| Experts Anticipate Holiday eTailing to Top $1 Trillion | Bangladesh Tea Workers Strike Nationwide | Green Tea is Good for the Gut | PLUSTogether for H2OPE | Numi Organic Tea is partnering with two organizations, Waves for Water and MPOWERD to raise $1 million to provide clean, safe drinking water and solar-powered lights and charging devices to up to 550,000 displaced Ukrainians.
Caption: An activist participating in Together for H2OPE – Ukraine adds a water filter to a bucket. The initiative aims to raise $1 million to distribute water filters to more than 550,000 displaced Ukrainians. Photo by Angela Nardolillo
Numi Tea Foundation distributes water filters, solar-powered devices to Ukrainians displaced by Russian invasion
Maybe you’ve seen the photographs: People drinking water from muddy puddles. Families crouching in pitch-black basements or caves, with nothing to light their hideaways.
These are the stories of millions of Ukrainians who have been displaced by the Russian invasion of their country. People have been forced to flee, leaving their families, friends, possessions. Their homes. Their homeland.
Oakland-based Numi Organic Tea wanted to do something to help. They have a foundation—the Numi Foundation—that supports the communities where they farm, as well as people in need in the San Francisco Bay area, where their head office is located.
Numi recognized that they have the resources, know-how, and connections to apply the clean-water work they’ve done in farming communities to help the people of Ukraine.
With the support of Numi tea drinkers, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Numi has partnered with two organizations, Waves for Water and MPOWERD, to raise $1 million to provide clean, safe drinking water and solar-powered lights and charging devices to up to 550,000 displaced Ukrainians.
The Together for H2OPE – Ukraine campaign will use a network of trained people in Ukraine to distribute the filters and devices to people who need it most, and provide a little light and a little hope to people in the war-torn country.
Caption: An activist participating in Together for H2OPE – Ukraine adds a water filter to a bucket. The initiative aims to raise $1 million to distribute water filters to more than 550,000 displaced Ukrainians.
Photo credits: Angela Nardolillo
Listen to the interview
A conversation with Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director of the Numi FoundationActivist participating in Together for H2OPE – Ukraine holds water bottles filled with clean water, ready to distribute to displaced Ukrainians.
A conversation with Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director of the Numi Foundation
Jessica Natale Woollard: The Numi Foundation’s Together for H2OPE initiative is currently focused on bringing clean water to displaced Ukrainians in their country. But it’s not the first time the foundation has supported clean water initiatives. So — why water?
Water bottles ready to be filled with cleaned water provided by Numi’s Together for H2OPE campaign.
Darian Rodriguez Heyman: The short answer is that you can’t make tea without it.
Clean water and access to clean and safe drinking water is something we take for granted in this country. But more than 10% of the global population does not enjoy the same kind of access.
We started looking at access to clean water as a basic human right. It felt very relevant to the brand to make sure that people — especially the residents of our Numi farming communities — have access to the same clean and safe drinking water that we enjoy here.
“Numi is unique in that we know the exact farm that 89% of our ingredients come from.”
– Darian Rodriguez Heyman
Jessica: So when you heard about the terrible war in Ukraine, you decided to apply your experience helping give Numi farming access to clean water to the Ukrainian people?
Darian: That’s exactly right.
We had built up some expertise around fundraising, around project management, around finding the right partners to get clean water projects executed at scale and quickly in, for example, Madagascar, South Africa and India.
When the Russian invasion happened, we heard about not only the five million refugees, but the seven million Ukrainians who were displaced and still trapped in the country — living in subways and in basements, and having to drink water out of dirty puddles and streams. We heard that access to clean water was one of the top needs for the Ukrainian people because of the war. It was something we felt compelled to act upon.
Darian Rodriguez Heyman
Jessica: Is Together for H2OPE focused on those displaced Ukrainians still in the country of Ukraine?
Darian: Historically, the program has been focused on Numi farming communities specifically, but in this case we’ve repurposed the program and our network and expertise.
We’ve lined up partners specific to the Ukraine project that have relevant expertise. We’ve already started raising money; we’ve raised over $150,000 so far, which has enabled us to serve over 79,000 Ukrainians.
But we’re not even close to done. The goal is to raise a million dollars and to help over 550,000 Ukrainians who are still trapped in country but displaced from their homes. We want to provide them access to clean and safe drinking water, but also clean solar-powered lighting as well as power so they can charge their phones and other devices and get access to lifesaving resources.
Jessica: What equipment are you distributing to help clean the water?
Darian: It’s a very simple water filter that fits on a bucket.
It’s standard; it has no moving parts, no electronics, and the typical water filter will last for 20 years. It’s good for over a million gallons without needing to be serviced or maintained. They’re built to be indestructible and perfect for a war-torn region and what’s happening in Ukraine right now.
The other product is the MPOWERD solar powered light and charging station. People can use the sun to charge it, and then they can plug their phones in. They can access a light so that when they’re underground they’re able to see what they’re doing.
MPOWERD Lantern
Jessica: How are you distributing these products on the ground in Ukraine?
Darian: We’re leveraging veterans as our boots on the ground.
The main implementation partner that we’re working with is Waves for Water, and they’ve been around for over a dozen years. They’ve worked in over 40 countries and helped over four million people access clean water.
Their primary workforce is veterans who have a unique set of skills; they’re very comfortable in fluid environments and in war-torn regions. They work after natural disasters, after Haiti, in New Jersey, after Hurricane Sandy, where I grew up.
But they also worked in Afghanistan and places like that. They’re pretty comfortable diving, literally diving in, and getting the product to the borders.
A volunteer with Together for H2OPE – Ukraine stands with water bottles ready to be distributed.
Jessica: I understand that every time someone purchases Numi Organic Tea, they are contributing to initiatives like Together for H2OPE — because the company diverts some of its profits to the foundation.
Can people contribute to Together for H2OPE any other way?
Darian: Aside from buying Numi Organic Tea, which they’re always welcome to do, we are inviting donations. We’re primarily directing those through Waves for Water.
Jessica: Any final thoughts?
Darian: Tea is a vehicle; it’s a platform. And Numi Tea firmly believes it’s a platform for mindfulness, for intentionality, and for ultimately creating the life in the world that we want to see, not only for ourselves, but for those around us.
Tea, by nature, is a communal drink. We’d love to see as many tea drinkers as possible join us in the effort to build a better world and make sure that each and every Ukrainian who’s been displaced from their home, whether they are a refugee and had to flee, or whether they’re still in the country, that they have access to the resources and support they need to rebuild their lives and rebuild their country.
Numi Organic Tea knows the exact farm from which 89% of their ingredients come from, says Darian Rodriguez Heyman, the Numi Foundation’s executive director.
Numi Organic Tea donates part of their profits to the Numi Foundation, helping fund campaigns to support farming communities where Numi sources tea as well as people in the San Francisco Bay Area, near the company’s main office.
Equitea co-founder Quentin Vennie discusses three new condition-specific canned, cold-brewed tea blends to ease anxiety and depression, improve focus, and calm young people coping with ADHD.
Caption: Quentin Vennie, co-founder of Equitea, Baltimore, Maryland
Quentin Vennie, co-founder of Equitea, Baltimore, MDQuentin Vennie, Co-founder Equitea
Cold-Brewed Calm in a Can
Author and wellness expert Quentin Vennie, with his wife Erin, on the advice of their son’s neurologist, found that green tea helped their seven-year-old boy maintain calm and focus. Diagnosed with ADHD, a condition leading to impulsive, hyperactive behavior, tea’s unique combination of L-Theanine and Caffeine offered relief, but loose-leaf teas were challenging to brew and not that tasty to a pre-teen. Quentin and Erin added calming botanicals to make the tea palatable. Inspired by their success, they launched a tea venture that produced packaged teas that became a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow, whose company goop sells the teas online.
Dan Bolton: I see that Equitea teas and botanicals are purpose blended. Will you tell listeners about your personal experience and how it led to their development?
Quentin Vennie: We created Equitea essentially out of necessity. My son was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) when he was seven. Given my own history of dealing with mental health issues, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, depression, and addiction to prescription pills, I wanted to manage his diagnosis holistically.
His neurologist recommended that he drink green tea before any big assignments or tests in school. The idea was that the L-theanine and the caffeine would give him a calm focus like Adderall would but without the risk of dependency or any negative side effects.
When my wife and I went out to buy different types of green tea, we found out quickly that many of the teas sold in retail stores weren’t of the best quality. They had minimal nutrition value, and they taste horrible, right? And so, we made the decision to make this work by learning as much as we could about green tea. The challenge was figuring out how to make it palatable for a nine-year-old struggling with ADHD. We wanted to ensure that every ingredient we blended with that green tea would assist him in that calm focus and not give him any ingredients that would make him hyper. So, we added things like lavender, lemon verbena, and lemongrass, things known to help with anxiety. Not only did it taste good, but it would serve the benefits we were looking for.
Later my wife and I made the decision to move forward by starting a tea company and creating our own blends to share, with every ingredient geared toward the desired result.
Dan: You recently added a line of canned tea using the cold brewing method. Will you talk about your reasoning?
We first launched as a loose-leaf company. Our consumers said that one of their biggest hurdles was that they didn’t have the necessary equipment and skills to brew it the way the blends were designed to be brewed. With cans, we take the guesswork out of it for many consumers. The process of cold brewing lets us extract a lot of the flavor while reducing the astringency that often accompanies green tea and some black teas that are astringent due to high water temperatures and long brew times.
We wanted to make sure that our tea delivered maximal flavor and maximal benefit and is a product that is shelf stable. One thing I learned while researching the cold brewing process is that it also helps reduce the amount of caffeine in each serving. Since the tea is marketed as safe for children, we wanted to keep the caffeine content to a minimum.*
HarmonyInvigorateComfort Herbal Chai | $14Equitea’s new line of cold-brewed, ready-to-drink teas are available in 12 oz cans | 12-pack $47.88
Dan: What is the milligram content for caffeine in a typical 12-ounce can?
Quentin: The green tea is about 18 milligrams, and the black tea is a little bit higher, closer to about 30 to 35 mg.
Dan: So that’s about half of what you would find in a regular cup of tea.
Quentin: Yes, exactly.
Dan: You use adaptogens. You mentioned them in three new blends. Will you describe which adaptogens are present and how they benefit tea drinkers?
Quentin: Absolutely. So, each tea has a different adaptogen. Our focus blend has Astragalus Root1, Our Recharge, black tea blend, has Ashwagandha2, and our Recover hibiscus blend, as Schisandra Berry3.
Adaptogens are geared toward helping the body and the mind to fight off stress and to recover better from stress. And, you know, we’re in a space of COVID uncertainty, and people are potentially moving into a recession. In prioritizing our mental health, it’s important to figure out how we can mitigate and reduce as much stress as possible.
Dan: In formulating the beverages, you chose all-natural, organic, full leaf teas and botanicals cold-brewed in small batches. Will you discuss sourcing?
Quentin: Sourcing is of the utmost importance to us, right? We’re communicating directly with small farms and farmers, you know, all across the world.
For us to create a USDA-certified organic product, every ingredient we use has to essentially fall under the same regulations as we do in America.
We wanted to make sure that everything was sustainable, sustainably sourced, non-GMO organic, and had the highest quality.
I often say that in America, tea hasn’t had its coffee moment yet. We don’t have a tea culture in America that has been, you know, stamped. And so a lot of the teas that I’ve had growing up are just very low quality, and just like any other crop that’s grown, right, if it’s not growing organically, there can be chemical compounds that are found in that crop that doesn’t necessarily serve the body. We firmly believe that everything we put into our bodies matters.
The challenge was figuring out how to make it palatable for a nine-year-old struggling with ADHD. We wanted to make sure that every ingredient that we blended with that green tea would assist him in that calm focus and not give him any ingredients that would make him hyper.
– Quentin Vennie
Dan: The 12-pack has a $47 suggested price, about $4 per can. Tell us about your strategy for bringing the brand to people.
Quentin: We just launched 100% online, through our website, direct-to-consumer. We are in talks with a few larger retailers and convenience stores. We plan to continue to grow and scale so that we can reduce the prices a little bit. We’re still a very small company, and it’s been a bit challenging with inflation. My goal is to grow this to be a national company. We really want to make wellness equitable and accessible.
Dan: Finally, tell us the story about how you came to the attention of goop Founder & CEO Gwyneth Paltrow.
Quentin: On social, we really connected with the work I was doing in the wellness space. She was a part of the initial ideation of the tea Company. She was one of the first people to try our blends, and she immediately fell in love with them. And, you know, our relationship just grew. She’s one of the most incredible human beings I’ve ever met.
And she’s been incredibly supportive throughout this entire process.
| Ingredients in Four TAZO Reformulations are Verified Regenerative | Tea Labor Unrest Escalates in Bangladesh | Canada Requires “High In” Front-of-Pack Nutrition Warning Labels | PLUS Cold-Brewed Calm in a Can | Equitea co-founder Quentin Vennie discusses three new condition-specific canned, cold-brewed tea blends to ease anxiety and depression, improve focus, and calm young people coping with ADHD.
The treaty permits Nepalese and Indian citizens to live, work, own property, and conduct business on either side of the border. Citizens cross the border without a passport or visa. There are no tariffs on goods and services. Trains and commercial truckers carrying foods, including tea, are inspected for food hygiene by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), but hundreds of small trucks and scooters carrying tea cross daily unimpeded.
The treaty is unpopular in Nepal because of issues of sovereignty that give wealthy Indians unfettered market access. In January 2021, during a three-day trip to India, Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawalisaid that Nepal would also like to revise the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty to reflect “changes and new realities” and resolve a “few misunderstandings.”
In June, Commerce Committee Chair V. Vijayasai Reddy asked the government to impose stringent “certificate of origin” requirements that would subject tea imports to a “quality standard,” expanding existing food safety regulations. The intent is to curb the flow of inexpensive tea that is blended and sold as higher-priced Darjeeling. The committee’s report calls for enacting an anti-dumping duty, ranging from 40-100%, that would negatively impact Nepal’s tea industry.
Nepal produces around 25,000 metric tons annually and exported 11,920 tons during the last fiscal year. Export earnings were NPRs3.79 billion rupees (about $30 million US dollars). India buys 80-90% of Nepal’s orthodox tea and 50% of the CTC (cut, tear, and curl) grades processed mainly at bought-leaf factories. Orthodox tea is priced much higher than CTC but yields only 334 kilos per hectare. CTC yields an average of 1,598 kg per ha and sells for about half that of comparable Indian-grown tea.
According to the Kathmandu Post, Darjeeling tea, in bulk, is priced anywhere between IRs 320 and IRs 360 rupees per kg. Orthodox varieties of Nepali tea sell for less than half that price. Orthodox teas, commonly known as Himalayan tea, are similar to the Darjeeling variety grown in West Bengal in taste, aroma, and flavor, writes the newspaper.
According to the newspaper, Nepali tea producers say that if India goes ahead with the parliamentary’s committee’s recommendation, Nepal’s tea sector will collapse. The paper cited a steep decline in shipments post-COVID, India’s decision to delay the transit of 40,000 tons of Nepal tea for several weeks last year, and, in some instances, reject shipments transiting India but bound for other countries.
In November 2021, India announced it would cancel import licenses of unscrupulous domestic tea companies found to be blending Himalayan teas with those from Darjeeling. The Tea Board of India imposed new restrictions to prevent companies from importing inferior tea.
Deepak Khanal, director of Nepal’s National Tea and Coffee Development Board, said that unfounded “rumors” questioning the quality of Nepali tea also contributed to the decline.
He told the Post that “India has adopted a policy to discourage buyers from importing Nepali tea,” citing a tea shipment of 6,000 metric tons in 20 cargo trucks stopped at the Jhapa border crossing in June 2020. Inspectors demanded additional lab tests, which caused delays. “We were surprised by the change in policy overnight,” said Khanal. He said that the Indian side also halted the export of Nepali tea to third countries via India. Northern India borders northern Nepal in the east, west, and south. “Domestic traders and producers are obviously discouraged.”
To obtain export certification, Nepali tea must be tested at the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata, India. Discussions between the two countries have since resolved double verification and notification concerns.
BIZ INSIGHT – In 2016, Nepal and India, mutually seeking closer relations, agreed to review all bilateral agreements and treaties and, in 2018, issued a report described as a strong groundwork for furthering India-Nepal relations and “reset” ties.
According to Nepalese diplomats, the negotiation of navigation rights for access to the 1,500-mile-long Ganges River is an example of how the treaty could be modified. Nepal is a landlocked nation with limited transport capability, but major tributaries in Nepal could one day connect Nepal to the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.
