Tea Day – Need to Know

What tea professionals need to start the week of  Dec. 15, 2014 —

Today is International Tea Day… What’s in a name? In Hong Kong TWG is fighting not to lose its identity… Specialty Food Trends for 2015 reports its: Tea’s Time… Shapely Scotch jigger or teacup? Turks take offense at whisky peddler’s attempt to re-purpose the traditional barda??…QTerra NOVO tea brewer launches on Kickstarter… Capital Teas are now available in Keurig-compatible cups.

Happy Tea Day

The global tea industry is now worth $109 billion, a reminder of the remarkable growth of the past decade. U.S. sales are expected to reach $25 billion by year end. Production has climbed dramatically since 2005 and consumption, which was up 5% in 2013, is keeping pace. In the United States tea sales grew an impressive 5.7% last year in grocery and department stores, according to the American Botanical Council’s Tea Market Report.

The most important reason to celebrate is the overall benefit tea brings to millions of families world wide.

In Kenya there are 560,000 smallholders growing tea. In Sri Lanka more than 400,000 growers farm small parcels to produce 76% of the country’s tea. Most of the tea grown in Indonesia, Vietnam and China farmed on small parcels by individuals who rely on tea as their primary cash crop.

Comparisons are inevitable when it comes to coffee and tea. The world is neatly divided between tea drinking and coffee drinking lands. More coffee harvested annually but the tea industry employs more workers and has greater overall market value.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reports 8.5 million tons of coffee is produced globally, roughly twice the 4.7 million tons of tea but it takes 10 grams of coffee to make a cup of Joe and only 2 grams to make a cup of tea. Worldwide there are about three cups of tea consumed for every cup of coffee.

Tea consumption vs coffee

Country	Tea	Coffee
Kenya	99.2%	0.8%
China	98.8%	1.1%
India	89.9%	11.0%
United Kingdom	78.4%	21.6%
Australia	50.3%	49.7%
United States	25%	75%
Algeria	22.3%	77.7%
South Korea	17.7%	82.3%
Philippines	5.3%	97.4%

Euromonitor: 2012

Coffee is king in the Philippines but China is a tea-drinker’s paradise. Only 1% prefer coffee in China but the number of coffee drinkers is growing as coffee catches on with the young and more affluent Middle Class. Chains like Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf are rushing into the market along with European brands. While 44% of Americans drink tea, three-quarters say they prefer coffee.

Australia is literally teetering between the two beverages with 50.3% of  its residents stating a preference for tea versus 49.7% who prefer coffee.

As to the question of which has greater health benefits, tea wins hands down but the ongoing debate is getting refined. If you rule that caffeine is a draw that since both coffee and tea contain caffeine (in differing amounts and available via different chemistry) there is scientific evidence of distinct health advantages in both beverages. Drinking three to four cups of coffee, for example, is shown to decrease an individual’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 25%.

Click on this infographic from Policy Expert for a look (via Lifehacker).

Whether you choose tea or coffee, remember to ease off on the cream and sugar as too much of either negates the most important health benefits in these beverages.

Specialty Food Trends

The editors at Specialty Food News, annually predict food trends and tea once again made the list.

Editor Denise Purcell writes that “Food producers are tapping into the growing sophistication and buying power of today’s consumers.”

Among her predictions are culinary cannabis, transparent labeling, “Super Bowls” for convenience and “Asian Food Roots” as consumers reach beyond Chinese, Japanese, and Thai to discover new regional foods, from Vietnamese to upscale ramen.

No. 5 on the list is: Tea’s Time – Tea is getting the high-end treatment from ingredient upgrades to elegant cafe experiences.

“Sweetener High” follows: Customers are swapping added sugars for alternative natural sweeteners including stevia, maple syrup and honey.

Other trends to watch: Small-batch, local yogurt; the next superfood contenders: kaniwa, baobab, soursop; the next kale: seaweed, cauliflower

See the entire list on this colorful infographic: Specialty Food Trends Forecast 2015

QTerra NOVO Travel Tea Brewer

Qterra NOVO

Our recent review of successful tea projects on Kickstarter drew a lot attention. Inventor Pierre Baston was just about ready to launch when Tea Biz posted so I’m grateful to Alexis Siemons for bringing the QTerra brewer to our attention this week.

Baston of Philadelphia was inspired by the mate gourd and straw (bombilla) used by Argentinians.

Unlike a typical travel cup, the QTerra is a portable tea brewer that makes it possible to steep loose-leaf tea multiple times using varying amounts of water stored in an internal reservoir.

The diagram at right shows how the “CoolStraw” technology draws from the brewing chamber. Tea drinkers on the go can fill the brewer with hot water and dry leaf before leaving for work. The insulated water reservoir stays hot for hours allowing you to steep the tea later on the subway, train or in the car. The water is released by push button providing additional control critical for green tea drinkers who prefer a short (gongfu style) steep with small quantities of water and lower temperatures.

The CoolStraw is constructed of material that lowers the temperature to 140-degrees Fahrenheit, absorbing heat and preventing spills.

QTerra NOVO

Alexis describes the brewer “as an extension (not replacement) of the tea experience, the NOVO is meant to offer  one the ability to enjoy the gongfu/mate steeping style when on-the-go and away from an at-home tea ritual.”

The inventor hopes to generate $150,000 to pay for molds and manufacturing expenses. There are two weeks to go in the funding cycle. If successful the brewer will go into production in November 2015. Backers get brewers and tea samplers and a vote in determining the production colors.

The brewer is eco-friendly, BPA-free and sturdy. The suggested retail price is $79.

Learn more: QTerra NOVO

A Shapely Cup

Turks enjoy their tea like few others. The country’s per capita consumption tops 10 cups a day, that’s 13.8 kilos a year. Turkish tea drinkers prefer a black tea sweetened with beetroot sugar.

Turkish tea cup

Their glassware is just as distinctive as their brewed tea. Recently these slender waist glasses were the at the center of a teapot tempest reported by the Hurriyet Daily News.

The paper reported: “Pious Turkish tea junkies are upset after glasses identical to the traditional, Anatolia-bred “slender-waist” cups were marketed as “the perfect whisky glass” by a U.S. spirits company and sold online. Many Turks avoid alcohol due to their religious beliefs.

The website claims the glasses were discovered by “our friend David Hill of the Malt Guild.” Years of research in Scotland “with the best Scotch distillers in the world” led him to conclude the design of this glass “best expresses the nose and taste of a fine whiskey.”

The website offers a detailed “scientific” explanation of how Turkish tea glasses “allow alcohol to escape up the sides while the heavier aromas continue upward and inward. This occurs because the physical pressure and vaporization rates of the voc’s are greater and slower than the alcohol.”

“Keen-eyed Turks were not deceived by such promotional ‘plagiarism’, ” according to the newspaper. The glasses sell for $25 each online but you “can find them sold for a fraction of that price in almost any Turkish market,” writes the Hurriyet Daily News.

The barda??, as it is known, is a very practical design for serving hot drinks. The flared top makes it easy to sip and the tea in the top portion of these 100-gram glasses cools faster than tea in the bottom which retains heat longer than a conventional tea cup.

TWG

A Hong Kong appeals court has ruled that Singapore-based TWG Tea Company can no longer use the name TWG in business dealings. Owners of TWG Tea (HK) Company argued that allowing TWG to continue operating its premium tea shops would lead to confusion that harmed the Tsit Wing Group, a tea wholesaler founded in 1932.

TWG, which stands for The Wellness Group, must now change its business identity in Hong Kong, including the display of its distinctive trademark on tins, signage, literature and packaging. It first began operations there in 2011. TWG operates a premium tea lounge in the IFC Mall.

The decision does not impact TWG’s online operations or retail shops in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, London, Dubai, New York and Tokyo,

An attorney for TWG said the company registered a TW logo as “Plan B” and Tsit Wing Group has not voiced any objections.

Source: South China Morning Post

Single-cup Capital Teas

Capital Tea

Packaged Facts estimates sales of tea in capsules account for approximately 10% of dry tea sales this year. Sales of capsule tea grew 32.8% to $138 million in 2013, surpassing packet tea.

Capital Teas just released five flavors in Keurig-compatible capsules, priced at $12.95. The cups “marry the nuanced and distinctive flavors of a premium loose tea, replicated in a form that can be brewed consistently with a Keurig® in two minutes or less,” according to the company.

“Tea is experiencing a modern-day revolution and is growing in appeal daily to people from all walks of life. Our new single-serve cups will enable customers to make healthy choices even while on-the-go,” said CEO Peter Martino. “We’re hopeful that this additional and convenient format for our premium teas will help introduce the fast-growing Capital Teas brand to more consumers every day, and allow them to enjoy both great taste and to infuse well-being in every cup.”

Packs are available on Amazon at www.capitalteas.com and at Capital Teas’ 13 locations.

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Tea Biz serves a core audience of beverage professionals in the belief that insightful journalism informs business decision-making. Tea Biz reports what matters along the entire supply chain, emphasizing trustworthy sources and sound market research while discarding fluff and ignoring puffery.

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A Call for Standards – Need to Know

What tea professionals need to start the week of Dec. 8, 2014 —

A Call for Standards

By Austin Hodge

The last decade has seen a boom in what the industry calls ‘Specialty Tea’, but if you ask for a definition you will come away confused.

What is so special about ‘Specialty Tea’?

Not much. A close examination reveals commodity tea that has been adulterated in some way, typically by blending ingredients such as pieces of fruit, exotic herbs or flower petals. Since the ingredients are dried, tea blenders spray (yes, spray) on lots of flavor. I’m using the word “commodity” to include any large-scale tea where the production goal is quantity over quality. There are great quantities of traditional tea growing in every tea producing country. These include green tea, puer tea, wulong tea, white tea well as black tea. There are also an endless variety of herbals incorrectly labeled teas.

Why set standards for ‘Specialty Tea’?

Without standards, the market faces chaos. Where would France be if it had not established standards for wine almost 500 years ago? Italy followed suit and prospered. Stop and think, would the debate over which is better — Italian or French wine — have turned out differently if the Italians had been the first to set standards?

Picking Standard for Breakfast Qimen tea is two leaves and bud

It’s important to understand that standards not only define products, they establish markets, and whoever defines a market, controls it. It is undebatable that the French have created admirable markets for their wine, as have, more recently, specialty coffee retailers.

The chaos in the ‘specialty’ tea market comes from the fact that no one, from buyer to seller, actually knows the value of the tea they are buying or selling, or how to clearly establish its value. Price is derived mostly from marketing — price is certainly not based on the quality of the tea. In a practical sense, words like “quality”, “value”, and, “excellence” have been watered-down into obscurity as much as “specialty.”

Nowadays, tea is whatever the merchant says it is, opening a lot of ground for dubious interpretation. In contrast, standards are consistent and independently verified. The specialty coffee industry has done an excellent job of establishing standards, which has lead to levels of excellence and increased profitability enjoyed by the entire coffee industry.

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Coffee and tea both began as rarities for the rich, evolved into commodities for the masses and are gradually becoming artisanal offerings – the choice of connoisseurs.

Everyone my age remembers that back in the day, coffee was either the Red Can (Folger’s) or the Blue Can (Maxwell House). There were neighborhood diners and corner cafes where a cup of coffee cost a quarter. This was coffee’s “First Wave.” Americans annually drank an average of 10 lbs. of coffee per person. Per capita consumption was measured by the gallon because the efficiencies of the commodity model made it cheap.

The turning point was 1974 when independent coffee shop owners established a standard for “Specialty Coffee.” The adoption of standards launched the “Second Wave.” Pioneers such as Alfred Peet at Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Starbucks, and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf would not exist without these standards. Innovations in growing, sourcing, roasting, packaging, and coffee brewing followed.

The market for specialty coffee was more sophisticated, resembling its European counterparts. Coffee of this quality command a higher price; it no longer had to be cheap. Thus “quality” coffee became easily distinguishable from commodity coffee.

The term “Third Wave” was coined around 2002 when small coffee businessmen traveled to coffee farms to source direct and eventually became experts in every aspect from growing to roasting to brewing. This took the small retail coffee businesses to a new profitable level that could differentiate itself from the like of Starbucks and company. Once in control of the entire supply chain, not only did standards raise retail margins for retailers, the discovery of great coffee also opened the door for a respectable wholesale business selling to other quality businesses whose business models did not include working the complete supply chain.

The “Third Wave” aspires to an even higher level of coffee experience. It begins with direct sourcing. Only direct sourcing can insure quality and answer questions about fair trade and farming methodology with confidence. Third wave coffee also places high value on production and preparation: the goal is to get the best possible cup. Third wave coffee owes its existence to Starbucks for building the market for better coffee, and for establishing the benchmark. Retailers exceeding that level could not profit in the market that Starbucks created. Third Wave roasters realized they needed to get a whole lot better to beat Starbucks, and to do so they needed expertise and transparency along the entire supply chain.

Similarly, two years ago Starbucks changed the tea market dramatically for small independent tea businesses when they bought Teavana. From here on, every small tea business is going to be defined in relation to the nearest Teavana, like it or not.

Picking standard for LiLi Xiang tea is three top leaves

The difference between coffee and tea is that there are no standards that give tea business the tools to beat Teavana. Starbucks redefined the market for coffee on almost every level. They will do the same for tea. Small tea businesses and major tea corporations alike are going to feel the heat. Without standards, Teavana, with its extraordinary marketing muscle, can define tea quality any way they want.

If standards for specialty tea mirrored the standards for specialty coffee the only tea that could quality as “specialty” is tea judged to be within the top 20%. Most of the tea sold as specialty tea in the West would be disqualified. Just as there is with coffee, few multimillion dollar companies are going to support standards for quality in the tea industry.

Why would they?

Tea’s “Third Wave”

In the spring of 2014, Jesse Jacobs of Samovar Tea, wearing a cream-colored canvas apron over a fashionable t-shirt, announced the coming of the tea industry’s Third Wave.

But can the tea industry really be on the verge of entering into a movement equivalent to that of the coffee industry? Even though both tea and coffee have the Starbucks Corporation in common, it is going to take the tea industry a very long time to catch up to the sophistication of the coffee industry. The discussion about standards for ‘Specialty Tea’ has not even begun.

Picking standard for Liu An Gua Pian. The second opened leaf is picked as soon as it matures to the size of a picker’s thumb

Looking forward, a profitable market for small tea businesses will require standards. These need to be objective, understandable, and replicable. Standards provide growers with a definable goal for crops and harvesting. Standards enable tea makers to formulate products clearly identified by buyers, which give the producers incentive to get better. Direct sourcing will become increasingly important for the tea businessman. Consumers will actually know what they are paying for and where it originated.

Establishing standards brought extraordinary advantages to coffee growers including unimaginable financial success. A small Brazilian coffee grower this month won the Alliance for Coffee Excellence’s 100^th Cup of Excellence (COE) competition to earn $50.20 per pound at auction, the highest price ever paid per pound for COE coffee. He took home $106,000 in a country where the per capita income is less than $1000 per month. What is noteworthy is that Brazil is the largest commodity coffee producer in the world. Think what standards for quality would mean for small holders in India and Africa, areas still economically strangled by the colonial commodity system. Establishing an objectively evaluated standard establishes value that can be communicated thru the supply chain to the customer. Excellence is the reward.

China is realizing the benefits of standards in its domestic market for tea right now. Their tea industry was destroyed through a 150 years of war and internal strife. As China recovered following World War II and the Mao era, tea was mediocre at best across the country. More than a decade ago China set standards for quality and freed tea makers to create and profit from their own business. Since then, China has experienced a renaissance in tea making: tea being produced for the domestic market is the best it has ever been in history; China has become the largest tea producing country in the world, gets the highest prices for its tea, and has the highest average price for tea. China has the best teas in the broadest categories; it has defined standards, and grows the largest percentage of tea using traditional, chemical free growing practices.

The coming of standards is inevitable. Small businesses that are dedicated to quality in real terms, not just in the marketing of their products, will benefit.

It took years for standards to impact coffee, but things will move quicker with tea due to the benefits of the information age. The tea industry is ready for professionals to lay the groundwork for “Third Wave” tea. Let’s leave it to Teavana to push the second wave along in building the market, like their parent company did.

What is great about getting the ball rolling towards standards for quality and, eventually — excellence — is that small businesses that are struggling to establish new business models need not worry, for the best practices for quality in the tea industry go beyond the reach of corporations, economies of scale, and deep pockets of marketing departments. Standards are the essential tool for the tea entrepreneur.

So become a pro, take some Chinese classes, and get you passport up to date, and by all means study the Specialty Coffee Industry. They have become experts in coffee on every level. You might want to remember that this year Peet’s hired a woman that is fluent in Chinese and has a masters degree in tea from Zhejiang University.

Standards, direct sourcing, transparency, expert level knowledge about tea and its culture, logistical mastery, inventory management expertise, and tea preparation skills are all requirements for ushering in tea’s third wave. Herein lays opportunity, challenge, and the promise of excellence. Let’s hope tea entrepreneurs’ passion for tea is strong enough to take them where they’ll have to go.

Austin Hodge is the founder of Seven Cups Fine Chinese Tea in Tucson, Ariz. www.sevencups.com

Copyright Austin Hodge.

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Tea Biz serves a core audience of beverage professionals in the belief that insightful journalism informs business decision-making. Tea Biz reports what matters along the entire supply chain, emphasizing trustworthy sources and sound market research while discarding fluff and ignoring puffery.

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Tea Biz posts are available to use in your company newsletter or website. License reprint and distribution rights for single articles or commission original content.  Click here for details.

Tea Apps and Crowdfunding – Need to Know

What tea professionals need to start the week of  Dec. 3, 2014 —

Connected smallholders… Qi Teamaker… Crowdfunding tea ventures… Many faces of Vietnam… “chai if by land, tea if by sea.”

Tocklai Tea Research Institute App

No matter how deep you travel into tea country, India’s 900 million cell phones are readily visible. Whether riding in rickshaws, farm trucks or bajaj (tricycle taxis) tea workers, especially young tea workers, rely on their cells as much as their peers in urban settings.

That is why the Tocklai Tea Research Institute, the hub of India’s Tea Research Association (TRA) created an iPhone and Android application that gives ready access to the oldest and largest tea research and development organization in the world.

Joydeep Phukan, Secretary Tocklai Tea Research Institute

Joydeep Phukan, secretary, principle officer and CFO at TRA Tocklai, in Jorhat, Assam, writes that the application is “running well. Currently we are upgrading to IOS8. The feature on asking questions has become quite a hit with small tea farmers and planters.”

Tea farmers can get answers in real time. They can select images of pest damage taken by their phone camera, for example, upload the image and the team at Tocklai will recommend the proper action.

Phukan said the application enables researchers to connect with small holders who can study Agronomy, Botany, Engineering & Manufacturing, Meteorology, Soils & Fertilizers and Water Management & Irrigation.

The application also includes sections with very specific instructions on how to identify and deal with plant diseases, pests and weeds. The encyclopedia of research & development alone contains 1,000 pages of information.

Tocklai Experimental Station was founded in 1911. It became a part of TRA in 1964. Researchers there are in the forefront of developing drought-resistant tea cultivars; improvements in tea cultivation and processing. The institute is part of a network of 1,076 tea estates covering 6 million acres of Assam, Tripura, Dooars, Darjeeling and Terai.

You can download the Tocklai App for iPhone here or download the Android version here.

Learn more at: TRA Tocklai Tea Research Institute

There’s an App for Everything

Keyway Innovations in Hong Kong and Shanghai recently introduced the Qi teamaker, the world’s first app-enabled kettle with a unique brewing system.

“What makes the Qi teamaker truly unique is its patent-pending brewing system that does not use a water pump or mechanical agitator to create the necessary water flow. This allows for a hassle-free automatic brewing process with simple preparation and cleanup,” writes Rick Ha, PhD, Founder and Keyway CEO.

Press the correct temperature setting for floral, green, black, oolong, or iced tea (cold brewed). Next, select tea strength. The hot water flows over tea placed in a basket in the top of the teamaker and into the clear glass body. The kettle regulates water temperature, brewing time, and water flow and tea leaf expansion.

It even makes bubble tea and milk tea popular in Asia.

Pre-set temperatures range from 75- to 95-degrees Celsius and brew times range from 2 minutes to 10 minutes. The smartphone application enables tea drinkers to customize the auto sets.

Smartphone brewing controls

The kettle is easily disassembled and cleaned.

See it in action on YouTube: Keyssla

I’ve been watching the progress of the design team now lead by Nicholas Roux for the past three years during which the prototypes have steadily improved. The project dates to 2010 with Keyway Innovations launching in October 2012. The Kickstarter project has generated $25,000 in contributions toward its $100,000 goal (as of Dec. 7) with 17 days to go. A $149 contribution earns backers a Vita model and for $199 Keyway will send you the Maestro model, expected to retail for $249.

Speaking of Kickstarter, here is Katrina’s report on how tea ventures are faring in the crowdsourced financing arena.

Digital Investors Finance Tea Ventures

By Katrina Munichiello

In the past, future entrepreneurs saw their path forward as finding people with deep pockets – friends, family, investors – and the way to reach them was through dozens of meetings and personal contacts. Then came Kickstarter.

Kickstarter was launched as a way for individuals to share their creative projects online and to solicit small contributions from people who believed in their vision. The person seeking funding describes their project and establishes a funding goal and deadline. If the goal is reached, the project designer gets the money. To date, 73,000 projects (44% of concepts presented) have been funded.

Tea entrepreneurs have embraced the concept with new projects that include the launch of tea bars, new product lines and special projects.

Atlanta tea blender K-Teas needed funds to get FDA approval for their teas and blends so they could expand beyond local markets to national distribution. They launched their project on September 19 and by November 1 they had the support of 191 backers who helped them surpass their $5,000 goal by nearly $1,500.

Frank Horbelt from Zoomdweebie’s Tea/52 teas turned to Kickstarter several times this year, with four successful efforts raising nearly $35,000.

One of Zoomdweebie’s Kickstarter campaigns in 2014

In Horbelt’s first campaign he hoped to raise $500 for a label dispenser to make his new iced tea line more efficient to produce. Supporters came up with almost $18,000. Since that time he has raised money for custom printing projects, a packaging machine and exhibition fees for World Tea Expo.

“We chose Kickstarter because of what Kickstarter is. It’s a dream factory. I honestly believe that the one thing that people love almost as much as realizing their own dreams is helping someone else realize theirs,” said Horbelt. “You can spend a lot of time analyzing what makes a successful project and learn all kinds of tips and techniques that can help your project work better, but the bottom line is, Kickstarter is a market unlike anything else, because it is a market for dreams.  You are selling a stake in your dream.”

Some recent successful tea-themed Kickstarter projects:

• Tea Spirits 2015 calendar – Raised $10,846 (against a goal of $6,500) – Illustrated wall calendar inspired by tea types
• Alchemy of Tea – Raised $16,716 from 380 backers (against a goal of $3,000) – poster of the famous tea recipes from around the world
• Loose Leaf Tea: Sip & Slip into the Leaves of a Story – Raised $5,070 (against a goal of $2,500) Development of a tea line with fairy tale themes. The launcher hopes to open a fairy-tale inspired tea room someday.
• Anthem Coffee & Tea – Raised $16,080 – To expand their Tacoma, Wash. tea shop and relaunch it as Puyallup’s Living Room
• The Honeysuckle Tea House – Raised $21,638  – To open an apothecary cafe, selling tea, kombucha, herbs and smoothies with a focus on wellness.

Nguyen Van Dong, 68, restaurant owner in Dalat, Vietnam

The Many Faces of Vietnam

Sense Asia Co. has released a gift set and tea sampler called “Taste Vietnam.” The boxed set features 32 artisan teas organized by function. A grid printed inside the box lid presents four teas in eight categories: morning, body cleaning, mind/performance, power, traditional, with friends, longevity and teas to relax. Along the x-axis at left the tea is further classified as simple, middle, rich and special.

Each sample is packed beneath the smiling face of growers and tea lovers along with those employed in various businesses. The mosaic of faces is telling. Some are quite young, others worldly and wise. They include seasoned masters, busy executives and several women who reveal their love for tea. The selection includes tea and herbal blends, herbals and traditional tea. Since these teas were mainly selected for their health benefits, most are green but the box also holds oolong, pu-erh and a couple of black teas.

The container brews 965 cups of tea, too many for me to evaluate since the box arrived last week but I tried several including the plastic sealed, gold foil wrapped small brick of pu-erh made by Bui Thanh Dung, an 82-year-old grower with 23 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He lives at Dak Lak and grows eight types of tea and enough vegetables, pigs, cows and chickens to feed his extended family. The tea brewed richly red-brown and sweet with forest-floor aromatics and pleasant, lingering aftertaste. The tea held up nicely through multiple steepings.

I learned about this grower and many other ordinary and extraordinary Vietnamese in a fascinating booklet enclosed with the tea. The collection is the work of 26 tea professionals who traveled 72 days in Vietnam, tasted 346 teas and interviewed 343 individuals from 28 farms and 17 towns and villages in both the north and south tea growing regions. Their subjects include dentists and fishermen, a fashion model, a cab driver, café owners, an engineering professor, and a bicycle racing champion with 220 bicycles in his garage. They range in age from their teens to 92 years and all love tea. The authors worked eight months on the project which resulted in the tales and curated selection of teas, most of which cannot be found in supermarkets or tourist shops.

The booklet is published in Russian, Japanese, Korean, French and Chinese.

“We hope that while spending time in the company of family and friends you will enjoy these delicious teas, and gain a deeper understanding the beautiful and welcoming country of Vietnam,” write the authors.

Learn more: www.senseasia.net

Tea if by Sea

There are hundreds of variants of the word tea and cha. Did you ever wonder why cha became the preferred spelling in places like India while tea and thé and tay are preferred in Europe and the Middle East?

“The word for tea in a country’s native language gives us an idea of how tea arrived at that country,” writes Stacey Geoffrey Tay in Quora.

The Amoy spelling tê originated in southern Fujian province and reached the West through the port of Xiamen (Amoy). Hokkien varieties of tea from the Southern coast of China and in Southeast Asia were grown by farmers who pronounced it teh.

Cha is from the Cantonese chàh of Guangzhou (Canton) spoken in the ports of Hong Kong and Macau where Portuguese shipments to India originated. The Mandarin chá was the name for tea that traveled overland to Central Asia and Persia.

Tay writes that current pronunciation “depends on whether its earlier speakers traded with China by land or by sea—chai if by land, tea if by sea.”

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Tea Biz serves a core audience of beverage professionals in the belief that insightful journalism informs business decision-making. Tea Biz reports what matters along the entire supply chain, emphasizing trustworthy sources and sound market research while discarding fluff and ignoring puffery.

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Tea Biz posts are available to use in your company newsletter or website. Purchase reprint and distribution rights for single articles or commission original content.  Click here for details.