• A Humble Titan in Specialty Tea

    In 2023, the tea industry said farewell to several notable figures. In this episode, we pay tribute to David C. Bigelow, Jr., an industry icon who died in June at 96. A member of the silent generation born in the roaring 20s, David was a World War II veteran and 1948 Yale University graduate who transformed the specialty tea segment. He steered a boutique tea blending business launched in his mother’s kitchen into a multi-million-dollar mass-market brand. Joining us today is David’s daughter Cindi, President and CEO of Connecticut-based and family-owned R.C. Bigelow, a $250 million B-Corp known for innovations that redefined tea service in restaurants and grew the company to become the US market leader in specialty tea.

    Listen to the interview

    Bigelow Tea President and CEO Cindi Bigelow reflects on her father’s innovations in specialty tea.
    David C. Bigelow
    David C. Bigelow, at Avon Old Farms School in Avon, CT

    David Bigelow’s Tenacity Established Specialty Tea in US Grocery

    By Dan Bolton

    The 55 million members of the Silent Generation were hardworking and humble. Survivors of the Great Depression and the horrors of war – they were careful with their money, patriotic, and ambitious. The generation displayed characteristics of thrift, simplicity, patience, and a need for financial security and comfort. Cindi Bigelow is the third generation to lead Bigelow Tea, founded in 1945 by her grandmother, Ruth C. Bigelow. During her years as chief executive, sales have increased from $94 million in 2005 to more than $250 million. Bigelow Tea produces over 100 million-units of tea boxes annually and employs 450 people.

    ““My father was my mentor for my entire life, personally and professionally. He never wavered from the traits I admired the most. He was a humble, grateful, and kind man. He leaves a big hole for my family, our extended family at Bigelow Tea, and far beyond, but we will continue with the lessons he taught us all… think about others before self.”

    – Cindi Bigelow

    Dan Bolton: I speak for many who admired your father for his business success, the life he shared with your mother, Eunice, the family he reared, his philanthropy, and the quiet impact he exerted at a time of transformation. He was a man who led by example.

    Cindi Bigelow: I just hope to share with the world, especially those in the tea sphere, the story of how my father and my family were so influential in bringing the specialty tea category to where it is today.

    Dan: Let’s begin the interview there. Could you talk about his role in expanding distribution and pricing? He pioneered a way of looking at tea that forced it up higher on a shelf in grocery stores. There was always an expensive tea from England, but this isn’t an import; this is tea blended and packaged in the United States – and your dad was doing something quite extraordinary.

    Cindi: Well, first, it goes back to him expanding his specialty tea category. My grandmother introduced specialty tea when she created Constant Comment in her kitchen. She also expanded it to include many different flavors. Now, all of those teas were sold in gift shops.

    When my father took over, he modified the tea offerings in the specialty tea category as well as their flavor profile.

    He was the one who transitioned into the grocery stores, where he had to build an entire shelf presence. With his broker team and distributors, they carved out space for the specialty tea category, which was priced at a premium level because it was not a commodity tea. There was a lot more that went into it.

    But it was a very slow build.

    His tenacity is why we’re now number one because when it started, no one even knew what specialty tea was, and no one wanted to spend that kind of money on it. They had to go through all kinds of creative ways to get it on the shelf and then keep it on the shelf — it was completely new in the industry.

    David C. Bigelow with his mother Ruth and father David Bigelow, Sr.
    David C. Bigelow, 33, with his mother, Ruth, and father, David Bigelow, Sr.

    Constant Comment
    Constant Comment

    Dan: In 1945, a 2.25 oz jar of Constant Comment sold for less than 75 cents, a “premium” price point. The price had more than doubled by 1960, at a very early stage of consumer awareness of the specialty tea category retail. R.C. Bigelow blends were “top shelf” packed in tins with premium Ceylon tea and ingredients. Sales, however, were a modest $1 million. By 2005, under David Bigelow’s leadership, sales increased to $94 million as the brand transformed into food service and a mass-market favorite that retained its appeal as a premium blend.

    Cindi: Well, it wasn’t until the ’70s that my parents started to put the product into foil and then fold cartons. That started because my father’s forays into the food service arena with the individual product team went back. He had been at the University of Hawaii, and they had our product in loose bags in a basket.

    They came back and said that just doesn’t seem like the right way to sell it. So, they found a company that could put it in foil. It was not ever done before. And we started producing foil-wrapped tea bags going into boxes that we could now sell in the food service.

    That’s when he realized this would revolutionize the tea industry if we could get this on the retail shelf because you can bring the ring down so it’s a little bit within reach of everyone to enjoy a cup of tea, which is still our motto. We want everyone to be able to afford a cup of Bigelow tea, but it is still premium and is no longer in a canister.

    So, he moved us into foil wrappers to be able to handle the food service arena brilliantly. At the time, we were first into the food service and away-from-home marketplace.

    Then, with that, they recognized that these cartons and foil individual wraps could make a big difference on a grocery shelf, so they started in Arizona and tested it down there, and it was a huge hit. Sales went up three times. From there, it was rolled out throughout the country.

    We went from pneumatic machines to IMA machines and Teepack Constanta. He completely revamped the organization in the 70s and early 80s.

    Dan: Something else he did to encourage the selection of tea was to put those foil packs in tea chests on the counter or bring them to the table, where the waitress would say, “Please choose from our selection of fine teas.” There may have been a selection of 8 or 10 in the chest.

    Cindi: He had a great team of people in R&D (research & development), one who also passed away a few years ago was brilliant in creating the tea display chest, which again completely revolutionized the way the restaurant business, the catering business, everything about it they were not afraid to really push into industries with products with packaging that had not been seen before.

    One of the points of this article is to let people understand the impact that he and his team had. If he knew I was giving this interview and using his name and not listing everyone who did all the work, he would be very upset with me, Dan. It’s under his leadership and his drive that our company was able to transform the tea business.

    Dan: Who did he pal around with? Was it the guys at the grocery chains like Kroger and A&P? 

    Cindi: Believe it or not, my parents established really close relationships with the distributors. He was huge down in Florida. I can’t think of the names of all the distributors and brokers. They were so close, so close. Also, they had really good friends in the tea industry.

    My father was wonderful, but networking wasn’t part of his MO. And I always admired that about him. He let the brokers and distributors do the work. He believed in letting them take the lead and do what they excel at. He made sure they were educated, they knew who we were, and then let them go.

    Dan: Will you help readers better understand the breakthrough years when Bigelow expanded from a niche gift shop and regional brand to reach markets in the big cities and eventually saturation across the country?

    Cindi: Well, we weren’t dominant anywhere in the 60s. We were in California, which was a big market for us. It wasn’t a national brand. If you have no sales, you dilute it. Moving into the big cities, there are even fewer sales. So, there was no market where Bigelow was dominant.

    We were in gift shops in the ‘60s and on university campuses. A lot of the college kids enjoyed Constant Comment. It was cool to drink, Constant Comment* ” But sales were so small. We finally achieved $20 million in sales in 1985. So, we were a very small company. In the ‘60s, sales were a million and a half maybe.

    David and Eunice Bigelow
    David and Eunice Bigelow in the tea-tasting lab at Bigelow Tea

    Dan: There was a business breakout, though, during the ‘80s

    Cindi: Part of that growth was the foldable cardboard packaging and carton boxes on the shelf from the late 70s to the early 80s. At that point, we took off because we were now very stackable. We could have a price that was more thoughtful of the consumer. Then, there were line extensions. My father really got into the herbals in the ’80s and expanded to green teas in the ’90s. There weren’t even any green teas out there. Bigelow tea is the one that would put green tea on the shelf. I still think it is such a great product to consume. It is so helpful. But to be honest, there are many green teas out there that are very hard for the average consumer to enjoy. We are very blessed that our green tea is number one. We have a 40% share, and that is because we believe that our taste profile is a very drinkable, enjoyable tea. The 90s was a real rocking time for us for sure.

    Constant Comment in tins
    Constant Comment in tins

    Cindi: Truth be told, Mo Siegel started the herbal business with the launch of Celestial Seasonings. He pioneered the herbal category.

    My father looked at it and wasn’t quite sure. He asked, “What is this? Is this where we want to be?” Because he was a tea guy. He was a camellia sinensis guy. And you know camellia sinensis people are camellia sinensis focused, and so he, you know, waited a few years and then with good counsel said, “You know what, I do think we want to get into the herbal arena.”

    Today, the herbal category is the largest in specialty tea, hovering around almost 60%. So, we are the number two player. We’re number one in the tea arena, within one specialty tea the number one tea, but in the herbal subset, we are number two, but we are gaining and getting a lot of attention for the good herbs we are launching in that arena. They are experimental.

    My father’s foray into the foil wrap, which protects the vulnerable oils, whether it’s the Camelia sinensis or the volatile oils of a chamomile or a mint, that’s what gives you the health profile. That’s what gives you the taste profile. So, putting that into the foil allowed us to put those kinds of mints in there to protect them from losing it and getting exposed to light air moisture. And so, when we did move into the herbal category, we were able to, you know, move in in a big way, and it’s a big part of our business now.

    “He didn’t have to pass away for me to appreciate him. He knew I appreciated him every single day, and that’s one thing that I’ll be able to carry with me forward even though he’s gone. He knew how much I loved him.”

    – Cindi Bigelow

    Dan: So, let’s discuss his character, integrity, and worldview. David is admirable, in part because of context, as these guys were beaten down by the depression and fought a war. Your dad was a Japanese military interpreter. The survivors came home, earned degrees, started businesses, built companies, and prospered. The death and destruction, fears and dreams, and experiences changed their point of view and made them better human beings. In the family business, you describe your dad as a mentor, someone you admire. That’s a good starting point.

    Cindi: Well, I think, watching him in action, watching him listen to people, watching him ask questions, watching what an amazing conversationalist, watching how much fairness meant to him, you know, making sure everybody has a voice, watching his reaction if he was getting what he considered to be an untruth or sort of a slippery slope answer.

    You know, all of those are really what formed who I am today: having a father who wasn’t greedy, having a father who didn’t focus on making money, having a father who never talked about money, having a father who would be generous with you, but just was overall all careful with the dollar.

    I don’t say that in a way that he was afraid to spend it, but he just didn’t need to buy many things. We had one nice car. I remember when we got a Lincoln Continental in the 70s. He was very proud of himself and the Lincoln Continental, just in his own way.

    He was always there whenever I needed somebody or something. So that’s how I’ve tried to be with my own family: when that phone rings, I pick that phone up. They want me to drive up. They want me to go somewhere. They want me to fly somewhere. I do whatever it takes. Your family is first, and I learned that from him.

    I run this company where it isn’t about making money. I mean, you have to make money. You must be able to buy the things you need. Money, to me, means paying the employees a bonus.

    I learned that from him.

    Dan: So, let’s talk about his philanthropy for a minute. He cared about his neighbors, community, and schools. He established a local foundation to support local causes. Your company donates more than $800,000 a year.

    Cindi: Well, he loved to share the story of when he started the Bigelow Tea Community Challenge 36 years ago. He was motivated by me; he said, “You know, I’m watching my daughter give so much money back to the community.” He rallied this community around this event, donating more than $2 million to charities in Connecticut (See below).

    He said, “I want to do it in a bigger way.” And not in a competitive way. So he started to put funds in place that he was able to distribute to the community, with the largest being the Bridgeport Public School system. So yeah, for a good 20 years, he has been very, very philanthropic, and you know, it’s very sweet to talk about what triggered him. You know, he was not a man to have an ego, right? So he said, “I like what she’s doing. I want to do that, too. So, it became a big part of my parent’s life. And it’s something that they’re very proud of, and it is a great legacy.

    The Foundation will continue focusing on education in the Connecticut Bridgeport area. He really did love that he would always be so impressed he would go whether it was the high schools we would be putting on performances. Dad and Mom would be funding the costumes, lighting, and music, and he would be so proud when he came back about what he saw and always so impressed with the students. He would go to the STEM programs, the robotics, the girls that code, and my mother as well. They were so touched by what they saw in the community, and they got to see firsthand, and he got to see firsthand, before he passed for many years, the good work of his Foundation.

    Eunice, Cindi and David C. Bigelow
    Eunice, Cindi, and David C. Bigelow

    Dan: He made a difference in his 96 years in tea and leaves a legacy in your work.

    Cindi: Oh my God, everything I do rests on the shoulder. He’s the first one to tell you that everything we do is on somebody else’s shoulders. And you need to honor that.

    I think your original question was, ‘What was it like being his daughter?’ You know, he did do it all. He wasn’t a different guy in the office than at home. He did have a little bit of a temper when he thought you weren’t telling the truth. But he was a very kind individual that was very engaged. I always knew he had my back. He was always there for me.

    The company felt the same way. I never felt shortchanged, not for a minute, not for a minute. The company certainly felt loved by both my mother and my father. And so it truly was a family. I mean, I didn’t know any better.

    I was very little, wearing an outfit and handing out Christmas presents, as was my sister to everyone at the Christmas party, and my mother said to me, ‘You have to stop kissing everyone. You’re just going to get sick.’ I didn’t know anything except for the family business.

    He loved tea so passionately that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do it like he did. He was passionate about the product, right? I consider myself more of a businesswoman who loves tea, and I think I’m pretty good with tea, but he was a tea person who ran a business — different story. So yeah, I was very lucky. I was very lucky.

    I was very fortunate to have good schooling leading up to my running the company, but he was a great teacher. Perhaps my greatest teacher.

    *Yes, it is true that musical composer and singer Leonard Cohen, in his famous love song Suzanne, was inspired by the brand. Cohen told NPR in 2016 that the line, “and she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China,” was, in fact, inspired by Constant Comment. “She fed me a tea called Constant Comment, which has small pieces of orange rind in it, which gave birth to the image,” he said.

    Related: David C. Bigelow’s Obituary published in the Palm Beach Post

    David’s Favorite Tea

    “He loved our Ceylon Premium Tea, which was really put together for the airline industry,” recalls Cindi Bigelow.  We sold a beautiful Ceylon product in that category, and he loved that tea.  It was his absolute favorite.  And, you know, you’d compete with other companies to sell to the airline industry, and you couldn’t quite describe to them that the price they were getting for that outstanding Ceylon tea was like nothing else you would ever imagine—people who know this tea love to sell it for you. So, that was his favorite. He had that every single morning. True story: During COVID-19, we had difficulty getting that tea and had some difficulty shipping from Ceylon. What we could get was different from our gold standard, and he absolutely knew that, and he stopped drinking it just like that. “I’m not drinking it until we get the good stuff back,” he said.

    Premium Ceylon Tea

    Bigelow Tea Community Challenge

    Seventy-nine sponsors contributed to the 2023 campaign, including several prominent tea industry suppliers. Beneficiaries include YMCA of Fairfield, Mercy Learning Center, Cardinal Shehan Center, Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County, Center for Family Justice, Connecticut Food Bank, Operation Hope, Burroughs Community Center, Grasmere by Park, Caroline House, Bridgeport Rescue Mission, Janus Center for Youth in Crisis, Norma Pfriem Breast Center, Bridge House, CT Challenge, Taylor YMCA, Camp Hi Rock, Horizon’s at GFA, McGivney Community Center, Pivot Ministries.

    Photos are courtesy of Bigelow Tea—special thanks to Cindi for sharing family photos.

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    Episode 148 | In 2023, the tea industry bid farewell to several notable figures. In this episode, we pay tribute to David C. Bigelow, Jr., an industry icon who died in June 2023 at 96. David transformed the specialty tea segment in the US, steering a boutique tea blending business launched in his mother’s kitchen into a multi-million-dollar mass-market brand. Joining us today is David’s daughter Cindi, President and CEO of Connecticut-based and family-owned R.C. Bigelow, a $250 million B-Corp known for innovations that redefined tea service in restaurants and grew the company to become the US market leader in specialty tea. 

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    Iran Tea Company CEO Implicated in $3.7 Billion Embezzlement Scandal | Shipping Shock: Missile Threat Diverts Suez-Bound Tea Cargo | Malawi Anticipates a Steep Decline in Tea Production

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    In 2023, the tea industry bid farewell to several notable figures. In this episode, we pay tribute to David C. Bigelow, Jr., an industry icon who died in June at 96. A member of the silent generation born in the roaring 20s, David was a World War II veteran and 1948 Yale University graduate who transformed the specialty tea segment. He steered a boutique tea blending business launched in his mother’s kitchen into a multi-million-dollar mass-market brand. Joining us today is David’s daughter Cindi, President and CEO of Connecticut-based and family-owned R.C. Bigelow, a $250 million B-Corp known for innovations that redefined tea service in restaurants and grew the company to become the US market leader in specialty tea.

    Listen to the interview
    Bigelow Tea President and CEO Cindi Bigelow reflects on her father’s innovations in specialty tea

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    Shipping Shock Tea Rerouted to Avoid Drone and Missile Attacks

    Shipping Shock: Missile Threat Diverts Suez-Bound Tea Cargo

    Houthi missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea are diverting ships laden with tea away from the industry’s primary access to Europe, costing time and money.

    Passage through the 120-mile Suez Canal connecting Europe with Asia is one of the world’s most important maritime choke points. A shipping crisis unfolds at the southern strait called Bab-el-Mandeb (the gate of tears). Yemen-based insurgents have deployed hundreds of drones and fired the first anti-ship ballistic missile to strike a commercial vessel, Palatium III.

    This week’s decision by all major shipping lines to bypass the Red Sea route will affect 53% of the global container trade. Dry bulk carriers, oil tankers, and smaller container ships will likely follow their lead. War risk insurance rates have spiked along with the price of oil. About 9.2 million barrels daily transit the canal, approximately 9% of global demand and 4% of the world’s liquid natural gas (LNG).

    The US, UK, and French navies are providing escort with the USS Carney downing a swarm of 14 drones.

    On Dec. 17, the Suez Canal Authority reported that 55 ships that were scheduled to transit the canal had been diverted. That same day, 77 ships passed through the canal, a much higher number than the 50-ship daily average.

    Tea bound for the UK, Rotterdam, and German ports from the UAE, East Africa, and Asia will now travel approximately 11,169 nautical miles around Africa, compared to 6,436 via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Adding transit days is costly. Operating a container ship costs between $25,000 and $85,000 per day, excluding fuel, which adds up to $130,000 daily. Transit from India to the UK vial the Suez Canal is usually 17 to 21 days. Alternate routes can take five to six weeks.

    In 1869, when the eight-meter (26-foot) deep canal opened, the largest ship that could pass was 5,000 tons, but the cost of transportation and access to the Indian and Sri Lankan was far easier, making Suez a primary trade route for tea. Over 20,000 ships carrying approximately 12% of global trade each year pass through the Suez Canal, carrying 30% of all global container traffic and more than $1 trillion in goods yearly.

    Debsh Tea executives, CEO Akbar Rahimi (4th left). Photo appears on Debsh website.
    Debsh Tea executives and CEO Akbar Rahimi (4th left). The photo appears on Debsh Tea’s website.

    Iran Tea Company CEO Implicated in $3.7 Billion Embezzlement Scandal

    By Dan Bolton

    Akbar Rahimi, the CEO of Iran’s leading tea company, is under arrest, accused of a five-year embezzlement scheme that generated $3.37 billion in ill-gotten gain.

    Privately held Debsh Agriculture and Industrial Group engaged in “large-scale financial malpractice” dating to the presidency of Hassan Rouhani in 2018, according to NCRI. The publication cited unnamed government sources.

    “Several banks, institutions, and ministries, including the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Customs Administration, the Central Bank, the Trade Development Organization, and the regime’s Food and Drug Organization, have been implicated in this widespread corruption scheme,” writes NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran).

    Here is how it unfolded

    Debsh Tea ordered grade 1 Darjeeling tea at $14 per kilogram to mislead resellers. In practice, it imported far greater quantities of tea from Kenya and seconds from Iran that sold for $2 per kilogram “with the Food and Drug Organization confirming the quality of the imported teas,” according to NCRI. Origins were falsified, and corrupt customs officials apparently looked away.

    The company also bought domestically grown tea and “re-imported” it, masquerading as expensive foreign grades.

    The tea was traded at the Central Bank’s official exchange rate, known as the “Nimaee-dollar,” which values US dollars at 37,000 tomans, “a rate accessible exclusively to traders affiliated with the regime,” according to NCRI. This compares to the market exchange rate, which hovers around 50,000 tomans per dollar [USD$1 equaled 42,340 IRR on 12/20/23]. “Consequently, each dollar contributes approximately 13,000 tomans to the coffers of the regime’s embezzlers. When multiplied by the billions of dollars received in foreign exchange, this translates to astronomical figures,” writes NCRI.

    Iran’s General Inspection Organization noted a spike in the annual budget, which usually allocates around $300 million for tea imports. The government’s allocation for tea and tea processing equipment tripled in 2021, with $1.472 billion earmarked for machinery.

    Imports totaled 110,000 metric tons, about double the usual amount – quantities sufficient to depress sales of domestically produced tea.

    “Tea cultivators have suffered huge losses,” writes Maryam Shokrani with the state-run Sargh daily newspaper. Mohammad Sadegh Hassani, executive director of the Union of Northern Tea Factories, told NCRI the embezzlement scheme “upset the market balance, confronted the industry with a crisis, and led to the accumulation of a large volume of tea in warehouses.”

    Akbar Rahimi is one of a group known colloquially in Iran as the “smuggling brothers,” who were implicated in another significant case related to irregularities in the import of paper at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The term “smuggling brothers” refers to organized groups exploiting state connections, particularly with the Revolutionary Guards, to conduct extensive trafficking to bypass international sanctions,” according to NCRI.

    Judiciary spokesman Masoud Stayeshi, on Dec. 5, confirmed, “Various collaborations have been made with this company [Debsh], and a significant amount of foreign exchange and national resources have been allocated to this issue.” Other Islamic Republic officials implicated in the embezzlement include Javad Sadatinejad, the Minister of Agriculture, who resigned in April; governors of the Central Bank; chiefs of the Iranian Customs Administration, and others.

    Iran International reported that Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje said the government had dismissed 60 individuals in the case and later clarified the dismissals included those involved in non-related incidents during the past two years. Government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said earlier this week that several low and mid-ranking officials have been arrested over the case. According to Iran International, the company’s CEO, Akbar Rahimi, is reportedly under arrest. The court refused to name the suspected collaborators, several of whom are likely highly placed in the government of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

    Reformist newspaper Etemad writes that “the main problem is that, aside from a general headline, no details have been released.

    Iran’s Inspection Organization revealed irregularities on Nov. 30. Besides the abovementioned embezzlement, Rahimi may have traded $1.4 billion in Iranian government-held foreign currency on the open market. The case against government bodies that had provided foreign currency for the firm is to be sent to the Public and Revolution Court of Tehran for certain violations, according to IFP News.

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    Episode 148 | Iran Tea Company CEO Implicated in $3.7 Billion Embezzlement Scandal | Shipping Shock: Missile Threat Diverts Suez-Bound Tea Cargo | Malawi Anticipates a Steep Decline in Tea Production | PLUS  Cindi Bigelow, President and CEO of R.C. Bigelow Tea pays tribute to her father David C. Bigelow, who passed in June at 96.

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  • COP28 Declaration is Good News for Tea Smallholders | Sun Garden Tea Merges with QTrade Teas | Goodricke Group Achieves Carbon Neutral

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    Episode 146

    COP28 Declaration is Good News for Tea Smallholders | Sun Garden Tea Merges with QTrade Teas | It’s Easier Now to Attend Chinese Tea Tradeshows | Goodricke Group Achieves Carbon Neutral Tea Production

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    In the 1990s and early 2000s, curating a catalog of 200 direct-sourced teas, establishing a small chain of neighborhood tea shops, launching a formal tea school, and selling tea online to people worldwide was pretty ambitious. Twenty-five years later, Montreal-based Camellia Sinensis, having survived pandemic peril, has emerged with vigor in a configuration admired for its innovative approach to experiential retail. Camellia Sinensis even helped finance a factory in South India to produce tea on demand. Partner Kevin Gascoyne joins us during the company’s 25th Anniversary year to share valuable insights and a few missteps while traveling a long path to success.

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    Kevin Gascoyne on the 25th Anniversary of Camellia Sinensis tea in Montreal, Canada

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    Nepal-based civil society group Digo Bikas Institute holds an action on loss and damage during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Christopher Edralin UN/COP 28

    UN: Bring the Vulnerable to ‘Front of the Line’ for Climate Funding

    By Dan Bolton

    A Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action adopted by 134 delegates to COP 28 UAE will provide $2.5 billion to address agriculture-related climate issues.

    The declaration was accompanied by the announcement of several related initiatives, including a $200 million agriculture-related research partnership between the UAE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Mariam Mohammed Almheiri said, “Countries must put food systems and agriculture at the heart of their climate ambitions, addressing both global emissions and protecting the lives and livelihoods of farmers living on the front line of climate change.”

    According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, some 3.5 billion people, nearly half of humanity, live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change. OCHA climate team head Greg Puley told the conference’s participants on Monday that it was a “grave injustice” that people on the frontlines of the climate crisis who were least responsible for it, too often found themselves “at the back of the line” for climate funding.

    Commentators and agriculture experts say COP 28 recognized the important link between food and climate in the declaration. Delegates affirming the statement represent 5.7 billion people, including 500 million farmers. The UN Conference of Parties resulted in the Paris Accords in 2015, signed by 200 countries that agreed to limit long-term global temperatures from increasing above 1.5C. Temperatures currently stand at 1.2C compared to pre-industrial times. Estimates suggest temperatures will increase by 2.4C to 2.7C by 2100. The window for keeping within the 1.5C limit is “rapidly narrowing,” according to the UN.

    Unilever called for urgent climate action. The company, still a major player in tea, has a visible leadership role in investing in renewable energy, switching to low-carbon feedstocks as alternatives to fossil-fuel-based chemicals, and pledging to protect and regenerate 1.5 million hectares of land, forests, and oceans by 2030. The company said it is already sourcing 93% of its electricity from renewable sources.

    “The world isn’t reducing emissions quickly enough to meet global targets and avoid climate breakdown,” writes Unilever, adding that it “calls on governments attending COP 28 to increase ambition and accelerate actions urgently, we can go further, faster in the race to net zero.”

    COP 28 Advisor Edward Leo Davey told VOA that genuine implementation of the declaration “will represent a significant positive step forward in the lives of smallholder farmers.”

    Farmers were encouraged to adopt sustainable practices, including organic farming and agroecology, to reduce harmful agrochemicals, conserve water resources, and protect soil health.

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    Episode 146 | COP28 Declaration is Good News for Tea Smallholders | Sun Garden Tea Merges with QTrade Teas | It’s Easier Now to Attend Chinese Tea Tradeshows | Goodricke Group Achieves Carbon Neutral Tea Production | PLUS Kevin Gascoyne. a partner at Montreal-based Camellia Sinensis shares valuable insights, innovations and a few missteps blazing a 25-year path to success. | Episode 146 |

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    2023

    Ep 97-146

    2024

    Ep 149-150

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    Dan Bolton

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  • A Tea Historian Recounts The Act of Defiance that Cost the British Crown its Colonies

    The defiant American colonists in December 1773 who cheered the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor by 150 patriots in disguise were witnesses to history. The loss infuriated Parliament, which passed the punitive Coercive Acts of 1774, closing Boston Harbor and repealing Massachusetts’s colonial charter until the cost of the tea was reimbursed. Known as the “Intolerable Acts,” these measures convinced colonists to take up arms, leading to the deadly confrontation at Lexington and Concord, New Hampshire, that began the American Revolution in April 1775.

    The year-long commemoration of the Boston Tea Party counts down to a grand-scale live reenactment on December 16 with special exhibits and artwork, virtual presentations and webinars, theatrical performances, and the dumping of a thousand pounds of loose-leaf tea (no tea bags) donated to the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum.

    Listen to the interview.

    Tea Historian Bruce Richardson on the 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Boston Tea Party
    Bruce Richardson
    Author and tea historian and Elmwood Inn Fine Tea founder Bruce Richardson

    Mighty East India Company

    By Dan Bolton

    Bruce Richardson, “The Tea Maestro,” has shared his love for tea with the world for 30 years. Bruce, a classical musician and baritone soloist from the state of Kentucky, said that in 1995, he “put down my baton and picked up a cup of tea to travel the world.” His son now operates the importing and blending company that he founded.

    “So now I’m probably best known as the roving ambassador for Elmwood Inn Fine Teas,” he said. Bruce has written hundreds of articles and authored and co-authored 14 books, including “The New Tea Companion” with Jane Pettigrew and A Social History of Tea: Tea’s Influence on Commerce, Culture, and Civility. He is an authority on tea culture who speaks frequently in public and is widely quoted in the national press and television. He has served as tea historian and Tea Master for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum since 2011. Who better to recount the momentous decision to defy the British King and Parliament by tossing 340 chests into the sea, lighting the fuse of rebellion 250 years past?

    “When we talk about the Boston Tea Party, we want to put it into historical context, what was happening both in Europe and the colonies at that critical point around 1770 until the time of the Tea Party, which was 1773.”

    – Bruce Richardson

    Dan Bolton: Will you explain tea’s central role in the confrontation between the colonists and the King?

    Bruce Richardson: When we talk about the Boston Tea Party, we want to put it into historical context, what was happening both in Europe and the colonies at that critical point around 1770 until the time of the Tea Party, which was 1773.

    Many people don’t know that America was just as much in love with the ritual and tea ceremony as their cousins back in London, Bath, or even over in the Netherlands.

    The ladies of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and South Carolina were enamored by the tea ritual. They had furniture specially made in their living rooms to entertain their friends and have tea. So, this was what got us into trouble.

    King George III says, “The ladies of Boston will pay anything for their tea.” He later regretted saying that because he lost one of his greatest colonies over a cup of tea.

    In the 1770s, Boston was consuming copious amounts of tea brought in on board merchant ships — and some illegally. The only tea that could be brought in was through the Honorable East India Company, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600.

    The problem began with the taxes on tea being so high that the price was going up and up. The Dutch saw an opportunity to undercut the East India Company by smuggling tea into the colonies. So, by 1770, the British East India Company was about to go under, and they told Parliament it looked like if “John Company” went under, the government would go under, and the banks would collapse.

    “We are a company that’s too big to fail,” they said.

    So, Parliament gave them the option of having a clearance sale on the tea piled up in their warehouses in London.

    All that tea came from only one country, China; no tea was grown in India then, and there was no tea in Sri Lanka. The Japanese were growing tea, but they weren’t exporting it.

    So, all the tea that went into Boston Harbor or the teacups of Jane Austen all came from just one country, China.

    The tea was coming into the London warehouses but wasn’t going out fast enough. So, it started to pile up and get old – it had a shelf life. So, Parliament, even though deeply indebted, said it would allow the East India Company to ship 544,000 pounds of tea out of its warehouses to the colonies without paying a tariff.

    On September 27, 1773, seven ships started to leave the Port of London on their way to the colonies. Now, they weren’t just going to Boston; they were also going to New York, Philadelphia, and all the way down to Charleston, South Carolina, because these were the major tea-drinking cities of the Americas. So, the ships left and made their way over to the colonies towards the end of the year.

    On November 30th, the first ships started arriving in Boston; four ships were sent to Boston – showing you how much tea was being consumed then. One Boston-bound ship, the William, was lost at sea. One ship arrived at each of the other three cities.

    Well, Boston pretty much had to make the decision. The other cities said, “Well, Boston, it’s up to you. If you take this tea in, fine. If you don’t, we will follow your lead. Whatever you do, we will follow.”

    The Polly landed at Philadephia and was turned around, fully laden, and sent back to London. The same fate awaited the late-arriving Nancy, bound for New York. Charleston seized the cargo of tea and placed it under guard in the Customs House.

    See: The Tea Maestro

    The tea coming in was actually cheaper than previous shipments because no tariff had to be paid to Parliament. There was, however, a small tax that the government retained on tea to pay for royally appointed governors in the colonies.

    And so that’s what was the rub. That was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.

    Once people learned the tea was coming, they got together almost weekly to talk about what would happen with the tea. It all came to a head on December 16 of 1773 in the Old South Meeting House. Thousands of people crammed into that square around that building to decide what to do. They couldn’t make a decision. The ships were sitting in the harbor. Everything had been offloaded except the tea. And finally, Samuel Adams said, “We can do no more.” And that was, we think, the signal for his people he organized to go down and destroy the tea.

    And that’s what happened over the next two and a half hours. Tea valued at nearly 10,000 pounds went into Boston Harbor that night. Today, the value would be well over a million dollars.

    • Faneil Hall
      Faneuil Hall

    Witness the 250th Anniversary Reenactment

    On December 16, 2023, Boston will commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a moment that forever changed the course of American history. On this day, the collaborative efforts of multiple organizations will culminate in a grand-scale reenactment of the Boston Tea Party.  A full evening of reenactments will play out in 4-parts across the City of Boston at several historic locations.

    Purchase Tickets

    Dan: Several different teas went overboard that night. Will you describe them?

    Bruce: One of the questions I get often is, was that brick tea? We know it wasn’t tea bags, but not brick tea. It was all loose-leaf tea. All the brick tea went the northern route, through Mongolia on camel’s backs and horses, to make its way to Europe. Loose tea came through the East India Company. So that’s what went overboard that night.

    It’s interesting that the tea went into the harbor at low tide, maybe two and a half feet. And all that tea started piling up alongside the ships. And men had to go out in rowboats and with their oars to knock haystacks of tea down to get it into the water to be destroyed.

    When I talk to audiences anywhere, they are always fascinated to know this tea comes from only one country, China, but also that of the five teas tossed overboard. Two of them were green teas. And three of them were black teas.

    The major portion of the 340 chests, and when we say chest, we mean a large wooden case that held this tea, often lined with moisture out. The chests could weigh anywhere up to nearly 250 pounds. So those all had to be hoisted up out of the ship’s hold and broken open to destroy them.

    They held five different teas; we know what they were because the East India Company assembled an invoice over the next few months listing all the different teas by category, how much each weighed, and how much value they all had because they wanted reimbursement. So, the main portion was bohea, a black tea from the Wuyi mountains. The other black tea was Congou, a very well-made black tea, and then the third one was Souchong (today we know as Lapsang Souchong and then the two green teas were Hyson green tea and Singlo from the Sunglo mountains of Fujian Province.

    Dan: The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to loyalists, cutting out colonial merchants and leading to a boycott of tea. Destroying the tea cost the British government, but local merchants in all the colonies also lost significant revenue because drinking tea was suddenly unpatriotic – only loyalists drank it.

    Bruce: The arrangements through Parliament, through the East India Company, to go through the people who were loyal to the King. These were all loyalist merchants who would receive this tea; it wasn’t just the common everyday merchant down the street. And that, again, was another thing that rubbed colonists the wrong way.

    Bruce: It wasn’t patriotic to drink tea after the 1773 event, but even leading up to that, people got together and signed letters saying they would no longer drink East India Company tea. This caused a problem because they still had all the tea-making apparatus. They still had beautiful teapots and teacups. And the ladies of Boston wanted their tea times. So, they went out into their gardens and orchards to find whatever they could to go into those teapots to make something colored water they could serve. So, you had a great advance in people drinking herbal or fruit teas at that time. They called their teapots Liberty teapots. These teas were called Liberty teas because they contained none of the tea that George III consigned.

    They were making a statement about not drinking Chinese tea anymore.

    Dan: None of this tea was shipped directly from China to the United States; it was sent to London, weighed, taxed, and stored before sailing six weeks across the Atlantic. This meant the tea was never as fresh as tea shipped directly to the colonies by the Dutch.

    Bruce: There was never a direct shipment of tea from China to the Americas until the first January after the United States was formed. The very first ship, the Empress of China, that left the port of New York bearing a flag of the new United States, traveled to Canton, loaded with all the American black ginseng they could find in the colonies. And guess what they traded it for? They traded it for tea. And so a huge amount of money was made on that very first shipment of tea back to the United States.

    Dan: It turns out there was a huge market for the 242 casks of New England and Appalachian ginseng. American ginseng was so popular in China that that continued for decades.

    Bruce: Indeed, the Chinese could never get enough ginseng. They were delighted to have it. And, by the way, they said, you can take all this tea back with you.

    Patriots toss the King's tea overboard.
    Patriots toss the King’s tea overboard. Photo courtesy December16.org

    Dan: Let’s flash forward. This is a delightful opportunity, a first glimpse or prelude to the nation’s 250th anniversary. In two weeks, everyone in Boston will turn out to watch the reenactment. The Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum has been collecting tea from donors to toss overboard. Will you share some exciting things that will make this a fun and authentic celebration with listeners?

    Bruce: The Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum started a dozen years ago because the mayor asked, “What’s the most iconic event in our history… And we don’t have a museum to interpret that?”

    Even before they poured the first concrete, they came to me to say they wanted to get the story right. We want to know what the origin of the tea was. We think that’s important for our museum.

    So, I’ve been with them all those years, and we have the museum there rising out of Boston Harbor. We have two ships that are replicas of the ships that were there in 1773. People can go through an interactive display and immersion into the days of the colonists, go into the hold of these ships, and actually see one of the tea chests that was broken open in Boston harbor. We even have a vial of liquid tea made the next morning from some of the tea leaves that washed up on shore. Over two million people have come through the museum and finished drinking tea in Abigail’s tearoom overlooking Boston Harbor, where they can taste the five different teas tossed into the harbor that night.

    So, in Boston on December 16 of this year, the entire weekend will have events that will have reenactments of the Old South Meeting House of the discussions going on between the city leaders and the people who were or just adamant about throwing the tea overboard. And then we’ll have Fife and Drum Corps and bands, all leading people in parades down to Boston Harbor.

    The Boston Tea Party ships museum will set up viewing stands, and we will re-enact the Boston Tea Party once again, with tea going overboard. We had over 1,000 pounds of tea going into Boston Harbor that night. We have a certificate signed by the cities that says we can put tea into the harbor now because it’s illegal to dump things like that into the harbor. But we’ve got it all taken care of. Tea is highly biodegradable and there are no tea bags. Everything must be biodegradable.

    Bruce: Most colonists really didn’t want to separate from England. They just wanted representation if they were going to pay taxes, they wanted to have a representative in parliament that looked after their needs. So it wasn’t until this event, the Boston Tea Party, that the tide started to change, and people like Samuel Adams started to think, well, there’s no going back. We’ve gone too far; we might as well just go ahead and form our own country.

    If it had not been for the Boston Tea Party, the separation may have come, but it may have come years later than when it did.

    Interactive displays
    Parades, fifes and drums
    Costumed actors
    Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
    A full-scale replica of the ship that sailed the Atlantic bringing tea to the colonies.

    Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
    Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

    Tour Hours: 10 am – 4 pm
    (866) 955-0667 | 306 Congress St.
    Boston, Mass.

    Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

    Boston Tea Party Museum
    Historical interpreters, interactive exhibits, full-scale replica 18th-century sailing vessels, and historic artifacts are just some of what you’ll experience during your visit. Ticketed museum experience includes sections 1-5. Sections 6 & 7, the museum gift shop, and Abigail’s Tea Room are open to the general public without a museum ticket.
    Purchase Tickets

    Photos courtesy Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum | December16.org
    December 16 Boston Tea Party Reenactment

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    Episode 145 | On December 16, 2023, Boston will commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a moment that forever changed the course of American history. On this day, the collaborative efforts of multiple organizations will culminate in a grand-scale reenactment of the Boston Tea Party. Author and tea historian Bruce Richardson, “The Tea Maestro,” has served as Tea Master for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum since 2011. A renowned storyteller, Bruce recounts the momentous decision to defy the British King and Parliament by tossing 340 chests of tea into the sea, lighting the fuse of rebellion 250 years past.

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    Dan Bolton

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  • How to Entice the Passing Crowd

    Tea is well suited to experiential retail, a type of physical retail marketing that offers customers experiences beyond browsing. Tea retailers worldwide are experimenting with sophisticated sampling, live music, art, interactive displays, video walls depicting growers in the tea lands, and even making cameras available for customers to record and share experiences. Experiential tea retailers play an important role in converting commodity tea drinkers to informed enthusiasts.

    Paper & Tea’s lofty ceilings and large windows have a captivating effect on passersby attracted to their brightly lit interiors, colorful displays, and a wide variety of fine teas to sample. Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience at P&T, explains, “Our main idea, when somebody steps into one of our stores, is for customers to live an experience they will always remember — an experience they will share with others.” Molina is responsible for creating an alluring experience for every customer visit.

    Listen to the interview.

    Eduardo Molina is the Head of Tea Experience at Paper and Tea.
    Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience, P&T
    Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience, P&T

    P&T is Not Just for Tea Drinkers

    By Dan Bolton

    Eduardo Molina, 37, is originally from Chile, a narrow coastal country whose people drink more tea than any country in South America. Eduardo embraced the tea-drinking culture, discovering his passion for tea working in hospitality at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Santiago in 2007. He has since traveled extensively in the tea lands. “The culture and history of tea is fascinating,” he says. His special focus is training. “I love training people how to present, sell, and tell stories about tea,” says Eduardo. He has ten years of retail experience, including three years as the co-founder and tea sommelier of Adagio Teas in Chile. He taught at the Chilean Tea Academy and joined P&T in Berlin in May 2018 as product manager for new business development. As Head of Tea Experience, he is responsible for marketing the new properties and training staff. He leads the team that created the in-store experience at every location, including the company’s soon-to-open 31st store.

    “At Paper & Tea, we create open spaces that celebrate community, where everyone is invited to share ideas and discover the beauty of life. We value quality, aesthetics, mindfulness, and artistry and want to offer products, experiences, and services that put a smile on your face.”

    – P&T (www.paperandtea.com)

    Dan Bolton: Why would someone operating a tea shop consider experiential retail? What benefits does it hold?

    Eduardo Molina: It depends a lot on the kind of product that you are offering.

    Not every product can be described as one of the best to put on a show, which is what we are trying to do in our stores.

    When somebody steps into one of our stores, our main idea is to live an experience they will always remember — an experience they will share with others. We want them to say, “I had the most amazing experience.”

    And that starts with welcoming. We hire “personalities,” so to speak —people who are easygoing, smiley, and full of good energy. Not necessarily tea-drinking people.

    We are opening on the main streets in downtown locations where there is a lot of flow and a lot of people passing by, which is also a positive thing; it leads to the success of these openings.

    We do have a lot of tea nerds joining our team, but for us, it’s not a requirement to drink tea. We know we will convert them anyway the same way we attract them. Yeah, it’s a given. Being inside of this environment will turn you into a tea drinker anyway.

    Browsing is nothing new for someone who enters a store and tries on shoes, a T-shirt, or a sweater.

    To be effective, you need to make a difference and that difference usually occurs with the body’s sensors. For example, when smelling something you haven’t smelled in a while, or when you smell something that reminds you of a moment you lived in the past, or when you taste something you have never tasted.

    We play with those things as we welcome somebody in the store (or grab them from the street). We attract people with the whole design of our stores, which are very inviting, warm, and welcoming.

    Our windows are very bright and positioned so that you can see inside the store, see what is happening, and awaken curiosity.

    Once they are in, the process starts with a welcome tea we created.

    So, we have something in every store right now. We have opened 28 in a year — 28 in six countries. So, it’s been crazy since almost every second week, there is an opening.

    In the center of every store, there is the tea bar — I know, I know, having a place to taste tea is not a groundbreaking idea — but the way we present it can be described as “very deliberate.” We are a modern company. Paper and Tea is 12 years old. So, we’re not a 150-year-old company. We’re not a traditional tea house.

    We are not a tiny house or a Japanese tea house. We are a European company run by young people. We want to create a contemporary concept. We want people to enjoy tea. We want people to bring tea to their lifestyle and make it part of their normal lives.

    We want to make tea a part of their daily routine.

    Paper & Tea Storefronts

    • P&T Amsterdam
      P&T Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Dan: I see your point about bright windows and an inviting storefront. Who is attracted to that? And why do you think they come into the store?

    Eduardo: It’s someone who likes pretty things, somebody with a certain level of curiosity; we’re not a place only for tea drinkers. We believe we have the challenge of creating new tea drinkers. We want people to walk into the store, and even if you don’t drink tea, you will start because you feel that the atmosphere is so nice and want to be part of it.

    I’ve seen a lot of people who say they don’t drink tea, but they buy a cup of tea, and they go home and say okay, I want to re-live the experience.

    I want to do it with my friends because I’m surprised I want to do it with my family. So it’s also like a little chain effect. For every store that has opened, the escalation has been exponential.

    Every week, more people come back because they heard about us from a friend or saw on social media that we were close by. It’s a very nice feeling that happens in the stores.

    We have to recognize we are in the process of doing this.

    People have come to me and said, ‘Paper and Tea is doing pretty well because you’re opening so many stores.’

    “We are basically building the plane while we’re flying, we’re still creating new concepts, and there are still a lot of standards to be established, which can be seen, of course, as a downside. But on the other hand, for somebody who has the energy to create something from scratch, it’s also very motivational.”

    – Eduardo Molina, P&T (www.paperandtea.com)

    It’s like, no, no, we’re not doing well. Yet. We have an idea. We have a commitment. We put ourselves to the challenge. And we believe that people have to experience tea. It doesn’t matter how beautiful our website is; you must experience, smell, and taste it. And that’s the reason why we’re opening stores.

    We want to be on every corner to have the chance to make you live the experience of drinking or preparing tea or talking to you.

    And that’s why we’re opening so many stores in strategic locations.

    Dan: Talk a bit about how you operate a store. You must invest in training staff skilled in tea and in helping customers understand how tea works so that they have interesting stories to share when they leave the store.

    Eduardo: Exactly, absolutely. Tea is a product that offers the possibility to create this moment and make people leave these unique experiences. But it’s also a very complex product. To make those experiences possible, you need knowledgeable people who understand the product and the nuances.

    We have roughly 80 different teas, 60% pure teas, and 40% blends. We have teas from 12 different origins and many different regions within those origins, so there is a certain degree of complexity. We manage it through a lot of training.

    The centerpiece of each store is a tea bar. “I know, I know, having a place to taste tea is not a groundbreaking idea,” says Molina, “but how we present the tea is different. I describe it as “very deliberate.”

    – Eduardo Molina, P&T (www.paperandtea.com)

    We see our stores as more than just a shop where you go in and buy tea; for us, it’s a space where you can have these experiences. We look for people who have worked in hotels and restaurants. Maybe they don’t have selling experience, but we need this blend of people who may be very good at communication and selling. We need people who move very confidently behind the bar because the whole preparation will only impress if it’s done with confidence — and if you know what you’re doing, if you know the steps, and if you do it naturally.

    Dan: Will you explain how changes in customer behavior have helped make this concept work?

    Eduardo: I’m not German, so I’ve been trying to get to know German consumers. As you say, they have a very specific taste for herbals and fruit blends. Everything that happened with Corona brought a different consideration regarding what I’m drinking, what I’m eating, and what I’m consuming. Consumers ask, Is it healthy? Where’s it coming from? More and more, these kinds of questions are relevant for consumers.

    We are listening, observing, and asking, ‘What kind of customer is coming into the store? What questions do they have? It’s super interesting because Paper and Tea, from a year ago, we had only five stores in Germany.

    The customers we were targeting then were customers with a big interest in certain teas. They were looking for something specific for something unique.

    Our concept has changed and evolved a little bit. And now, because we want to talk to more people, and talk to people who don’t know tea because we want to bring them in here. We currently have stores in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Denmark. Their past dealings with German retailers were influenced by the fact Germany was one of the biggest Darjeeling buyers. They are, and I wouldn’t say they are over that, but now the Germans are also willing to try new varieties along with the Europeans. One of our stores’ most beloved varieties is Japanese green tea. We have a very nice selection of Japanese green teas, including Matcha, which you mentioned is very popular in the stores. Usually, when visiting the store, I get to prepare maybe 10 or 15 matchas, so we put up a big show at the bar. And then we show everybody how to improve it. Actually, the whole matcha market has exploded here for us. I am not a wholesale tea buyer for Paper and Tea anymore, but while I was doing it before expansion a year ago, we would sell out in a quarter of what we planned to buy for the whole year. It was crazy and extremely hard to plan. Germans are still big herbal drinkers, but they are very curious and are willing to explore new things thanks to tourism. I mentioned that Japanese green teas are very popular, but customers are seeking the benefits of drinking something healthy, that’s a big concern. And so that’s also a big priority for us as well. We are not a pharmacy, and we’re not a drugstore, but to be responsible for what we serve, we offer third-party certified teas and carefully explain how the teas are made.

    P&T Berlin
    Tea bar at P&T in Kurfürstendamm, Berlin

    Dan: So, let’s talk about the downsides. There must be additional costs. How do you recover the added expense?

    Eduardo: So there is a lot of time invested in training. A lot of resources must be invested for a store to fully run. And be confident that the store can function independently without somebody being there.

    Rotation (turnover) is pretty big. So sometimes it happens that you invested in training, and then people don’t stay. It’s part of the business. We know how it is. So we always try to be one step ahead and make the best conditions for workers.

    We are basically building the plane while we’re flying, we’re still creating new concepts, and there are still a lot of standards to be established, which can be seen, of course, as a downside. But on the other hand, for somebody who has the energy to create something from scratch, it’s also very, very motivational.

    If you visit the “old” new stores, I say that because it’s the first one we started opening a year ago, and you visit a store that opened last week. You notice the difference because, in every store, we were learning. There has been a lot of trial and error. And I think that has given us an extremely good experience. And now we feel like we’re each time we’re closer to how it’s supposed to be, we’re not quite there. We’re excited that we’re not quite there yet because it would get boring.

    Dan: Teabag prices can’t cover the cost of the kind of service, the more expensive locations, and the training. Merchandise certainly plays a part. How much do you have to charge to make it work?

    Eduardo: I have to admit, I’m not the person who sets the prices. There are a lot of pricing strategies, but as you say, what we charge is not the price of the tea. What we charge covers the whole experience. When you go to a Michelin-star restaurant, it’s not the little piece of avocado you get but the way it’s presented, how it’s served, how it was kept before; it’s the whole experience you’re paying for.

    We want to talk to everybody about tea. We want to bring new people into the world of tea. So, within our assortment, we have different lines and categories. There are teas that are, of course, more affordable for beginners. We call these Master Blends. The price of a tin depends on the tea variety, but roughly between 70 and 100 grams cost 15 Euros.

    So I don’t know how much that is in dollars.

    Dan: It’s pretty much one-to-one right now. (EUR1.00=USD1.09)
    What’s the price of your most expensive tea?

    P&T Woori Korean Black Tea

    Grown in Korea’s Hadong Mountains, this black specialty tea relies on a unique double oxidation, rounded off by intensive roasting, for its sweetly smoky umami flavors. The resulting tea’s strong character and special aroma make it particularly suited for fine cuisine. € 59 | $65 for 60 g

    Eduardo: I think right now that might be a Korean black tea that we have. And that would be roughly, I would say, a Euro per gram. A tin of 60 grams is roughly 60 euros. And that would be the top.

    But we’re working on some other things that might be remarkable.

    PAPER & TEA HAS A MISSION
    To enrich life. With a positive view of life, we bring people and places together in joyful moments.

    – P&T (www.paperandtea.com)
    P&T Berlin Charlottenburg, Bleibtreustraße 4
    P&T Berlin Charlottenburg, Bleibtreustraße 4

    Paper and Tea’s First Location

    Specialty tea elitists founded Paper & Tea (P&T) in 2012. Instead of locating their first storefront along Berlin’s busy Ku’damm (Kurfürstendamm), they chose Bleibtreustrasse in the quiet, affluent Charlottenburg neighborhood. Charlottenburg, established in 1705, was an independent city until 1920 and is known for its elegant, historic architecture and high-end boutiques.

    P&T was never “staid” in the British connotation, manifesting in stores like the fabled Fortnum & Mason (founded 1707). Nor did P&T feature the popular apothecary-like retail “walls of tea” consisting of large tins from which tea was weighed and dispensed. The selection of paper products (notebooks, art prints, greeting cards, and pencils) conveyed a premium shopping experience.

    P&T’s Berlin staff differentiated the store in a crowded market by brilliantly curating handcrafted teas from distant tea lands. The tea was displayed on shallow trays in small glass boxes, inviting consumers to sniff the aroma and study the dry leaf before sampling.

    Reviewer Aarti Mehta-Kroll, in the publication Slow Travel Berlin, wrote in 2013 that the one-year-old P&T was one of Berlin’s “classiest tea houses,” likening the décor to that of a natural history museum.

    She wrote that “ethically produced ceramics from Japan and Taiwan” are displayed on brightly lit minimalist shelves.

    Notes describe each tea’s origin and unique characteristics. Tea is sold in 9, 20, 45, and 95-gram portions at prices that range from 8 to 60 Euros for 100 grams. “Korean teas are amongst the more expensive ones as they are mainly produced for local markets and are difficult to import,” she writes.

    “In addition to the pure teas, one can also find a selection of hand-flavored teas by local suppliers using natural ingredients. A third unique offering is the infusions: lavender, mint, green rooibos, and ginger,” she wrote.

    P&T’s catalog presented a winning combination, then and now.

    Canadian Jens de Gruyter founded the company, and Thomas Langnickel-Stiegler was the chief tea expert in 2013.

    BIZ INSIGHT — There are fine tea shops in every major city in Germany, with 3,804 tea companies in total. Berlin accounts for 8% market share (303 companies). Hamburg follows with 208 companies and a 5% market share. Consumers purchase 12.4% of the country’s tea at local and chain shops, including TeeGschewendner and Tee Ronnefeldt. Food retailers and discount stores hold a 57.5% market share, according to Deutscher Tee & Kräutertee Verband. In contrast, in the US, 80% of tea is purchased at grocery outlets, and only 7% of tea is sold at specialist tea retailers, according to German-based Statista market research. — Dan

    Photos courtesy Eduardo Molina and Paper and Tea, Berlin

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    Episode 144 | Paper & Tea’s lofty ceilings and large windows have a captivating effect on passersby attracted to their brightly lit interiors, colorful displays, and a wide variety of fine teas to sample. Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience at P&T, explains, “Our main idea, when somebody steps into one of our stores, is for customers to live an experience they will always remember — an experience they will share with others.”

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    Dan Bolton

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