Tea News Direct Exclusive Review

We’ve recently tried a few offerings from Green Tree Coffee & Tea and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of their teas. They’ve got a classic range of loose leaf teas with fine examples of many of the great tea staples from China, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Their loose teas are available in bulk or by the pound. They have an attractive range of teabags, again available in bulk or smaller quantities, and great pyramid tea sachets.

Green Tree’s Loose Leaf Tea Selection is available at Buy Tea Online and we recommend that you take a look. In particular, their Darjeeling FTGFPO1 Black Tea, one of India’s most famous teas, is a product of genuine character. The Jasmine Pearls are good value, whilst the China Magnolia Oolong Tea is a high-grade tea for a very reasonable price.

The whole Green Tree range is worthy of exploration as they offer many of the world’s famous teas - the standout Chinese green and black teas, Formosa oolong, Assam, Darjeeling and Chai teas from India, Ceylon estate teas, the list goes on. Check them out for yourselves and tell us what you think. We’d love to hear your opinions.

X-Men star signs up with drink firm

Hugh Jackman, the actor most famous as the testosterone-fuelled Wolverine in X-Men, is to show his softer side in a global advertising campaign for Lipton Ice Tea. Jackman, who also played the rugged stockman Drover opposite Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, has signed a three-year deal to front a multimillion-pound campaign, the first he has starred in outside his native Australia.

The European marketing director for Lipton Ice Tea, Francois Bazini, said that it was Jackman's singing and dancing performance as a host at last year's Academy Awards that convinced the company to sign him up. “He has a great personality liked by men and women,” said Bazini. “He is very different from many other actors. He is a true entertainer who can dance, sing and act. We will use all of his skills.”

Lipton Ice Tea, which is owned by PepsiCo and Unilever, used celebrities in its TV advertising during the 1980s and early 1990s, including Tom Selleck, when he was at the height of his fame from Magnum PI, Sylvester Stallone in Rocky-style ads for the US and the tennis star Jimmy Connors. But the brand has not used a “face”, according to Bazini, since 2002, when Eric Cantona fronted a campaign across Europe.

Two Lipton ads featuring Jackman are now being shot in Brazil, for a worldwide launch in March. They are the work of the agency DDB Paris, and aim to position Lipton as a positive, guilt-free, optimistic drink. Jackman was quoted as saying: “I’m delighted with my new role as the Lipton Ice Tea ambassador, which is a totally new experience for me, so it’s very exciting.

“Lipton Ice Tea is a really positive brand and its values match those that are important in my life, so I can't wait to get started on all our plans.”

Long before he co-founded TWG Tea Co. in 2007, Manoj Murjani was an avid tea collector, keeping about 70 different kinds in his home at a time. Mr. Murjani, chairman and chief executive officer of the brand, which is sold in Dean & Deluca stores in the U.S. and Harrods in London, is a purist when it comes making and drinking tea.

When entertaining or dining with his family, Mr. Murjani often brews loose-leaf teas by the pot. He prefers large whole leaves and avoids using tiny tea balls, which he says don’t give the leaves room to unfurl and infuse the water with flavor. Instead, he places about two and a half teaspoons of leaves in a large strainer. “You don’t want the water to be boiling hot,” he says. It could “burn the tea leaves.” After about three minutes—or up to seven minutes for more delicate varieties like white teas—he removes the strainer. He generally avoids adding milk or sugar and feels lemon “overpowers the taste.”

Mr. Murjani likes to kick off his day by pairing a mint tea or light green tea with his breakfast. He sometimes sips tea during lunch and dinner; if he is having a light lunch of salmon or a salad, he usually chooses a fresh-tasting tea such as a green or white tea. “It’s light and balances well with the freshness of what you’re eating.”

With heavier foods such as steak, he likes to sip more robust or smoky varietals such as Pu-Erh or Lapsang Souchong. With spicy food, he likes to go with a more “daring” tea spiked with cloves, cardamom or ginger. Mr. Murjani says the smoky flavor of Earl Grey is a good accompaniment for chocolate. He likes to finish his meals with mint tea, saying it’s refreshing and helps with digestion.

Sometimes, he combines iced tea with champagne for a pre-dinner cocktail, using fruity black teas with berry or floral tones. “You don’t know what that extra something is, and that extra something is tea,” he says.

Bloomberg.com By Eric Ombok

Kenya, the world’s biggest grower of black tea, may see a 10 percent rise in output of the leaves in January following torrential rains that have fallen since December, said Peter Kegode, an agricultural economist.

Tea and coffee require a lot of water and won’t be washed away because they are deep-rooted, Kegode, an independent economist who advises sugar, dairy and tea industry associations, said in a phone interview from Nairobi today. “There has been above-average rain in tea- and coffee-growing areas. There should be 10 percent increase in tea production,” he said.

Tea production will increase immediately because the leaves are picked daily, Kegode said, while this won’t be the case for coffee as January isn’t its flowering season.

At least 18 people died and 520,000 were displaced in the East African nation over the first week of this year because of flash floods following more than three years of drought, the Kenyan Red Cross Society said. Kenyan tea production fell to the lowest since 2004 during the first nine months of 2009 as the water shortage hindered growth, the Kenyan Tea Board said.

Production by the Kenya Tea Development Agency, the country’s biggest grower and exporter of tea, is forecast to rise to 84 million kilograms (185 million pounds) of green leaf from 81 million kilograms a year earlier, it said today in an e- mailed response to questions.

“The rains of course translates into increased production,” said Fred Gori, a spokesman for the agency, said. “The forecasts indicate that the current rains will continue into February.” The only downside to the heavy rains could be tea and coffee diseases, Kegode said.

The quality of tea leaves will not be affected by the heavy rains as long as key parameters are maintained, Gori said.

“Some of the parameters include plucking only two leaves and a bud, maintaining regular plucking rounds, pruning at regular intervals, proper transportation and generally, maintaining good husbandry practices,” Gori added.

Production of the leaf advanced to 35.8 million kilograms in November from 34.4 million kilograms in November 2008, the Tea Board of Kenya, the industry regulator, said last month.

A new website has been launched offering “the biggest collection of chai teas on the web.”

Chai Buyer is aimed directly at those looking to buy chai tea, the delicious traditional spicy Indian tea made with milk. The website makes the final selection that much easier for those who already know they want to buy chai tea.

Chai Buyer is divided into simple categories to make browsing for chai tea straightforward. The categories are:

• Loose Leaf Chai Tea Blends
• Loose Leaf Black Chai Tea
• Loose Leaf Green Chai Tea
• Loose Leaf White Chai Tea
• Loose Leaf Pu-erh Chai Tea
• Loose Leaf Herbal Chai Tea
• Black Chai Teabags
• Green Chai Teabags
• White Chai Teabags
• Herbal Chai Teabags
• Chai Teabag Samplers
• Sugar and Spice…

There’s also an advanced chai tea search facility which allows you to pinpoint exactly what you want using keywords and category filters.

Chai Buyer plans to become the ultimate chai tea source on the internet, and many more chai teas have been identified for inclusion on the site over the coming weeks. Chai tea fans will be able to browse hundreds of products from the best suppliers around the world.

Manufacturers and retailers of chai tea are sought for possible inclusion on the site. For more information, please go to: www.ChaiBuyer.com

Kenya will step up lobbying for a review of the import duty charged on tea by Pakistan to help curb smuggling through the neighbouring Afghanistan.

“There is very little we can do in terms of regulating what volume goes into Afghanistan because its an open market system and everyone has a right to buy from anyone but we have resolved to continue lobbying Pakistan to lower the import duty on tea that enters its market. This will deny smugglers the incentive to engage in the malpractice,” Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) managing director, Sicily Kariuki told Business Daily.

Pakistan currently charges 10 per cent import duty, alongside a 15 per cent sales tax and an additional 10 per cent value-added tax and another two per cent income tax on imported tea. Smugglers charge between 15-20 per cent overall duty on their consignments.

Starbucks Melody was onto this last fall, and now a company spokesman has confirmed that in October, Starbucks began converting its Tazo tea bags to a new line-up of full-leaf teas. During the transition, some stores have run out of the old variety but not yet received the new stock. Besides coming in sachets that are better for brewing, Tazo teas are using better quality (and harder to find) whole tea leaves, spices and botanicals. Most of the blend flavors will stay the same, with a couple new ones being added in January.

Global tea prices are likely to ease next year on higher output, with weather patterns returning to normalcy in the main producing regions of Asia and Africa, said the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in its latest report. Global tea prices hit the roof in 2009 due to a production shortage.

However, Indian producers are not buying the FAO forecast. They say India is likely to drive tea prices up, as the current year’s 65-million kg shortage is not going to be made up so easily. Add to it a year-on-year consumption growth of about 30 million kg in India (consumption is presently about 800 million kg, and production about 960 kg), and it appears prices will remain strong.

“The shortage in the system will not be made up, even if the crop is very good,” said Aditya Khaitan, managing director of McLeod Russel India, the world’s largest bulk tea producer, with a production of 96 million kg. Prices, he said, would remain strong.

Karan Paul, chairman of the Apeejay Surrendra group, said he was confident of the India story and about Indian prices driving global prices. The group has one of the bigger plantation portfolios, with a production of 25 million kg.

The FAO Tea Composite price, the indicative world price for black tea, reached a high of $3.18 a kg in September, amid droughts in India, Sri Lanka and Kenya, underpinned by increased demand, compared to an average price of $2.38 per kilogram in 2008.The concern that FAO is raising is that tea producers could over-react to the current high prices by planting more crops.

Industry sources said, the global shortage is 165 million kg now. “The new year will be very good. Even if prices hold out at the current level, it’s still very good. Overall, the long term trend in India is very positive, given our consumption figures. In tea, we are still exporters, but that situation will change. In seven to 10 years; we could become net importers. The scenario looks very positive because of the India story. It is going to make a difference on global prices like sugar and some other agricultural commodities,” said Paul.

The basic premise of the confidence level among Indian producers is a growing consumption at three per cent on a year-on-year basis, which negates the FAO perception that tea prices would ease next year on higher estimated output. Khaitan added that the short rains in Africa were not as good as expected.

Consider the statistics: India is likely to end the year with a shortage of 65 million kg. Factoring in a pipeline shortage in other tea producing countries, like Africa and Sri Lanka, the shortage is 165 million kg.

According to official figures during January-September, world tea production stood at 1275.5 million kg, down by about 89 million kg.

FAO has said there may be more plantation in the major producing countries in Asia and Africa. “Some producing countries, such as India, have acted responsibly and announced they would not be expanding current tea areas beyond what is required for replanting and rehabilitating existing tea gardens,” said Kaison Chang, Secretary of FAO’s Inter-Governmental Group on Tea, the only international tea authority.

On global consumption, FAO says the global growth in consumption outpaced production between 2005 and 2009 — a 0.8 per cent surplus of production had got converted to a deficit vis-a-vis consumption of 0.6 per cent.

The gap between consumption and production growth was largest between 2007 and 2009, when it reached 3.4 percentage points, coinciding with the surge in prices. Some of the price increases were passed along the value chain to consumers, as retail prices increased by five percent across supermarkets in Europe.

via .

African tea prices rose to a record $3.12 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) at the world’s largest auction of the leaves in Mombasa, Kenya, Africa Tea Brokers Ltd. said. Average prices of the top grade advanced 5.8 percent at the sale on Dec. 21 and 22, from $2.95 a week earlier, the broker said in an e-mailed statement today.

Kenyan tea output rose 4.1 percent in November from a year earlier, the Tea Board of Kenya said. Output for the month brought cumulative production in the first 11 months of the year to 278 million kilograms, or 9 percent less than a year earlier, Managing Director Sicily Kariuki said today.

Production was lower because of prolonged drought in the country, Kariuki said. The Mombasa auction sells tea from most African producers, excluding South Africa and those in West Africa. Kenya accounts for about 70 percent of the volumes sold.

If the tea plantation industry is to survive and sustain itself, the production margins must improve substantially.

India has lost its leading position in tea exports over the last 20 years due to failure in facing the competition from China, Sri Lanka and Kenya. Unless the margins of major companies in the industry improve, the country will be reduced to a small player in the international markets, according to the findings of a Commerce Ministry Committee on the competitiveness of the industry.

The panel findings gain a renewed significance in view of the statement made by Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia recently that tea and spices were the two commodities that India could develop as brands in the international markets.

Since the scope for expansion of tea growing areas is limited, the committee, headed by former secretary S. N. Menon, recommends that India should raise its exportable surplus by increasing productivity, which will bring down the unit cost to some extent. India already has a handicap of being a high-cost producer.

Chiding the industry for having failed to respond to the global changes in consumer preferences in terms of product-mix (as the shift towards larger amounts of orthodox production has not been adequate), the panel admits that further cost reduction can take place through a host of measures within the control of managements but reduction of cost of certain items require the cooperation and action by unions, State and Central governments.

As the flag-bearer of Indian teas, Darjeeling should receive some special considerations. Due to its low productivity and high costs, which will continue to be endemic, some measures are needed to mitigate costs. This should include supply of steady and stable grid power and extension of transport subsidy, the panel report says. The average cost of production in the industry is Rs. 350 a kg, which can increase to Rs. 600 a kg during specific periods, the committee observes.

Problems of the South

The committee says that the acute shortage of labour, especially during the peak plucking season, is affecting the entire South and machine harvesting needs to be encouraged.

Tamil Nadu finds a special mention in the report, which says that the Government should speedily resolve the deadlock on the Gudalur Janmam Estates’ case for the tea industry’s benefit. There are also problems on application and interpretation of land and environment laws which should be settled. The State should set up an SEZ in Coimbatore with special facilities for tea, the committee says.

On the issue of social costs, the committee calls for a review of the 1951 Plantation Labour Act as it feels that many of the provisions have lost their relevance. Statutory social welfare measures as mandated in this Act add to the garden cost and reduce the competitiveness of the tea industry. It also recommends that as in Sri Lanka, the Union Government may consider the transfer of funds for programmes to be implemented in mitigating the burden of social overhead costs by extension of government schemes to the plantation sectors through a separate trust or an agency under the aegis of the Tea Board.

Indications that the government has already started thinking on these lines were evident during the recent visit of Mr. Scindia when he said that social cost was a major issue for the tea industry and the government was examining the possibility of as to how the Centre and the State could bear this cost.

According to the committee, if the tea plantation industry is to survive and sustain itself, the production margins must improve substantially.

Within the sector, margin improvement can take place by cost reduction. Productivity-linked wages on the lines of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu model will produce substantial cost reduction. There is a substantial difference between farm-gate price and the final retail price, all of which go to layers of intermediaries. A part of this difference must be made available to the producer.

Noting that the tea industry is characterised by high manpower intensity, the committee says that because of historical reasons, the industry has been burdened with social responsibilities to the workmen which should rightfully have been the territory of States. The industry has repeatedly pointed out that these provisions were initiated in early years when employment in remote areas was difficult because of inadequate facilities. However the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, which was enacted to make it incumbent on tea estate managements to provide certain facilities still exist, directly impacting the cost of tea production.

An inter-ministerial committee constituted by the UnionLabour Ministry has dealt with the subject in detail and has worked out the cost of social welfare provisions at around Rs. 5 a kg, excluding concessional rations in the North. The various components of labour welfare are medical, fuel, housing, education, drinking water, sanitation and conservancy. The committee finds that though there has been a substantial recovery in prices in 2009, continuing onto the current year, medium and long-term viability of tea production continues to remain uncertain. In a representation to the 13th Finance Commission, the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA) stated that the high cost production in India has been a critical factor impending India’s export competitiveness. It also sought reimbursement of the welfare expenditure. The report mentions several Central government schemes under the control of the Union Ministry of Rural Development, Panchayat and Urban Development and the Ministry of Social Justice and Welfare.

The schemes which are run by the government and which have the potential of being dovetailed into the tea sector schemes are: social security schemes, heath and hygiene schemes, employment generation and livelihood schemes like NREGs, education schemes such as the Sarva Shinksha Abhiyan.

However, although an indication of the government’s inclination to examine this issue was given by Mr. Scindia during his last visit to Kolkata, it is not easy to provide coverage and benefits from these schemes to the families of the workers living in the tea plantations. Among the issues which make the task difficult is the fact that ownership of land on which the workers stay is neither with them nor with the tea garden managements which only hold it as a lease. Sri Lanka has been able to extend government schemes through a trust through which funds are canalised. This could be examined by India too, the committee observes.