History

Our founder, Karl-Heinz Schwedt, brought a dream to life when he established our company in Hamburg back in 1967. He was a tea enthusiast himself and, as a wholesale dealer, having his own company seemed to be the crowning achievement of his career. Hanspeter Gesing joined him in 1983. Gesing wasn't merely continuing the family tradition, as his father had been a tea dealer; he also made a name for himself as an especially innovative specialist in tea by inventing blends with added flavours.

The company would earn great respect in the industry over the following years by introducing one innovation after another. As a global trendsetter, for example, interTee mixed tea with real pieces of fruit, as in SONNENTEE®, and developed new types of fruit infusions, such as APFELTRAUM, BANANA TEA, DATTELZAUBER and BIRNENGARTEN®.

A tea dealer and tea taster himself, Holger Sturm took over interTee in 2009 as owner and sole managing director. His plan is to keep running the company just as the founder intended: with a sense of tradition working hand in hand with the power of innovation. We intend to stay with what works, even as we pave new paths. For example, we work closely with our producers and distribution partners, focusing on proven methods. In particular, we remain uncompromising when it comes to the quality of our raw materials.

Today, as has ever been the case, our high quality tea leaves come from traditional growing regions such as China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Africa, and are only refined with exclusive ingredients. At the same time, we still find pleasure in experimenting and joy in introducing innovative products, as demonstrated e.g. with our Earl Grey products, NEW EARL® creations.