Tea Biz (Dan Bolton)

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Timely Tea Delivery is in Troubled Waters | Tea is Thriving in the Convenience Channel | Iran Tea Production is Up 25pct

| NEWS - The disruption of global supply chains is getting worse. Container vessel reliability for tea shipments crossing the Pacific continued to decline this summer as prices reached new heights. The World Container Index for eight East-West routes rose to a composite cost of $9,613 for the week of August 19 – up 360% compared to the same period last year. Consignments of tea shipped from Shanghai to Rotterdam increased 659% to $13,698 last week.

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz puts Burmese chefs in the spotlight for their culinary contributions in tea... and then we travel to London where Unilever unveiled four guiding principles of regenerative agriculture a topic currently trending in tea.

Tea Leaf Cuisine

Pickled tea leaves may sound a bit out of the ordinary but not for Southeast Asian chefs. Burma, now known as Myanmar, is an ancient crossroads influenced by the cuisine of bordering Bangladesh, China, Thailand, and Laos. It is here that laphet became a national dish that is now finding its way to US and European consumers in branded packaged goods.

Regenerative Agriculture

Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber writes that “never before have the health of people and the health of the planet been so closely interconnected.” 

Beginning this week, the Tea Biz Podcast and Blog undertakes a series of interviews with thought-leaders in tea from organizations such as the Rainforest Alliance, growers in Sri Lanka, where a nationwide ban on the import and manufacture of plant chemicals was instituted in May; and with multinationals like Unilever, a company with extensive tea holdings that recently unveiled its basic principals of regenerative agriculture.

Today’s segment is a primer introducing the topic and asking the critical question: Can a world that has already eroded a third of the planet’s soils feed a population of 10 billion without intensive agricultural practices that rely on heavy inputs of fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides necessary to sustain monoculture farming?

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Iran Has Suddenly Stopped Importing Indian Tea and Rice. The abrupt halt remains unexplained | A World Bank Report Predicts Unbearable Heat for India | China Eases COVID Restrictions

| NEWSMAKER – Sabita Banerji, Founder, and CEO of THIRST

| FEATURE INTRO – THIRST has completed its initial assessment of human rights in the global tea sector and is now seeking to understand the root causes. THIRST founder and CEO Sabita Banerji says the non-profit will conduct confidential surveys of tea producers during the New Year.

Understanding the Tea Supply Chain and How it all Works – The voices of producers are, in fact, quite rarely heard, says Banerji. They are often blamed for circumstances beyond their control. This is the analysis phase; the third phase will be action planning, where we bring together multi-stakeholders and international players to discuss what should be done. The fourth phase will be accountability, where we support the tea industry in monitoring those action plans and their effectiveness and whether they need adjustment. "We're not blaming brands and retailers for how they do their purchasing practices. We just want to understand how it all works, where the levers for change may be, how the current situation might be driving some of the undeniable problems in the tea sector, and what could be done by those players to address those problems.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – T2 Closes its US and UK Retail Locations | Stores in both countries close on Feb. 19. Online sales end on Feb. 22. The Australian company announced it would focus on markets closer to home.| Turkey’s Tea Growing Region Spared During Massive Twin Quakes. | Tea Comforts Quake Victims. | The Global Iced Tea Market is projected to Double in Value by 2030

| GUEST – Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington

| FEATURE INTRO – Pairing tea with food is a less well-known art than wine pairings, but every bit as rewarding for cooks and connoisseurs. This week, Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington reviews Mariella Erken's cookbook, Tea: Wine’s Sober Sibling.

| REVIEW – TEA: Wine’s Sober Sibling by Mariella Erken

Rich with detailed analysis and mouth-watering recipes, the considerate arrangement of this book draws us in from a place more familiar, the pairing of wine with food. Indeed, the comparison tables on tea and grape varieties were so enriching that I realized that as a wine novice, I could choose a wine based on my tea preferences. If that’s got me excited, then for sure, it works the other way around. Seventy recipes, each with three suggested pairings, make this a book equally worthy of a place on our tea bookshelf as among the cookery books in the kitchen.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Sri Lanka Abandons Fertilizer Ban for Tea | Kenya’s KTDA Sets a Minimum Price for Auctioned Tea | AVPA Announces Teas of the World Winners| NEWSMAKER – Harkirat ”Harki” Sidhu, Rainforest Alliance India’s Consulting Program Coordinator for Sustainable Landscapes & Livelihoods| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Calcutta, India for an in-depth conversation with Harkirat (Harki) Sidhu, Rainforest Alliance India’s Consulting Program Coordinator for Sustainable Landscapes & Livelihoods. Harki is an expert in mechanical tea harvesters. He makes a compelling argument for improving tea quality utilizing labor hours that are gained by farms that invest in these time-saving machines.Mechanical Tea Harvesting Mechanical harvesting gets a bad rap. This is because poorly trained operators using poorly maintained equipment damage bushes, lowering yield and leaf quality. Simple routines such as level trimming in one direction in a single long sweep over half the plucking plane produces excellent leaf. Innovations like creating a seasonal calendar to regulate the gap between plucking rounds and paying workers for the area they shear, instead of by the kilo, keep yields high. Smallholders sharing equipment who then use the many hours of labor saved for field maintenance and to complete agricultural chores like pruning, mulching and weed abatement deliver raw leaf of exceptional quality to factories.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – UN Plans #TeaPower Promotion Targeted to Younger Generations | Tea Advice to Take with a Grain of Salt | China Reports Tea Exports Declined in 2023

NEWSMAKER - Rita Fong, Toronto Tea Festival Social Media Manager and Marketing Director

FEATURED – The Toronto Tea Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend. The Tea Guild of Canada and Tao Tea Leaf are co-founders and sponsors of the event. Organizers expect a big crowd to attend educational presentations, cultural demonstrations, and competitions, and there will be products on display from 50 tea vendors, large and small. Rita Fong helped organize the inaugural event. She is a director and manages social media and marketing of what is now the largest tea festival in Canada. She joins us on the Tea Biz Podcast this week to share insights on this event's staying power and growing popularity.

Largest Tea Festival in Canada Celebrates 10th Anniversary – Rita Fong is a member of the Tea Guild of Canada, and the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada tirelessly promotes the festival, has long influenced the educational program, and recruits speakers and vendors.

"The festival started as an idea by Tao Wu, Tao Tea Leaf’s co-founder, who wanted to organize a big event for tea lovers in Toronto. The planning committee felt that we had to do something because specialty tea is a business. They were thinking of how to promote business and how to help other businesses. Tao Tea Leaf has grown from a storefront retailer to a wholesaler to smaller companies and cafes in town and around Canada. Founder Tao Wu has become more like a mentor and advisor for many tea companies. He and Mingzhou Gao launched the company in 2009. Tea Guild, a not-for-profit established in 2009, has a mandate, in part, to educate their members and the public about tea, the exchange of ideas and sharing of resources, and the creation of programs and events, she said. 

Retailers Hurry to Capture Holiday Cheer | Typhoo Tea is on the Brink of Collapse | Oriental Rise Tea Raises $7 Million from a Nasdaq IPO

India Tea News | West Bengal Introduces SOPs For Reopening Abandoned Gardens | Tocklai Looks At CTC Green Tea Production

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| GUEST - Jennifer Wood, Director of UK Tea Academy | The Leafies

PLUS | Beyond the Trophy -

The Leafies International Tea Awards, now in its third edition, attracted almost 400 entries this year and, on Nov. 6, named 26 Gold Award winners. An additional 42 teas were Highly Commended by 16 judges representing each major tea-growing region. Director Jennifer Wood explains that judging teas by region and type enables the panel of experts to evaluate the teas more fairly. All judges collaborate to reassess the gold award winners and select best-in-show. Organizers in 2022 saw “A massive gap in the market for a window to origin. The competition seemed like a great way of recognizing the people who work so hard to produce sensational teas only to struggle to get a voice in the marketplace.”

Everyone covets trophies and bragging rights. In this episode, Jennifer describes the far more valuable underlying benefits of tea competitions for those who enter -- and the industry at large.

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SPOTLIGHT | Assessing Tea Digitally

A half dozen critical tea supply chain handoffs require quality control assessments By producers and processors, traders, wholesale buyers, and retailers. Ascertaining and predicting tea quality at each step is time-sensitive, laborious, and expensive. Newly developed cloud-based predictive and prescriptive profilers powered by artificial intelligence are redefining transactions by offering buyers and sellers unbiased reference points. These portable devices expedite quality assessment by producing an affordable digital profile that is as unique as a fingerprint and traceable. Profiles combine tasting notes and test results on-site in minutes.

Tea Biz invited the development team at ProfilePrint in Singapore to describe their technology and its application to tea. Sherman Ho, Chief Science and Technology Officer, Ellis Chua, Chief Commercial Officer, and Hoe Phong Tham, Head of Corporate at Profile Print, joined us for the briefing with tea buyer Ravi Pillai, Director of Quality and Development at DAVIDsTea in Montreal.

ProfilePrint Founder Alan Lai is a pioneer in digital food identity as a service (IDassS), which uses AI-driven portable analyzers to gather complex molecular data from ingredient samples. The result is a digital fingerprint that establishes the identity and predicts the quality of rice, grains, seeds (including coffee and cocoa), tea leaves, spices, and oils.

Alan explains that the objective is not to replace tasters who manually evaluate hundreds of cups daily, combining art and skill beyond the existing technology. The hyperspectral analysis is comparable to an off-site lab, but buyers and sellers benefit most from combining an organoleptic assessment to create a model of what they want. Sellers create a model of what they offer in a digital marketplace where matches are made in milliseconds.

The analyzers also reduce repetitive and mundane tasks like screening out undesirable samples before the meticulous preparation required for cupping. “Our clients view ProfilePrint as an apprentice who is ready to learn and helps complete tasks the same way we would have done them ourselves, freeing us up to focus on the more complex tasks,” he said. “Industry professionals don't enjoy mundane and repetitive jobs, but they still prefer to personally complete them as much as practically possible because it's difficult to rely on others when they are ultimately still held responsible.” Trusting and training an apprentice takes years without the certainty that it will always succeed,” writes Lai.

US Tariffs Loom Ominously Over Tea Trade | 2024 Leafies Award Winners Announced | US FDA Advises Oregon Chai Recall

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Bought Leaf Factories Blame India Tea Board For Non-Support of Food Safety Compliance Requirements | Weather Impacts Tea Crop in Assam's Barak Valley |

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HEAR THE HEADLINES

| Brand Relevance in Chaotic Times | Nepal Announces Tea Traceability Project | The Danish Tea Association Merges with The European Speciality Tea Association | YELP! Names a Tea House to its list of Top 100 Places to Eat in America

| GUEST
Angela McDonald, president US League of Tea Growers

| FEATURES

This week Tea Biz shares the secret to creating tea blends that sell, a conversation with master blender Sameer Pruthee, CEO at Tea Affair in Calgary...and we travel to Oregon for a visit with Angela McDonald, president of the US League of Tea Growers.

The Business Benefit of Custom Blends

Timeless blends like iconic Earl Grey, bold Yorkshire Gold and Constant Comment, a blend that Ruth Bigelow created in her kitchen in 1945, provide the sturdy foundation on which some of the world’s most treasured tea companies stand.

A Tea Terroir All Their Own

Growers of high quality tea in the United States set out to create something that isn’t available from anybody, anywhere else, an expression of regional flavor grounded in local terroir. The president of the US League of Tea Growers explains that while quantities are small “No one is going to buy a Mississippi Yellow Tea from Sri Lanka because it will never be the same.”

HEADLINES – Escalation of Conflict in the Middle East Dims Tea Shipping Outlook | Bubble Tea Brands Lineup for IPOs | Police Recover Stolen Gold Matcha Bowl Valued at 10 Million Yen

INDIA NEWS – Amalgamated PlantationsAPPL Head Resigns | First Flush in North India Sees Low Crop But High Quality

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| SCA PRESENTER – Youngmok Kim, the principal scientist at Finlays

| FEATURED – The Specialty Coffee Association’s annual exposition in Chicago last week attracted more than a dozen tea exhibitors and featured several expert presentations on tea. While most consumers visit grocery and department stores to purchase tea, coffee shops, and cafes are the second most popular retail outlets by value. More than 38,411 branded coffee shops in the United States and 42,800 in Europe generate 10% to 20% of their beverage revenue from specialty tea. In this episode, Tea Biz narrates the highlights of a talk by Youngmok Kim, the principal scientist at Finlays. In his presentation, Kim compares coffee and tea, the world’s most popular caffeinated beverages, with useful insights on distribution, markets, and relative health benefits.

India Tea News | March 29, 2024 | Bought Leaf Factories Oppose 100% Dust in Auctions | Assam Expects a Big Drop in First Flush Production | HUL Focuses on Assam to Support Tea Industry

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Tea Consumption Globally Increases to an Average 800 Grams Per Person | The International Tea Committee revised its per capita benchmark, noting a 113% increase in tea consumption during the past 20 years. | Parcel Carriers Hike Rates as Delivery Demand Declines | Tea Drinkers Experience Lower Risk of Diabetes

This week Tea Biz travels to the North American Tea Conference on the shores of Lake Ontario. The three-day conference drew tea professionals from around the world. This year’s conference opened with a status report on global tea presented by Ian Gibbs, head of the International Tea Committee in London.

| NEWSMAKER – Ian Gibbs, Chairman of the International Tea Committee, London

| GUEST – Indian tea grower Padmanabhan Subramaniam 

| FEATURE INTRO – Meet Padmanabhan Subramaniam, a remarkable tea farmer from the Nilgiris whose Facebook series “Knowledge Sharing is Caring” showcases farmers' successes and achievements. 

Knowledge Sharing is Caring – At the height of the COVID pandemic, Indian tea grower Padmanabhan Subramaniam, with the Nilgiris Sustainable Farmers Welfare Association, organized online activities for the small growers in Nilgiris with the theme Knowledge Sharing is Caring. Since then, local tea experts and fellow growers have conducted 78 virtual meetings on all topics related to agriculture.

"We have had guests from India, one guest from the US. The programs cover different topics," says Subramaniam. "We want these farmers to have an idea on how to go with innovative ways of agriculture and upgrade themselves economically. These things we kept in mind and talked about everything from the soil up to the harvest," he says.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Retail Sales Projections are Ho-Hum for the Holidays | Sales growth adjusted for inflation will be in the single digits, the lowest growth rate since the financial crisis | India Abandons Bharat Experiment and Returns to English Tea Auction Rules | UC Davis Tea Institute Launches a Training Program for Tea Professionals 

| FEATURE INTRO – A greater share of revenues from tea needs to reach growers. Smallholders worldwide produce most of the world’s tea by volume – yet their net earnings are only a tiny fraction of the product's retail price. Establishing price minimums for raw leaves encourages overproduction – but failing to price green leaves high enough to recover the rising cost of labor and inputs leads to low yields and mediocre quality. The situation is acute in South India, where thousands of growers gathered daily this month to draw attention to their plight. Aravinda Anantharaman reports from the Nilgiri mountains. 

Desperate Tea Workers in India Protest Silently for Weeks – For over 20 days this September, more than 30,000 people took part in a silent hunger protest on behalf of farmers, mainly from the indigenous Bataga Community living in Ooty, Kothagiri, and Coonoor in the Nilgiris mountains of South India. The demonstrations ended last week, but only after the High Court took cognizance of the petitions that urgently plead the case for fixing a minimum price for green leaf.

Nepal Tea Exports Surge as India Prepares to Close Down Tea Production in the North | A Closer Look at India’s Ambitious 400 Million Kilo Tea Export Goal | Hainan Tea: A Breakthrough Discovery in Camellia Sinensis Research

India Tea News

4th Edition of Assam FolkTea Festival Announced | Tata and HUL Announce Hike in Tea Prices | Japan's ILEM Launches Tea Range in India

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| NEWSMAKER – George Omuga, Managing Director, East African Tea Trade Association

PLUS | A Global Tea Alliance

Africa’s tea stakeholders believe that actions, more than words, are needed to address the global challenges facing the tea industry. East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) Managing Director George Omuga said the 500 tea professionals attending the 6thAfrican Tea Convention understand the need to reduce production volume to improve quality and raise profitability, which is essential to financing climate resilience and achieving sustainable cultivation at origins worldwide.

George joins us on Tea Biz to share key takeaways from the event, including details on establishing a global alliance to benefit tea-producing countries.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Tea Lies Safely Dormant as Temperatures Plummet to Record Lows Across Asia | Growers in China, Japan, South Korea, and India are coping with a polar vortex that caused record lows in the tea lands. | A Free Webinar Monday by the Colombo Tea Traders Association Will Explain the National Plan to Make Sri Lanka’s Tea Industry More Resilient | The FDA Will Not Regulate CBD as a Food or Supplement.

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Aravinda Anantharaman takes us to Karnataka, India, for a stay in the Nilgiri Mountains at the Sinna Dorais Bungalows on the Kadamane Tea Estate.

Sinna Dorai Bungalows Balance Comfort and Old World Charm – Sinna Dorai is how assistant managers were addressed on turn-of-the-century tea estates: Small manager, that’s what it translates to, suggesting a hands-on level of involvement with garden operations. There are three Sinna Dorai bungalows at the Kadamane Tea Estate, located high in the Nilgiri Mountains in Karnataka, India, about 250 kilometers west of Bengaluru. Kadamane was planted nearly a century ago; its bungalows are old, charming, and well-preserved. The interiors have been tastefully restored. The rooms are modern and comfortable but have retained that old-world charm, and that’s a delicate balance. The estate offers a glimpse into a way of life that is no longer relevant but reveals a vibrant, fascinating history worth recording and preserving. There’s no restaurant, just a kitchen and a dining room where you go for mealtimes like the Sinna Dorias, sharing hearty meals made with local produce and delicious bread. The vistas are boundless, and the forest streams are lovely to explore. It is a perfect stop, a great example of tea tourism done right because it’s indulgent without being excessive. - Aravinda Anantharaman

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Darjeeling is Experiencing a Severe Downturn | Researchers Discover Expanded Role for Microbes in Tea Making | Oxfam India Defines Living Wage for Assam Tea Workers

| GUESTS – Kate Elliot, Catherine Drummond-Herdman, Pinkie Methven, Veronica Murray-Poore, Tea Gardens of Scotland
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| NEWSMAKER – Carmién Tea founder Mientjie Mouton

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week travels to South Africa to discuss with Carmién Tea founder Mientjie Mouton the beneficial aspects of the EU’s decision to register rooibos as the first African food product to receive protected designation of origin. and then to Scotland where Dananjaya Silva discusses with nine local tea growers how the short summers and cold winters of a far northern terroir contribute to the unique flavor of Scottish tea.

Rooibos Revived

Rooibos is an herb that grows in a very narrow corridor north of Cape Town, South Africa in the fertile soil of the Cederberg mountains. Growers there produce about 14,000 metric tons annually as a healthful, refreshing, non-caffeinated beverage known locally as red bush tea. Tea Biz Podcast founder Dan Bolton talks with Mientjie Mouton, the founder of Carmién Tea a supplier of quality rooibos, both green and red.

Scottish Tea

Scots have a long history of growing Camelia sinensis in faraway lands ― from the jungles of Assam to the hills of Ceylon. A group of Scottish ladies have decided to follow in their ancestor’s footsteps. I’m Dananjaya Silva from PMD David Silva and Sons, and today I sit down with Kate Elliot, Catherine Drummond Herdman, Veronica Murray Poore, and Pinkie Methven to talk about green tea in Scotland.

Private Label Tea Triumphs over Big Brands in British Blind-Tastings | Bigelow Tea Breaks Ground on $70 Million Dollar Production Facility | Kenya Resumes Idled Criminal Investigation of KTDA Finances

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Sri Lanka Tea Yields Feared to Decline | McLeod Russel Settlement Resolves Insolvency 

| Bangladesh Tea Sector Returns to Pre-Pandemic Production Levels

| NEWSMAKER – Tea History Collection Founder Denys Shortt, OBE  

| GUEST – Henrietta Lovell, founder Rare Tea Co. 

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz visits with Rare Tea Lady Henrietta Lovell whose passion for tea is exceeded only by her commitment to bettering the lives of those who make it... and then we travel to Banbury, UK to learn how the Tea History Collection is digitizing tea history one tome at a time.

Henrietta Leads the Way

Since founding the Rare Tea Co., in London in 2004, Henrietta Lovell has traveled the globe sourcing direct for the world’s five-star dining rooms and developing relationships at the farm level where her commitment to fair pricing for the finest tea and charitable work set a standard. “If I can make people appreciate tea, it will change the world,” she says.

Tea History Collection

The Tea History Collection in Banbury, UK, founded by Denys Shortt OBE has hosted a full calendar of events since opening in May. This tea industry resource in now undertaking the daunting task of digitizing bound volumes recording the trademark and ownership of colonial gardens from the early days of tea. Listen as Shortt discusses the importance of preserving tea company heritage to be shared online by all.

India Tea News | March 8, 2024 

Bihar Tea Gets Trademark | Microsoft's Bill Gates Unwittingly Promotes Chai and Chaiwala | Muskan Khanna Earns a Patent for Her Nilgiri Bamboo Tea | Aravinda Anantharaman | Tea Biz Blog | Podcast Ep 158 |

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Bulk and Specialty Tea Prices Diverge, a TEAIN22 Forecast | France to Pay €1 Million to Certify Ceylon Tea | Bids total $8 Million HDK at Sotheby’s Inaugural Tea Auctions| NEWSMAKERS – Shekib Ahmed of Koliabur Tea Estate, Assam, India and Abhijeet Hazarika @TeaSigma | GUEST – Mary Cotterman, founder Mary Cotterman Pottery, Asheville, North Carolina, USA| FEATURES – This week, Tea Biz travels to Asheville, NC, to meet teaware potter and ceramist Mary Cotterman, who discusses the artisan spirit and state of mind of those embracing native clay and how COVID-19 lockdowns focused her attention like a monk.Then, to Assam, India, to hear Part 2 of the series Frugal Innovation. In this segment, Aravinda Anantharaman explores the application of Frugal Innovation in the tea garden and factories. Shekib Ahmed of Koliabur Tea Estate explains that "Objective data changes the conversation in the factory from vague concepts to thresholds and parameters. It makes operations scientific so that we can improve.”Born from Mud –In 2015 Mary moved to China to learn from the old masters how to make clay teapots in the style of Chaozhou Gongfu and to speak Mandarin. She spent two years there learning from a master in the Beijing school, becoming the first westerner to throw shou la hu teapots. She next studied at the Sanbao International Ceramics Village in Jingdezhen, the home of porcelain for 1700 years. She returned to the US in 2018 and makes her home in Asheville, North Carolina, where you will find her crafting water jars, pitchers, teacups, celadon gaiwans, and ash-glazed Japanese-style Kyusu teapots in a wood-fired kiln. - By Dan BoltonFrugal Innovation: In the Garden and Factories –Embracing Simple Technology with Scalable Impact | Frugal innovations utilize simple technology to address the most vexing challenges facing the tea industry. It's an umbrella term for innovations that do not require much capital, carry a low financial risk, and can be done safely with high reliability. For an industry that’s been grappling with multiple challenges, frugal innovation is a low-risk and impactful option, spearheaded by an industry veteran with an eye for innovation. For every successful experiment, many fail, but these are essential to the process that begins with the question, “What if…?" - By Aravinda Anantharaman

Sri Lanka Boosts Tea Wages 70pct | Lipton Reformulates its Green Tea | Gene Research May Fortify Freezing Tea Plants

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Hundreds of tea professionals, educators, and enthusiasts will travel from around the world to attend the UC Davis Global Tea Institute’s 10th Anniversary colloquium on January 30 at UC Davis. This year’s theme is Tea and Peace: Bringing Communities Together.

Joining us today is Professor Katharine Burnett, an expert in East Asian Studies and the art and cultural history of China and founder and director of the institute. She describes how, in 2012, their mutual fascination with tea brought together a research cluster of faculty and librarians to establish a group that would become the institute and organize its first colloquium. The collaboration inspired an innovative global educational hub offering advanced studies, continuing education leading to professional certifications, and a new book series, Global Tea Studies, with De Gruyter Brill Publishing. Plans include constructing an on-campus tea center equipped with a sensory theater, processing center, exhibition hall, classrooms, and space for public display of tea art and cultural materials.

BIO: Katharine Burnett is a professor of art history and a 2023 public scholarship and engagement fellow who co-chairs the university’s Department of Art and Art History. She is a Faculty Affiliate of the East Asian Studies Program who travels frequently to the tea lands. Katharine holds degrees from both the University of Michigan and Wellesley College and has taught at the University of California, Davis, for 27 years.

India Tea News: Tata Tea Under Scrutiny | India Mandates Sale of All Grades of Tea Dust at Auction | Atul Asthana Resigns as MD and CEO of the Goodricke Group | Aravinda Anantharaman | Tea Biz Blog | Podcast Episode 157 |

HEAR THE HEADLINES –  Ekaterra Names Nathalia Roos CEO and Pierre Laubies chair of the Board | Coca-Cola Launches an Herbal Tea Line in China | A Tea Scented Perfume Wins the Prestigious Art and Olfaction Award

| GUEST – Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington

| FEATURE INTRO – Kyle Whittington reviews The Teabowl: East and West, a book authored by Dr. Bonnie Kemske, a ceramic artist for the past 30 years, curator, and long-time student of the Japanese tea ceremony. 

The Teabowl: East and West – This wonderful book by Bonnie Kemske is a very personal, human look at an object and subject, the tea bowl, which can often be talked about in an all too esoteric or intensely academic way. What Bonnie succeeds so well in doing with her book is fusing the academic and esoteric contexts of the tea bowl with her personal experience as both a ceramicist and student of tea into a highly digestible book. Full to the brim with stunning images of all sorts of tea bowls. – Kyle Whittington.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – World Tea Expo Names “Best of” Award Finalists | Tea Tycoon Competitors Announced | Teaware Manufacturers Adopt Consumer to Manufacturer (C2M) Business Model Pioneered by Fast-Fashion | Study Suggests an EGCG-based Therapy for Treating Alzheimer’s

| GUEST – Wendy Weir, founder of Libre Inner Peace

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea nourishes and inspires. It is the most ancient of plant-based medicines — simultaneously energizing the body as it soothes the mind. This week join Tea Biz correspondent Jessica Natale Woollard and Wendy Weir, the founder of Libre Inner Peace, in a two-minute meditation with tea.

| Two-Minute Meditation With Tea – You’ll want a cup of tea by your side for this special live meditation on the Tea Biz podcast. In my porcelain cup is a white vanilla coconut tea from the Banff Tea Company in Alberta, Canada. It’s one of my go-to blends and scents the air with a lovely fragrance to complement the moment of peace we’re about to relax into. In just a moment, we’ll get right into the meditation with our guest, Wendy Weir, but keep listening after the meditation—I’ll chat with Wendy in a few minutes to learn more about her meditative practice and its connection to tea. So, pause what is occupying your mind, rest upon the nearest comfy chair, and let Wendy lead us on a two-minute journey of our home within.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Holiday Retail Cheer Spreads into the New Year | Expanding Value Addition in the Tea Lands | Australian Tea Masters Will Manage World Tea Academy

| GUEST – Tastewise Marketing Communications Manager Lee Brymer

| FEATURED – Lee Brymer explains that human-centered AI enables client companies, including Tata, PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Campbell’s, Mars, Chobani, and McCain, to capture and distill insights to make informed decisions, develop innovative strategies, and secure a competitive advantage. Our conversation draws on a 52-page report, “Flavor Beyond Intuition: Top Flavor and Ingredient Trends for 2024”. The report is available online at no charge.

Flavor Beyond Intuition: According to Lee Brymer, when it comes to experimentation in flavor in general, most people aren’t really willing to go too far away from what they know. “They want a taste of something new. They want that sense of adventure, that sense of exoticism, but often aren’t willing to, you know, pay money for something that they’re not sure is in line with what they’re looking for. The pumpkin spice or the apple brown sugar people, whether they know it or not, they relate to the spice in there. There’s the cinnamon, the cardamom, maybe nutmeg, so that’s where it comes in. That’s a great point when it comes to marketing, right? That might be something that consumers don’t know about. And it would be a big risk and probably a miss for a big brand to adopt something like that. But it works if they label it as something much closer to home, something that people already know about. 

Brymer joined Tastewise as a food and beverage insights advisor in 2022, advancing to senior consumer insights consultant before he was named marketing communication manager last fall. 

International Tea Day is Tuesday, May 21| Yogi Tea Recalls an Herbal Blend with High Levels of Pesticide Residue | Kenya President Urges Tea Sector to Add Value

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Retailers Hurry to Capture Holiday Cheer | Typhoo Tea is on the Brink of Collapse | Oriental Rise Tea Raises $7 Million from a Nasdaq IPO

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Tea Rebellion: Anatomy of a Purpose-Driven Brand | Annabel Kalmar, founder of Tea Rebellion, a small direct-trade single-farm tea venture founded in 2017, joins us today. Her company was certified as a B Corp in September 2022. Annabel describes the DNA of a purpose-driven tea venture and the challenge of changing how tea is traded, marketed, and consumed. The goal is to be a tea brand offering sustainable, transparent, award-winning tea, she says. Tea Rebellion does not offer blended or flavored tea. Farms are co-branded, and marketing draws attention to the farm and identity of growers. "To affect change, we need to credit the maker of the product," she says."To drive impact, I choose to work with tea farmers with a clear goal of sustainability and impact in their communities. Several of these farmers are female-run or committed to the empowerment and well-being of women," she says.

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Assam Small Tea Growers Pledge To Grow Clean Tea | North India Tea Production Lower by 60%

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Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will Apply to 50,000 Companies Worldwide in 2026 | Sri Lanka Tea Exports Strengthened in 2024 on Steady Production Gains | Tea is Trending in 2025 Reports Whole Foods Market

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US Tariff Exemptions Confound the Tea Industry | Nepali Banks Fearful of Secondary Sanctions Will Curtail Nepal Tea Exports | Mixue’s $444 Million Bubble Tea IPO is Hong Kong’s Largest of the Year

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Ekaterra Rebrands as LIPTON Teas and Infusions | CEO Nathalie Roos says rebranding will strengthen the company’s position as the world’s number one tea business | The First of Several Agriculture-Focused Satellites is Safely in Orbit | The Specialty Tea Institute Ceases Operations

| NEWSMAKER – Mou Dasgupta, founder of Brook37 Thé Atelier

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Tea Biz travels to Princeton, New Jersey, where Mou Dasgupta created Brook37 Thé Atelier, a new premium brand run by an all-woman production team. During our conversation, she describes her vision of a new era in tea.

Fresh Thinking for a New Era in Tea – Mou Dasgupta is pursuing her passion for tea after 25 years of trendsetting corporate leadership in the financial services industry. She developed a love for fine-quality tea while living in West Bengal, India, where she attended university in Calcutta. She trained in the sciences and holds a master’s degree in software engineering. She says Brook37 is proud to bring fresh thinking and an ethical and sustainable mindset to all we do,” she says. “Our unparalleled tea selection of flavors, aromas, and colors from around the world, along with exquisite packaging, help you choose a positive and aspirational lifestyle.”

Kangra's Tea Factories May See Revival | Tea Prices May Go Up As Procurement Costs Rise | CAG Report Highlights Poor Implementation of Labor Laws In Assam

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Author Lisa See has led a remarkable life in tea. Her great-great grandfather worked his way from a laborer on the transcontinental railroad to become a leader in the prosperous Chinatown in Los Angeles a century ago. Listen as she discusses how tea has influenced her life.

Iced Tea Demand Expands in Europe | Iran Shuns India for Sri Lankan Tea | Tea and the Stronger for Longer Dollar

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Iran Tea Company CEO Implicated in $3.7 Billion Embezzlement Scandal | Shipping Shock: Missile Threat Diverts Suez-Bound Tea Cargo | Malawi Anticipates a Steep Decline in Tea Production

| GUEST – Cindi Bigelow, President and CEO, R.C. Bigelow Tea

| FEATURED – In 2023, the tea industry bid farewell to several notable figures. In this episode, we pay tribute to David C. Bigelow, Jr., an industry icon who died in June at 96. A member of the silent generation born in the roaring 20s, David was a World War II veteran and 1948 Yale University graduate who transformed the specialty tea segment. He steered a boutique tea blending business launched in his mother’s kitchen into a multi-million-dollar mass-market brand. Joining us today is David’s daughter Cindi, President and CEO of Connecticut-based and family-owned R.C. Bigelow, a $250 million B-Corp known for innovations that redefined tea service in restaurants and grew the company to become the US market leader in specialty tea.

David C. Bigelow: Innovative Specialty Tea Pioneer – David C. Bigelow managed R.C. Bigelow Tea for 45 years beginning in 1960. Like many of the 55 million members of the Silent Generation, he was hardworking and humble. Survivors of the Great Depression and the horrors of war – these men and women were careful with their money, patriotic, and ambitious. The generation displayed characteristics of thrift, simplicity, patience, and a need for financial security and comfort. Cindi Bigelow is the third generation to lead Bigelow Tea, founded in 1945 by her grandmother, Ruth C. Bigelow. During her years as chief executive, sales have increased from $94 million in 2005 to more than $250 million. Bigelow Tea produces more than one hundred million unit boxes of tea annually and employs 450 people. She shares with listeners how her father and family expanded the specialty tea segment into the mass market grocery aisles "where he built an entire shelf presence" and then moved us into foil wrappers in food service. "We are the first in single-serve foil and pioneers in the away-from-home marketplace," she said.

Sri Lanka Names Rajpal Obeyesekere Tea Board Chair | Kenya Abandons Tea Auction Price Minimums | Tetley UK Tea Factory Walkouts Continue

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Planting Hope Acquires Argo Tea Assets | Foodtech Venture Will Market Tea and Veggies to College Students | Bangladesh Opens a Third Tea Auction Center | Coffee Overtakes Tea Consumption in the UK

| NEWSMAKER – Sabita Banerji, Founder and CEO THIRST, The International Roundtable for Sustainable Tea

| FEATURE INTRO – THIRST founder and CEO Sabita Banerji is overseeing a three-year human rights impact assessment of the tea industry. In August, she toured Kenya and Tanzania, seeking examples of innovative alternative approaches to better understand how tea workers and farmers see the future of tea. She joins Tea Biz from Oxford, England, to share insights from her travels.

Alternate Models Emerge as Tea Smallholders Aggregate – Control distributed amongst its elements makes for a much more powerful, stronger, sustainable, and more efficient entity, says THIRST CEO Sabita Banerji.

“I've seen some very good plantations in my travels, in India, in Tanzania, in Kenya, and I'm sure there are others in many other countries as well. But at the end of the day, a plantation is still a plantation, and the workers are still in that large entity,” says Banerji.

“I think that an alternative model of smallholder farmers sort of aggregating is starting to emerge in Tanzania and Kenya, where I've visited many different smallholder farms and a few plantations,” she said. “Just comparing the two, the difference between how a tea plantation worker lives and how a smallholder farmer lives are really quite significant.

“I think this model will gradually replace plantations in the long run,” she said.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – TAZO Tea Embraces Regenerative Ag | Ingredients in Reformulations are Verified Regenerative | Tea Labor Unrest in Bangladesh | Canada Requires Front of Pack Nutrition Warning Labels

| GUEST – Quentin Vennie, co-founder of Equitea, Baltimore, Maryland USA

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz this week travels to Baltimore, Maryland, to talk with Equitea co-founder Quentin Vennie about three new condition-specific canned, cold-brewed tea blends formulated to ease anxiety and depression, improve focus, and calm young people coping with ADHD.

Cold-Brewed Calm – Author and wellness expert Quentin Vennie, with his wife Erin, on the advice of their son’s neurologist, found that green tea helped their seven-year-old boy maintain calm and focus. Diagnosed with ADHD, a condition leading to impulsive, hyperactive behavior, tea’s unique combination of L-Theanine and Caffeine offered relief, but loose-leaf teas were challenging to brew and not that tasty to a pre-teen. Quentin and Erin added calming botanicals to make the tea palatable. Inspired by their success, they launched a tea venture that produced packaged teas that became a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow, whose company goop sells the teas online.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Delta Delivers Foodservice Setback | Why are Tea Tariffs Still in Place? | Tea Marathon Earns a Medal for Japan

| NEWSMAKER – Philippe Juglar, President AVPA (Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products)

| GUEST – Japanese Tea Marathon finisher Kyle Whittington, founder TeaBookClub

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz visits Japan for a victory celebration of the Tea Marathon, an event during the Tokyo Olympics that drew attention worldwide to 15 tea producing regions in a country famous for quality green teas… and then we travel to Paris, France as the deadline nears for a unique global competition in a tea consuming country that focuses on the gastronomic pleasure and profits of tea.

Victory for Japanese Tea Marathon

As athletes from around the world competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, tea lovers participated in an event of their own: the Japanese Tea Marathon. The marathon included 15 days of online events that shone a spotlight on Japan's teas, producers, and the 15 tea-producing regions. Led by the Global Japanese Tea Association and Japan Tea Central Council, tea marathoners learned about 30 Japanese teas, how to brew them, and where they're grown. Kyle Whittington, a Tea Biz contributor and host of the TeaBookClub, attended every tea marathon event, tasting 30 teas over 15 sessions. He gives the event a gold medal!

AVPA's Teas of the World Competition

The deadline to enter the AVPA’s 4th annual Teas of the World Competition is Aug. 31. Our guest, Philippe Juglar is president of AVPA (Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products), a Paris-based, non-governmental, non-profit organization that judges wine, chocolate, coffee, and teas best suited to local preferences. He joins us to discuss what it takes to be a winner in the only “gastronomic” tea competition in a consumer country that evaluates tea solely to promote the good practices of production and trade.

Dismantling USAID (the US Agency for International Development) has disrupted every project dedicated to improving the tea sector worldwide. The full impact remains to be seen as stakeholders assess the long-term consequences of the US policy shift. USAID has ongoing projects in 130 countries, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The USAID East Africa Mission is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and oversees projects in Tanzania, Malawi, and Rwanda. Their status is unknown. Since USAID public relations no longer responds to media queries, we are compiling this information and sharing it globally via Tea Biz Blog | Podcast

Reporters at news outlets are documenting the impact on health, disaster and refugee relief to focus attention on the plight of these programs, which may lead others to assist.

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – India Announces Tea Industry Reforms | US Considers Exemptions to Chinese Tariffs | and a Tribute to Nepal Teamaker Morris Orchard

| NEWSMAKER – Hiroshi Takatoh, founder Teatis Tea 

| GUEST – Jolene Brewster, founder Jolene's Tea House

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Alberta, Canada, high in the Canadian Rockies to visit one of several Swiss-inspired tea houses designed to provide high-mountain trekkers shelter and warmth... and then we visit Tokyo, Japan to meet tech and tea entrepreneur Hiroshi Takatoh whose Teatis Tea blends of brown seaweed and matcha are formulated to help diabetics and pre-diabetics control high blood sugar levels.

A Medicinal Tea from the Sea

Tea has an ancient history of medicinal applications, many of which have been validated by scientific research. Joining us from Tokyo is Hiroshi Takatoh CEO, founder, and blender who, with his team of food scientists and doctors at Japan-based Teatis Tea, is exploring a blend of brown algae and matcha tea as medicine. 

A High Mountain Haven

The rugged Canadian Rocky Mountains thrust nearly 20,000 feet into the sky, a haven for hikers that inspired a unique style of high-mountain tea houses built to provide warmth and shelter along the trail. In Banff, Alberta, Tea Biz correspondent Jessica Natale Woollard visits Jolene’s Tea House - a refuge for mind and body.

The executive chairman of Browns Plantations, soon to be the world's largest single-company producer of black tea, joins the Tea Biz Podcast to discuss the challenge of large-scale quality improvements at massive gardens on two continents.

Pradeep Uluwaduge currently oversees three leading plantation companies that manage 49 tea gardens in Sri Lanka as a single brand. The parent company’s acquisitions of Lipton Tea & Infusions plantations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, as well as James Finlay Kenya Estates in 2023, will expand Browns’ production capabilities to 87 million kilograms. Terms of the sale, which is expected to close soon, call for Browns to supply Lipton with most of its tea.

Lipton’s Chief Executive Officer, Nathalie Roos, announced the sale, saying, “We are really shifting from volume to quality of tea.”

Supplying quality tea at scale is a challenge Browns Plantations readily accepts.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Kenya’s Price Floor is Sagging | Finlays’ Cites Tea in its Top Beverage Trends | The Pandemic Shuffles Tea Export Ranks, a TEAIN22 forecast.| GUEST – Aravinda Anantharaman, Tea Biz India Chief Correspondent India| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Bengaluru where India Chief Correspondent Aravinda Anantharaman reviews a momentous year for the tea industry in a country that produces 20% of the world’s tea. Her report is the sixth in the series of TEAIN22 year-end reviews and forecasts. | Reorganizing and Reinvigorating India’s Tea Sector –India’s tea industry in 2021 recovered from severe setbacks due to the pandemic. Production totals rebounded in 2021 but exports lagged as global prices fell and logistics costs soared. A shortage of containers led to high freight costs. Export volume declined to a five-year low of fewer than 200 million kilos. Kenya undercut prices at auction for commodity black teas. Fortunately, India’s domestic demand remains firm, consuming 75% of locally grown tea. The year saw the pilot of the Japanese auction model, now named the Bharat auction, that launched in South India in January. Tea Board of India Chairman PK Bezboruah reports that high-quality teas are sold at a 150% premium over medium-quality teas. “The path forward for the organized sector is to focus on quality. Therein shines the silver lining,” he told the Times of India. Tea Biz asked tea industry stakeholders Anshuman Kanoria, Chairman, Balaji Agro International, Head of India Tea Exporters Association and owner of Tindharia, Goomtee and Jungpana gardens in Darjeeling; and Pranav Bhansali, managing partner, Bhansali & Co., what to expect in 2022.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Ekaterra Tea Underway | India Steps up Efforts to Halt Illegal Imports | Chinese Archaeologists Discover Oldest Tea Yet | NEWSMAKER – John Davison, CEO ekaterra tea | FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Singapore for a conversation with John Davison, CEO of ekaterra tea, soon to be the largest tea company in the world. Ekaterra is currently a division of Unilever that houses 34 tea brands including Lipton, PG Tips, TAZO, Brooke Bond, Pukka, and Red Rose. In November CVC Capital Partners, a multi-billion private equity firm headquartered in Luxembourg, paid $5.1 billion for ekaterra tea, outbidding several competitors and establishing a valuation based on 14x earnings before taxes and depreciation. Regulatory and antitrust reviews will take six months to complete. Ekaterra's First Steps – John Davison joined Unilever in March 2021 to carve out the company’s underperforming tea portfolio. Davison discusses the urgency of improving tea quality and adopting sustainable initiatives along the entire supply chain. Listen to his plans for reenergizing the world's largest tea company.

Devastating Monsoon Mudslides Kill Hundreds of Indian Tea Workers

| Kenya Estimates 20 Million Kilos of Last Year’s Harvest Remains Unsold | Traditional Medicinals Names New CEO

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Top Buyer Cargill Exits the Mombasa Tea Auction after 40 Years | Tea Importers Oppose Pakistan’s Minimum Retail Price | Nonprofit True Pricing Releases Food and Beverage Report

India Tea News

Tea Exports on a High | The First Assam Type Indian Tea Genome Decoded

GUEST – Jolly Old St. Nicholas (Santa Claus)

PLUS | The History of Tea at Christmas

The tradition of drinking tea, herbal infusions, and spiced beverages during the holiday season has evolved from medieval medicinal remedies to sophisticated and cherished modern holiday customs. These customs reflect centuries of cultural exchange, religious symbolism, and festive cheer. Who better to describe this history than our guest today, Santa Claus?

Jolly old St. Nicholas recounts the nearly two-thousand-year evolution of holiday beverages.

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Tea grower and organic tea brand owner Zubin Amiri is a champion of the Caspian Sea tea-growing region, an area that produces well-regarded Persian orthodox black teas. Iran’s 92 million residents consume around 80 to 90,000 metric tons of tea annually, most of which is imported. Consumption averages 1.23 kilos of tea per person (less than three pounds per person compared to the more than 6.5-pound average in 2013). In recent years, consumption has declined by more than half due to economic woes, competition with coffee, production declines due to erratic weather, and the burden of sanctions that date back to 1979.

Zubin joins us today to discuss the effect of the forced shift in trade from lucrative North America to European markets and, finally, Russia. He reports that while overall production declined last year to 28,000 metric tons, harvest totals could easily double by cultivating idled tea estates to meet domestic and overseas demand for premium, organic, pest-free, third-party certified teas.

BIO: Zubin Amiri is the CEO and founder of Zubin Organic, an Iranian agribusiness that produces tea, walnuts, oranges, raisins, and wild pistachios. He is the fifth generation to manage the family-owned business, which was founded in 1898.

Zubin has been a member of the board of the Iran Organic Association since 2008 and serves as vice president of the board of directors of Bio COOP of Iran.

He graduated cum laude from the Kogod School of Business at American University and holds a degree in French Studies at Ecole de Roches and a diploma from the Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland. More recently, he studied Global Sustainability Management at UCLA.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Health Symposium Reveals a Plethora of Science-based Benefits of Tea | COVID-Influenced Consumer Behaviors Present New Opportunities for the Tea Industry | Sri Lanka Tea Exports Decline 10%

| GUEST – Jagjeet Kandal, country head, IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Tea Biz travels to Bengaluru, where South Asia Editor and Producer Aravinda Anantharaman begins a two-part series on Realigning the Marketing of Indian Tea.

Realigning the Marketing of Indian Tea – India produces 20% of the world’s tea. Production, however, has stagnated for years. Costs are up prices flat. Professional tasters report sharp declines in quality. Marketing tea to domestic consumers is complicated -- but promising. Indians consume 90% of the tea grown there but mainly purchase lower grades. Per capita consumption is modest at 840 grams due to a preference for tea in blends, but tea is stocked in every household, and Indians drink two cups per day. Until recently, India exported virtually all its best teas. Tea discovery is discouraged as imports from China, Taiwan, and Japan are expensive due to high tariffs, but rising affluence is overcoming these obstacles.

Indian legislators are currently considering a draft Tea (Promotion and Development) Bill to remove colonial-era provisions regulating tea and re-direct the Tea Board of India’s resources to expand existing markets and promote tea domestically.

Holiday Shoppers Splurge Online, Setting a New Sales Record | TreeHouse Foods Acquires Harris Tea for $205 Million | Supreme Imports Buys Typhoo Tea for £10.2 Million

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HEADLINES – Summer is Off to an Extreme Start | British Authorities Recall Insect-Tainted Organic Infusion | Northwest Tea Festival will Host its 14th Edition in September

INDIA TEA NEWS – BBTC's Singampatti Group Ceases Operations at Oothu, Manjolai, Manimuttar Estates | ABLTMA Launches Mobile Testing Lab | New Tea Disease Discovered in Assam

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GUESTS – Sherman Ho, Chief Science and Technology Officer, Ellis Chua, Chief Commercial Officer, and Hoe Phong Tham, Head of Corporate at Profile Print, with tea buyer Ravi Pillai, Director of Quality and Development at DAVIDsTea in Montreal.

SPOTLIGHT | Assessing Tea Digitally

ProfilePrint Founder Alan Lai is a pioneer in digital food identity as a service (IDassS), which uses AI-driven portable analyzers to gather complex molecular data from ingredient samples. The result is a digital fingerprint that establishes the identity and predicts the quality of rice, grains, seeds (including coffee and cocoa), tea leaves, spices, and oils.

Alan explains that the objective is not to replace tasters who manually evaluate hundreds of cups daily, combining art and skill beyond the existing technology. The hyperspectral analysis is comparable to an off-site lab, but buyers and sellers benefit most from combining an organoleptic assessment to create a model of what they want. Sellers create a model of what they offer in a digital marketplace where matches are made in milliseconds.

The analyzers also reduce repetitive and mundane tasks like screening out undesirable samples before the meticulous preparation required for cupping. “Our clients view ProfilePrint as an apprentice who is ready to learn and helps complete tasks the same way we would have done them ourselves, freeing us up to focus on the more complex tasks,” he said. “Industry professionals don't enjoy mundane and repetitive jobs, but they still prefer to personally complete them as much as practically possible because it's difficult to rely on others when they are ultimately still held responsible.” Trusting and training an apprentice takes years without the certainty that it will always succeed,” writes Lai.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – India Tea Board Weighs Auditor Concerns: Additional Resources Needed to Market Tea | Overindulgence and High ABV Tea | India’s Oldest Captive Elephant Dies 

| GUEST -  Managing Editor Aravinda Anantharaman 

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea is intricately woven into India’s cultural tapestry. In its latest marketing campaign, Tata Tea Premium acknowledges and elevates several of the Indian state’s distinctive patterns in fabric and symbols of pride, drawing attention to the tea company’s extensive range of hyperlocal blends. Tata tells the story of extraordinary weavers whose homespun artistry was digitally enhanced in an interactive tribute to handlooms. Aravinda Anantharaman reports on this eye-catching effort: 

India’s Vivid Handloom Legacy –  Tata’s TV campaign features a celebrated singer at the heart of great campaigns that evoke nationalistic pride and emotion, which ties in with what Chai means to people nationwide. And that’s not all. The brand also launched one of the largest 3D LED anamorphic auto activations ever seen in the country in time for Independence Day at the DLF Cyber City Mall in Gurugram. Tata’s Desh Ke Dhaage campaign, celebrating India’s vivid handloom legacy, pushes creative boundaries to bring the consumer an experience that will visually delight and establish powerful connections. 

The September 30 deadline is nearing for tea and botanical growers and brands to submit entries in the annual "Teas of the World" Contest organized by AVPA, the France-based Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products – there are two distinct parts:

· Monovarietal teas (camelia sinensis), with many categories depending on the method of preparation of the leaves.

· Herbal teas (infusion plants other than camellia sinensis), blends, and flavored teas.

Carine Baudry, an expert in sensory analysis and founder of the Quintessence, chairs this year’s jury. Ksenia Hleap, who is responsible for communications and development of the AVPA programs, joins us from Paris to explain the many benefits of participating.

BIO- Ksenia joined AVPA in 2017 after several years of work in communications, product promotions, and brand management. She holds a master's degree in international project management from UPEC and a master’s in economics from SUD University in Paris. She graduated from Ural State Technical University in Sverdlovsk, Russia.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – A Daily Cup of Dark Tea Reduces the Risk of Diabetes: Researchers Demonstrate Tea Helps Control Blood Sugar Levels | Mintel Consulting: Consumers Feel Culpable for Climate Change | Kagoshima Benefits from Diverse Tea Exports

| GUESTS – Professor Katharine Burnett, Founder and Director of the Global Tea Institute for Tea Culture and Science at UC Davis, UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education Program Manager Heather D. Ogle, and Brendan Shah, CEO at ITI (International Tea Importers) in Los Angeles.

| FEATURE INTRO – The Global Tea Institute at UC Davis is a hub connecting tea professionals and academics, a virtual campus enabling the creation and sharing of new knowledge about tea. Last week, the Institute conducted the first of 15 Professional Tea Program lectures in collaboration with tea industry experts. The live online learning advances the vision of a Certificate Program for tea professionals. The deadline to register is Oct. 10

Tea Industry Leaders Sharing Knowledge from the Own-Lived Experience – Fifty years ago, career tracks for tea professionals were the province of global brands and expansive plantations. Future executives were recruited young, rigorously trained, and tested. Aspiring brokers spent hours in labs refining their ability to discern tea quality and set market prices. Future managers assimilated a wealth of knowledge as leaf line supervisors in the fields and junior factory officers. There is no substitute for on-the-job experience, but the 15 industry veterans who teach the course engage in a lively exchange of information among peers, replicating the one-on-one training essential to building confidence when dealing with real-world situations. GTI Founder and Director Prof. Katharine Burnett explains, "We started the UC Davis Global Tea Institute Professional Tea Program at the request of the tea industry. The instructors are largely from the industry itself. And that means these are leaders in the field who can talk to you about the tea supply chain, blending or plucking, and transport. They know from their own lived experience what they're talking about. Bringing this wealth of expertise to the classroom and the group is, frankly, pretty extraordinary."

SPOTLIGHT | Locking Carbon Away –

Shrey Agarwal grew up in Darjeeling, where his family owns the Selim Hill Tea Estate. Last year, he graduated from the well-known Birla Institute of Technology and Science at Pilani, majoring in mechanical engineering and chemistry. He founded Alt Carbon to permanently remove 5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. He focuses on the Indian tea industry alone, using Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), a geoengineering technique that speeds up the natural process of carbon removal from the atmosphere by applying crushed rock to soil. Editor Aravinda Anantharaman discusses his ambitions in this podcast.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Violent Protest Halt Ekaterra Tea Operations | Workers set fire to tea harvesting equipment | China Anticipating Massive COVID Wave | India’s Wagh Bakri Tea to Expand to 200 Tea Lounges by 2026 

| NEWSMAKER – Asia Siyaka Managing Director and CEO Anil Cooke 

| FEATURE INTRO – The world’s 14 public tea auctions account for 77% of global trade. Each year about 1.5 million metric tons of tea cross the trading desks of sell-side brokers. Asia Siyaka Managing Director and CEO Anil Cooke spoke to Tea Biz on a recent visit to his Colombo, Sri Lanka office. Cooke heads one of eight accredited brokerages responsible for assessing the quality and transacting the sale of millions of kilos of Ceylon teas generating more than 1 billion dollars annually. 

Inside Sri Lanka's e-Auction – In 1883 the Colombo Tea Auction sold its first five lots. Brokers now sell more than 5,000 metric tons weekly, about 300,000 metric tons yearly. The total represents 90% of Sri Lanka’s tea production. Auctions were conducted in person for 150 years until COVID-19 forced the Colombo Tea Traders Association (CTTA) to select, install and test a digital auction platform in May 2020. The first e-auction went live in only seven days with the help of CICRA Solutions, the local Microsoft affiliate. Several upgrades have followed. Looking over his shoulder, Cooke explains the digital bidding process that is now routine: 

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Pakistan’s Economic Crisis Threatens African Tea Trade | Kenya open to rice for tea barter to release five metric tons of tea stranded in Karachi | Asahi Launches SOU its First New Tea Brand in Decades | Tatcha Skincare Unveils a Virtual Forest Bathing and Meditation Experience

| NEWSMAKER – Narendranath Dharmara, an independent strategic and operations consultant in tea and agribusiness

| FEATURE INTRO – Narendranath Dharmaraj has developed a tea processing technique that yields the taste and aroma of orthodox with the intense color and fast brewing characteristics of cut, tear, and curl tea. The process results in a hybrid that can be blended to enhance the aroma and flavor of conventional CTC. The tea substrate can also be die-cut to resemble broken-leaf grades or 3D printed into myriad shapes and sold at a premium.

Tea Processing Reimagined – Since the 1960s, innovation has been limited to the development of machines that deliver economic efficiency, packaging, convenient formats, and flavors. It is time to explore new processing techniques. A makeover of the product paradigm is imperative. It's time to give camellia sinensis a new lease of life to boost consumer appeal for tea. Let’s shirk off the baggage of a 150-year-old mindset and get set for some development work that will change the rules of the game. Heritage is valuable. A stubborn mindset built over time diminishes value! 

Tea News Recap | March 15, 2024

Why is First Flush Tea so Tasty? Metabolites | Oversupply Threatens Kenya’s Harvest Windfall | World Tea Expo: An Infusion of Fresh Ideas Opens this Weekend

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Darjeeling Workers Bonus Demands End In Strike | Amul Plans To Diversify Into Tea

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Tariff Uncertainty Troubles Tea Industry | Kenya Appoints Task Force to Eliminate Tea Surplus | Developed Nations Pledge $300 Billion for Climate Mitigation

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| GUEST – Abhijeet Hazarika, Founder T Sigma Consultancy

PLUS | Frugal Innovation on the Farm

Capital-intensive advances in agricultural technology—ag-tech—are altering the efficiency and economics of cultivation. However, unlike commodity food crops, tea remains stubbornly labor-intensive. Tea plants are long-lived and require extensive infrastructure, including drainage improvements, flood protection, terracing, and planting shade trees. Fieldwork involves heavy fertilizer use, four-year pruning cycles, uprooting old stock, and maintaining extensive paths and access roads. Harvest rounds yielding 50 or fewer kilos of leaf per worker occur every eight to ten days during much of the year.

Abhijeet Hazarika, the former Head of Tea Process Innovation at Tata Global Beverages, explains that because every aspect of tea production is labor-intensive, tea is on the threshold of transformation, as mechanization and automation demonstrate. Since capital is limited and the return on investment is not substantial, Hazarika has made himself a champion of frugal innovation.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Snarls in Logistics and Cool Weather Slow China's Tea Harvest | Crisis in Sri Lanka Worsens | Shizuoka Hand-Rolled Tea Brings a Record 1.96 million Yen at Auction

| GUEST – Jane Pettigrew, BEM, author, educator, consultant, and founder of the UK Tea Academy

| FEATURE INTRO – Jane Pettigrew describes the remarkable evolution of the UK Tea Academy into an innovative global tea education resource that has emerged from the chaos of COVID-19

Online Adaptations Enhance and Expand Tea Education – By Dananjaya Silva | PMD Tea The United Kingdom Tea Academy is recognized as a world authority for online tea education. Staffed by professional tutors, the Academy offers courses from beginner to advanced. I sit down with the Director of Studies, Jane Pettigrew, who is a leading author and speaker on tea, along with Suranga Perera, the chief instructor of the Ceylon tea program, who counts over 20 years of experience in tea and is the former CEO of Ceylon tea brokers PLC.

Wayanad Rescue Update | Tea Board Officials Visit North Bengal Gardens | Trustea Issues First Version 3 Certification

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Japan’s Ag Ministry Plans Stimulus to Address Matcha Shortfall | Tea’s Unexpected Role in Filtering Heavy Metals | Caffeine Intake Rises as Consumers Opt for Coffee

Commentary by Dan Bolton | Ending De Minimis Exemption is Short-Sighted | Eliminating the $800 de minimis tariff exemption will significantly impact the U.S. tea industry. The recent imposition of a 10% tariff on top of the 7.5% duty on Chinese tea, with a threatened additional 10% duty under discussion, has disrupted and burdened quality-driven tea enthusiasts and small businesses. Removing the de minimis exemption further alienates those committed to quality and innovation in the tea market. Rather than a blanket removal, U.S. policymakers should explore targeted solutions, such as industry-specific exemptions, that assist small-scale imports while addressing trade concerns. Otherwise, this decision will make premium tea less accessible for consumers and disadvantage U.S. retailers against global competitors.

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On the eve of World War II, London’s tea brokers sold 60% of the world’s tea, but when the London auction resumed in 1951, the bulk of tea was transacted in the tea lands. Today, most of the world’s tea is auctioned at regional tea centers in India, Africa, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. In July, the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association organized a London-style Open Outcry Auction for Charity that earned 46 million rupees (about $150,000) to build 130 “smart” classrooms and provide English Language lessons for the children of tea workers.

Today, Dan takes us into the auction hall, where the bidding is about to begin.

Punitive US Trade Rules Boost Cost of Chinese Tea Imports | Shuttering USAID Halts Tea Projects Globally | Revitalizing Nepal’s Tea Sector: A New Push for Safe and Healthy Workplaces

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Kenya May be Forced to Borrow Billions to Pay Grower Bonus | China and Vietnam Tea Exports Rebound in 2024 | Turkish Agronomists Seek Drought-resistant Black Sea Tea

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Tea Harvest Gets an Early Start | Traditional Medicinals Unveils First Certified Biodegradable Tea Wrapper | American Botanical Council Launches a Public Database of Natural Products that Meet Natural Health Science Foundation Standards | Historic Goomtee Estate Bungalow Burns | The 1899 structure took three hours to extinguish, a total loss

| NEWSMAKER – Saeed Al Suwaidi, Director of Agri Commodities at Dubai Multi Commodities Center

| FEATURE INTRO – After a five-year hiatus, the Dubai Multi Commodities Tea Center is hosting its biennial Global Tea Forum on April 25-27 at The Address Dubai Marina Hotel, with discounted tickets now available. Saeed Al Suwaidi, Director of Agri Commodities at DMCC and a respected executive and technologist, shares with listeners his perspective on some of the issues to be addressed during the DMCC Tea Forum.

Unpacking the Future of Tea – The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, founded in 2002, is the world’s largest and most successful free trade zone, now supporting 18,000 companies from many industries and sectors. DMCC’s Tea Center, founded in 2005, is a global hub for value addition and the top tea re-exporter in the world.

Saeed Al Suwaidi, the Director of Agri Commodities at DMCC Dubai, says, “It’s amazing how everything in this industry is starting almost like a reset. People are looking at it with fresh eyes, t think. I mean, one of the things about this year is it’s not an exceptional year. The past five years for us have been very different with COVIO lockdowns, and everything that has happened during those years changed us, I think, forever. So there’s much eagerness for everything to resume almost normal.

Suwaidi says, “People call it the poor man’s drink because it’s accessible to everybody. And it’s widely traded, you know, and it’s over $50 billion worth of trade annually, and this is going up by at least 30 to 35 to 40% in the next ten years. And so there’s a lot of opportunity.”

US Dockworkers End East Coast and Gulf Ports Strike | Nepal Growers Were Largely Spared in Record Flash Flooding | Researchers Affirm Tea Reduces Risk of Stroke

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – USDA National Organic Program Strengthens Enforcement | The revised NOP rules, published Jan. 19, expand certification requirements to brokers and traders at critical links in the organic supply chain. | World Tea Expo announced its lineup of Speakers | Early discount deadline is Jan. 31 | Kenya Tea Production Falls to Five-Year Low

| NEWSMAKER – Elyse Petersen, Founder, and CEO of Tealet in Las Vegas, Nev.

| FEATURE INTRO – “Peace Elyse” Petersen has spent her days live streaming about her life in tea for the past two years on POCOCHA, a novel, non-commercial Japanese marketing app.

Marketing Tea Livestream – Elyse Petersen is an empathetic storyteller whose knowledge of tea preparation and teaware stands out on the Pococha live streaming platform in the USA, where she is one of the platform’s top broadcasters.

Live streaming has proven to be an effective and profitable way to sell products, especially in China, where two-thirds of consumers have reported buying products via live stream in the past year. The market for livestream shopping has grown rapidly, from $3 billion in transactions in 2017 to more than $171 billion in five years. US transactions via live streaming will be expected to reach $56 billion in 2023. The global market for live-streaming services is valued at $1.03 billion. McKinsey Digital predicts that by 2026, up to 20% of all eCommerce sales will be done via live stream, indicating that live streaming is not just a temporary trend but a long-term shift in how people shop online.

The International Wine & Food Society chose tea for its annual beverage monograph this year and selected tea expert Will Battle to author the pocket-sized 102-page The World of Tea, published in May.

“Why tea?” writes Andrea Warren for the IWFS International Secretariat, QUOTE: “Tea needs further exploration as it increasingly becomes part of the gastronomic scene, along with its diversity of styles and flavors, it is attracting the attention of new drinkers—including those keen to enjoy low-alcohol drinks and those that bring health benefits and well-being. The similarities between tea and wine are numerous, which may well also pique the interest of wine drinkers,” she writes.

Will joins us today from his family farm in the Lincolnshire countryside to discuss the importance of tea education and the role of tea in promoting health. He also discusses the joy of authoring and paging through a printed monograph, one of a series that spans decades.

BIO: Will Battle is a British tea expert who runs Fine Tea Merchants Ltd, an import and wholesale business. He has been tasting teas and creating blends for tea lovers for the past 25 years. He authored the World Tea Encyclopedia, published in 2017, with a second edition in 2020.

Andrea Warren, speaking for the non-profit International Wine & Food Society founded in London in 1933, writes QUOTE: “It was felt Will was ideally suited to give an introduction to the world of tea.” The organization will make the monograph available to its 6,500 members in 130 branches in Europe, North America, Africa, Australia, and Asia. A digital version will be available for purchase from the society, visit www.iwfs.org or the Tea Biz blog for details.

If you are like me and imagine that Chai was part of our traditional kitchens, that sweet, milky, boiled concoction was handed down like a well-loved legend, you’d be surprised to know that chai is very much a 20th-century creation.

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Dozens of teas and tisanes were displayed at the 68th Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. Healthful, functional, and sustainably produced plant-based beverages with clean labels were in the spotlight—along with purpose-driven brands aligned with consumers’ desire for authenticity and social responsibility. Ethical Food and Beverage Marketer Gillian Christie, CEO of Christie & Co. in Santa Barbara, Calif., joins us this week to share her insights after three busy days maneuvering among the crowd of 30,000 walking the Javits Center show floor.

Gillian has been helping ethical companies grow for more than 30 years. As a former talk show host of a nationally syndicated green radio talk show, Gillian provides fresh, experienced, and dynamic insight and strategies to build companies into Iconic Brands based on value, meaning, and ethics. Gillian’s greatest passion is helping ethical companies succeed in making the world a better place.

US Food and Drug Administration Permits Tea Marketers to Use the Label Claim “Healthy” | Extreme Weather Depressed 2024 Tea Yields Globally | Tea Bags Found to Release Billions of Nanoparticles Absorbed by Human Tissue

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Beverage Multinationals Suspend Operations in Russia | Once Unleashed, Sanctions Have an Unpredictable Bite | Extreme Winter Transitions to a Gentle Spring  

| NEWSMAKER – Ian Gibbs, chairman since 2016 of the International Tea Committee  

| FEATURES – This week, Tea Biz travels to the UK offices of the International Tea Committee, where Chairman Ian Gibbs describes several immediate and possibly long-term impacts on the global tea trade - stemming from the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.  

Payment Concerns Further Disrupt Tea Supply Chain – During a period of upheaval caused by the pandemic, the tea industry’s newest worries include guaranteeing payment for containers of tea without violating sanctions while booking scarce carriers for shipments to the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

As the ruble’s value collapsed, Russian tea buyers accustomed to favorable credit terms now find it difficult to secure the financing needed to pay upfront, according to Ian Gibbs, chairman since 2016 of the International Tea Committee (ITC). Gibbs predicts a dip – but not a significant drop in the volume of tea shipped to the world’s third most valuable tea market. In 2020 the Russian Federation imported 142,000 metric tons of tea valued at more than $400 million and produced 4,000 metric tons of its tea, grown in Southern Russia along the coast of the Black Sea near Sochi.

Kenya’s Annual Tea Bonus Brings Strife | Sri Lanka Reinstates Minimum Daily Wage Challenged in High Court | Lipton CEO Nathalie Roos Resigns

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Sri Lanka is Advancing from Ozone-Friendly to Zero-Carbon Tea | Kenyan Judge Orders Review of Sale of Lipton and James Finlay Tea Estates | Starbucks Rolls Out Siren Craft System

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China Discourages Speculation in Tea and Herbal Medicinals | Ceylon Tea Export Revenue Rises | Pretty Tasty Receives Accolades for its Collagen Beauty Tea

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QTrade Teas & Botanicals, one of the biggest tea blenders and packers in the United States, is relocating from Cerritos, California, to Houston, Texas, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico.

Construction of a state-of-the-art facility in Brookshire is underway, with a move-in date in September. The new facility will double the company’s temperature-controlled manufacturing space and warehouse up to seven million pounds of tea and botanicals. Expanded capabilities include automated packaging, tea and powder blending, micro-reduction capabilities, and expanded 3PL logistics services.

QTrade CEO Manjiv Jayakumar discusses the business and quality-of-life considerations that led to the move.

Manjiv was named QTrade’s chief executive officer in 2010, originally a trading company his father founded in his uncle’s garage in 1994. QTrade specializes in sourcing organic tea and botanicals and has grown to be one of the largest organic tea suppliers and contract manufacturers in North America. Manjiv is a Harvard graduate with a master's in public policy and a degree in foreign service from Georgetown University. Prior to joining QTrade, Manjiv worked with Goldman Sachs in New York and London.

Kenya May be Forced to Borrow Billions to Pay Grower Bonus | China and Vietnam Tea Exports Rebound in 2024 | Turkish Agronomists Seek Drought-resistant Black Sea Tea

INDIA TEA NEWS – Wayanad Rescue Update | Tea Board Officials Visit North Bengal Gardens | Trustea Issues First Version 3 Certification

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GUEST – Author Will Battle, Founder Fine Tea Merchants, Ltd.

PLUS | The World of Tea –

The International Wine & Food Society chose tea for its annual beverage monograph this year and selected tea expert Will Battle to author the pocket-sized 102-page The World of Tea, published in May.

“Why tea?” writes Andrea Warren for the IWFS International Secretariat, QUOTE: “Tea needs further exploration as it increasingly becomes part of the gastronomic scene, along with its diversity of styles and flavors, it is attracting the attention of new drinkers—including those keen to enjoy low-alcohol drinks and those that bring health benefits and well-being. The similarities between tea and wine are numerous, which may well also pique the interest of wine drinkers,” she writes.

Will joins us today from his family farm in the Lincolnshire countryside to discuss the importance of tea education and the role of tea in promoting health. He also discusses the joy of authoring and paging through a printed monograph, one of a series that spans decades.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Middle East Unrest Heightens Tea Logistics Concerns | Iran Running Short of Tea | Just Ice Tea Raises $14 Million to Expand Distribution | Wagh Bakri Executive Director Parag Desai, 49, Dies Fleeing Stray Dogs

| GUEST – Tahira Nizari, co-founder and CEO of the Kazi Yetu Tea Collection

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz traveled to Tanzania last week to explore the tropical Usambara tea-growing region. There, I met with smallholder farmers, tea makers, traders, tea sellers, members of the Tea Board of Tanzania, and a tiny cooperative of 14 families deep in the jungle who invited me to watch as they hand-rolled and wood-fired organic black tea that always sells out on “market day” in the local village. I recount my adventure beginning today with Tahira Nizari, a savvy business school graduate and humanitarian who 2018 founded Kazi Yetu. This specialty tea brand advances the role of women in Tanzania’s tea industry.

Value Addition at Origin Enhances the Lives of Tea Workers – Kazi Yetu sources much of its tea from the Sakare farmer’s cooperative in the Usambara Mountains, a range in northeastern Tanzania that is 90 kilometers long and about half that wide. Usambara is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, with a virgin rainforest that rises to more than 7,500 feet (about 2,289 meters above the Indian Ocean). Teas are finished and transported to the port at Dar es Salaam, where 35 women are employed in blending, packaging, and distributing tins and canisters of specialty tea available globally.  

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Sri Lankan Tea to the Rescue | India’s Monsoon Rainfall Exceeds 2021 Totals | Vancouver Hosts Bubble Tea Festival July 22-23

| GUEST – Ksenia Hleap, Director of Communications and Development at Agence pour la Valorisation des Produits Agricoles (AVPA) 

| FEATURE INTRO – The Fifth Edition of the annual Teas of the World International Contest is underway. Tea producers from around the world are invited to submit entries to AVPA, the Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products. Samples are due by the first of August. 

More than a Medal – AVPA’s annual tea competition offers more than a medal. The organization was founded to assist producers of various agricultural products, including edible oils, coffee roasted at origin, and chocolate elaborated at origin. During the past five years, AVPA has elevated the status of tea producers large and small, not only on the global stage but, most notably, in their local markets.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Retail Forecasters Predict Happy Holidays | Restaurant Reticence is in Decline 

| A Restructured DAVIDsTEA Expands into Pharmacies

| NEWSMAKER – Subhasish Borah, Urbanist and Tea Enthusiast, Co-founder Folklore Tea, Guwahati, Assam

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Guwahati in Assam, India where the co-founders of Folklore Tea engage customers with an unusual level of intimacy. 

Folklore Intimately Engages Tea Customers 

Folklore Tea is anchored in storytelling. Marketing is simple and sincere. Packets are numbered with a handwritten note acknowledging the farmer who grew and hand-processed the company’s selection of small-batch Assamica wulongs and black teas, including premium organic CTC. The year-old artisan brand christens its teas with local words that carry a special meaning and includes in every packet an original poem describing the story of the tea.

Proposal: Global Alliance to Creatively Constrain Tea Production | Luxmi Tea Acquires Rwanda’s Sorwathe Tea Estate | TikTok Sensation Inspires Sprite+Tea

India Tea News

Singtom Tea Garden Bungalows In Darjeeling Burn | Kangra Tea Promotion Plans Announced | Ratan Tata Passes Away at 86

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GUEST – Elizeth van der Vorst, Amigos do Cha

NEWSMAKER - George Omuga, managing director, East African Tea Trade Association

PLUS | Amigos do Chá

Brazil is a vast beverage market with a well-established tradition of tea and herbal infusions. Coffee and yerba mate dominate, but at-home tea is projected to generate $8 billion in sales this year, and restaurant, delivery, and takeaway tea sales will add $6 billion more. Growth is powered by evolving health and wellness trends that favor diverse and distant teas and blends. Conversations among young, urban consumers seeking healthier lifestyles now center on origins, styles, and functionality. Low-calorie, preservative-free beverages are associated with relaxation and well-being.

This week, editor Aravinda Anantharaman interviews veteran importer and retailer Elizeth van der Vorst. Her business, Amigos do Chá (Friends of Tea), is located near São Paulo, the hub of specialty tea, a market she has served for 30 years.

Bio: Elizeth van der Vorst has been a Brazilian tea importer since 1994. Her company, Amigos do Cha, embodies her love of tea and its power to bring people together. Elizeth has been our friend at Tea Journey for several years. Among other things, she feels a deep love for India, particularly Darjeeling. In 2022, Elizeth and her husband Gerard made their maiden trip to India, that was years in the planning. She has returned yearly and plans to lead a tour group from Brazil, South America, and Europe to India in 2025. Elizeth speaks about her love for India and why she can’t wait to bring tea lovers here.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Russian Invasion Roils Tea Trade | Duncans Troubled Tea Gardens are Bought Out of Bankruptcy | The Pandemic Transformed Tea Tourism, a TEAIN22 Forecast

| NEWSMAKER – Anil Cooke, managing director and CEO of Asia Siyaka Commodities 

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Colombo, Sri Lanka to assess the impact of the war in Ukraine on one of the Russian Federation’s most important tea trading partners. Correspondent Dananjaya Silva spoke with veteran exporter Anil Cooke, managing director and CEO of Asia Siyaka Commodities. Cooke's insights offer clarity amid a fast-changing crisis that is disturbing global harmony in tea.

Sri Lanka's Close Ties to Russia and Ukraine –Russia, which annually imports 150,000 metric tons of tea faces an unprecedented combination of payment and logistics barriers that are already interrupting supply. The combined resolve of governments condemning the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has created uncertainty over prompt clearance of payments. Sanctions that exclude Russian banks from the SWIFT global payment system and threats to the liquidity of Russia’s Central Bank led to a severe devaluation of the ruble making tea imports far more costly. In addition, closing airspace and the collective refusal of the world’s shipping companies to deliver or receive goods pose severe barriers to the movement of tea.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – | Generation Z and Leisurely Tea | Survey Shows Retail Frontline Workers Exhausted and Underappreciatedand | India’s Tea Employment Plateau | PLUS Tea Biz travels to Kansas City, Missouri to discuss with Emilie Jackson, founder of Emilie’s French Teas, the ongoing evolution of specialty retail at independent shops and tearooms.

| GUEST – Emilie (Potier) Jackson, co-founder Emilie's French Teas

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz this week travels to Kansas City, Missouri, where we discuss with Emilie Jackson, founder of Emilie’s French Teas, the ongoing evolution of specialty retail at independent shops and tearooms.The French Finish – Emilie’s retail shop and tearoom, founded in 2015, spans 2,500 sq.ft., seats 10, and is co-located with The Centered Spirit, her husband Alex’s holistic medicine practice. Emilie was born in France and grew up in Paris. A graduate of the Sorbonne in business management with post-graduate degrees in marketing. Fluent in Spanish, Emilie was marketing manager for Lacoste in Mexico City. Emilie curates a selection of brands that share the “French Finish,” a blending style that showcases French expertise in wine, culinary, essential oils, and perfume for more subtle and smoother tasting blends.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Kenya's Nandi County Assembly Considers a 4900pct Tax Increase on 150,000 Acres of Tea Lands | Major Tea Producers All Report Half Year Export Declines | Green Tea Market Growth Accelerates

| GUEST – TeaBookClub Founder Kyle Whittington

Tea House Recipes to Make at Home – TeaBookClub founder Kyle Whittington describes Easy Leaf Tea by Postcard Teas founder Timothy d’Offay as a "tea recipe book with a difference. This sumptuously illustrated book focuses on recipes for brewing tea and tea-centric kitchen creations. This isn’t a book about cakes with a dash of tea thrown in; this is tea, tea, and more tea, but with a twist. Tea is, as it rightly should be, the star of the show. Indeed, the book has the feel of the d’Offay’s London shop: incredible teas, thoughtful brewing, and a big splash of heart.”

Red Sea Shipping Attacks Pause Following Gaza Cease-Fire | Carlsberg Acquires UK Beverage Bottler Britvic for $4.28 Billion | Researchers Find Lower Mortality in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease Who Consume Oxidized Tea

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – There’s Ample Tea for Sanctioned Russians: After six months of sanctions, the tea aisles in Russian grocery stores display few European brands, but the shelves are not bare | Kenya’s Tea Industry Suffers Collateral Damage Due to Sanctions | Tata Consumer Products is on the Hunt

| NEWSMAKER – Kevin Gascoyne, partner Camellia Sinensis, Montreal, Canada

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz travels to the newly remodeled Camellia Sinensis tea house in Montreal, Canada, for a conversation with partner Kevin Gascoyne: Our stores have always offered options to smell the tea, he says, but we wanted to capture that special tasting moment and offer the possibility to take it further.

The Evolution of Experiential Retail – The Camellia Sinensis retail store has undergone many physical changes since 2001 when it first opened in a space adjacent to the established teahouse, but this is the most extensive, says partner Kevin Gascoyne, one of four master tea merchants who own the venture. The company wholly reimagined and remodeled its brick-and-mortar flagship after COVID-19 lockdowns forced the teahouse to close. The new design incorporates many time-proven aspects of tea retail – the most important of which is sampling. Gascoyne explains that clients appreciate the opportunity to select their tea sensorially. But he says, “despite continued popularity and regular lineups of clients eager to visit, the changing times meant that those precious moments of magic we created with such love and care barely paid the bills. It required enormous micro-management and many staff to offer such a complete experience to so many people. We are done with the impracticalities of the sit-down visit, but we wanted to capture that special tasting moment and offer the possibility to take it further.”

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Dietary Recommendations Proposed for Flavanols found in Tea | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) to consider dietary recommendations for first bioactive compounds | Colombo Tea Auction Prices Reach an All-Time High | India Rolls Out a Digital Retail Network for Small Grocers 

| NEWSMAKER – Raj Vable, founder of Young Mountain Tea

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Tea Biz travels to the Himalayan peaks of Kumaon, India, where Raj Vable, founder of Young Mountain Tea, is helping finance the construction of a farmer-owned tea processing facility with a capacity of 75,000 metric tons per year ⎼ enough to sustain a village of several hundred workers.

Building a Future and a Factory – Oregon-based Young Mountain Tea recently announced its latest funding of $1.1 million. The brand works closely with the tea community in Kumaon, India, offering growers a sales platform via Young Mountain Tea. India correspondent Aravinda Anantharaman met with Young Mountain's founder Raj Vable to discuss community and brand plans. Vable explains, "we wanted to find funding to launch a community-owned and operated factory not just to process tea but to empower farmers. We recognized that traditional venture capital funding was not appropriate. So, partnering with Frontier Co-Op, we secured a grant from USAID to build a factory co-owned by ourselves and local farmers."

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Coca-Cola Discontinues the Iconic Honest Tea Brand | The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that Embracing Sustainable Agriculture is Essential for Tea Smallholders | Starbucks Exits the Russian Market after 15 years, closing 130 locations

| GUESTS – Denise Atkinson and Marc Bohémier, co-founders of Tea Horse in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

| FEATURE INTRO – Jessica Natale Woollard travels to the northern shores of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada, where Anishinaabe tea blenders of the First Nation’s Obijwe clan combine locally harvested wild rice with imported Japanese sencha to create roasted wild rice genmaicha. They call the roasted rice blend manoomin cha (wild rice tea).

Canada’s Version of Genmaicha with an Indigenous Twist – In Japan, it’s called genmaicha; in Korea, hyeonmi-cha. Canada’s version of tea blended with Canadian wild rice is called manoomin cha. Jessica Natale Woollard chats with Tea Horse proprietors Denise Atkinson and Marc Bohémier about their new Canadian version of roasted rice in three flavors: ManoominCha, ManoominCha Dark, and Manoominaabo Tisane.

NEWS HEADLINES – Sri Lanka Launches Expansive Ceylon Tea Promotion | Green Tea Compound Acts Like a Superhero Sidekick to Cancer Cell Suppressor | Lipton IPO Likely in 2021 | Tea Tourism Stirs from a Deep Pandemic-Induced Slumber

FEATURES – This week Tea Biz reports on T.Kettle, a Canadian retail chain launched at the height of the pandemic that features ethically sourced, vegan, organic, loose leaf teas…and travels to Sri Lanka for a look at an impressive digital marketing initiative created by seven small enterprise entrepreneurs promoting Ceylon tea.

T. Kettle - “In any tough times – and this is certainly one of them – opportunities present themselves,” writes 36-year-old T. Kettle founder Doug Putman, a turnaround investor who has opened 45 tea retail locations in nine Canadian provinces and six U.S. states. He plans to expand to 100 stores in 2021. Tea Biz takes you to Coquitlam, British Columbia for a walk through one of the newest mall locations.

Small Enterprise Marketing - The Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association, a collaboration of seven tea producers in Sri Lanka, hosted their third “garden tour” webinar this week. Webinar participants travel virtually to see the garden, processing facilities and meet principals and ask questions face-to-digital-face. Simon Bell, managing director at Amba Tea Estate, writes that “digital marketing is often one of the biggest challenges for small growers and rural entrepreneurs in emerging markets.” Tea Biz asked Bell to discuss the effectiveness of this new approach.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – AVPA Announces 37 Teas of the World Gold Medal Winners | Coca-Cola India and Luxmi Tea Relaunch Honest Iced Tea | Sri Lanka Urges Smallholders to Increase Planting Density

| NEWSMAKER – Eduardo Alberto Molina Anfossi, Head of Tea Experience for P&T (Paper & Tea) Berlin

| FEATURED – Tea retailer Paper & Tea has emerged from the pandemic with renewed vigor, opening seven new stores in 2022, including their first retail location outside Germany. The Vienna store was a catalyst as the Berlin-based tea merchant has since opened airy storefronts in Zurich, Switzerland, Utrecht in the Netherlands, Bruges in Belgium, Copenhagen in Denmark, and soon in Oslo, Norway, with more to come. There are now 30 locations across Europe, 23 of which are in Germany. High ceilings and large windows have a captivating effect on passersby attracted to their brightly lit interiors, colorful displays, and a wide variety of fine teas to sample. Today, we are joined by Tea Sommelier Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience for P&T, the man who is responsible for creating an alluring experience for every customer who visits.

P&T Experiential Retail Stores Entice the Passing Crowd – Tea is well suited to experiential retail, a type of physical retail marketing that offers customers experiences beyond browsing. Tea retailers worldwide are experimenting with sophisticated sampling, live music, art, interactive displays, video walls, and even making cameras available for customers to record and share experiences. Eduardo Molina, 37, is originally from Chile, a narrow coastal country whose people drink more tea than any country in South America. Eduardo embraced the tea-drinking culture, discovering his passion for tea working in hospitality at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Santiago in 2007. He has since traveled extensively in the tea lands. “The culture and history of tea is fascinating,” he says. His special focus is training. “I love training people how to present, sell, and tell stories about tea,” says Eduardo. He has ten years of retail experience, including three years as the co-founder and tea sommelier of Adagio Teas in Chile. He taught at the Chilean Tea Academy and joined P&T in Berlin in May 2018 as product manager for new business development. As Head of Tea Experience, he is responsible for marketing the new properties and training staff. He leads the team that created the in-store experience at every location, including the company’s soon-to-open 31st store.

North American Tea Conference Attendees Discuss the Power of Collaboration | Kenya's Big Plans to Celebrate its Tea Centenary | S&P Downgrades Lipton Parent Company CVC Capital Partners

INDIA TEA NEWS

Bonus Decisions In North Bengal | Climate-smart Seed Stock Introduced | NYC-based Kolkata Chai Co. Gets Backing from Hasan Minhaj  

GUEST: Ashok and Rohan Kuriyan, Balanoor Plantations, South India

PLUS | The Resilience of Intercropping

Tea is a principal source of livelihood for nine million small and medium-sized producers, who account for 60% of global tea production. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), they are the “backbone” of the sector, but cultivating only tea is not sustainable. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, "Tea is extremely vulnerable to climate-related events, so it is vital to promote measures such as planting drought- and stress-tolerant cultivars, diversifying production and intercropping tea."

Incorporating mixed cropping can lead to a more resilient, sustainable, and profitable tea farming system, especially for smallholders with limited resources who need to optimize their land use and reduce risks.

Rural entrepreneurs Ashok Kuriyan and his son Rohan, who own and manage Balanoor Plantations in South India, join us today to discuss the importance of intercropping to sustain tea and coffee farms.

Wagh Bakri Plans Expansion in 2025 | Tocklai Launches Learning Platform

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Beyond Matcha | Matcha, a shining success story that revived the Japanese tea industry, also paved the way for enthusiasts interested in other Japanese teas, such as hojicha, a light brown colored green tea roasted in porcelain pots over charcoal. Noli Ergas, Senior Account Manager in the Seattle offices of Sugimoto Tea, joins us this week to explain how matcha’s success instills hope for the future of the Japanese tea industry, especially among younger consumers who prefer sweeter, less bitter teas to the traditional “grassiness” of Japanese greens.

Texas native Noli Ergas discovered green tea in his teens, researching and refining his palate from Arizona RTD convenience store cans to exquisite artisan “works of art.” After he moved to Japan, his professional journey in tea unfolded with the successful completion of the intense training required of a Certified Japanese Tea Advisor

HEAR THE HEADLINES – | India High Court Reverses Assam Tea Worker Wage Increase | Kenyan Tea Factory Elections Suspended | Study Finds Growers Adapting to Climate Change

| GUEST – Shunan Teng, founder of the Tea Drunk tea house in York City and the pandemic-inspired online Tea Education Club and monthly tea subscription service offering China’s heritage teas.

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz discusses a retail-inspired tea education club that delves deeply in the “geeky” aspects of terroir, horticultural practices, and processing during rare-tea cupping sessions at home…. and we travel to London to weigh the marketing value of third-party certifications against authentic “boots-on-the ground” community involvement tailored to local needs.

Online Tea Education Club in a Class All its Own

New York’s Tea Drunk tea house is normally bustling with tea lovers gathered to sip and learn. Since opening in 2013, founder and first-generation immigrant Shunan Teng, an accomplished speaker and educator, taught by example, telling stories of her annual buying trips while pouring tea for customers. Last March, Teng, who normally spends three months a year with heritage growers in China, was grounded – worse yet, her thriving business was locked down.

Certifications Soothe the Conscience, But Do They Deliver for the Communities Where Workers Reside?

In principle tea certification programs have positive impacts but in practice results are highly location-specific and mixed. Farmgate prices generally rise along with gross income, but so do that are borne by farmers in about 60 percent of certification programs. An imperative for marketers seeking to export tea – tea certifications soothe the conscience of retailers and consumers, but do they address the needs and interests of tea workers in the communities in which they reside?

Bonus Discussions Continue | Tea Board Announces Funds To Promote Domestic Consumption | Elephant Attack in the Nilgiris Claims Third Life In 3 Months

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HEAR THE HEADLINES – Scrutiny of Tea Supply Chain Intensifies | An online Tea Traceability Tracker permits consumers to compare sustainability policies of tea supply chains | Tea Auction Prices Remain Firm as Inflation Ebbs | DAVIDsTEA is Adding Tea Bars to its Retail Locations

| NEWSMAKER – TeaFit founder Jyoti Bharadwaj

| FEATURE INTRO – Harvard University researchers report that people who consume sugary drinks regularly — 1 to 2 cans a day — have a 26% greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Mixed alcohol, sports and energy drinks, fruit juices, and soda are the worst. Unsweetened tea is the perfect alternative, according to Mumbai-based TeaFit, which bottles award-winning blends of ayurvedic botanicals and tea. TeaFit founder Jyoti Bharadwaj shares her vision of sugarless bliss with Aravinda Anantharaman.

Feature Headline – Sweet Success: Jyoti Bharadwaj launched TeaFit in 2021, offering a range of unsweetened iced teas. She has since added unsweetened premixes to the product portfolio. For a country with a large population suffering from diabetes, she says, unsweetened beverages were needed, and tea offered the perfect vehicle to create it. More recently, Jyoti Bharadwaj was featured on Shark Tank, where she secured a 5,000,000 rupees investment. Jyoti talks to us about tea, RTD, and how her brand is helping tea shed its fussy image.