HEAR THE HEADLINES – Let’s All Celebrate International Tea Day | The Tea Day Sofa Summit is Monday, May 23 | Global Instability is Suppressing East African Tea Prices 

| NEWSMAKER – Sneha Balasubramaniam, Head of Marketing and Innovation at Tata Consumer Products

| FEATURE INTRO – This week Tea Biz travels to Montvale, New Jersey to the headquarters of Good Earth Tea a division of Tata Consumer Products that is celebrating its 50th Anniversary with a revival of two beloved teas.Good Earth Tea Celebrates 50th Anniversary – The Good Earth brand was founded in 1972 by a Santa Cruz-based herbal tea company that supplied tea to a local restaurant that expanded into a chain of 50 franchises. The brand experimented with herbal blends during its first two decades, producing more than 40 varieties. Tata acquired the company in 2005 and relocated offices to New Jersey.

HEAR THE HEADLINES: Tea Value Surges as Production Slows in China | International Tea Day is May 21. The Sofa Summit is on May 23 | Dan Bolton explains People’s Picky Preferences in Tea at an International Tea Day webinar hosted by the European Speciality Tea Association on Wednesday, May 18. Register free: https://specialityteaeurope.com/webinars

| NEWSMAKER – Ian Chun is a Japanese tea merchant, marketer, and CEO of Matcha Latte Media in Tokyo. 

| FEATURE INTRO – Japan set a record for tea exports in 2021. This week, Tea Biz travels to Tokyo to discuss with Yunomi Life founder Ian Chun Japan’s resurgent tea export market and the remarkable story of the hand-rolled green tea that brought two million yen at auction.

Japan's Tea Export Strategy is Working – Ian Chun founded Yunomi Life, an online platform showcasing 170 small-scale Japanese tea farms with a mission to put Japanese culture into the hands of consumers around the world. Farmers recently auctioned a kilo of Saemidori sencha for a record 1.96 million yen. In this segment, Ian describes the handmade needles and taste profile of the Saemidori cultivar, a Yabukita cross first bred in 1969 and registered in 1990.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – India Resumes Tea Shipments to the Russian Federation | COVID Surge Makes Tea Packing Unpredictable| Special Report: Beyond Tea Cuisine

| GUESTS – Brand owners Nikita Mittal, Dhiraj Arora & Priti Sen Arora, Anubha Jawar, tea producers and industry veterans, Jagjeet Kandal, Vikram Gulia, Atul Asthana, Ajay Jalan, Raj Barooah, and Rajah Banerjee

| FEATURE INTRO – This week Tea Biz returns to Bengaluru where South Asia Editor and Producer Aravinda Anantharaman concludes a two-part series on Realigning the Marketing of Indian Tea with the questions needed to solve the mammoth task of rebranding the industry as it coaxes consumers in the domestic market to drink higher quality tea.

Realigning the Marketing of Indian Tea – In Part 2 of our story on Realigning the Marketing of Indian Tea, we speak to various stakeholders in the industry, including brand owners and tea producers and industry veterans. We also have Ramya Ramamurthy, author of Branded in History offering her views on nostalgia as a marketing trope in tea.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HEAR THE HEADLINES – The Heightened Urgency of Earth Day 2022 | Smallholders Now Own Rwanda’s Largest Tea Factory | The Mombasa Tea Auction Completes its Switch to Digital 

| GUEST – Maksym Malygin, owner of Ukraine's Zhornyna Experimental Tea Garden 

| FEATURE INTRO – This week, Tea Biz travels to Ukraine, where tea grower Maksym Malygin produces tasty oolongs from cold-resistant plants whose ancestors survived decades of heavy snow during prolonged winters at temperatures as low as 26 degrees below zero Celsius.

Ukraine's Cold Weather Tea – Virtually all the world’s tea is grown between latitudes 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. Rising temperatures in this narrow band threaten tea yields and force growers to consider planting “upslope” at higher elevations where cooler temperatures prevail. Unfortunately, subtropical tea cultivars perish in a hard frost, expected above 7,500 feet. At the Zhornyna Experimental Tea Plantation in Western Ukraine, Maksym Malygin successfully grows tea plants under forest cover that have survived heavy snow during prolonged winters at temperatures 26 below zero Celsius.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – A Global Recession Looms | A Realignment of the Orthodox Tea Supply Chain is Underway | Assam to Open First High Schools for Children of Tea Workers

| GUEST – Korangani Tea Estate planter and mechanical engineer Ranjit Chaliha

| FEATURE INTRO – In this installment of Frugal Innovations, Tea Biz travels to Assam, India, to meet planter and mechanical engineer Ranjit Chaliha who describes the Varun, a device named after the Hindi God of Wind that recirculates heated exhaust to conserve energy and eliminate the inconsistencies in tea dryers that lower tea quality.

Achieving Consistency and Efficiency in Drying Tea – The Model Tea Factory at Tocklai was constructed during Ranjit Chaliha's tenure as chairman of the engineering subcommittee of India's Tea Research Association. During this time he began experimenting with equipment to recirculate exhaust in the factory's tea dryers. At an engineering symposium on tea machinery in 1998, Chaliha presented a paper describing the benefits of recirculating exhaust air. He based his findings on experiments and filed for a patent. A dozen years later, he was finally awarded recognition for his innovation, Varun, a device that reduces inconsistencies in drying tea.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Sri Lanka Tea Harvest is Under Duress | China faces a Qing Ming Quandary | Tea and Productivity are Twinned 

| NEWSMAKER – Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Mr. Jayampathy Molligoda

| FEATURE INTRO – This week Tea Biz travels to Sri Lanka where London-based correspondent Dananjaya Silva speaks with the chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board about its decision to pursue a Geographical Indication by the European Union. GI status affords global trade protection under the World Trade Organization and officially recognizes the authenticity of the Ceylon brand.

Why Sri Lanka is Seeking Geographical Indication Status for its Ceylon Tea – Sri Lanka has been producing tea for well over 150 years marketed under the brand name Ceylon tea. Today the Sri Lankan tea board is looking to pursue GI Geographical Indication status for its much fame product. GI indication is a seal of authenticity used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or reputations that are due to that origin. Correspondent Dananjaya Silva sat down with Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Mr. Jayampathy Molligoda to discuss how the tea board is pursuing GI status and what this means for prices for producers and for the nation's tea.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – American Consumers say The Worst of the Coronavirus Pandemic has Passed | Expect Strong Venture Capital Support for Retail in 2022 | Join Tea Biz "On the Floor" at World Tea Conference + Expo| PLUS listen to how the Boba Guys are Building a Gateway to Tea

| NEWSMAKER – Andrew Chau, co-founder and CEO Boba Guys, bubble tea shops in San Francisco. Los Angeles and New York City

| FEATURE INTRO – This week Tea Biz traveled to Las Vegas for the World Tea Conference + Expo where Boba Tea CEO Andrew Chau, a featured speaker, explains how relentless attention to quality elevated a simple mix of milk tea and tapioca to a $3 billion global segment that is enticing a generation of non-tea drinkers to give tea a try.

'We Really Push the Envelope for Quality' – Boba Guys make their drinks with natural fruit, real milk, real foamed cheese, raw sugar, and natural tea, brewed from loose-leaf oolong and other quality varietals and served with tapioca balls made in their factory. The bustling chain, now with 20 locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, was co-founded by Andrew Chau and Bin Chen.

| ON THE FLOOR at World Tea Conference + Expo – Mackenzie Bailey is On the Floor with the Tea Biz podcast at the 20th anniversary of the World Tea Conference + Expo. She reports a high level of excitement with tea vendors, customers, and attendees of the adjacent Bar and Restaurant Expo. Mackenzie spoke with several tea vendors about how the event unfolded.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Russia and India Pursue Sanction Workarounds for Tea | Tea Party at the Top of the World | Tea Biz Previews the 20th Anniversary World Tea Expo 

| GUEST – Rajiv Lochan, founder of Lochan Tea and owner of the Doke Tea Estate in Bihar, India

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Siliguri, India to speak with Rajiv Lochan, founder of the Doke Tea Estate in Bihar, a non-traditional tea growing region bounded by West Bengal, Sikkim, and Nepal. Lochan’s marketing mastery has literally put Bihar on the official map of India’s tea-growing regions.

The Rise of New Tea Growing Regions –India proudly claims Assam and Darjeeling, two of the world’s most famous tea-growing regions. Yet neither grew tea until 175 years ago and it took 50 years to achieve scale. Today Indian consumers drink 90% of the tea it produces. It is only recently that domestic consumption surpassed exports and the expansion of tea lands. Growing regions are inherently blessed with tea-enhancing terroir, but ideal soil conditions, altitude, and micro-climate still require the pioneering vision and gritty persistence of growers like Rajiv to achieve their potential. Rajiv graduated from university in 1973 with a master's degree in organic chemistry. He spent his early career managing established gardens where the skills he developed in cultivating award-winning teas were complemented by his efficient management. In 1998, the Indian government, noticing the strong growth in domestic sales, issued permits to expand tea lands. Adhering to biodynamic principles, Lochan planted drought-resistant cultivars in the loamy soil along the Doke River. He now produces green, white, and oolong teas and black fusion, a blend of Assam and Darjeeling teas. It took him 10 years to acquire and consolidate smaller plots into the Doke Tea Estate.