• UK Tea Academy

    Co-founder and Director of Studies Jane Pettigrew describes the remarkable evolution of the UK Tea Academy into an innovative global tea education resource that has emerged from the chaos of COVID-19.

    • Caption: Jane Pettigrew, author, educator, historian, and tea retail expert

    Hear the Interview

    Jane Pettigrew and Suranga Perera on how the UK Tea Academy evolved to meet challenges posed by the pandemic
    Jane Pettigrew at the UKTA's launch party at the Cafe Royal in January 2016.
    Jane Pettigrew at the UKTA’s launch party at the Cafe Royal in January 2016.

    Online Adaptations Enhance and Expand Tea Education

    By Dananjaya Silva | PMD Tea

    The United Kingdom Tea Academy is recognized as a world authority for online tea education. Staffed by professional tutors the academy offers courses from beginner to advanced. I sit down with Co-founder and director of studies Jane Pettigrew, who is a leading author and speaker on tea, along with Suranga Perera, the chief instructor of the Ceylon tea program, who counts over 20 years of experience in tea and is the former CEO of Ceylon Tea Brokers PLC.

    UK Tea Academy

    Dananjaya Silva: Will you explain the essential role that is performed by UKTA in the growth and expansion of specialty tea?

    I think that what we’re doing is actually raising awareness amongst consumers of the possibilities of drinking better tea and also helping food service employees to deliver better tea and to know more about the sort of tea we’re hoping they will serve. 

    There’s an awful lot of people amongst the general public, but also working in restaurants and hotels and tea lounges, coffee bars, etc., who really don’t ever stop to think about tea as a suitable offering for what they’re doing. 

    And so I’m afraid tea has always been treated as a bit of a loss leader, a second cousin — twice removed. 

    It’s never really featured in a lot of people’s minds. Our aim is to raise people’s awareness of the fact that there is so much more than paper teabags. 

    Suranga Perera
    Suranga Perera

    “We have created a very, very exciting master class for Ceylon Tea where we will be tasting roughly 80 teas. Some of the sessions are live at the factory so that the audience can see the production line and talk with factory owners and managers for a greater understanding.

    – Suranga Perera

    Dananjaya: Specialty tea is growing in popularity and there are more tea houses being established. Who are the courses that you offer aimed at and how do you deliver these courses? 

    Jane: So the people we aim at are specifically food and beverage. But of course, we are also found online by people who just love tea. About 15 years ago, shortly after the new Millennium up to about 2005, things really started to change. China opened up and people began drinking more Chinese tea again. 

    And a lot of completely non-tea people came into the tea business. There are many people who have been working in tea for a very long time, and I think a lot of these new people came into tea from just a completely different direction, either with outside experience and a business degree or because they traveled and they’d come across Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese teas that they couldn’t get here. 

    Some of those people opened tea businesses so that they would make those teas available.

    And as more people learned about teas, cafes, restaurants and hotel lounges started serving more teas, and they all began to realize that they actually didn’t know very much about tea. 

    So we try to be at least one step ahead, particularly with food service operations, to give them an insight into the different categories of tea which they’ve never heard about. We help them understand fine teas and help them brew the tea properly. We also help them answer clients’ questions about caffeine and why tea is good for us, and to talk about the different flavors. 

    I mean there is just so much to know, which obviously raises the profile of a really good restaurant or tea lounge or even a coffee bar. 

    In the past, we were classroom-based here in London which meant that people flew in to find us and sit with us in the classroom. Because of COVID, we had to reinvent ourselves into a completely online business. 

    There have been a lot of advantages of actually doing that. We of course now can reach people absolutely anywhere in the world. 

    We try to gear our courses in two different time zones because if we’re teaching in Asia, they’re eight hours ahead, and if we’re teaching in West Coast America, we’re eight hours behind. So we try and find times that suit the different markets, which seems to be working really well. Instead of teaching for a whole day, now we teach in three-hour chunks or less, and the three hours absolutely fly by. Quite a lot of our courses include brewing together, discussing flavor and aroma profiles together, learning to talk about tea, and sound exciting. 

    There’s just so much to this that people gradually get very drawn in, and once they start with us, they tend to go through the different levels. 

    Dananjaya: You mentioned that it’s a global course. How does someone sitting in Australia or New Zealand receive those samples? Could you take us through the process?

    Well, yes, of course. Our foundation level, what we call Tea Champion is taught in two segments, practical and sensory. We don’t have so many teas going out for that course.

    For our Tea Sommelier class, which is the second level up we send out something like 170 teas. We’re not drinking all of those. We add things in for little quizzes on dry leaf recognition and for blind tastings. 

    We try to do as much as we used to do in the classroom, but of course, we have to plan ahead and allow a good month to get teas out — and not just to far off places but actually into Europe, which has since Brexit been a bit of a problem. So then we send them the recording of a class or event and they can listen along on their own and brew the teas on their own time.

    We have a brilliant team now who are constantly packing teas for the next course. The students keep in touch with us to let us know whether or not they’ve received the teas. So with good planning and “military precision,” we can actually do this. 

    Dananjaya: So by the sounds of it, although COVID had a massive negative impact around the world for your organization, it’s actually allowed you to reinvent yourself and have a much wider scope, hasn’t it? 

    Jane: It’s been amazing Dananjaya because when we were teaching in class, particularly with the more advanced class, it was very, very intensive. We went through lots of material in four days, maybe with a day off in the middle, but we had to do it like that because people were flying in specially and they couldn’t keep coming back for the class. 

    They did well, but I think it was an awful lot of material for them to take in and with less time for revision, quizzes, and games. 

    So now that we’re teaching online, we can actually spread the classes out over four weeks, six weeks, and weekends, whatever we want to do. There is a longer gap between each module and the students are now brewing the teas themselves, which they never did in the classroom, and that means that they actually build up a much closer personal relationship with the tea. 

    And they have enough tea to brew more than once, so they’re getting a lot more, I think, that we delivered in the classroom. I’ve been running quite a lot of exams individually online, talking for about three hours. The results that we’ve been getting since we began teaching online have been absolutely phenomenal. You know, some people are absolutely word perfect. I think it is because they’ve had more time to build up not just their understanding, but their passion for tea. It’s not hard to develop a passion for tea. Everybody gets caught up in the whole thing.

    Dananjaya: Yes, there’s so much to explore. What you’re saying is that participants needed to let the information brew for a while.

    Jane: Yes, it’s assimilating it and making sure you’ve really understood it, and if they haven’t, having the time to go back and ask more questions. What we aim to do is give people the tools they need to go off on their own tea journey.

    This is particularly true of the lower-level class. It is absolutely essential because tea is difficult to learn on your own. There’s a lot of stuff out there now, more than there used to be, but it’s still quite confusing if you don’t get the basics absolutely clear. We can then introduce the higher-level classes with some of the most amazing teas from all around the world. People just can’t believe the many options.

    Ceylon Tea Masterclass and Diploma

    Dananjaya: The UK Tea Academy is relaunching the Ceylon Tea Diploma course in July can you explain what the new course entails?

    Suranga Perera: As Jane said, the main objective is to bridge that gap between the consumer and the producer. We have created a very, very exciting master class for Ceylon Tea. We have got some very exciting teas and gone into great depth. It’s roughly 10 hours long

     The first session will be one hour. We will be tasting one or two teas just to break the ice and get people moving, and we’ll be talking about the history, of Ceylon teas. Then a current overview of production and discussions about certifications and Ceylon Lion logo in particular. There is a segment on ozone-friendly teas a discussion about the employment that Ceylon tea provides and an explanation of the auction system. 

    The second session is three hours long and covers what are known as the “high-grown” tea gardens on the island. There are some teas that we are tasting for the first time. For example, we are featuring a Mattekelle Golden Curl from a Japanese clone that is extremely flavorful, and quite different. Few have tested and tried it out. In this masterclass, we will be tasting roughly 80 teas. 

    The third session is also three hours long. it will focus on low-grown teas. We will cover teas from Sabaragamuwa, Galle, Deniyaya, Matugama, and other tea producing subdistricts. Having been a broker for 21 years I worked with these factories very, very closely and personally tasted these teas and picked the best at the time. Because teas change all the time due to weather and various reasons, we need to pick the right teas for the current season. We want to make it as current as possible and as precious as possible so it’s a dynamic masterclass. There are eight teas in this session to be tasted at home by participants.

    The fourth and last session is about specialties, amazing teas that are not readily available. We see that a lot of factories are now getting into manufacturing specialties from which we have picked up the best available. Several of these factories are so, so, exciting, so authentic, so organic.

    Some of the sessions are live at the factory so that the audience can see the production line and talk with factory owners and managers for greater understanding. 

    Bridging the gap to the best of our ability is what we are trying to do with this masterclass.

    London-based Dananjaya Silva is the managing director of PMD Tea and a fourth-generation tea man whose family business, P.M. David Silva & Sons date to 1945 during the Plantation Raj in Ceylon’s Dimbula Valley. The company was founded on Brunswick Estate in the fertile Maskeliya Valley as a small independent Tea shop for tea plantation workers to gather, relax and enjoy a quality cup of tea.

    Related

    Outstanding Education for Tea Professionals and Enthusiasts

    The UK Tea Academy was established in 2015 to raise the standards of tea service in hospitality. One of the UKTA founders and director of studies, Jane Pettigrew, is a passionate advocate of high-quality tea, prepared correctly to draw the best flavor from the leaf. Jane is among the best-known and most highly respected professionals in the tea world. She has worked as a writer and educator for more than 35 years and is tirelessly committed to sharing her knowledge of tea with anyone who has an appreciation for this fabulous leaf. She teaches all over the world, has written 17 books on tea, and was awarded a BEM (British Empire Medal) for services to the tea industry.

    A certificate from the UKTA is recognized in the hospitality industry as representing a high level of achievement and means the holder has attained a deep understanding and serious appreciation of quality tea. On completion of the introductory Level 1: Tea Champion, most of our students are inclined to develop an even greater knowledge of this fascinating world and enroll in Level 2: Tea Sommelier. Some go even further, to the ultimate challenge of Level 3: Tea Diploma.

    UKTA Tutors
    Tea experts living in the United Kingdom teaching live webinars

    Jane PettigrewSam KimminsKate Popham
    Dr. Tim BondBeverly-Claire WainwrightCarri Hecks
    Asako StewardAlex ProbynSunjin Lee
    Chau-Jean LinEunice PallotJuyan Webster

    Licensed Tutors
    Teaching UKTA courses online in other languages

    HyunSei Yu, South KoreaIsaline Lannoy, FrancePilar Serrano, Spain
    Sabine Gullatz, GermanyStefania Gilardi, Italy
    Asako Steward, JapanGabriella Scarpa, Italy

    Online Study
    Linktree: UK Tea Academy Courses


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  • Ukraine’s Cold Weather Tea

    Virtually all the world’s tea is grown between the latitudes 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. Rising temperatures in this narrow band threaten tea yields and force growers to consider planting “upslope” at higher elevations where cooler temperatures prevail. Unfortunately, subtropical tea cultivars perish in a hard frost, expected above 7,500 feet. The Zhornyna Experimental Tea Plantation in western Ukraine, is located near 50 degrees north latitude. Planter Maksym Malygin is successfully growing tea under forest cover that has survived heavy snow during prolonged winters at temperatures 26 below zero Celsius.

    • Caption: Maksym Malygin at his home near Kyiv
    Maksym Malygin owner of Zhornyna Experimental Tea Plantation
    Preparing for winter at Zhornyna in Western Ukraine near Mukachevo close to the border with Poland and Slovakia

    Cold-resistant Cultivars are Key to Expanding Tea Lands

    By Dan Bolton

    The Zhornyna Experimental Tea Plantation is in western Ukraine near Mukachevo, a city of 85,000 located near the borders that Ukraine shares with Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. Known as the Transcarpathia, this hilly region south of the Carpathian Mountains in ancient times was a part of Kyivan Rus. It was ruled by the Hungarian Empire for 1100 years until World War I and was part of Czechoslovakia until 1945 when it was ceded to Ukraine. The plantation is situated on high ground known as Chervona Hova or the “Red” Mount.

    Dan Bolton: Thank you Maxim for joining our podcast. Your first recordings were interrupted by air raid sirens following intense missile attacks near Kyiv where you make your home. What has been the impact of the invasion on Ukraine’s only tea garden?

    Maksym Malygin: We planned to carry out classical formative pruning of tea bushes in three seasons, from 2021 to 2023. After the first two years of pruning, we planned to test the winter hardiness of the skeletal branches of the bushes and not cover for the winter. This was planned to be done on 300 bushes that grow on the cleared part of the plantation. Pruning last year showed excellent results, the vegetation of the bushes increased from 15 cm after pruning to 70-80 cm at the end of the season. This April, we planned to cut at a height of 20-25 cm.

    We will not do this and lose at least one year. Also, we will not be able to organize the collection of leaves to produce more tea.

    “The most ambitious project at the idea stage is the creation of a new two-hectare tea plantation in Ukraine, but right now it’s completely frozen on hold.

    – Maksym Malygin

    Dan: It is good to know that you and your family remain safe. I speak for a global tea community that wishes your work will continue without war.

    What is the future of Zhornyna as it produces only experimental tea in small batches?

    Maksym: We have organized through ways for the development of the Zhornyna project. The first one is gaining experience directly on 300 bushes of the plantation. It’s not possible to make industrial production there, but it’s possible to consistently produce some tea for large tea tastings. The second is the vegetative reproduction of the unique winter-resistant tea. The third is a cooperation with colleagues in Europe on the transfer of tea and growing technologies in harsh climates. The most ambitious project at the idea stage is creation of a new two-hectare tea plantation in Ukraine, but right now it’s completely frozen on hold.

    Climate change is forcing planters to move upslope
    Zhornyna is near Mukachevo (marked in red)

    Dan: Listeners in Europe and northern regions that are experimenting with plantings will be interested in your experiments with temperature resistant cultivars. Will you describe the experiment in greater detail?

    Maksym: Analyzing cold-weather characteristics and cultivars is an interesting question. And it’s not that easy to answer.

    The history of unique Ukrainian tea plantation began in 1949 when non-varietal Georgian and Krasnodar seeds were sown, as well as seeds of the varieties Georgian No. 2, Kangra and a Japanese-Indian hybrid. This is described in the scientific literature.

    We made a map of the entire plantation area with the help of the GPS. The total area is 1.4 hectares (about 3.5 acres). Most of the original farm has been destroyed. The surviving tea plants are located in five places. Each has different morphological features. Unfortunately, we still have not been able to find specialists in the post-Soviet years who could establish a tea variety according to the morphological characteristics of plants.

    In this case, we need to use DNA analysis, but for comparison, we need to have data from old Soviet cultivars. My personal opinion is that the 300 bushes in the restored area descend from the Georgian No. 2 variety.

    During the past 70 years, tea plants on the plantation have experienced snowy winters when the minimum temperature was minus 26 degrees [see map depicting Hardiness Zones, above]. Last winter, the minimum temperature was minus 15 degrees with virtually no snow.

    Until 1999 “Zhornyna” was the most northern tea plantation in Europe. After the Tschanara Tea Garden in Germany emerging (the owners are my friends and colleagues Wolfgang Bucher and Haeng ok Kim) “Zhornyna” lost that status, but remains the most frost-resistant culture of tea worldwide (surviving winters with temperatures down to -26 C).

    Given the age and adaptation to the local climate, this tea is likely a Ukrainian frost-resistant subpopulation of Georgian tea. It is my opinion.

    Related

    Seventy-five Years of Experimentation

    In 1949 a team from the All-Union research Institute of Tea and Subtropical Agriculture in Georgia, after surveying much of Transcarpathia south of Kyiv, decided that conditions in western Ukraine on Chervona (Red) Hora Mount near the town of Mukachevo were ideal for planting cold-resistant tea.

    Dr. I. I. Chkhaidze supervised development of the experimental tea garden which was one of six in the region. The initiatives were part of a greater project of the National Academy of Sciences of the USSR that in 1950 funded attempts to acclimatize tea on territories including Moldova, Transcarpathia, Crimea, Primorsky Krai, and in the far west the islands of South Sakhalin and Kunashir.

    At Zhornyna non-varietal Georgian and Krasnodar seeds were sown, as well as seeds of the Georgian No. 2 variety; along with a Kangra cultivar from India and a Japanese-Indian hybrid.

    Photos of the plantation taken during the early 50s were lost. “All we can show is one photo from the archive in Russia and three photos from a book written by Dr. Chkhaidze, who led the team of scientists,” writes Zhornyna tea garden owner Maksym Malygin.

    The main goal of the project was “…full satisfaction of Soviet people’s needs for domestic tea.” In Georgia the Soviet Union implemented a similar project during the period 1930-1940 that ultimately supplied 30% of tea consumed in the USSR.

    Tea was first planted along the Black Sea coastline in 1885 near Batumi. In 1915 there were 170 Georgian tea plantations covering an area of 1,000 ha. By 1932 the state had established 19 state-run tea plantations and nine factories. The area under tea increased to 25,500 ha. By 1993 Georgia growers farming 56,000 ha annually produced 75 million kg of tea at 70 state run factories.

    Scientists considered the Transcarpathia to be the second most favorable region next to Georgia for producing tea, said Malygin. Fifty hectares on the collective were developed and 1.5 metric tons of high quality “Chervona Hora” tea was harvested in 1952

    The project was canceled in 1953.

    After canceling financial support for research, the plantation was abandoned. Lots of tea bushes were dug and cut out, only their roots remained. Thanks to the efforts of plantation workers tea bushes still grow, but there is insufficient capacity  to develop the plantation, Malygin explains.

    Among the experimental areas established in the Transcarpathian region only Red Mount’s persisted. Fifty years after the original 50 acres (20 hectares) were planted, only two hectares thrived. In 2000 there were several hundred tea plants still growing, blossoming and fructifying, he said. The bushes stood 1.5 meters high, said Malygin.

    Tea bushes over generations grew resistant to constant freezes and give new branches in the spring. Skeletal branches do not have time to grow on their own, he explains.

    Before 1999 Zhornyna was the most northern tea plantation in Europe. Plantations established in Germany and Great Britain are now the farthest north but Zhornyna is the site of the most frost-resistant tea cultivars worldwide, he said.

    A green arrow marks the Zhornyna Tea Plantation near Ukraine’s borders with Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

    “In December 2013, my wife and I visited the plantation for the first time and fell in love with this place. So was started the Zhornyna tea plantation conservation project that we call “Tea Grows in Ukraine.”

    The first step was to develop technology for the production of terroir and demonstrate that the leaves could produce quality tea. Experimental developments of semi- and full-fermented teas, were done from 2015 to 2021. The results demonstrated the great potential of the Transcarpathian teas, according to experts’ opinions.

    The second stage came in 2019, when part of the plantation was cleared. Our attention was then focused on the 300 small bushes. Shelters were built and the tea plants survived the cold winters.

    This block is restricted as a test


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  • Protecting Sri Lanka’s 150-year-old Brand

    In 2021, Sri Lanka launched a ?4.5 billion global promotion to increase the export volume and value of Ceylon tea, a billion dollar brand. The campaign targets 12 markets, including the UK, EU, Asia, and North America. In parallel, the board is pursuing a Protected Geographical Indication by the European Union. GI status affords global trade protection under the World Trade Organization and officially recognizes the authenticity of the Ceylon brand.

    • Caption: Jayampathy Molligoda, Chairman of the Tea Board of Sri Lanka
    Jayampathy Molligoda, Chairman of the Tea Board of Sri Lanka

    Why Sri Lanka is Seeking GI Status for its Ceylon Brand

    By Dananjaya Silva | PMD Tea

    A Protected Geographical Indication (GI) is a seal of authenticity awarded products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or reputations that are due to that origin. Correspondent Dananjaya Silva sat down with Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Jayampathy Molligoda to discuss why the tea board is pursuing GI status and what this means for prices for producers, exporters, and for the nation’s tea.

    Dananjaya Silva: Will you explain how geographical indication protects Sri Lanka’s multi million dollar investment in promoting Ceylon tea in foreign markets?

    Jayampathy Molligoda: The World Trade Organization [WTO] TRIPS* agreement is the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights. So, the law relating to geographical indications originally emerged from the TRIPS agreement under WTO. Everything stems from that.

    Geographical indications are exclusively for unique offerings like Ceylon tea, or Ceylon cinnamon which identify the product as originating in a Sri Lankan region: quality, reputation, or any other characteristics of Ceylon tea are essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

    Ceylon tea is a registered trademark owned by Sri Lanka Tea Board in Sri Lanka. But what is important is that globally 95% of our tea is being marketed in 140 countries. At least 50 to 60 countries take about 90% of our tea. So, it’s a reputed name globally. Unfortunately, over a period of time we have lost some of the markets Pakistan, Egypt even Russia, their market size has come down drastically for the tea. As a result, we have been selling around 28 million kilos out of our 280 million kilos.

    One important point I will explain in detail the Ceylon tea is associated with the Lion logo. To qualify for the Lion logo, one has to pack in Sri Lanka 100% pure Ceylon tea so that’s the problem. Ceylon tea, although is a registered certification, it’s not registered legally in other than a few countries.

    As a result, there had been some misusers of the name. We were unable to take legal action on some of the infringements, so depriving our genuine exporters’ ability to service and increase their market share in Ceylon tea products.

    Ceylon tea is unique, we all know Ceylon tea is unique. Our tea masters know how to prove that through the testing methods, but that is not acceptable to European Union countries. We have to scientifically prove that this Ceylon tea originating from Sri Lanka has unique characteristics because of its geographical origin and reputation. So that is why we are trying to get this GI registration under intellectual property rights.

    Dananjaya: In addition to the legal protection it affords, will you discuss how Protected Geographical Indication status also speaks to the unique qualities of Sri Lanka’s tea-growing regions. GI status establishes a strong, distinguishable, and marketable reputation.

    Jayampathy: The GI status is a marketable reputation for producers because the producers follow farming traditions. It’s the cleanest tea in the world so that is the brand story for Ceylon tea. If you go back to the TRIPS arrangement under WTO, the original purpose behind geographical indication was to give recognition to the producer, the farmer.

    “Our objective is not only to stabilize but to obtain even better prices in terms of U.S. dollars and to get more market share.

    – Jayampathy Molligoda

    Dananjaya: Will obtaining GI status help stabilize prices?

    Jayampathy: Our objective is not only to stabilize but to obtain even better prices in terms of U.S. dollars and to get more market share.

    If you carve off our 300 million kilo per annum production, basically 285 million of that is what is known as Orthodox Ceylon tea. So that orthodox type of Ceylon tea is not ideally suited for tea bags and that may be one of the reasons why we have lost share in the mass market.

    Since CTC is different than Orthodox, we have to find a niche market. Our brand marketing strategy rests on three pillars. First, Ceylon tea is an authentic product, as we explain. Next we demonstrate our sustainability credentials compared to other competing countries and products citing, for instance, the fact that our farmers, our regional plantation companies practice environmental sustainability and attend to the social wellbeing of the people under the Tea Control Act. Finally, there is the wellness factor. Because of these three pillars we are getting a premium price for our tea.

    As a matter of fact, at the auction level and the wholesale level, we command $3.50 per kilo converted to U.S. dollars at the Colombo auction. The Mombasa Auctions and Calcutta they get less than $2, roughly say $2, according to information provided by ITC [International Tea Committee] as well as FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Intergovernmental Group findings.

    Recently domestic prices have gone up. In order to get more dollars, the authorities have taken the right course by allowing the rupee to fluctuate, but it has to be carefully managed float in my personal view.

    There is a tipping point our exporters must address to sell tea at a very high price. The tea board then works to ensure those FOB prices are trickled down through the factories to the farmers. It is more important getting this money to the farmer, not to give benefit to the exporters or the big time players to earn more money.

    So we pitch our Ceylon tea in that particular niche as a differentiated product. So how do we differentiate? It’s only through certifications and indications. Once we have obtained GI logo, it can be combined with other quality standards and the traceability can be assured so they know where the tea comes from.

    That’s the game plan. We just use the global tea promotion to explain the benefits of differentiated tea.

    London-based Dananjaya Silva is managing director of PMD Tea and a fourth generation tea man whose family business, P.M. David Silva & Sons dates to 1945 during the Plantation Raj in Ceylon’s Dimbula Valley. The company was founded on Brunswick Estate in the fertile Maskeliya Valley as a small independent Tea shop for tea plantation workers to gather, relax and enjoy a quality cup of tea.

    Related

    The GI mark of authenticity defines the origin boundaries and enhances legal protection for food products.

    Overview: The TRIPS Agreement

    The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement is the most comprehensive multilateral framework for protecting intellectual property. It was enacted in January 1995 to establish a public register of rights that is accessible globally. It bolsters protection afforded by the issuance of CTMs (certification trade marks). The advantages of a Protected Geographical Indication include additional protection when a CTM is not accepted in a jurisdiction; the ability for GI holders to obtain reciprocal protection of a mark mandate under EU Regulation 2081/92; and the fact that GIs describe with legal precision the product’s direct links with origin.

    In addition to geographical indications including appellations of origin, TRIPS covers copyright and related rights (i.e. the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organizations); trademarks including service marks;  industrial designspatents including the protection of new varieties of plants; the layout-designs of integrated circuits; and undisclosed information including trade secrets and test data. Learn more: TRIPS Agreement


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  • Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 12

    Listen to the Tea Biz Podcast on iTunes | Spotify | Sounder | Stitcher | Alexa

    Hear the Headlines for the Week of April 9

    Hear the Headlines


    | A Sparkling Future for Fizzy Tea
    | Bubble Tea Drinkers Froth Over Drinking Straw Ban
    | Vahdam Tea Partners with Goodricke Group
    | Starbucks Introduces Rent-a-Cup

    Click to read this week’s in-depth Q|A with ITA Secretary Sujit Patra or listen to the India Price Watch summary below. Click here to read the China Tea Price Watch.

    This week’s India Tea Price Watch

    Features

    This week Tea Biz visits the Nilgiri tea growing region in South India where Managing Director Supriya Sahu has harnessed the creative and collective energy of 30,000 small farmers at the INDCOSERVE tea farmer’s co-operative.

    …and we discuss the challenges of timely tea delivery in the new harvest year with Jason Walker, spokesperson for Firsd Tea, the US division of the largest green tea supplier in the world.

    Supriya Sahu
    “Our ambition is to transform an organization that was a sleeping giant into one that can show the world that a small growers’ organization can be the best among the best,” says INDCOSERVE’s Supriya Sahu.

    Awakening a Sleeping Giant

    By Aravinda Anantharaman

    A money-losing federation of small grower co-operatives in Tamil Nadu, the largest of its kind in India with a history dating to 1965, languished for decades before Supriya Sahu emerged as a leader with a singular message: produce tea that builds the lives of farmers and a better future. “That’s our ambition, to transform an organization that was a sleeping giant into one that can show the world that a small growers’ organization can be the best among the best,” she says. Read more…

    Supriya Sahu, managing director INDCOSERVE in Tamil Nadu
    Ships awaiting berth
    Sea transport is stretched to the breaking point as reinvigorated economies stir from pandemic weariness.

    Finally Under Way

    By Dan Bolton

    New harvest tea is on its way. Early harvests in China, India, and Kenya sent new teas to market early this year – a fortunate head-start. Unlike last year, labor availability is good despite COVID-19 restraints, tea regions report fine weather, and orderly processing is raising expectations of a bountiful crop. In this segment Jason Walker, spokesperson for Firsd Tea, the US division of the largest green tea supplier in the world, discusses two remaining challenges impeding timely tea delivery. Read more…

    Jason Walker, marketing director for Firsd Tea, the US division of Zhejiang Tea Group

    Tea News you Need to Know

    A Sparkling Future for Fizzy Tea

    Actor Brad Pitt is all fired up about fizzy tea. Specifically, small batch, cold-brewed, certified organic sparkling tea launched by Enroot in five flavors. Pitt invested in the 25-calorie, botanically diverse bottled blends of teas, herbs, fruits, and spices inspired by co-founder Cristina Patwa’s grandmother in the Philippines.

    Marketed as wellness tonics that relax, re-energize, revitalize, rejuvenate, and revive… the teas are made without sweeteners or artificial flavors and bottled in plastic-free packaging.

    Enroot co-founders Cristina Patwa and Brad Pitt.

    Sparkling teas are a small volume niche that grew nearly 10% each year from 2017 to 2021, according to 360 Market Updates. The category has matured in the past 15 years to include high-end, gourmet non-alcohol versions by Copenhagen Sparkling Tea sold at the legendary Fortnum & Mason in London and soon-to-launch innovations like Nomad Tea Soda, a concentrate from Maya Tea for bartenders and fans of SodaStream — an at-home carbonation appliance.

    Biz Insight – Retail sales of ready-to-drink tea in the US totaled $7.9 billion in 2019, according to Beverage Digest. Volume has steadily increased for the past seven years to 860 million, 192-oz. cases. Sales globally are estimated to reach $25.6 billion in 2021 rising to $29.7 billion in 2024, according to market researchers MRFR, making RTD the most lucrative segment in tea. Carbonated beverages of all types this year will generate an estimated $255 billion in sales with RTD now contributing about 10% of global revenue.

    See: A Sparkling Tea Suited to Fine Dining
    and, A Sparkling Future for Fuzzy Tea

    .

    Enroot Organic Sparkling Tea
    Enroot Organic Sparkling Cold Brew Teas

    Bubble Tea Drinkers are Frothing Over a Drinking Straw Ban

    In 2020 China adopted several policies to make the Earth a better place, one of which is a ban on plastic straws in restaurants. The well-intentioned directive, however, drew the ire of bubble tea lovers forced to slurp tapioca balls through soggy paper straws. Alternatives include re-usable metal, glass, and bamboo but bubble lovers complain it’s just not the same. Plant-based plastics made of corn or sugar cane are emerging as an acceptable compromise. PLA decomposes into carbon dioxide and water and China’s king of straws now uses PLA exclusively. Milk tea chain HEYTEA which operates 450 stores in 35 cities made the switch to more expensive PLA. Said one satisfied customer, “We welcome the green shift, but not at the expense of spoiling our experience.”

    Biz Insight – April 22 is Earth Day. This year’s theme is Restore the Earth, a concern shared globally. In China plastic bags and plastic cutlery are next on the list to be phased out. Xinhua news service reports that by 2025, China’s degradable plastics market will grow to 35.8 billion yuan (about $5.5 billion US), according to analysts at Huaxi Securities.

    Vahdam Tea Partners with Goodricke

    Direct-to-consumer e-commerce retailer Vahdam Tea and garden owner Goodricke Group announced they are teaming up to distribute single-estate teas from the well-known Castleton, Margaret’s Hope and Thurbo estates in Darjeeling and Assam estates Harmutty, Borpatra and Dejoo. Vahdam founder Bala Sarda said the relationship goes beyond procurement. Goodricke CEO Atul Asthana said he is delighted to partner with a dynamic and fast-growth new-age startup that has successfully created an Indian home-grown brand in more than 100 international markets.

    Biz Insight – Vahdam, founded in 2015, reports annual turnover of $21.5 million to achieve profitability with growth of 110% in the past year. The company has expanded its distribution network to include many tea related products. Value-addition is done at origin and direct delivery eliminates much of the cost and delay of multiple supply chain handoffs. Sarda has been adept at securing outside financing to grow the company he started at 23 years of age. Vahdam earns 99% of its sales of 200 SKUs outside India. The company formally launched in India last year and has witnessed strong early growth, according to a company spokesperson.

    Starbucks Borrow a Cup
    Starbucks offers reusable cup rental option in five Seattle area stores.

    Starbucks Introduces Rent-a-Cup

    Take-away tea drinkers experiencing remorse after beverage retailers refused to fill reusable cups last year will be pleased to learn that Starbucks is launching a “borrow-a-cup” option. The trial at five Seattle area stores allows customers to order their drinks in a reusable cup with a $1 deposit.

    When they return the cups at a contactless kiosk at the store or from home using the Ridwell closed-loop service they get their dollar back and 10 rewards points through the chain’s loyalty program.

    Ridwell professionally cleans and sterilizes the cups, replenishing stores. Studies show that circulating a single reusable cup replaces up to 30 disposable cups. The reusable is then recycled.

    Biz Insight – Americans discard 120 billion disposable cups a year, according to the Clean Water Action Fund. Plastic coatings that line hot cups often prevent them from being recycled. Starbucks has publicly committed to a circular economy that recovers and repurposes waste, pledging to reduce by 50% the billions of pounds of waste generated annually.

    Learn more…

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  • Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 11

    Listen to the Tea Biz Podcast on iTunes | Spotify | Sounder | Stitcher | Alexa

    Hear the Headlines for the Week of April 2

    Hear the Headlines


    | Suez Ship-jam Delays Tea Deliveries
    | Tea Aisle Sales Stand Out in Grocery
    | Tea Retail Realignment Underway

    | Camellia Sinensis Closes Emery Street Teahouse

    Click to read this week’s in-depth India Price Watch or listen to the summary below.

    This week’s Tea Price Report

    Save this permalink to hear the latest prices anytime on your phone.

    Features

    This week Tea Biz visits Scotland for a lesson on the history of tea clipper ships and a plan to revive the famous tea races from China to the UK with next-generation zero-emission sail craft that someday may enable shippers who switched from sail to steam 150 years ago to switch back to sail again.

    …. and we explore a realm that knows no bounds — the imagination of tea book authors. Listen as Kyle Whittington, founder of the Tea Book Club, presents the first in a series of crowd-sourced book reviews

    China Tea Clippers Ariel and Taeping
    China Tea Clippers Ariel and Taeping race to London in a painting by Jack Spurling.

    Clipper Tea Races Reborn

    David O’Neill is director of Falls of Clyde International, a non-profit vested in preserving Scotland’s maritime heritage. The 200-foot-long Falls of Clyde is the last of the full-rigged, iron-hulled clippers. It is designated a US National Historic Landmark and moored as a maritime museum in Honolulu. However, the ship is no longer open to the public and needs $1.5 million in immediate repairs or it will be scuttled. Read more…

    David O’Neill on the return of the clipper tea races
    Kyle Whittington
    Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington

    The Tea Book Club

    By Dan Bolton

    The Tea Book Club is a virtual adaptation of the popular Saturday afternoon tea and armchair get-togethers. Members meet monthly as either regulars or drop-ins. A new book is introduced every two months. The first session is social with a book-related theme or special guest. The second meet-up is to discuss the book in detail. There are two time slots to accommodate the global community with recordings available and a group chat on Instagram. Email prompts during the month help you keep on pace.

    Tea Book Club founder Kyle Whittington is joining Tea Biz as a contributing editor responsible for reviewing books on tea. In this segment he introduces the club’s favorite book of 2020, Tales of the Tea Trade by Michelle and Bob Comins, two adventurous tea retailers from Bath, England who recount their travels to origin. Read more…

    Kyle Whittington reviews Tales of the Tea Trade

    Tea News you Need to Know

    Suez Ship-jam Delays Tea Deliveries

    The reliability of ships arriving on time was at record lows before the March 24 Suez Canal ship-jam delayed significant amounts of coffee and tea mainly bound for Europe. The Van Rees Group, based in Rotterdam, continues to track 80 containers of tea on 15 vessels idling in the canal or re-routed at sea. Logistics firm Sea-Intelligence estimates arrival reliability declined below 35% in February and reports an average delay of 6.72 days for LATE ships. This marks the sixth month of double-digit, year-on-year declines in vessel performance and the “highest average delay ever.”

    “With continued widespread port congestion, and with carriers still not letting off capacity-wise – especially on the major trades – not even for Chinese New Year, shippers might not see improving schedule reliability anytime soon,” writes Sea-Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy.

    Refloating the gigantic container ship Ever Given within six days averted a crisis as year-end supplies dwindled at the start of the harvest year. Recovery will take a few weeks as 350 ships make their way through the canal at a pace of 80 ships per day. In addition, the blockage will prevent empty shipping containers from being returned to Asia, adding to a container shortage caused by rising demand for consumer goods during the pandemic.

    Biz Insight – In the orderly world of logistics, nothing is going as planned. Ports are designed to unload ships at an even pace. Hundreds of vessels arriving all at once at the same Western European destinations will create bottlenecks at terminals in Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Hamburg where most tea is offloaded. Port authorities say they are now experiencing a lull before the rush.

    Tea Stands Out in the Grocery Aisle

    Staid and steady center-aisle categories like tea rarely accelerate at growth rates faster than advertising-driven Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) categories – but that’s exactly what happened in 2020. Last April sales of tea bags in US grocery and department stores grew by 12.7% year over year, according to Chicago-based market research firm IRI. Growth held steady at 12.3% for the year. Sales of tea in teabags totaled $250 million in the 52-weeks ending February 2021, according to IRI. In Canada hot tea sales grew by 18% through January compared to 11% growth in fast-moving goods overall, according to Nielsen research shared by the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada.

    Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight in the UK, writes that “We’ve eaten an extra 7 billion meals at home since spring 2020. Office tea rounds meanwhile were replaced by brews in our own kitchens and we drank an additional 2 billion cups of tea in the house this year.”

    Globally sales of packaged foods and beverages have fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

    Biz Insight – Consumer surveys show that comfort and relaxation and lifestyle motivated purchases – with immunity and mental health and “just keeping warm” among the top five reasons people bought tea during lockdowns. Consumer trends toward self-care and convenience are now more prominent than in last year’s surveys but the desire to spend more to indulge in premium tea and to create pleasant in-home experiences remains strong. Overall, the US economy is still troubled. On Wednesday the Conference Board reported that 62% of US consumers, many of whom are facing economic uncertainty and income loss, are cutting back on spending overall. The survey found that frugality is one of three dominant household priorities along with a preference for digitally enabled convenience and spending on health and wellness.

    Retail Realignment

    Tata Consumer Products, owners of Tetley branded tea, announced it has sold its stake in two US-based joint tea ventures – parting ways with Empirical Group, a major foodservice supplier, and the Harris Tea Company’s Southern Tea. Tetley is one of North America’s highest grossing tea brands. Tata’s CEO said the company is consolidating to sharpen its focus in the US coffee and tea market.

    In a release announcing the acquisition, Harris writes that the new company will be called Harris Tea Food Service, “offering foodservice customers innovative products, consistent quality, and service.”

    In addition to Tetley® and Good Earth®, Harris Tea Food Service will now offer Southern Breeze®, Ready Sweet™, Newman’s Own Organics®, Red Rose®, Salada®, Tea India®, Chai Moments®, Wonder Drink Kombucha® and Secret Squirrel Coffee® according to the release.

    Harris Tea Company is the largest blender and packer of private label teas in North America with two production facilities in the US (in Georgia and New Jersey), one in Newcastle, UK and, an affiliated factory in India.

    Camellia Sinensis 351 Rue Émery, Montréal.
    Camellia Sinensis 351 Rue Émery, Montréal.

    Camellia Sinensis Will Close Emery Street Teahouse

    Kevin Gascoyne, a partner and spokesman for Camellia Sinensis tea retail in Montreal, announced the company will close its Emery Teahouse after 22 years. Gascoyne said that like many firms the pandemic forced the company to re-structure and reinvent itself to survive.

    “Had this been simply been a one or two months event would have weathered it out and carried on as before.  But now, after more than a year, we have come to realize that we will have to cut free a part of the company that is very close to all our hearts. We have decided to close the Emery Teahouse,” writes Gascoyne. 

    “In early 2022 we hope to present a new space, offering a completely different client experience, a location where tea tasting, and discovery are at the core of each visit,” he said

    “Naturally the Tea School and our passion for the art of tea will play an important role in this new project and, if all goes well, it will both seduce the senses and enhance the tea experience for all our clients,” he said.

    The company’s Emery Street Boutique remains open for business.

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