HEAR THE HEADLINES – India Considers Tough New Import Restrictions for Nepal Tea | IMF Bailout Talks with Sri Lanka to Resume | Kenya’s Ag Minister Reverses the Government’s Position Favoring Mechanization

| NEWSMAKER – Aasha Bhandari, International Trade and Promotion Executive at HIMCOOP, the Himalaya Tea Producers Co-operative

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz this week travels to Kathmandu, Nepal, where Aasha Bhandari describes how Asia’s enthusiasm for golden tips powered Nepalese tea producers through the pandemic. HIMCOOP, the Himalaya Tea Producers Co-operative, is a consortium of tea producers founded in 2003.

Nepal Opportunity – The Eastern Nepal region has led the country's tea trade. Today the landscape is changing as more entrepreneurs are exploring the tea industry. HIMCOOP trade and promotions executive Aasha Bhandari says, "One of the best advantages Nepal tea has is that they own their factory, they own their garden. So, they have the power to make whatever sort of tea they want to make. That's a good advantage. And I think they're doing it quite well. I'm really impressed with the small farmers compared to the big factories."

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

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

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

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Bypassing Sanctions is Benefitting India’s Tea Industry | Reinvention is Routine at Starbucks | South Africa's Rooibos Industry Makes First Payout to Indigenous Communities

| NEWSMAKER – Niraj de Mel, Chair Sri Lanka Tea Board

| FEATURE INTRO – Tea Biz travels to Sri Lanka this week, where newly appointed Tea Board Chair Niraj de Mel is rallying tea stakeholders – growers, manufacturers, producers, brokers, and exporters – in the face of formidable challenges. De Mel told Tea Biz correspondent Dananjaya Silva, “I am privileged to take on this role at such a crucial time.” 

Sri Lanka is Relying on its Resilient Tea Industry – Sri Lanka is in turmoil politically and financially; the country of 22 million is struggling as widespread demonstrations continue. Unrest is tied to food inflation exceeding 50%, with critical shortages of cooking gas, fuel, and reliable electricity. The country has defaulted on its foreign debt, and its currency devalues with a credit rating that discourages outside investment. Government bankers are at an impasse in negotiating a bailout from the International Monetary Fund that will depend on difficult reforms, including higher taxes and governance changes. Tea producers are confronting all the above challenges, yet the Ceylon tea brand remains resilient. Last year, the industry generated $1.3 billion in US foreign currency, exporting 300 million tons of tea, of which 270 million was high-value orthodox tea. Industry veteran Niraj De Mel was named Chairman of the Sri Lankan Tea Board in June 2022, his second appointment to a position he previously held in 2004. In this discussion with Dananjaya Silva, Managing Director at PMD Tea, De Mel explains the challenges and solutions facing Sri Lanka's tea industry.

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

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

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

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

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

| GUEST – Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington

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

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

HEAR THE HEADLINES – China Eases Travel Restrictions | Sri Lanka Crisis Worsens | Sustainability Survey Reveals the Tea Industry’s Cautious Optimism 

| GUESTS – Nigel D’Souza, Dejoo Tea Estate, and Niraj Mani Chourasia, Nonaipara Tea Estate

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Tea Biz travels to the vast tea estates of Assam, India, where a high incidence of fatal encounters among tea workers interacting with elephants, leopards, and snakes led two Goodricke Group senior managers – who are avid wildlife photographers – to capture animal behavior as situational awareness is critical in avoiding human-animal conflicts.

Avoiding Human-Animal Conflict – Two tea estate managers who are avid nature photographers use their astounding images and teaching to educate garden workers and residents to effectively anticipate animal behavior and avoid conflicts with elephants, leopards, and snakes. A World Wildlife Fund study in the Sonitpur district (Assam) reported 206 human fatalities and 131 elephant fatalities between 1996 and 2009, with more than half the deaths on tea estates. Between 2010 and 2021, 175 people and 73 elephants died in the Udalguri district in Assam.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Tea Retailers Brace for Recession | Kenya Tea Prices Rebound | Pakistan Asks Citizens to Cut Back on Tea 

| GUEST – Tracy Bell, co-founder of Millennia Tea in New Brunswick, Canada

| FEATURE INTRO – Millennia Tea in New Brunswick, Canada, sells raw tea leaves as food. The leaves are washed, chopped, frozen, and sold by major grocers to be brewed as fresh green tea or formed into cubes to be blended in smoothies.

Farm to Freezer – Millennia Tea co-founder Tracy Bell explains that “instead of picking the leaves and then withering them and processing them in a number of ways, like your conventional dried teas, we work with farmers to pick those same organic tea leaves, and then we wash them and we treat them like frozen fruit, just like frozen blueberries and strawberries. We believe that tea is food, and we want to give consumers the opportunity to enjoy it in its most real, raw, and naturally powerful format.”

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Bottled Tea is Bouncing Back | Honest Tea Co-Founder Seth Goldman Will Launch a Rival Tea Brand | Tea Parcels Contribute to Record Carrier Volume

| GUEST – Suzette Hammond, tea educator and founder of Chicago-based Being Tea 

| FEATURE INTRO: This week Tea Biz correspondent Jessica Natale Woollard travels to Chicago, where Suzette Hammond, founder of the Being Tea school, describes an expanded eight-month course on how to be a brilliant tea educator. Hammond recognized a gap in tea training: tea professionals are not taught how to teach how to deliver meaningful programs in a small group or one-on-one.

Teaching the Tea Teachers – Small business owners are a large percentage of Suzette Hammond's students. Tamina Monchi, who is the founder of Mythaga tea in Nairobi, Kenya, is someone who came to the program as a certified tea sommelier, one of the first in East Africa. So she has a really deep tea background; a lot of it was in field research and understanding tea cultivation, says Hammond. She didn't intend to create a small tea business, but it just kind of happened in the pandemic. "I remember her saying to me that when she was getting started, it hadn't occurred to her how important education would be, how in order to actually sell the tea that she would have to train people. It was something that had not come up for her. She was just so excited to make these learnings, these connections happen in real time. And so seeing that light bulb moment go off — that at every point she'd be training people — that was really awesome to see."

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Food Safety is in the Spotlight | Tea Bushes Globally are Taking a Beating this Spring Due to Climate Change | The UK Tea Academy Announces “The Leafies,” a Whole Leaf Tea Competition

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Tea Biz is at home in Winnipeg, Canada celebrating the 6th Anniversary of the magazine’s launch and asking readers, ‘What comes next?’

Learning by Listening - Six years ago today, after a sleepless night, I learned that Kickstarter donors in 36 countries had pledged $128,107 in donations to fund Tea Journey magazine, making Tea Journey the third-highest of 1,098 Kickstarter crowdfunded periodicals. 

Hundreds of articles that have since appeared in the print edition, smartphone app, and website enabled tea enthusiasts to travel to tea gardens from Argentina to Zimbabwe, walk the terraces, watch tea being made, read the sampling notes of professional tasters, study the latest medical findings, and download culinary recipes. 

“Think of us as a digital caravan that travels to the tea lands and returns laden with artisan tea and stories to tell,” I wrote, describing Tea Journey as a magazine for tea enthusiasts, embracing the story of tea in every language with authoritative, elusive, exclusive articles, photos, and videos to help readers discover their tea destiny. 

Tea Journey has charted a course with lots of advice from a loyal following, but we need additional insights to expand our audience. Therefore, we ask that you complete a 2.5-minute online survey available on the website and social network and via email. Your response will guide the design of an online portal revealed in the next few weeks. - Dan Bolton

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

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

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

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