A little more than a decade ago, two Iraqi American siblings were vacationing at the Grand Canyon when they decided to create a tea company that prized art and social justice. Today, Numi Organic Tea in Oakland is the leading brand importer of fair-trade certified teas in the United States.

For co-founder Ahmed Rahim, the desire to build a people-focused company came out of his experience as a child growing up in Cleveland, the son of Iraqi immigrants. For Reem Rahim, his sister and co-founder, a near-fatal car accident as a college student studying biomedical engineering led her to embrace what she really loved – art. And so it was that the two came up with the idea to start a business named after the dried lime tea they had drunk as children, Numi.

“We’re not really businesspeople,” said Ahmed Rahim, 43, who at the time of that fateful vacation had just returned home from living in Europe, where he managed tea houses in Prague and studied film in Paris.

The tea company they crafted in 1999 was focused on offering organic, premium quality tea leaves without flavorings. There’s no Earl Grey in their selection, or fruity herbal drinks, which Ahmed Rahim said are largely produced by spraying on natural and artificial flavors.

Growing movement

Over the years, Numi Organic Tea has become known in the tea marketplace for its business practices, despite the emergence of other high-end tea brands.

“When we started, there wasn’t much talk of fair trade. The movement has grown as we’ve grown,” said Ahmed Rahim. “So, it’s been easier for us to incorporate these principles into our business because we did it starting with a smaller scale. Doing it the other way around, when you’re bigger, is much tougher.”

Recently, news of a breakup between Fair Trade USA and Fair Trade International has created controversy, with critics arguing it could result in a watering down of regulations. Fair Trade USA, however, said the move could enable greater impact, as they change guidelines to allow for fair trade with large-scale farms and estates.

Brian Durkee, vice president of operations at Numi, said it’s far too early to determine what the move will mean.

“People who are more involved in the details recognize that it’s not a watering down,” he said. “The bottom line is that it’s trying to increase the amount of suppliers who can get certified as opposed to decrease the requirements of the certification,” he said.

Tea is still a small component in the world of fair trade, Durkee said. Last year, the United States purchased more than 110 million pounds of fair-trade coffee and only 1.8 million pounds of fair-trade tea.

For Numi, fair trade has become a critical component of the business.

Time with workers

Durkee, who has been with the Rahims for eight years, said the company works with several fair-trade organizations to ensure they’re reaching as many people as possible. His job includes visiting remote parts of rural China, Africa and India, spending mornings hitching a ride in the back of a truck and randomly surveying 100 workers for hours in the field as they pluck tea leaves. Workers have seen their wages increase by 20 percent, he said, once their employers go organic and fair-trade.

“You can’t go to your suppliers with a stick and demand low cost and expect them to be socially or environmentally conscious. So, we don’t go just for the cheapest option. We’re looking for good quality, a fair price, along with social and environmental impact,” Durkee said. “My job as a supply chain expert is to take on that challenge.”

That knowledge of their suppliers is reflected in the packaging, which showcases the farmers they work with.

Reem Rahim, 45, who spent months testing patterns for the boxes, ultimately decided on spiritual designs, a sharp contrast to loud branding labels. The aim, she said, was to remind customers of the soothing effect of tea and the art of drinking tea.

Focus Taiwan, By Lin Heng-li and C.J. Lin, Jan 2012

Taiwan’s tea exports to China grew noticeably this year compared with last year, mainly because of a trade agreement that was signed between the two sides in 2010, the Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) said Wednesday.

In the period January to November this year, Taiwan shipped 596 metric tons of tea from Taiwan to China, with a total value of US$8.15 million (NT$247 million), which represented an annual increase of 11 percentin quantity and 52 percent in value, respectively, said Su Mao-shiang, secretary-general of the AFA at a tea promotion event in Nantou County.

Taiwan’s tea exports to China are expected to increase further next year, as China will lift all tariffs on the product in 2012 under the terms of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with Taiwan, Su said.

Currently, there is a 5 percent tariff on Taiwan tea imports to China.

Taiwan tea producers have also benefitted from a government program that offers advice in areas such as packaging, which has helped to increase domestic and international sales, the AFA said.

For example, farmers associations in parts of Chiayi and Nantou counties that participated in the program have become more creative, incorporating geographical and cultural characteristics into their packaging, the AFA said.

The Meishan Township farmers association in Chiayi, for instance, has included images of Alishan on its packaging, the agency said.

To monitor the quality of Taiwan tea, up to 13 special tea zones have been established by the AFA throughout Taiwan. A total of 174 tea manufacturers in certain townships have received AFA verification of their products.

Among the products that have been verified are brands such as Taiwan’s Lugu Township’s Dong Ding Oolong Tea, Alishan High Mountain Oolong, Wen Shang Baozhong Tea, Ruisui Township Tianhe Tea, Beipu Township Pengfeng Tea, Sun Moon Lake Black Tea, and Hehuan Mountain Tea.

Darjeeling tea producers are all set to cheer. The year 2011 has brought smiles to them as the average price of Darjeeling tea in the domestic market has shot up by Rs 35 per kg. Even the end-season Darjeeling teas, being offered at auctions now, are fetching Rs 267 per kg as against Rs 204 per kg in 2010 end — a rise of 31%.

This augurs well for the Darjeeling tea industry which generally depends on exports for revenues.

CTC and dust tea prices have risen by Rs 8 a kg compared to the previous year. Western India companies , Tata Global Beverages and HUL are active in the market which has pushed up the prices of end-season teas.

J Kalyansundaram, secretary of Calcutta Tea Traders Association (CTTA), said: “Darjeeling teas have fetched good prices this year. Even the end-season teas are fetching good prices. There is a demand for Darjeeling teas in the domestic as well as the export markets. Companies and exporters are buying Darjeeling teas.”

Darjeeling tea production has increased by at least 25% compared to the previous year. “Last year, production was affected by a drought-like situation . We lost the premium firstand second-flush teas, which fetch maximum revenues for tea companies. But this year, the weather has improved and this will have a good impact on the production,” said Ashok Lohia, chairman of Chamong Tee.

Chamong Tee is the largest Darjeeling tea producer. Last year, Darjeeling produced 8 million kg tea, the lowest in the last decade. There is an expectation that production this year will be around 10 million kg though the final figure is yet to be published by Tea Board. The appreciation of Euro has helped Darjeeling tea exporters as most of Darjeeling teas are exported to European Union countries.

“This will be definitely a good year for the Darjeeling tea companies . We are happy that the domestic consumption of Darjeeling tea has increased,” said Sanjay Bansal, chairman of Ambootia Group. Generally, 40% of Darjeeling teas, which have the unique muscatel flavour, are exported. The rest 60% are considered as rains teas and do not make much headway to export markets.

But this year, there has been no lull in Darjeeling tea offtake. The CTTA secretary said CTC and dust teas have fetched better prices even at the year-end sale. “Companies are buying tea for the present season and for the Februray-March period. They have been strong this year and bought good quantities of teas,” he said.

Tea farmers in Kenya have in the past struggled to sell their produce abroad, and whenever they were lucky, the yields were low. But their fortunes could soon change following a partnership deal between Iria-Ini tea factory in Nyeri and Marks & Spencer’s to sell Kenyan tea. The supermarket is based in the United Kingdom.

Taipei: The final of an inaugural cross-strait tea competition took place Sunday in Chiayi City, where some of the country’s best tea is grown, with teas from both Taiwan and China each showing specific strengths.

Based on the evaluation of five judges — two teas from China and three teas from Taiwan - Taiwan had the most varieties enter the final of the high-mountain tea category, for teas grown in areas with altitudes over 1,000 meters. But Chinese varieties dominated the tieguanyin category. Tieguanyin is a type of oolong tea.

Co-organized by two tea associations from Alishan in Taiwan and Xiamen in China, the winter tea final came after two preliminary rounds were held in the two countries on Dec. 1. It also marked the first time that China-grown tea leaves had competed in Taiwan.

The competition was part of Chiayi County’s efforts to further promote Alishan tea in China, where it is already one of the favorite Taiwanese souvenirs, said Wu Jung-hui, secretary-general of the Chiayi County government.

(By Chiang Chun-liang and Kendra Lin)

Taiwanese bubble tea is the world’s 25th most delicious drink, according to a ranking of the world’s top 50 drinks posted on the CNN travel website. The list, unveiled Saturday, was topped by plain water, Coca-Cola, and Ethiopian coffee. Taiwan’s bubble tea drew attention for its variety and the popular chewy “pearls” made of tapioca.

“More bubble than tea, this is a tea-slash-milk-slash-fruit drink and its most famous variety includes chewy ‘pearls,’ resembling oversized frogspawn, at the bottom that you suck up with an oversized straw,” CNN said of the drink. “It sounds weird, but it has become a favorite drink snack among Asia’s millions of young shoppers,” CNN added.

Water was chosen as the most delicious drink because “as the base of every other drink on this list, of every food in the world and indeed of all life, nothing beats a glass of pure, unsullied water for its thirst-quenching, revitalizing, life-giving properties.”

Filling out the top 10 on the list was beer (global), tea (global), air mata kucing (or longan drink) from Malaysia, American orange juice, red wine (global), gin and tonic (England) and hot chocolate with marshmallows (U.S.).

Japanese sake was ranked 15th and white wine (global) finished 18th.

(By Hsiao Chien-yun and Sofia Wu)

The expectation of the tea industry to touch the magic figure of 1,000 million kgs in 2011 may remain elusive. Latest analysis shows that the total tea production of the country this year is bound to be restricted somewhere near 985 million kgs.

Revealing this, sources in the tea industry said as per the January to September figures, the tea production of the country has soared by 41 million kgs in North India and dropped by 4.6 million kgs in South India, compared to the corresponding period last year. In all, India could produce 966 million kgs of tea last year.

This generated a hope in the Indian tea industry that this year it would be able to record an all time high production with 1,000 million kgs.

But, unfavourable weather condition from mid-October affected production this year and hence the above estimate has received a beating. Now, the revised estimate has hinted that the country’s total tea production is going to be limited to around 985 million kgs by the end of this season.

Till 2010, the all time high production of the country was 986 kgs in 2007. In 2010, China recorded an all time high tea production with 1,370 million kgs.

In 1895, India overtook China. Since then, it continued to be the world leader in tea production till 2006. In 2006, China overtook India after a gap of 111 years. It took more than 175 years for India to reach the current area of 5.79 lakh hectares under tea cultivation, and in the contrary, China added an area of more than 6 lakh hectares under tea during the last ten years. In fact, during the last ten years, the global tea area got expanded by 8 lakh hectares and of this, China accounts for 75 per cent. Kenya and Vietnam together increased 1 lakh hectares, while in India, the additional area brought under tea was around 89,000 hectares and that too mainly in the small tea growing sector.

The Tea Spot launches the ‘Dessert Tea Sampler‘, a perfect guilt-free tea to match a holiday sweet tooth, any time of day. Perfect as a holiday tea gift, the Dessert Tea Sampler has six gourmet loose leaf teas, spanning the gamut from loose black teas to oolong tea and caffeine-free herbal teas. The Dessert Tea Sampler combines chocolate, caramel, vanilla cream, citrus and bergamot, as well as almonds, coconut and hot spices.

This zero-cal, gluten-free, dessert tea collection includes 6 mini tea tins, filled with handcrafted blends that have notes of chocolate, vanilla, caramel, cinnamon, and coconut. The loose leaf teas in the Dessert Tea Sampler are three of The Tea Spot’s signature black teas, one oolong, and two herbals: Chocolate “O”, Creme Caramel, Earl of Grey, Red Rocks, Red Hot Chai, & Coconut Oolong. All six of the teas are handcrafted in Boulder, Colorado.

Click here to buy at The Tea Spot

Chocolate “O” is a certified organic full leaf black tea laced with the purest of chocolate aromas on a delicious malty base, with hints of caramel and honey.

Crème Caramel is an aromatic dessert tea blend of premium black tea with real pieces of gourmet caramel.

Earl of Grey takes traditional Earl Grey to the next level by combining the traditional bergamot flavoring on full leaf black tea then adding other citruses, vanilla, licorice root, and mallow flowers.

Coconut Milky Oolong is a smooth milky hand-rolled Oolong blended with roasted coconut.
Red Rocks is a blend of naturally caffeine-free South African red Rooibos, vanilla, and almond bits.

Red Hot Chai is also a strong naturally caffeine-free South African red Rooibos base spiced with the season’s boldest flavors: red rooibos, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, chai spices and a hint of vanilla.

The Dessert Tea Sampler is designed with teas for anytime of day, to go alongside a sophisticated dessert, or in lieu of a sugary indulgence. It is being launched for the holidays, as the perfect tea gift for gourmet tea lovers and anyone looking for a healthy, sweet holiday treat. The Tea Spot’s Dessert Tea Sampler includes a card with the descriptions & steeping suggestions for each of the teas. The net weight of the teas in the set is 4.0 oz, and the collection of six teas retails for $26.95. It is available exclusively at The Tea Spot’s online tea store at theteaspot.com.

ABOUT THE TEA SPOT: The Tea Spot is a for-profit philanthropic business producing handcrafted loose leaf teas and Steepware® – the tools that make loose tea easy. The Boulder, Colorado-based woman owned and operated company was founded by Maria Uspenski in 2004. A cancer survivor drawn to the health benefits of leaf tea during her recovery, she set forth to modernize the loose leaf tea experience. Her message is simple and powerful: tea in its freshest form renders incredible flavor, unmatched health benefits, and is eco-friendly. The Tea Spot is a Certified B Corporation and ensures that its products uphold clean, sustainable and fair manufacturing standards. The company’s model of social entrepreneurship incorporates a culture of giving as it grows: ten percent of every sale made is donated in-kind to cancer and community wellness programs.

A battle between Unilever and an Amsterdam-based non-governmental group over the rights of workers on tea plantations in India and Kenya shows the difficulties facing multinational companies that are trying to ensure their products are ethically produced.

But doing so is tricky. First, what does sustainability constitute exactly? Does it comprise basic worker rights and environmental protections? Or should it mean that workers on tea plantations in India and Kenya, poor countries, should be extended the same working conditions as most Europeans and Americans? And who makes sure these companies –often not owned by the multinationals but local suppliers–abide by the standards?

The Netherlands-based Center for Research on Multinational Corporations, in an October report, claimed the existing system of checks and balances has failed to stop abuses of workers on Unilever’s Kenyan estate, including sexual harassment and poor housing conditions.

In India – where Unilever buys tea from producers in Assam and Tamil Nadu, but does not own the estates – the report claims workers are kept permanently on rolling short-term contracts, denying them health and pension benefits, and are often exposed to dangerous pesticides while working.

Unilever, in its response to the report, says the center has failed to produce evidence to back claims made about its Kenyan operations. The company said it would look in to allegations of abuses at the Indian suppliers if given specific information.

At the crux of such battles is a debate about whether the move to sustainable production is a real attempt to improve conditions for workers in poor parts of the world or a kind of “green-washing” carried out by multinational companies under intense pressure from customers in Europe and the U.S.

In reality, it’s probably a bit of both. Companies, for sure, have a real interest in managing their brand image, which means not buying from people that exploit workers. But at the same time, they have to watch their bottom lines and produce enough to meet demand for their product, which they say would be impossible if moving overnight to apply Western-style standards uniformly across emerging market economies.

The balance between certifying adequate quantities of sustainable product – of tea, or other products like wood and palm oil – and keeping to strict standards is a tough one to negotiate. The Forest Stewardship Council, which makes sure the paper in your novel is from sustainable sources, got caught out in 2007 and had to change its rules when one of Indonesia’s most controversial paper producers got an FSC certification.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know what is sustainable. Take palm oil, used in products like margarine and cosmetics, which is grown on plantations that have led to the destruction of massive area of natural rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia. The red palm oil fruit is collected from hundres of small plantations and processed at refineries, making it difficult to know whether the end product is sustainable.

Unilever, one of the world’s largest buyers of palm oil, has been instrumental in developing the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a group of suppliers, NGOs and producers. But progress toward the RSPO’s goal of sustainability by 2015 has been slow, with lack of clarity on how to ensure a product meets “green” standards.

In theory, tea should be easier to track. But Unilever’s response to the latest report by the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations highlights the difficulties.

The company said it relies on regular, independent audits of its tea plantations by the Rainforest Alliance, a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental group, which has improved rights for workers. Unilever says it has spent €1.2 million on housing upgrades at its estate in Kericho, Kenya, which it claims offers workers among the best conditions in the East African tea industry.

Rainforest Alliance carries out audits for a number of companies according to social and environmental standards set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network, a coalition of leading global conservation groups. During the process, auditors should be allowed to go where they like and meet workers without management presence.

“Attempting to undermine public trust in the Rainforest Alliance scheme is not a responsible approach to addressing these issues,” Unilever said in response to the report.

The center, known by its Dutch acronym as SOMO, retorts that the Rainforest Alliance auditing process is deeply flawed, based on short visits and not deep investigation.

The report points out instances when management at the Kenyan estate tried to cover up housing problems ahead of auditor arrivals.

The center says women who have faced sexual harassment are scared to come forward given their lack of belief in the oversight process.

In India, the report claims that many workers are employed by tea suppliers to Unilever on short-term contracts that offer them no benefits, an effort to cut costs after a crisis in the Indian tea industry a decade ago.

In Assam, as many as 50% of workers in the tea industry are on short contracts, meaning they don’t get benefits, the report says.

Unilever says that tea production is seasonal and defends its use of contract workers with “clearly defined rights” as a usual practice.

The report acknowledges that use of contract workers doesn’t break national or international labor laws. But it argues that heavy reliance on these kinds of workers, who are sometimes employed for decades on rolling short-term contracts, goes against Sustainable Agriculture Network standards that lay down equal benefits to workers for the same kind of work.

You can follow Mr. Wright on Twitter @TomWrightAsia.

The Turkish tea industry aims to make Turkish tea a world brand by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, and, to this end, a workshop held last week in Rize, a Turkish province known for its tea, brought representatives from the tea industry together with bureaucrats and officials from the government in a three-day brainstorming session on how to build a world brand.

The Turkish tea brand needs quite a bit of brainstorming because Turkey, in spite of being the fifth biggest producer of tea in the world with a production of around 200,000 tons of tea a year, exports only 1 percent of its total production. Turkey aims to produce at least 10 world brands by 2023, one of them being “Turkish tea.”

Minister of Customs and Trade Hayati Yazıcı, who was one of the speakers in the workshop, believes that Turkish tea, especially organic Turkish tea, has the potential to be developed into a world brand.

The reason Yazıcı focused on organic tea in particular is simple. As opposed to other tea producing countries, such as India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, which are situated around the equatorial line, where insecticides need to be used to protect the plant, Turkey’s tea gardens, being situated in the northeast of the country, are naturally protected from harmful insects by cold weather and snow. This means that Turkish tea growers do not need to use insecticides, which makes the plant even healthier.

Even with such an edge, Turkey has much do in the way of organic production. Production of organic tea in Turkey is estimated to be around 500 tons a year, which is only 0.25 percent of the total production. To increase production in this segment, there are plans to build plants to produce organic fertilizer.

But as Minister Yazıcı very appropriately said: “To become an international actor in tea, one needs to first get acquainted with local consumption habits and tastes and align them with local tastes.” This is where a problem seems to arise because tea is losing ground against coffee at home. Coffee has come to be perceived as a prestigious beverage, while the Turkish population has no such feelings about tea, which is claimed to be healthier than coffee, although, people still drink more tea than coffee.

Faced with a question on why a coffee cup needed to be included in a concert ad an eminent Turkish firm had given to a newspaper a few years ago, the person in charge of public relations replied, “Because coffee is a sign of modernity.”

The cause lies mainly with coffee chains, which seem to have mushroomed in big cities in recent years. Young and old alike enjoy getting together with friends at coffee houses that provide a cozy and chic atmosphere where they can have a quality drink at a reasonable price. In people’s minds, coffee has come to be identified with these coffee shops and this is exactly what tea lacks in Turkey.

The only thing tea can be identified with is the traditional kahvehane (“coffee house:” in Ottoman times coffee was the traditional beverage, as Turkey began producing tea in 1938) which is no match for the new coffee house. A survey conducted with the participation of over 800 students at the University of Rize demonstrates that students who grew up in big cities are less inclined to drink tea than those who were raised in small towns and villages. “The tea industry needs to take this into consideration,” Associate Professor Ali Rıza Saklı from the university’s management department told Today’s Zaman.

Hamit Vanlı, an associate professor teaching at the faculty of economics and administrative sciences at Maltepe University, who, like Vanlı worked for many years at the General Directorate of Tea (Çaykur) and made a presentation at the workshop in Rize, concedes that tea has gradually lost prestige to coffee in recent years.

“To be able to step into the international market, we first need to properly organize our own. Tea houses like that of Çaykur’s in İstanbul need to be opened in other cities, and not only one kind of black tea, but a large selection of various teas should be offered at these tea houses. Unfortunately, tea has fallen behind in this area,” he told Today’s Zaman. The Çaykur tea house Vanlı refers to is a relatively recent development, opened in March this year, and it is one of the very few examples of its kind, whereas the number of coffee houses, local and international, is around 500.

Like Yazıcı, Saklı, believes that the fact that no insecticides are used is a great asset for Turkish tea. Noting that people consume green tea mainly for health reasons, he said: “We should try to make use of this strong point in the production of organic tea. The European consumer would prefer Turkish green tea, but we must increase our number of tea varieties in accordance with consumer demands in Europe.”

But Cemal Alpaslan Karakan, general manager of Doğuş Çay, one of Turkey’s leading tea companies, does not agree. He does not find the organic option a viable course of action because of the currently limited production of organic tea. It is not enough to avoid using pesticides for tea to be labeled organic, it must also be fertilized organically, which is not the case for most Turkish tea. “So what if Turkey exports several hundred tons of organic tea? That’s nothing. Turkey should aim for much bigger amounts,” Karakan maintains.

He strongly believes that for Turkish tea to become an international brand, some of the tea plants need to be replaced, which would allow for a higher-quality tea yield. “The replacement could start with the 10 percent of each tea garden, and another 5-10 percent could be replaced the following year,” Karakan states. Otherwise, the only way to build a brand is blending Turkish tea with teas from other countries, he claims.

Allowing tea plantations at places with an altitude higher than 1,000 meters, currently considered forest area thus not open to agriculture, would be another way to produce high-quality tea, which is in high demand around the world. One of the obstacles in exporting Turkish tea is that the whole yield is blended together regardless of quality. So, high- and low-quality teas are packaged together. “We could start with teas growing at an altitude of 700-800 hundred meters and process and package them separately,” says Saklı.

In order for Turkish tea to become an international brand, Saklı believes, Turkish tea should be presented with the culture behind it. So, he suggests drawing inspiration from the elegant coffee cups of Ottoman times, saying we should produce equally beautiful tea cups. In addition to the traditional Turkish tea glasses, this might prove to be an effective way of reaching high-class circles, he claims.

Tea is, after water, the most widely consumed beverage in Turkey, as well as in the rest of the world. In Turkey, 96 percent of the population drinks tea every day. Turkey ranks in the top five countries with the highest consumption of tea, sometimes being given first place for per capita consumption, while other studies place it in third or fourth place with a yearly consumption of three kilos per capita. Turkey is the fifth biggest producer of tea, with a production of around 200 thousand tons a year, and is accepted as the third biggest tea market in the world, with a yearly market volume of TL 2.25 billion.

It is almost inconceivable for most in Turkey to start the day without a glass, not a cup as in most countries, of hot black tea, but Turkey has been relatively unsuccessful in exporting its tea. Only a small amount has managed to sell abroad, which is not all that “abroad,” because the majority of the consumers in those markets, such as Europe, are actually Turks living there.

There are many issues, such as taste and quality, that have to be dealt with if “Turkish tea” is to become an internationally known brand. Turkish tea has a peculiar taste to it and is not known for its high quality because tea plantations have not been properly taken care of.

The Turkish tea industry expects a new tea code to properly regulate the industry. Without such a code, it feels wronged by unjust competition in the domestic market and illegal tea entering Turkey, which is claimed to be as much as 40,000 -50,000 tons a year.

Karakan’s words regarding the lack of tea houses is quite significant as far as tea firms in Turkey are concerned: “That’s a major shortcoming on our part. The industry has always struggled with problems. That’s why we have not been able to take any action.”

Two European travelers examining green tea products at a tea shop in Beijing

The Chinese are gradually losing the traditional tea-drinking habit in favor of coffee, largely because of the length of time it takes to brew a decent cup, experts say.

“I prefer coffee to tea,” said Wang Yan, a 25-year-old downtown girl in Beijing. “Drinking coffee refreshes me and makes me feel chic.”

The history of Chinese tea is a long and gradual story of refinement. The original idea is credited to the legendary Emperor Shennong, who is said to have lived about 5,000 years ago. One summer day in 2737 BC, while visiting a distant part of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. During the break, his servants began to boil water for the court to drink. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and became infused. Being of a scientific nature, the emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it tasty.

Thereafter, tea and China developed an extremely close relationship, with a culture springing up alongside its consumption based on a combination of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist traditions.

After thousands of years of the development of the tea industry, China has become the No 1 tea maker, producing 1.47 million tons in 2010, up from 1.36 million tons in 2009, according to the China Tea Association. Per capita consumption was 0.7 million tons. It exports tea to more than 120 countries and regions and imports tea from more than 50 countries and regions.

“Drinking tea is a kind of pastime leisure, but daily work and life is getting faster and more stressful in China, which makes the two activities contradictory,” said Liu Zhonghua, deputy director at the China Tea Association, speaking at the 2011 International Tea Convention and Trade Fair in Hangzhou.

Mao Limin, a tea expert, said: “Tea is a very healthy but more and more younger Chinese are cutting back their consumption.”

Paul Higgins, a tea specialist with the Canadian Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee Inc, said: “While Chinese tea consumption is dropping, interestingly, Western countries are drinking more tea for its health benefits.”

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the British drink 1.89 kilos each a year, more than twice the 0.82 kilos consumed per capita in China.

Marco Berton, the president of the Italian Tea Council said at the tea convention: “Although Italy is a ‘coffee country’ more people are turning to tea, especially green tea and Oolong tea from China.”

Liu added: “One way to increase tea consumption in China is to improve tea bag production instead of using traditional tea leaves in order to cope with the fast pace of life.” He also said another approach is to develop crossovers in the industry, such as introducing new tea products which have low caffeine levels or can be used in the beauty and pharmaceutical sectors. There is already a tea-flavored toothpaste.

“We have introduced specialty teas to Canadians. They love them and are enjoying more and more green tea because of the health benefits,” said Louise Roberge, president of the Canadian Tea Council.

“I don’t like focusing too much on introducing new technologies or products into traditional Chinese teas,” said Yang Ruiling, managing vice-president of the Hecheng Investment and Development Group Co Ltd in Southwest China’s Yunnan province. “How relaxing it will be if one just slows down, enjoys a cup of tea, tries to reach a balance or an inner peace after a hard and busy day.”

Sri Lanka’s tea production fell in October for a seventh straight month due to adverse weather and a high base effect, the island nation’s state-run tea board said on Friday.

Tea production in October recorded 23.69 million kilogrammes (kg) against 27.88 million kg in the same month last year. The output in the first 10 months has slipped 2.3 percent to 269.89 million kg from 276.15 million in the same period last year.

“The main reason is the climatic conditions and also last year we recorded the highest production that is also a reason for the steep drop,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Director General H.D. Hemarathna told Reuters.

The tea board expects full-year output to end near last year’s record high of 329.4 million kg.

The tea board hopes revenue from Sri Lanka’s No. 1 agricultural export crop will rise to a record of more than $1.5 billion this year, from $1.4 billion last year despite turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, home to some of the island nation’s major customers.

Sri Lanka’s earnings from tea exports have risen 3.1 percent to $973.1 million in the first eight months of 2011, the central bank’s latest data shows. Earnings gained 16.1 percent to hit $1.4 billion last year.

Tea is one of the $50 billion economy’s main foreign currency earners, along with remittances, garment exports and tourism.

The following table shows Sri Lanka’s tea output (in kg):

October Jan-Oct

2011 2010 2011 2010 High Gr 4,915,579 5,701,899 64,991,636 65,463,545 Medium Gr 3,872,070 4,366,697 42,647,638 47,033,155 Low Gr 14,899,788 17,809,650 162,247,983 163,654,362 Total 23,687,437 27,878,246 269,887,257 276,151,062

($1=110.20 Sri Lankan rupee)

Starbucks will uproot Tazo Tea’s Portland operations within the next year, deciding more than a decade after it bought the brand to move production to Kent, Wash.

The Seattle coffee giant said Tazo Tea’s inner eastside spot wasn’t big enough to meet the growing demand for the tea. As part of the move, it’s spending millions to expand and upgrade the Washington plant, which will help streamline and expand its operations.

It’s all part of Starbucks’ strategy to grow Tazo Tea from a $1 billion business and tap into its worldwide market potential, spokesman Alan Hilowitz said.

Still, the move represents another loss for Oregon, which has seen a string of buyouts and relocations by out-of-state companies.

Tazo’s Portland footprint has gradually decreased since rumors started swirling of a possible move more than two years ago. Its top offices moved to Seattle, leaving behind only its manufacturing functions.

The decision to move, “was truly based on business needs,” Hilowitz said. “It’s a brand we’re looking to put some muscle behind to grow in the future.”

It was Portland entrepreneur Steve Smith who transformed Tazo from kitchen startup to a global brand known for its quirky blends of international teas. In 1999 and five years after its launch, he sold it to the Seattle-based coffee seller for a reported $9.1 million.

He now heads Smith Teamaker, a small-batch, loose and ready-to-drink tea company based in Northwest Portland.

“I suppose for Starbucks it’s the logical thing to do,” said Smith, who’s kept in touch with many Tazo employees. “For the community over there, it’s sad and unfortunate.”

Employees learned about the decision Tuesday morning.

The company’s 37 workers received job offers and relocation packages, Hilowitz said. Anyone who wants to stay in Oregon will receive severance packages or jobs with Portland-area Starbucks.

Starbucks expects to begin the move in April and finish the following November.

Rumors of a possible move surfaced in 2009, when Mayor Sam Adams said he would do whatever he could to persuade Starbucks to keep Tazo Tea headquartered in Portland. At the time, he vowed to ramp up talks in the hopes of helping the company find a better Portland location. “I’ll go up to Seattle,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

But his tone had changed by Wednesday morning, when he responded to a tweet asking what he had done to keep the company in town. “First offered help 3 yrs ago… sad. But we have many other homegrown tea-sters,” he wrote.

He didn’t return a call from The Oregonian, but his spokeswoman sent a written response.

“I am disappointed by Starbucks’ decision to consolidate Tazo’s operations, but I am glad to hear Starbucks is offering to relocate Tazo’s current employees to its Seattle facility.”

Randy Miller, Tazo’s Portland landlord, confirmed that Adams tried to persuade Starbucks to keep Tazo here. Tazo moved in 2001 from Southeast Eighth Avenue and Division Street to its current central-eastside headquarters at 301 S.E. Second Ave., where it occupies about 80,000 square feet on one level in two buildings.

Miller, the president of Produce Row Property Management Co., laments the departure and not just because of the vacancy.

“It’s just that Tazo’s so much a part of the ethos of Portland,” he said. “But who we are is of no consequence, no concern to them. It’s really nothing Tazo wanted, that’s for sure.”

Miller said Starbucks’ lease extends to Jan. 1, 2013.

But one local business advocate predicted the empty space wouldn’t last long. The area has long been an incubator for new and growing businesses, said Terry Taylor, executive director of the Central Eastside Industrial Council.

“It will open up opportunities for new businesses to come in,” Taylor said. “It’s prime area. Access to downtown is great.”

Portland’s coffee-centric community remains an important market for Starbucks, Hilowitz said.

“Portland’s where Tazo was born,” he said. “The personality of the Tazo brand has taken a lot from the culture of Portland.”

Starbucks operates more than 60 stores in the metro area and plans to open as many as 10 more in fiscal 2012, which started this month.

All of the stores sell Tazo Tea.

“Seeing a company I started be successful is great,” said Smith. “Seeing a company that I started picking up and leaving town — it’s hard to articulate.”

Oregonian reporter Rich Read contributed to this report.

The world’s most expensive cup of tea is packed with cancer-fighting elements, but it’s not without a stomach-turning catch — the tea leaves get a boost from panda feces.

Wildlife expert An Yashi is launching the special blend of green tea, which could cost up to $36,000 per pound, Australia’s SBC.com reported.

Yashi, a college lecturer at Sinchuan University, said using panda excrement to fertilize the tea plants has a health-promoting upside because it contains nutrients from one of the bear’s favorite meals — bamboo.

“Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 percent of everything they eat: that means their excrement is rich in fibers and nutrients,” said Yashi, noting that those nutrients make their way into the tea through the fertilization process.

“Just like green tea, bamboo contains an element that can prevent cancer — and enhance green tea’s anti-cancer effects — if it is used as fertilizer for the tea.”

Yashi, who collects the dung at a panda breeding center in southern China, said he hopes the tea will snag him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records once it’s released.

But he’s not the first to use feces to fertilize tea plants. Kopi Luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee, is made from droppings of the Indonesian civet cat.

A website showcasing thousands of varieties of tea and tea-related products has been relaunched. Tea Selector offers visitors a convenient way to browse the whole world of tea.

“We’re excited about this new website” said Tea Selector’s Richard Fray. “We’ve spent a long time researching thousands of products and we think we’ve put together a simple way to compare the baffling number of teas now on the market.”

Tea Selector breaks products down into categories which include Loose Leaf Tea, Teabags, Tea Samplers, Iced Tea and Bubble Tea, with many sub-categories so you can really target what you’re looking for. You can also search for famous and not-so-famous tea brand, as well as explore the worlds of tea wares and accessories, tea gift baskets, gourmet tea foods, tea books and more.

“It’s the perfect website for anyone interested in tea. Not only can tea drinkers find their preferred tea products and compare prices at different retailers, but we also have information about how to make tea, the history of tea and recommended tea websites” said Fray. ”There’s something for everyone, so we hope you browse through the many different tea categories and enjoy”.

Tea Selector Navigation:

• Home
• About
• How To Buy Tea
• How To Make Tea
• Tea History
• Tea Varieties
• Recommended Links
• Contact

• LOOSE LEAF TEA
  • Loose Leaf Green Tea
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• TEABAGS
  • Green Tea Teabags
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• TEA SAMPLERS
  • Loose Leaf Samplers
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• ICED TEA
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• BUBBLE TEA
  • Bubble Tea Mix
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• FAMOUS TEA BRANDS
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  • SerendipiTea
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  • Tazo Tea
  • Teas Etc
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• TEA GIFT BASKETS
• GOURMET TEA FOODS
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  • Green Tea Oil
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• TEAWARES
  • Tea Pots
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  • Tea Sets
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  • Tea Cups
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  • Tea Tools
  • Teaware Brands
• TEA BOOKS
  • Tea Ceremony, Culture
  • Tea House, Business
  • Cooking with Tea
  • Tea Parties
• TEA GIFTS

Source: Tea Selector
Website: www.teaselector.com

Best-selling black spiced tea blend is back for the holidays at online tea retailer The Tea Spot. With customers calling months in advance to confirm its return, Tea Specialist Bo Olson prepares new batches of this unique spice tea to launch this week.

The Tea Spot’s Holiday Spice Tea is back in time for the holidays. This is a limited-edition loose tea blend of black tea with orange peel and aromatic holiday spices. The aroma is reminiscent of mulled cider and cinnamon hard candy. It will be available from The Tea Spot in a decorative tin throughout the holiday season, while this limited-time microblend remains in stock.

The Tea Spot’s Tea Specialist, Bo Olson, said “Seasonal changes always offer us a chance to reach out to our customers in new ways, and we cherish the opportunity. We strive year-round to create unique, palate-pleasing blends for a variety of tea drinkers, always keeping in mind the reviews (both good and bad) our customers return to us. Their input is invaluable and their tastes are our primary concern, and we feel lucky to include their feedback in every cup of tea. We hope our blend loving fans will rejoice at the return of our Holiday Tea this fall season.”

With Autumn in full swing, Holiday Spice Tea is a natural choice to steep this season, and perfect to pair with favorite fall recipes. The complementary spices in this cinnamon tea blend are citrus peel and clove oil, which is pleasantly noticeable but not overpowering. Rich layers of orange notes, cinnamon and clove give the black tea base a signature taste and aroma. As a special occasion drink, the Holiday Spice works well at Thanksgiving or Christmas, when the cold nip in the air makes hot spiced tea a welcome aroma to fill the home.

Olson added, “Nothing serves to remind us of the holidays quite like the aroma and flavor of this tea. Its strong cinnamon notes and slightly sweet black tea base make it an exceptional cup to pair with a cold morning or an evening fire. It takes incredibly well to milk, brews strong and compliments the season’s charm with every sip. When I brewed myself a cup of this season’s first batch, it felt as though the holidays had really begun-and that’s a feeling we hope to bring to each of our customers.”

ABOUT THE TEA SPOT: The Tea Spot is a for-profit philanthropic business producing handcrafted loose leaf teas and Steepware® – the tools that make loose tea easy. The Boulder, Colorado-based woman owned and operated company was founded by Maria Uspenski in 2004. A cancer survivor drawn to the health benefits of leaf tea during her recovery, she set forth to modernize the loose-leaf tea experience. Her message is simple and powerful: tea in its freshest form renders incredible flavor, unmatched health benefits, and is eco-friendly. The Tea Spot is a Certified B Corporation and ensures that its products uphold clean, sustainable and fair manufacturing standards. The company’s model of social entrepreneurship incorporates a culture of giving as it grows: ten percent of every sale made is donated in-kind to cancer and community wellness programs.

More information at: The Tea Spot

Fifteen years ago the Lam family business picked up a consignment of aged tea from a defunct Hong Kong restaurant. Its value has since risen by a factor of 10,000, as the Lams have found themselves part of a boom that is both investment fad and cultural obsession.

“It’s like magic,” managing director Sam Lam told AFP as he prepared tea according to the Chinese ritual, pouring boiling water through rough leaves and then into tiny cups to drink, and spoke of the profits to be made.

The tea is pu erh, a dark tea that is fermented after drying and whose taste mellows with age. Its history is thought to date back between one and two thousand years, with legends of growers in mountainous Yunnan province ferociously guarding their cultivation secrets.

Over the past 20 years prices for aged pu erh have rocketed, while China has encouraged renewed development of a luxury tea culture which parallels that of wine — partly as a source of national pride in a home-grown high-end product.

With over 70,000 tea businesses in mainland China, skilled buyers must taste tea in order to assess its quality, which only increases pu erh’s mystique and sociability.

“You can tell from the aftertaste, the smoothness,” says Lam, pouring out cups with practised hands. The tea is sold in pressed round “cakes”, wrapped in paper printed with bold designs that reflect the vintage of each one.

Lam’s father set up the business, Lam Kie Yuen, after moving to Hong Kong from the war-torn mainland in 1949.

But the pair say it is only since the mid-nineties that the market for luxury pu erh — also, in its less refined forms, a staple of cheap restaurants — has exploded, with middle-class investors joining the wealthy to buy it up.

The Lams are now selling tea from the 1930 to 1950 era for up to HK$200,000 (over $25,000) per 345-gram (12.2 ounce) cake, having bought much of it in cheap truckloads from dim sum restaurants that closed down.

“Growth slowed during the economic downturn, but it’s still ongoing,” said Sam Lam. “As the price is rising, people are buying it less to drink, and more to collect and invest.”

But luxury pu erh is not just bought to lay aside; it is identified with proud, ancient aspects of Chinese culture, in contrast with the cheap “made in China” goods that have spurred the country’s economic rise.

In Hong Kong’s hectic Mong Kok district, fashionably dressed young men gather at a calm tea house for lessons from qualified tea master Eliza Liu.

“It’s like a drug — I’m addicted now,” said student Ngan Kan Shing, 21. “By discovering tea I feel that I’ve learned about China.”

He has been coming to classes for six years, but says: “I still only know the basics.”

The group examines the colour of each cup of tea before sniffing and then slurping it in respectful silence, as Liu talks them through the value of the aged tea.

Grown before artificial pesticides and dried naturally rather than at a high temperature, it has a paler colour and a smoother taste.

“Good tea is produced at higher altitude, and also depends on climate,” says Liu. “In Yunnan, they say a tea tree can experience all four seasons in one day.”

The tea is served from small fine china tea sets, used with a tray that drains off excess water. The first cup of each brew is not drunk, as it is used to clean dust or residue from the leaves. After that, a good tea should taste different with every cup, say experts.

According to China’s state-run Global Times, one batch of top pu erh sold at auction for $250 per gram in 2002, while rare Da Hong Pao oolong can also rival such prices.

But Liu and tea professor Yip Man, who taught her the art, are sceptical of the eye-popping prices paid for some teas, preferring to emphasise tea’s longtime role in Chinese medicine and thought.

“Tea has a philosophy behind it, and it’s about health. Tea has been very commercialised, but a cheaper tea may also be as good (as an expensive one),” said Yip.

“The philosophy is about harmony, bringing people together, peace within the self.”

The price of pu erh is acknowledged to be boosted by a tight supply, and sceptics argue that investors buying aged pu erh may be made to look foolish as China’s newly affluent drinkers move on to fresh fashions like Phoenix Oolong.

However Lam says that although the astonishing growth of the last two decades may not be sustained, pu erh is still a good investment.

He said a buyer of a good, inexpensive pu erh — at, say, HK$100 ($13) a cake — now could expect to make a 10 percent return in a year. “But you have to choose the right tea,” he said.

Luxury tea houses springing up in London and Sydney indicate China might succeed in exporting its high-end tea culture. And Liu and her students feel meanwhile that they are tapping into much more than a fad.

Student Ngan is evangelical about pu erh. “Before learning about tea, a lot of my friends believed the stereotype that tea is for old people. But now I think they’re changing their minds,” he said.

When Seth Goldman, TeaEO and co-founder of Honest Tea, visited the tea garden in central China that would supply the leaves for his organic tea, he was puzzled by its remote location. Locals explained that the organic garden, located across a river with no bridge, was better served cut off from vehicles that could pollute it.

“That’s when I got it,” Goldman says. “What I saw as a problem, the lack of a bridge, was already a solution to another problem, that of pollution.”

Several years earlier, Goldman had seen another problem. An avid athlete, he found his post-workout beverage options were either sugary sports drinks and soda or watery drinks without much flavor.

Knowing that if he wanted something different he’d have to make it himself, Goldman and co-founder Barry Nalebuff brewed the first batches of Honest Tea in Goldman’s kitchen. Goldman brought the drinks to a Fresh Fields Market (now owned by Whole Foods) representative in five Thermoses and a Snapple bottle with a mocked-up label. The grocery company placed an order for 15,000 bottles on the spot.

Mere months after that first order, Honest Tea became the best-selling tea in the grocery chain’s 17 stores in the local metro area. This led to a problem in search of a solution: distribution.

Cheese, corned beef, charcoal…and tea?
Traditional beverage distributors didn’t think the not-so-sweet tea would be able to compete with the sugary bottled teas available at the time, and declined to distribute them. So Goldman and Nalebuff got creative.

First, they worked with a cheese distributor who serviced the gourmet stores. Then, to access a local bagel shop they had targeted, Goldman and Nalebuff approached a corned beef distributor with a relationship to the store. To deliver to supermarkets, they worked with a charcoal distributor. Eventually, the tea became visible in more outlets, and traditional beverage distributors came calling. That brought another challenge.

From the beginning, Honest Tea has been run as an environmentally and socially responsible company, with a strong commitment to healthy living. The founders quickly understood that beverage distributors didn’t exactly share their cause. “No matter how much commitment we have to sustainable fair trade,” Goldman says, “we had to deal with traditional bottlers with different priorities.”

The little tea that changed an industry
Distribution became easier when Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) took a minority share in the company in 2008, eventually acquiring the entire company in 2011. But the sale brought other challenges, including how Honest Tea could remain committed to sustainability and healthy living while working hand in hand with a conglomerate not known for either. But Goldman says Coca-Cola has committed to Honest Tea’s mission, and is incorporating it into many of its own business practices.

It’s just one way that the ripple of Honest Tea has caused large waves. Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS ) has taken note of the popularity of Honest Tea’s teas with less sugar and fewer calories, and is slowly decreasing the sugar content in its Snapple teas, as well as in its sodas. Kraft (NYSE: KFT ) is following suit, lowering the sugar content of its children’s drink, Capri Sun, by 25%.

Honest Tea was also the first to offer organic and Fair Trade Certified teas — offerings that are now commonplace among competitors such as Hain Celestial (Nasdaq: HAIN ) .

Thinking outside the bottle
It would be enough just to make a product that customers love, but the team at Honest Tea doesn’t content easily. The company is leading the charge in full calorie disclosure on labels (rather than just per serving, which can be misleading), minimal packaging designs, creative grass-roots marketing, and, of course, delicious tea. From 1998, when the tea was first brewed in Goldman’s kitchen, to today, when the products are bottled in organic certified Coca-Cola facilities, this company is challenging the way people drink and its competitors operate.

Honestly, that’s a good thing.

Tea from Kenya and Burundi fetched the highest prices at the weekly Mombasa tea auction over the last 12 months. New data showed that of all the 12 countries participating at the auction, Kenyan and Burundian tea remained most popular in the year-to-date, recording premium prices compared to the rest.

The average auction price of Kenyan tea stood at $3.01 per kilogramme at this month’s sale compared to $2.74 last October, marking a variance of $0.27 a kilo. The average price of Burundian tea stood at $2.80 a kilo compared to $2.47 in October, 2010, while Rwandan tea sold at $2.76 a kilo compared to $2.59 last October.

Analysts said the performance in prices reflected a shift by buyers towards premium quality.

“The price gains for Kenya and Burundi teas is driven by quality demands,” a Mombasa trader, Peter Kimanga, said.

“There have been some concerns about quality of tea, especially from Uganda that is used to blend teas in the Egyptian market and Rwanda has also not fared well, hence the demand for Burundian and Kenya tea.”

The quality of tea to the auction in Mombasa has this year been affected by widespread drought that affected most producing countries in the region.

This has seen buyers take keen interest on the quality of the lower volumes of the commodity offered for trade.

During the first half of the year, the volume of Kenyan tea sold through the tea auction stood at 128.8 million kilogrammes, 16 per cent lower than during the same period last year, statistics showed.

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This lower sale volumes at the auction volumes reflected a dip in output of the beverage with data by the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) showing that the country’s tea production for the first half of the year fell 16 per cent year-on-year due to hot and dry weather and poorly distributed rainfall in tea growing areas, sending exports lower.

Output of the commodity dropped to 178.4 million kg compared with a similar period of 2010, with the east of the Rift Valley more affected than other growing areas.

The effects of this thinned output reflected on the export side where shipments fell to 211.7 million kilogrammes from 216.9 kg.

The premium price earned by Kenyan tea coupled with a weakened shilling against the dollar is expected to rake in record earnings for the sub-sector this year.

The country earned Sh97 billion from a bumper crop of 399 million kilogrammes in 2010, surpassing horticulture as the largest source of foreign exchange. Horticultural exports earned the country Sh78 billion in 2010.

BEIJING: High-end Indian teas made a colourful debut in the Chinese market as top local producers and distributors were treated with the vibrant varieties of the beverage.

A special tea tasting ceremony organised by the Indian Embassy at its cultural centre here yesterday. Who is who of China’s tea industry were present there to get a taste of Indian teas and the rich history that goes with them.

The get-together was accompanied by Indian music and classical Kathak performances by Chinese and Indian artists.

“The get-together was the first attempt by India to show China that tea is part of Indian cultural milieu and India produce wide variety of exclusive teas,” Arun Sahu, the Indian diplomat who heads the cultural centre, said about the initiative.

New Delhi: India’s tea imports declined 23 percent to 6.40 million kg during April-August this fiscal.

The country had imported 8.32 million kg tea in the year-ago period, according to the Tea Board data.

India, the world’s largest consumer of tea, imports tea leaves solely for re-exporting them to other countries. The dip in imports thus signals less re-export.

The inbound shipments of tea from most of the countries registered a decline in the first five months of 2011-12.

India imports tea from Kenya, Malawai, Nepal, Iran, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, among a few other countries.

Indian tea imports dipped by 29 percent to 1.21 million kg in August this year, compared to 1.70 million kg in the same period previous year.

During January-August this year, imports of the brew fell 20 percent to 10.64 million kg, from 13.34 million kg in the year-ago period.

India, the second biggest producer of tea in the world, accounts for about 28 percent of global tea production and 14 percent of trade. There are about 1,600 tea estates in India.

The industry employs more than two million people.

The Times of India, 27 Oct 2011

BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) has registered India’s Darjeeling tea with a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). The tag seeks to protect product names from misuse and imitation. This has made Darjeeling tea the seventh non-EU product receiving the protected status, following one from Colombia and five from China.

In all, Darjeeling tea has been added to over 1,000 names of agricultural products and foodstuff protected as PGIs in the EU, according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive body.

Three EU schemes, PGI along with PDO (protected designation of origin) and TSG (traditional speciality guaranteed) promote and protect names of quality agricultural products and foodstuff. These EU schemes encourage diverse agricultural production, protect product names from misuse and imitation and help consumers by giving them information concerning the specific character of the products.

KOLKATA: Tea exports to Iran, a major importer, have fallen by nearly 25%to 10 million kg in January-August as traders are clueless about the mode of payment to that country, an official of Indian Tea Association said.

“We have come to know from the media that the Iran payments crisis is resolved. Subsequently, we have written to the Finance ministry 15 days ago seeking confirmation and the modalities involved. So far, no response has come from the government,” the official said.

The official said that Iran is a major importer of the high quality orthodox tea.

He said exporters are stuck with the consignments of orthodox tea, since they are not sure whether they would get payment for shipments.

Company Curates Small Parcel, Single Estate Full-Leaf Teas from the World’s Finest Tea Gardens

Rare Tea Republic™, a company that curates fresh teas from the world’s finest tea gardens, was launched today. Rare Tea Republic works directly with artisans around the world to select small lots and procure single estate teas that best express the character of the terroir. Rare Tea Republic’s tea collection launched with nineteen teas from single estates throughout Northern India and the Himalayan Mountain region including: Darjeeling, Kangra, Sikkam, Assam, Bihar and Nepal.

Rare Tea Republic teas range from $6 to $30 for 50 grams and are hand-packed by weight in resealable bags. Available weights include six, 50 and 100 grams. Rare Tea Republic teas are available via website (www.RareTeaRepublic.com) and by calling 855-RARE-TEA (855-727-3832).

“As American tea drinkers become more educated about tea, these new connoisseurs are seeking out rare and unique teas,” said Sarah Scarborough, tea buyer for Rare Tea Republic. “We select from hundreds of samples to ensure Rare Tea Republic brings our customers the best and most fresh teas available in the world.”
By visiting countries of origin multiple times a year, Rare Tea Republic has developed deep relationships with tea growers and source directly from them. The teas in the Rare Tea Republic collection will be continually updated throughout the year to deliver the freshest, most unique selection of single estate full-leaf teas to consumers.

Tea Buyer Sarah Scarborough has worked in the tea industry for 11 years. Prior to her involvement in the tea industry, she worked in sustainable agriculture and the culinary arts. These experiences have given her a unique “garden to cup” perspective and allow her to share her passion for fine teas.

For more information, please visit Rare Tea Republic (www.RareTeaRepublic.com) or call 855-RARE-TEA (855-727-3832). Like Rare Tea Republic on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RareTeaRepublic and Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RareTeaRepublic

Media contact: Eva Wong, Rare Tea Republic, 510.386.7632, evaw@raretearepublic.com
5 Hamilton Landing, Suite 100, Novato, CA 94949 – Tel 855-RARE-TEA – www.RareTeaRepublic.com

SOURCE Rare Tea Republic

RELATED LINKS

http://www.RareTeaRepublic.com

Tea exports from Burundi rose to 574 metric tons in September from 566 tons a year earlier as international prices for the drink rose, according to Joseph Marc Ndahigeze, head of the Burundi Tea Board.

Earnings from sales of the leaf increased to $1.6 million from $1.5 million a year earlier, Ndahigeze said today in an interview in the capital, Bujumbura. The price of tea rose to $2.79 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from $2.62 a kilogram a year earlier, he said.

Rising fuel prices in the central African country hampered further exports, Ndahigeze said. Most of Burundi’s tea is trucked east to Mombasa, Kenya, from where it is shipped.

Burundi relies on tea and coffee to generate 90 percent of its foreign-exchange earnings, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Yields in the East African nation have fallen from more than 9,000 tons in 2001 because of an insurgency that displaced small-scale growers, who are responsible for about 80 percent of production. Overcrowding and a lack of arable land and fertilizers are also problems for the industry.

–Editors: Hilton Shone, Emily Bowers.

A website showcasing hundreds of varieties of Chai tea and related chai products has been relaunched. Chai Buyer offers visitors a convenient way to browse the world of Chai, the popular spiced, milky tea originating from India.

“We’re really excited about the new website” said Chai Buyer’s Richard Fray. “We’ve spent a long time researching hundreds of products and we think it’s now the most comprehensive collection of Chai tea ever assembled online.”

Chai Buyer breaks products down into categories which include Loose Leaf Chai, Chai Teabags, Chai Samplers, Chai Mixes, Chai Concentrates and Ready-to-Drink Chai, as well as teawares, accessories, books and more.

“It’s the perfect website for anyone interested in Chai. Not only can Chai drinkers find their preferred Chai products, we also have information about how to make Chai tea, the history of Chai and recommended Chai websites” said Fray.

Source: Chai Buyer
Website: www.chaibuyer.com

Tea News Direct Recommended Link: YOGIC CHAI

Let’s dig up the old debate… you like a hot cuppa or would you rather stick with the traditional tea? While coffee prices are seeing an uptick globally, tea prices too are seen rising on the back of strong demand.

DP Maheshwari, managing director of Jayshree Tea joins CNBC-TV18 to give an outlook of his business and highlight the way forward.

Below is the edited transcript of the interview. 

Q: Can you take us through what situation is currently looking like on the production front?

A: On production front till August, India’s production was ahead of last year by around 33 million kg, mainly from Assam and Dooars in North East India. South India is running behind, but despite that, the demand is quite strong and prices are picking up.

Early information what we have got about September is that production is going to be slightly lower in the month. So overall, production will be high by around 30-35 million kg and we might cross the overall 1,000 million mark soon.

Q: What the impact has been on account of the US sanctions on Iran because Iran is a major market for exports with respect to Indian tea?

A: Because of the sanctions in Iran, we cannot get the payment. There is a good demand for Indian tea in Iran, especially, orthodox tea what we are producing now under a subsidy from government. Iran was a good market, but because of this sanction, there is lot of problem in receiving the payments inspite of the buyer being ready to pay.

Q: What is the payment which is due?

A: I cannot give you the exact figure, but quite some quantity has been dispatched. The most important thing is how do we commit further quantity when we are not sure how we are going to receive our payment? That has impacted the export to Iran but we have been informed by the government authorities that they have worked out a solution. Maybe they will announce it very soon and once that comes into force, exports will pickup again.

Q: In Q1, you had a strong EBIT growth in your tea segment which was up 90% to 19 crore. What can we expect in terms of FY12?

A: Second and third quarter are always the best for tea industry which is having main interest in North East India. In Q2, expect our results to be quite good and in line with industry expectations. Our production is up, and ending September, we are up by around 1 million kg. So that should add value and profit should be good.

Q: Your chemicals and fertiliser segment was down in Q1. How exactly is that segment panning out for you though it’s a small part of revenue?

A: The overall turnover from fertiliser might not be very high but profitability levels will be maintained. We will be almost on par with last year as well as where profits are concerned. Prices are low because of a number of things; our total overall revenue is low but our profits will be as good as what they were last year, and now, sugar has also been included.

Q: Coming back to the Iran issue, how much does Iran contribute to revenues and with respect to how it will show up in your financials where you have despatched the products but not receive the money. Is that going to be a dip in your quarterly revenues?

A: As far as my company is concerned, fortunately, all payments are through and exports are around 14% of our revenue. We export around Rs 95-100 crore worth of tea and Iran is also one of our main buyer. I don’t have any payment problem in Iran. What I told you was about the industry in general that overall exports will go up. My company, my exports are higher than last year even as it is, and if Iran things become easy, it will be higher. I don’t have any payment problem.

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue.

Tea continues to be a star in the U.S. beverage market. Bolstered by consumers’ thirst for tea’s variety of flavors and healthy qualities, tea has shown resilience in the economic downturn. The category has experienced solid growth in the last year, with double digit gains from refrigerated tea. Ready-to-drink tea in general has been especially strong, particularly in natural food stores and convenience stores. And all teas are hot in foodservice.

This report takes a comprehensive look at the retail market for packaged tea in the U.S., with reference to foodservice tea trends for additional perspective.

The report examines the factors driving growth in the category. Readers will learn about critical merger and acquisition activity that is changing the distribution landscape for niche organic brands; the diverse range of tea offerings; teas’ functional benefits and the regulatory challenge in promoting them; the embrace of tea by fast food giants, coffeehouses, specialty retailers and tea rooms; trends in new product claims; purchasing patterns,demographics and psychographics of the tea consumer; and the new ways in which tea marketers are connecting with customers, including through social media and apps.

This report examines the U.S. market for ready-to-drink (RTD) tea, leaf (bagged and loose) tea, refrigerated tea and instant tea. The report segments and quantifies the market by channel and product type, providing historical sales figures and projections through 2016. The report examines market drivers and trends, retail sales-tracking data from SymphonyIRI and SPINSscan, new product trends based on data from Datamonitor’s Product Launch Analytics, and national consumer survey data from Experian Simmons data, as well as a proprietary consumer survey on beverage and tea trends conducted by Packaged Facts. The report thoroughly maps out the competitive situation at the marketer and brand levels, with detailed profiles of AriZona, Bigelow, Celestial Seasonings, Coca-Cola (Gold Peak, Honest Tea and Nestea), Lipton (from Unilever and the Pepsi Lipton Partnership), McDonald’s sweet tea, Nestea, Snapple, Starbuck’s Tazo, Teavana, Turkey Hill and others.

Scope of Report

Retail channels covered include supermarkets and grocery stores, convenience stores, supercenters/mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, drugstores, gourmet/specialty food stores, supplement chains, direct-sales channels including catalogs and Internet, and alternative channels such as department stores, kitchenware stores and bookstores. Foodservice channels include restaurants, coffeehouses, tea rooms and tea retailers, cafés and bars, and other foodservice establishments.

Chapter 1 Executive Summary

Scope and Methodology

Scope of Report

Report Methodology

Varieties of Tea

Market Trends

Tea Grow Despite Tough Economy

Tea Sales Grow in Multiple Categories, Channels

Tea Is Good For You, But Be Careful How You Say That

All’s Fair in the Tea Trade

Merger Mania

K-Cup Craze

How Sweet It Is For Foodservice

The Marketers

The Power of Tea Concentrated Among A Few

Many Big Players in Foodservice

Tea Retailers Take Center Stag

New Product Trends

Tea Leads All Beverages in Innovation

“Natural” the top Claim, but a Mainstay Drops Down the List

Marketers Emphasize Functional Benefits

Kombucha Creates a Stir

New Products from Celebri-Teas

Foodservice Chains Bet Big on Tea

Consumer Trends

Tea Remains a Consumer Favorite

Purchasing Patterns Emerge

Appendix I ABC

ABC

Chapter 2 Market Trends

Retail Market Size and Composition

Retail Tea Sales Rise to $6.5 billion

Table U.S. Retail Sales of Tea, 2007-2011

A Multi-Channel Champion

Table Share of U.S. Retail Sales of Packaged Tea by Channel, 2011

SymphonyIRI-Tracked Sales Show Solid Growth

Table IRI-Tracked Sales of Tea, Overall and By Segment, 2011

Natural Foods Channel Going

Table Sales of Leaf and RTD Tea Products in Natural Supermarket Channel, 2009-2011

Medicinal Tea Leads the Leaf Tea Category

Table Sales of Leaf Tea in the Natural Supermarket Channel, 2009-2011

Tea Remains One of the Beverage Industry’s Bright Spots

Table Beverage Dollar Sales and Market Share by Category, 2011

Table Fastest Growing Beverage Categories, 2011

Foodservice Composition

House Wine of the South Spurs Foodservice Growth

“Money in a Cup”

Foodservice Fast Facts

Vending a Key Tea Channel

Fast-Growing Tea Companies

Tea Behaviors

Packaged Facts Studies Confirm Variety of Tea Consumed, and Single-Serve Purchase Behavior

Table Tea drinkers, by types of tea purchased, 2011

Market Dynamics

FDA Cracks Down

Health Studies Abound

Fair Trade Shows Big Jump

Tea Companies Marry and Divorce

Single Cup Platforms Become New Growth Drivers for Established Brands

Tea Marketers Get Creative

Tea 2.0

Looking Ahead

More Tea Sales on the Horizon

Table Projected U.S. Retail Sales of Tea, 2011-2016

Appendix I ABC

ABC

Chapter 3 The Marketers

Competitive Overview – Packaged Goods

A Handful of Marketers Dominate

Table Top Marketers Of Tea at Food, Drug and Mass Merchandisers, 2010-11

Lipton Has Leaf Tea in the Bag

Table Top Marketers and Brands of Bags/Loose Tea by IRI-tracked Sales and Volume, 2011

RTD marketers forge ahead

Table Top Marketers and Brands of RTD Tea by IRI-tracked Sales and Volume, 2011

Instant Provides Little Gratification

Table Top Marketers and Brands of Instant Tea by IRI-tracked Sales and Volume, 2011

Refrigerated Tea Makes a Case for Itself

Table Top Marketers and Brands of Refrigerated Tea by IRI-tracked Sales and Volume, 2011

Competitive Overview – Foodservice

Many Foodservice Tea Suppliers

Competitive Overview – Tearooms and Specialty Stores

A Highly Fragmented Market

The Teavana IPO

Table Teavana’s product mix, 2009-2011

The Marketing of Teavana

Appendix I ABC

ABC

Chapter 4 Brand Profiles

AriZona (AriZona Beverage Co.)

A Leader in RTD

Growing and Sought After

Capitalizing on a legendary golf drink

Caught in an Immigration Controversy

AriZona Expands its Packaging Options

A Straightforward Strategy

Bigelow Tea (R.C. Bigelow, Inc.)

A Constant Contender

Partnering with The Great One

Healthy Introductions Abound

Celestial Seasonings (The Hain Celestial Group)

Herbal Leader Experiences Solid Growth

Celestial Seasonings and K-Cups

Couponing, In-store and Social Media

Gold Peak (The Coca-Cola Company)

Pushing for More Share

New Packaging and Delivery Systems Drive Growth

Lipton (Unilever and Pepsico)

Despite Weak Sales, Lipton Still Dominates

How Pepsi-Lipton Segments the RTD Market

Brisk Takes on the Year’s Biggest Audience

Partnering with Green Lantern and Stickybits

New Products Make a Splash

Nestea (Coca-Cola and Nestlé)

Slipping Sales in RTD

Nestea Emphasizes Online

Red Diamond

Rising Star in Refrigerated Tea

Snapple (Dr. Pepper Snapple Group)

A Turnaround Story

The Northeast is Snapple’s Stronghold

The Importance of Packaging

Capitalizing on TV Tie-Ins

Turkey Hill

The Big Chilled

Twinings

By Appointment of Her Majesty

Appendix I ABC

ABC

Chapter 5 New Product Trends

Overview

Tea – The Place to Be [or, more plainly: Tea Product Launches Pace All Categories]

Table Number of U.S. Non-Alcoholic Beverage Product Reports/SKUs, 2011

Tea Begins Rebound from Recessionary Lows

Table Number of U.S. Tea Product Introductions: Reports and SKUs, 2007-2011

What’s in a Claim?

Table Top Marketing Claims/Package Tags for U.S. Tea Product Introductions, 10 years vs. 1 year trend

Packed Full of Flavors

Table Top Flavors in U.S. Tea Product Introductions, 10 years vs. 1 year trend

Same Players Introduce New Products

Table Top Companies in U.S. Tea Product Introductions, 2001-2011

Table Top Companies in U.S. Tea Product Introductions, 2011

Packaged Goods Trends

Functional Benefits Popular in New Tea

Coca-Cola’s “Teavolution of Water”

The Curious Case of Kombucha

Bigelow’s Healthy Offerings

Could’ve Had a V8

Tulsi Touches Down

Celebrities Jump on the Tea Bandwagon

My Country Tis of Tea

New Product Trends in Foodservice

The Big Chains Emphasize Tea

Starbucks Gets Bigger

Teavana Unveils New Teas for the 2010-11 Season

Popeyes Gets Sweet

Other New Products Debut in Foodservice

Notable Products at the World Tea Expo

2011 World Tea Expo Best New Product Award Winners

Appendix I ABC

ABC

To order this report:

Hot Drink Industry: Tea and Ready-to-Drink Tea in the U.S., 4th Edition    

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Nicolas Bombourg
Reportlinker
Email: nbo@reportlinker.com
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Intl: +1 805-652-2626

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