Hear the Headlines 2023

2021

Episodes 1-49

2022

Ep 50-96

2023

Ep 97-148

2024

Ep 149-150

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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

Tea News for the week ending Dec. 22

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

India Tea News Update

Featured

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.

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

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

Tea News for the week ending Dec. 8

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

India Tea News | Aravinda Anantharaman

Featured

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

Episode 143

Holiday Consumers Lose Confidence Before Black Friday Sales Begin | YouGov Survey of American Shoppers Finds 52% Won’t Shop on Black Friday | Tanzania Debuts Digital Tea Auction in Dar es Salaam | Tea Barter: Cash Short Egypt Offers Kenya a Blank Check

Tea News for the week ending Nov. 17

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Featured

Tanzania is the third-largest tea producer in Africa. Smallholders there farm 48% of the country’s 23,800 hectares under tea. Data from the Tea Board of Tanzania (TBT) estimates that 32,000 tea smallholders collectively produce about 40% of the country’s green leaf. As Director General, Theophord C. Ndunguru is the voice of the Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA). In October, I traveled to Dar es Salaam to talk with Theophord and fellow tea board members to better understand the state of tea smallholders. Today’s report is an excerpt from our discussion.

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Theophord C. Nduguru, Director General Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency

Episode 142

Starbucks Announces Ambitious Global Expansion to Operate 55,000 Locations by 2030: Tea Played a Key Role in the Siren’s Record-setting Quarter | Bangladesh May Finally Break an Elusive Tea Production Record
| Research Findings Challenge the Belief that Adding Cream and Sugar to Tea Negatively Impacts Health Outcomes

Tea News for the week ending Nov. 10

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Featured

In October, Transworld, China’s first USDA-certified organic tea producer, and Firsd Tea, the US subsidiary of Zhejiang Tea Group, released the Chinese Tea Sustainability Report, a 12-page survey of perspectives and practices at Chinese tea farms and processing facilities. Jason Walker, marketing director at Firsd Tea in New Jersey and one of the architects of the sustainability report, joins Tea Biz for an in-depth discussion of the results of this ongoing survey.

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Jason Walker, Marketing Director Firsd Tea

Episode 140

Middle East Unrest Heightens Tea Logistics Concerns for Transit via the Straits of Hormuz and Suez Canal | Just Ice Tea Raises $14 Million to Expand Distribution | Wagh Bakri Tea Executive Director Parag Desai, 49, Dies Fleeing Stray Dogs

Featured

Tea Biz traveled to Tanzania last week to explore the tropical Usambara tea-growing region. There, I met with smallholder farmers, tea makers, traders, tea sellers, members of the Tea Board of Tanzania, and a tiny cooperative of 14 families deep in the jungle who invited me to watch as they hand-rolled and wood-fired organic black tea that always sells out on “market day” in the local village. I recount my adventure beginning today with Tahira Nizari, a savvy business school graduate and humanitarian who founded Kazi Yetu in 2018. This specialty tea brand advances the role of women in Tanzania’s tea industry.

Tea News for the week ending Oct 20

Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Recap

Episode 137

| A Daily Cup of Dark Tea Reduces the Risk of Diabetes: Researchers Demonstrate How Tea Helps Control Blood Sugar Levels
| Mintel Consulting: Consumers Feel Culpable for Climate Change
| Kagoshima Benefits from Diverse Tea Exports

Featured

“We started the UC Davis Global Tea Institute Professional Tea Program at the request of the tea industry,” says GTI Founder and Director Prof. Katharine Burnett. Leaders in their fields from Finlay Beverage, Starbucks, Peet’s, ITI, Empire Tea, Mother Parkers, Ito En, and Hamburg Teehandel present the 15 two-hour weekly sessions across a wide spectrum of topics, from history and culture to science, business, and health. The program is aimed at industry members seeking to deepen their foundational knowledge of tea.

Tea News for the week ending Oct 6

Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Recap

Episode 136

| Retail Sales Projections are Ho-Hum for the Holidays: Sales growth adjusted for inflation will be in the single digits, the lowest growth rate since 2018
| India Abandons Bharat Tea Auction Experiment and Returns to English Auction Rules
| UC Davis Global Tea Institute Launches a Training Program for Tea Professionals

Featured

More than 30,000 tea workers and supporters, mainly from the indigenous Bataga Community living in Ooty, Kothagiri, and Coonoor in the Nilgiris mountains of South India, participated in a silent hunger protest on behalf of farmers. The demonstrations ended last week, but only after the High Court took cognizance of the petitions that urgently plead the case for fixing a minimum price for green leaf. Aravinda Anantharaman reports.

Tea News for the week ending Sept 29

Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Update

Episode 135

New Report Examines the Causes of Gender-based Abuse in Tea

| A 70-page case study of James Finlay Kenya explains the lapses that led to BBC’s Sex for Work: The True Cost of Our Tea exposé
| Tea Price Protests in South India Continue for the Third Week
| High Temps Lower Yields of Türkiye’s Black Sea Tea

Featured

This week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Committee, meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, inscribed a World Heritage site, the Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of Jingmai Mountain in China’s Yunnan Province.

Tea News for the week ending Sept 22

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Episode 131

Tea Board Weighs Auditor Concerns: Additional Resources Needed to Market Tea

| Overindulgence and High ABV Tea
| Tea Stalwart: India’s Oldest Captive Elephant Dies

Tea News for the week ending Aug 25

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Episode 129

More than a third of tea smallholders were not registered by March 2021
| China Tea Exports Decline as Travel Restrictions Ease
| Kenya Tea Production is Up, Exports are Down

Tea News for the week ending Aug. 18

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Episode 128

| Unilever Brands Are Not for Sale
| Dunkin’ Will Soon Begin Selling Hard Tea at Select US Locations
| A Study of UK Biobank Data Shows Tea May Lower the Risk of Gout

Tea News for the week ending Aug. 11

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Episode 127

Sustainable Practices are Correlated to Brand Loyalty: Age and Income Influence Consumer Loyalty, Healthy Brand Attributes Help

| JDE Peet’s Will Halt Sales of its Best-Known Tea Brands in Russia
| UN Global Peace Council Honors WomenServe Founder Nioma Narissa Sadler

Tea News for the week ending Aug. 4

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Episode 126

Kenya’s KTDA Chair Resigns Following Tea Reforms Conference

| David Ichoho Later Filed and then Withdrew a Lawsuit Alleging His Resignation was Forced
| Nestle Announces Cost-Effective Sugar Reduction Technology
| AriZona Unveils a 5% ABV Hard Iced Tea – Monster is next

Tea News for the week ending July 28

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Episode 125

Unrelenting Heat is Lowering Tea Yields

| Global average air temperatures reach a new high
| Herbal Tea Market Growth is Accelerating
| Dilmah Tea Founder Merrill J Fernando Passes at 93

Tea News for the week ending July 21

Hear the Headlines | Seven Minute Tea News Recap

Scotland Court Will Hear Kenyan Tea Workers’ Lawsuit

| The landmark class action was filed against James Finlay Kenya
| Market Leading Twisted Hard Tea Doubles Down on ABV
| EGCG is a Promising Treatment for Uterine Fibroids

Tea News for the week ending July 14

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Kenya Convenes National Tea Summit to Address Unrest

| Kenya Deputy President Promises Action on Lagging Tea Act Reforms
| The World Awaits the Hottest Days On Record
| Author Horacio Bustos Announces an English Edition of El Té Gourmet Argentino

Tea News for the week ending July 7

Hear the Headlines | Seven-Minute Tea News Recap

Sri Lanka Restarts $250 Million Tea Barter to Settle Iranian Oil Debt

| India Exporters Expect Iran to Resume Tea Orders Halted Last November
| Israel Declares Wissotzky Tea a Monopoly
| Rohit Jawa Takes Charge at Hindustan Unilever

Tea News for the week ending June 30

Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Recap

India’s Tea Board Orders a Review of its Raw Leaf Price-Sharing Formula

| Consultancy BDO India has six months to complete an extensive report on cultivation and processing costs
| Fast-food Outlets Have Yet to Rollout Boba Nationally
| The European Speciality Tea Association Offers Tea Foundation Certificates to Coffee Shop Staff

Tea News for the week ending June 23

Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Recap

Scrutiny of Tea Supply Chain Intensifies

| An online Tea Traceability Tracker permits consumers to compare the sustainability policies of tea supply chains
| Tea Auction Prices Remain Firm as Inflation Ebbs
| DAVIDsTEA is Adding Tea Bars to its Retail Locations

Tea News for the week ending June 16

| NEWSMAKER – TeaFit founder Jyoti Bharadwaj on the Sweet Success of unsweetened tea

Tea News for the week ending June 9

Thirst-Quenching Cold Brewed Teas are Steaming Along

| Consumers favor boldly flavored, non-sweetened blends
| Kenya’s Costly Tea Crisis
| India Tea Association Lists Tea Industry’s Most Pressing Concerns

| GUEST – Romesh Walpola, Chief Executive Officer of Tea Smallholder Factories, a Division of John Keells Group, Sri Lanka, discusses how bought leaf factories Earn Smallholder Loyalty to Achieve Competitive Quality Tea