professional, promotional graphic that was done in a studio. All photographs of the leaves were taken on white sheets of recycled paper with a standard 3.2 megapixel digital camera. The only touching up that they recieved was a small contrast adjustment to display properly on the web. They just look that good.

But don't let their looks impress you. As the 7th Century scholar, Lu Yu said in his work on tea, the Cha Jing:

"Those who attribute smoothness, deep (color), or flatness (of leaves) to good tea are connoisseurs of an inferior order; those who attribute wrinkles, yellowness, and uneven surface to good tea are the ordinary connoisseurs; those who hold the opinion that these qualities may or may not belong to good tea are the superior connoisseurs. Because whether tea is good or otherwise depends upon its flavor."

In essence, good tea is that which tastes good, and ours are aromatic and flavorful. This is why we sell one ounce samples that are affordable, and give you several cups to form an opinion (although we believe you'll be in love from the first).