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

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

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

Tea Leaf Cuisine

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

Regenerative Agriculture

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

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

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

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Afghan Tea Market Concerns as Taliban Conquers Kabul | US Foodservice Recovery Rates Vary Widely by Sector | Researchers Confirm Heart Healthy Aspects of Tea

| NEWSMAKER – Anshuman Kanoria, principal at Balaji Agro International and chairman of the Indian Exporters Association

| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz visits Darjeeling, India on word of the sale of the iconic Jungpana and Goomtee tea estates to Anshuman Kanoria, principal at Balaji Agro International and chairman of the Indian Exporters Association.… and then we travel to London where Kyle Whittington reviews The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, a novel by Lisa See.

Restoring Darjeeling's Reputation from the Roots Up
The sale of two iconic Darjeeling tea gardens last week drew attention on the ongoing challenges facing growers in this fabled tea-growing region. Jungpana (1931) and Goomtee (1899) were acquired by the Santhosh Kanoria Group, which owns the tea export company Balaji Agro International. The group also owns Tindharia estate in Darjeeling. Interestingly, Jungpana was last sold in 2017, a sale that came on the heels of the Gorka agitation in these hills. We spoke to Anshuman Kanoria, Chairman of Balaji Agro and, also Chairman of the Indian Exporters Association about this acquisition.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
New York Times best-selling author Lisa See has written several novels set in the tea lands. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, however, uniquely explores the mysterious world of Pu’er. Reviewer Kyle Whittington writes that See’s novel “consists of so many brilliant layers… for the tea reader this is a wonderful story, packed with great tea content that will either develop or ignite an interest in, and a desire to explore the world of Pu’er.”

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

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

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

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

Victory for Japanese Tea Marathon

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

AVPA's Teas of the World Competition

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

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Top Tea Producer McLeod Russell India Faces Bankruptcy | A Tea Authentication Protocol to Chemically Verify Origins | Soggy Soil Keeps Kulhads in Short Supply

| NEWSMAKER – Rona Tison executive vice president of ITO EN North America

| GUEST – World Tea Academy Online Education Director Lisa Boalt Richardson

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week travels to New York where Rona Tison executive vice president of ITO EN North America explains the appeal of functional tea and introduces a new matcha LOVE ENERGY + line of ready-to-drink teas… and then to Boulder, Colo., headquarters of the World Tea Academy, where online education director Lisa Boalt Richardson describes the newest of six certification programs.

Natural Tea Energy
In the US the RTD segment is a battle of titans dominated by Lipton-PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Snapple, and AriZona -- but it is tea-focused brands like ITO EN that are innovating. Instead of concentrates and solubles, line extensions are brewed from whole leaves from tea that is sustainably grown and offered in recyclable packaging. Rona Tison, executive vice president at ITO EN North America joins Tea Biz for a discussion of what makes tea the ideal base for function-enhancing blends that appeal to health-conscious consumers.

World Tea Academy Online
Tea industry certifications are becoming sought after in the industry. There are certifications for tea specialist, sommelier, blender, health expert, and now a tea aroma specialist, a new offering from the World Tea Academy. Joining Jessica Woollard on the podcast today is Lisa Boalt Richardson, online education director of the World Tea Academy, and Kathleen Hippeli – Lisa’s assistant and a former tearoom owner.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – India Tea Auction Mandate Chafes Producers | Smallholders Seek Higher Raw Leaf Minimums
| Sharetea Ranks 6th Among Fastest Growing US Retail Chains

| GUEST – Narendranath Dharmaraj, consultant and former plantation manager with Brooke Bond, Unilever, and Harrisons Malayalam

| NEWSMAKER – Shabnam Weber, president Tea & Hearbal Association of Canada

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week travels to India for an historical perspective on the Tea Board’s recent decision to enforce a controversial mandate that registered gardens sell at least half of the tea they produce at auction… and then to Toronto, Canada where Tea Biz continues its coverage on differentiating specialty tea with Shabnam Weber president of the Tea & Herbal Association of Canada and a spokesperson for the Tea Association of the USA and Tea and Herbal Infusions Europe. Shabnam says that as an industry, “we should together be working on elevating the value of tea for the betterment of every part of the supply chain.”

Tea Auction Mandate

The Tea Board of India recently issued a circular mandating that 50% of the production from a garden must be sold via auctions. We ask Narendranath Dharmaraj, a veteran in the tea industry about his views on this, and what it means to the industry.

Is Tea Divisible?

Joining us today is Shabnam Weber, president of the Tea & Herbal Association of Canada. In 2000 she co-founded the Tea Emporium, a chain of Canadian specialty tea shops. She served as a member the THAC board for many years before selling her company to lead the association. In this conversation she represents not only the Canadian tea industry, she is also spokesperson for the Tea Association of the USA and Tea and Herbal Infusions Europe, an apex group that in turn represents tea associations in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Spain, France, Austria, The Netherlands and several other European countries.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – The New Definition for Specialty Tea Gets Refined | Research Reveals That Children Benefit from Drinking Tea
| and Unilever’s Tea Brand Divestiture is on Pace

| GUEST – Kyle Whittington reviews The Life of Tea by Michael Freeman and Timothy d'Offay

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week visits the tea lands from on high where rising temperatures in the atmosphere are causing shifts in the jet stream that alter ocean temperatures, causing an unusual period of extreme weather globally. The results from changes in the climate are visible this summer as heat domes, and drought, slow-moving monsoons and violent typhoons and fast-melting glaciers in the Himalayas….

… then to England to marvel at the work of British author and photographer Michael Freeman and co-author Timothy d’Offay whose large-format book The Life of Tea: A Journey to the World’s Finest Teas gets a glowing review from Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington.

Intemperate Torture

The howl of Typhoon In-Fa assailing Zhejiang and Hangzhou China, and the monsoons deluging India brought havoc, not relief to parched tea lands this month.

Visual Splendor

One of the lovely things about The Life of Tea is that you don't feel that you're rereading information on tea that you've read 1,000 times before. Rather, you go on a journey to each tea type each country region artisan or tea house, and along the way dotted throughout the text. Like so many villages amongst the team mountains are these wonderful gems and nuggets of information.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – New Criteria Proposed for Differentiating Specialty Tea
| Walmart Tea is now 100% Certified by Rainforest Alliance | Kenya Sets Tea Auction Price Minimums

| GUEST – Avinash Dugar, founder of the La Gravitea Cafe in Jamshedpur in the north Indian state of Jharkand

| NEWSMAKER – David Veal, Executive Director, European Speciality Tea Association

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week travels to London for a chat with David Veal, Executive Director of the European Speciality Tea Association. Veal describes the association’s new perspective and new definition of what makes specialty tea special. and then to northern India where Aravinda Anantharaman visits a tea café with heart.

Differentiating Specialty Tea

A rigid definition of what makes tea special has eluded the industry. After 45 years of competitions there is consensus on the qualities that make an outstanding oolong as judged by the Lugu Tea Farmers’ in Taiwan. In France, the AVPA has demonstrated skill in determining the gastronomic qualities in tea that please the local palate. The International Specialty Tea Association posts a set of universal standards such as pluck and leaf quality. Consumers mainly differentiate by price. This week the European Speciality Tea Association announced a definition that is more aspirational that dogmatic. ESTA Executive Director David Veal joins us to explain how the association adopted this approach and why it will prove helpful.

For the Love of Tea

La Gravitea Cafe is a remarkable tea café with hundreds of selections of fine teas inspired by the travels of founder Avinash Dugar but aside from specialty teas, what make LaGravitea special is that the young staff are hard-working graduates of the local school for the hearing-impaired.

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

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

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

Rooibos Revived

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

Scottish Tea

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

HEAR THE HEADLINES – European Union Enforces Single-Use Plastics Rules | Easing Iranian Sanctions Benefits Tea Trade
| Kenya Tea Auction Prices Plummet

| GUEST – Rare tea book collector Donald Maxton, Tea Book Shop, Springfield, New Jersey

| NEWSMAKER – FaithAnn Bailes, content and conference manager for World Tea Expo at Questex

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week travels to Las Vegas for a report on the first in-person edition of World Tea Expo in two years. and then to New Jersey where rare tea book collector Donald Maxton shares with Kyle Whittington his fascination with tea texts and ephemera dating to the 1880s.

Together Again

World Tea Expo + Conference was forced to take a two-year COVID hiatus, returning to Las Vegas last week as a face-to-face event co-located for the first time with the rebranded Bar & Restaurant Expo. Attendees comingled well says Faith Ann Bailes, content and conference manager for World Tea Expo + Conference at Questex, and one of the original co-founders of World Tea Expo in 2003.

A Rare Find

What makes a tea book special? asks Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington. Rare book collector Donald A. Maxton says that he first considers the age of a published work, which often reflects the culture of the time, and then interesting and unusual designs, and, finally, the use of color.

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Logistics Companies Invest to Right the Ship | Kenya’s Newly Elected Board Moves into KTDA Headquarters | and Hain Celestial Streamlines its Tea Selections

| GUEST – Alicia Gentili, of St. Clement, is project manager and tea maker at Jersey Fine Tea, a new tea estate on the Island of Jersey.

| NEWSMAKER – Sparsh Agarwal, co-founder with Ishaan Kanoria of Dorje Teas in Darjeeling, India

| FEATURES – Tea Biz this week travels to Darjeeling, India where an innovative new tea venture is taking root at the Agarwal family’s ancestral farm at Selim Hill … and then to the Jersey Isles off the coast of France where Alicia Gentili, project manager at Jersey Fine Tea, discusses the challenges and rewards of establishing a new tea garden in the English Channel.

Reviving Darjeeling

Sparsh Agarwal is the fourth generation in his family to cultivate tea in the Himalayas but, as you will hear in this discussion with Aravinda Anantharaman, he is not bound by tradition. Agarwal and Dorje Tea co-founder Ishaan Kanoria are targeting India’s domestic market, offering a subscription model featuring Darjeeling tea from all four plucking seasons to give Selim Hill Tea Estate a second chance.

Splendid Tea from the Isle of Jersey

Camellia sinensis is a versatile plant that is grown in many parts of the world, observes Tea Biz correspondent Dananjaya Silva. At 49 degrees latitude, Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands situated between England and France, is much further north than traditional tea lands, yet the island is proving to be fertile ground to produce fine loose-leaf tea. Silva talks with Alicia Gentili from Jersey Fine Tea about the challenges of growing tea on the Island of Jersey.