India’s Latambarcem Brewers (LB Brewers) has teamed up with Taiwan’s Jim and Dad’s Brewing Company to introduce India’s first bottled tea beer, called MAKA di Oo-Long Blanche.
This beer blends Taiwanese Xiangzhuang Red Oolong tea with Belgian Blanche brewing techniques and will be available only in Goa and Taipei. The beer, priced at Rs 150 and with 4.5% ABV, should appeal to craft beer enthusiasts. LB Brewers’ last launch was the MAKA di Rocket Rice Lager. They are firmly looking at securing a top position in the global craft beer market.
Maka Beer
LB Brewers, located in Dicholi, Goa, was founded in 2017 by brothers Anish and Aditya Ishan Varshnei.
Regen Agri Certification Announced
Solidaridad Network Asia and the Indian Tea Association (ITA) have announced the Regenagri certification will be launched on 15th November. This was announced at the ITA’s AGM last week when Chairman Hemant Bangur said that carbon credits will offset the price deficit between the cost of production and the price of tea. Solidaridad’s MD, Shatadru Chattaopadhyay said that they expected to cover 100,000 hectares in the next three years and 400,000 hectares by 2030. Luxmi Tea and Rossell Tea are expected to be part of it. The certification is said to improve plantation’s resilience to climate impact, generate carbon credit and continue access to the EU market by meeting European Green Regulations.
Assam Launches Mobile Medical Units
The Assam state government launched Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) for tea garden workers and their families in remote areas. The program includes 80 MMUs to serve 514 tea garden areas. The MMU can offer a range of services, including free medicines, diagnostic tests, and medical consultations. This will be offered at no cost to the residents.
On October 9th, the bungalow of the assistant manager of Singtom tea estate burned down. A few days later, on October 13th, the manager’s bungalow caught fire. The workers alerted the police and the fire department, but the bungalows were destroyed. Police say arson has not been ruled out.
Singtom tea estate has been closed since September 25th following the recent bonus discussions. Unions in Darjeeling have demanded 20%, and as protests intensified, the manager and assistant manager of the Singtom Tea Estate chose to leave without notice about three weeks ago. This was likely done out of fear of the protests escalating. Meanwhile, the dispatch of tea from the gardens has been stopped, and unsold tea is piling up in the hill town. Singtom employs around 680 workers, who have said they have not received any bonus payments. Both sides – the management and workers – are now stuck in limbo, and losses extend to both. As it happened, the bungalows that burned down were part of Singtom’s hospitality offering, which brought additional revenue to the company.
Kangra Tea Board Seeks To Promote Tea In Airports and Stations
At the 250th board meeting of the Tea Board India held in Palampur, discussions included promoting Kangra tea. Consequently, there are plans to improve the tea’s visibility in the market. The Tea Board plans to leverage resources from the recently announced Tea Development and Promotion Scheme for campaigns and sustained brand promotion. Plans include airports and railway stations. Incidentally, the East India Company’s tea promotion campaign included the extensive railway network they had built to introduce and promote tea to the Indian market.
Ratan N. Tata Passes Away
Indian industrialist and Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and the Tata Group, Ratan Naval Tata, passed away on 9th October. He was 86. Under his leadership, the Tata Group became a formidable and profitable business conglomerate with a strong global footprint. The tea industry, in particular, found an ally in Mr Tata. Under his leadership, Tata Tea went from being a tea plantation business to a consumer tea brand, making packaged and branded tea accessible to consumers. In 2005, he decided to exit the plantation business in Munnar, but rather than sell the company, he offered it to employees who continue to be shareholders of the Kanan Devan Hills Plantation Ltd. In the east, Tata Tea was divested from the plantation business in 2007. During Ratan Tata’s leadership, Tata Tea acquired Tetley, a well-established brand valued at nearly four times Tata’s net worth. It was described as “the audacious acquisition of a global shark by an Indian minnow.” At the time, it was the most significant cross-border acquisition of an international brand by an Indian company. His business achievements run long, but beyond that, Tata will be remembered for his humility, love for dogs, and legacy of philanthropy that impacted everything from cancer research to sanitation—a person who made a difference.
Last week, Darjeeling’s tea garden employees went on a 12-hour strike demanding a 20% bonus and refusing to accept the 13% offered. The Statesman reported that after the fifth round of tripartite talks on the bonus issue ended without consensus, the state government had to intervene. They have issued an advisory to the management asking them to pay 16% as a bonus adding that the tea gardens facing financial difficulties can negotiate the bonus percentage through discussions with unions. The advisory covers Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong Hills tea garden workers. Bonuses were to be disbursed by 4 October, given that the country celebrates the Dusshera festival this week, an important festival in Bengal. However, trade unions have not been happy with the 16%, and the state labor department has informed them that another round of talks would be held in Kolkata on November 6.
Tea Board Announces Tea Development & Promotion Scheme
The Tea Board, under the aegis of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, announced the Tea Development & Promotion Scheme that comes with a budget of Rs 664.09 crore or USD 79 million. The scheme will extend from 2023 to 2025 and broadly covers Plantation Development & Quality Upgradation, Tea Promotion and Market Support, Technological Intervention, Research and Development, and Welfare & Capacity Building measures. It addresses several immediate concerns, such as replanting, proper pruning, adherence to quality plucking, soil health, product development and diversification, and value addition. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on branding and promotion. These schemes are open to registered stakeholders from within the industry on the 15th of this month.
Elephant Attack Claims Another Life In The Nilgiris
A 34-year-old man in Kengarai in the Nilgiris was walking through a tea estate when a wild elephant attacked him. He was found seriously injured and rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries. This is the third casualty in Kengarai in two months. The villagers staged a protest, calling for the government to do something to prevent more deaths. While man-elephant conflict is prevalent around the country, all the tea regions struggle with this problem.
Tea fields at Gopaldhara Tea Estate, Darjeeling, India
Commerce Minister Meets Tea Industry Stakeholders
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met tea industry representatives from Assam and West Bengal on Jan. 6, 2024. The industry sought financial support to tide over the crisis, particularly in wages to be paid during the winter months when gardens don’t see any production. The representation also sought a subsidy for orthodox tea production and greater testing of imported teas for food safety. They have asked for trade delegations to be sent to Iran and other countries to retain old markets and gain a foothold in potential ones. Key to the conversation was the need to resuscitate Darjeeling, which has seen low production, low prices, and an increasing number of gardens being sold due to this financial inviability.
Darjeeling Tea Volumes Down by 9%
In 2023, Darjeeling produced under 6.5 million kilos of tea, down 9% from 2022 and perhaps the lowest “normal year output” in the last 50 years! The reason is multifold – some ten gardens here closed last year, and climate change has also impacted the tea harvest. Despite low volumes, prices have not gone up. Average prices at auctions were INRs 315 per kilo, which is not representative of true prices as only about 1.5mn kilos were sold via auctions, with the bulk of tea sold privately. But it’s indicative of the crux of Darjeeling’s problem.
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World Tea Conference + Expo “Best of Awards” Named
Tea News for the week ending March 10
World Tea Conference + Expo Announces “Best of” Award Finalists
| Pakistan is Willing to Barter Rice for Kenyan Tea | Teaware Manufacturers Adopt Consumer to Manufacturer (C2M) Business Model Pioneered by Fast-Fashion | Study Suggests an EGCG-based Therapy for Treating Alzheimer’s
Forty-Four Finalists Named, Online Balloting for “Best of Awards” Winners Underway
By Dan Bolton
Finalists in eight categories in the annual World Tea Conference + Expo “Best of Awards” were named last week. Winners will be announced at the event on March 27-29 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Event organizers and a panel of judges named the 44 individuals, tea companies, and associations vying for recognition.
The winners are determined by an online ballot, which is now underway.
Tim McLucas, vice president of QuestexBar & Restaurant Group, said, “We are proud to present the industry with a channel to honor the businesses and individuals who have made a meaningful impact over the past year.”
Categories include Most Innovative Tea App, Best Tea-Inspired Chef, Best Boba Tea Company, and Most Creative Marketing Promotion.
The ballots will also determine the favorite expo speakers, tea YouTubers, the most Sustainably Driven Company, and the most Impactful Global Tea Body.
In addition, ten finalists were named in the Tea Tycoons competition. Three entrepreneurs will individually pitch their products to a panel of experts before a live audience. Categories include tea, innovations in tea, and a sustainable business category where founders explain how they are meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations.
BIZ INSIGHT – Registration is now open at http://www.worldteaexpo.com. The event is co-located with the Bar & Restaurant Expo. I strongly encourage tea professionals at every level of experience to attend. It’s a great opportunity to learn, see new products, validate trends, and network with professionals worldwide. This will be my 15th year reporting on the show, every one of which was memorable.
Consumer-to-Manufacturer Model Pioneered by Fast-Fashion
By Dan Bolton
A recent online search for tea utensils returned large selections offered by Temu and Shein, a pair of non-traditional Chinese retailers with unbeatable prices. Instead of Amazon, I ordered several items that arrived within ten days.
The experience suggests why teaware suppliers should consider the C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) business model.
Taylor Smith, chief technology officer at Honeywell Productivity Solutions, described in a LinkedIn post the evolution of the C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) business model from fashion to a much wider range of retail categories.
Feedback is nothing new, he explains. Retailers and manufacturers regularly receive requests for specific and customized products, but C2M leverages technology to quantify community-driven and real-time product demand. Critically, manufacturers learn of orders in real time, are geared to producing small batches and only produce an item when ordered.
C2M challenges the traditional role in which brands dictate demand through switching up designs, expanding product ranges, and flavor offerings. Instead, Smith explains that the community of like-minded consumers seeking to personalize their selections dictates what brands should deliver.
Shein, valued at $100 billion, is the world’s third most highly valued startup. The company operates in 150 countries and is adding 6,000 new products per day.
Shein uses a test-and-repeat model, which first produces small quantities of new designs for its online store and updates production orders based on real-time demand, writes Coresight Founder Deborah Weinswig. The company’s “on-demand manufacturing technology connects suppliers to our agile supply chain, reducing inventory waste and enabling us to deliver various affordable products to customers worldwide,” writes Shein.
Unlike Shein, which holds inventory, Temu employs 10,000 workers to manage a global network of 11 million suppliers in 150 countries. The Temu APP has been downloaded 24 million times with 11 million active users monthly. Sales reached $200 million in January. The company launched in Canada in February.
Shein initially shipped directly from China via air freight but in November 2022, the company opened a 170,000-square-foot office and distribution facility in Toronto to cut the shipping times and decrease the number of packages in the international shipping stream.
Weinswig writes that the C2M e-commerce business model deployed by Temu has “soared in popularity over the past several years.”
Gennaro Cuofano, the founder of FourWeekMBA, explains that “C2M creates a direct link between two extremes: the end customer that buys a product and the manufacturer that makes it. With C2M, they’re dealing directly with the customer.”
The porcelain cups that I ordered were available in eight “virtual” colors. Only after I selected “powder blue” did the supplier know what to make.
BIZ INSIGHT – Temu and Shein as catalysts that will influence teaware trends. Selections were extensive (138 tea strainers and 15 tea scoops). The user interfaces were intuitive (filters include items that are trending, sort by style, material, or occasion. Transactions were frictionless with flexible payment terms. The free shipping threshold was $35, and returns are free. Grand View Research estimates the global teaware market was worth $4.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% from 2021 to 2028. Tea retailers depend on teaware sales to make ends meet. Amazon and eBay are formidable competitors. Retailers are wise to monitor selections as they reflect consumer preferences in real time.
Tangles of the protein Tau (in blue) spread between brain cells leading to cell death. Image NIA-UK.
A New Study Suggests EGCG-based Therapy for Treating Alzheimer’s
Researchers funded by Britain’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) found that a molecule in green tea dismantles tangles of the protein tau, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
Results published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications identified several molecules, including epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), that break down the fibrous tangles that spread between brain cells, leading to cell death, according to the NIA publication Research Highlights.
Brain tissue donated by deceased Alzheimer’s patients was treated with EGCG and flash-frozen in a process known as cryogenic electron microscopy at the University of California, Los Angeles, revealing the process.
According to researchers, the EGCG binds to clefts, or openings, along each layer of the harmful fibers, destabilizing the layers and slowly prying the fibers apart. EGCG is not effective on its own because it cannot easily penetrate the human brain. The molecule also binds with many proteins, weakening its effect. But experiments indicated that a mix of EGCG-related molecules also prevented the untangled tau from spreading and forming new tangles.
Researchers caution that more work is needed, but the findings suggest that a mix of molecules that replicate the effects of EGCG can be designed to penetrate the brain and prevent cell death in Alzheimer’s patients.
FEATURES
Wendy Weir (second from left) enjoys fresh green mao feng tea at a memorable tea table with a fish pond in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. Photo courtesy of Wendy Weir.
Entrepreneurs Three-Minute Meditation with Tea
By Jessica Natale Woollard
You’ll want to pour a cup of tea for this special live meditation on the Tea Biz podcast. In my porcelain cup is a white vanilla coconut tea from the Banff Tea Company in Alberta, Canada. It’s one of my go-to blends and scents the air with a lovely fragrance to complement the moment of peace we’re about to relax into. In just a moment, we’ll get right into the meditation with our guest, Wendy Weir, but keep listening after the meditation—I’ll chat with Wendy in a few minutes to learn more about her meditative practice and its connection to tea. So, pause what is occupying your mind, rest upon the nearest comfy chair, and let Wendy lead us on a two-minute journey of our home within. Read more…
