At Monimo, we think there's more to tea than what’s in the cup. We’re a small team with a big focus: provide great tea, keep it affordable, and do it in a way that’s kind to the planet.

I grew up in Melbourne, in a household where sharing tea around the table was part of the daily rhythm. These days I live far from home, but tea still takes me back to those family moments. Monimo was born from that — the idea that something as simple as a cup of tea can bring comfort and connection wherever you are.

I’ve always believed that good tea shouldn’t be a luxury. Too often, the best teas are priced out of reach for every day enjoyment, and people settle for whatever’s in a stock-standard teabag. I wanted to change that — to bring great, honest tea into the daily routine but without the premium price tag.

The Monimo ethos boils down to three things -

• High quality — we provide organic teas wherever we can
• Low cost — we keep margins skinny so good tea doesn’t have to be a luxury or a gift!
• Sustainability — making conscious choices at every step, right down to the shipping label.
  

Here’s what we have been up to in an effort to do our bit for the planet:

Reusable tins — solid tins you can keep refilling. Stickers peel off so you can swap the tea inside as often as you like. When you buy a refill, make sure to check the "Add a label to reuse my tin at home" box.

Home-compostable cellophane pockets — those inner bags in our tins? They’re made from cellulose that usually disappears in a few weeks in your home compost.

Home-compostable pouches — certified to break down in home compost (Aussie and EU standards). Even the zip goes! Only downside: the sticker has to come off first. We’re on the hunt for a fix.

Home-compostable tea bags — unbleached paper, no micro-plastics, fully biodegradable and home-compostable, made in Scotland from sustainably managed forestry. No bleaches, no nasties.

Tea-infuser balls — we keep them cheap to help teabag drinkers make the switch.

Postage packaging —

• Boxes: 100% recyclable and compostable.
• Ecomailer pouches: from our mates at HeapsGood, fully compostable with no nasty microplastics.
• Ecolabels: also from HeapsGood — they compost too (just take a little longer).
• Tape: landfill-biodegradable, breaking down 90% faster than the usual stuff, no microplastics left behind.
• Honeycomb protective packaging: 100% recyclable and compostable.

Paper inserts — the small cards that we include in our packaging are made from 100% recycled paper.

Shipping — we ship with Sendle wherever we can, Australia’s first 100% carbon-neutral nationwide service.

Tea sourcing — right now, everything’s organic, and we’ll keep it that way wherever possible.

We’re proud of what we’ve put together, but we’re not pretending it’s perfect. Our biggest work-in-progress is our plastic stickers — they need to come off before composting, and that’s not ideal. We’re working on it.

At the end of the day, we’re tiny compared to the big retailers. Even though we provide a premium product with sustainable packaging, we still try to be cheaper than the big retailers by taking a hit on our margins. Where we aren't able to be, we are still proud that our tea is top-notch, our packaging makes sense, and when you opt for the reusable tin we make sure you aren't charged a small fortune for it.

Small brand, small changes, big difference.

— Dianna, Monimo Tea