• Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 34

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    Hear the Headlines

    | Sri Lanka Tea Yields Feared to Decline
    | McLeod Russel Settlement Resolves Insolvency
    | Bangladesh Tea Sector Returns to Pre-Pandemic Production Levels

    Seven-minute Tea News Recap

    Tea Price Report
    Sept 4 – Sale 35

    India Tea Price Watch

    The South India Tea Exporters Association, led by Chairman Dipak Shah, identified twin problems that have continued to be a significant challenge this year: one is the rising cost of ocean freight, and the second is the problem of pesticides in tea where the onus of testing for permissible residue levels lies with the producers. But the liability – should tea be rejected by the buyer – rests with the exporter. Learn more…. – Aravinda Anantharaman

    Features

    This week Tea Biz visits with Rare Tea Lady Henrietta Lovell whose passion for tea is exceeded only by her commitment to bettering the lives of those who make it.

    … and then we travel to Banbury, UK to learn how the Tea History Collection is digitizing tea history one tome at a time.

    Rare Tea Lady
    Since founding The Rare Tea Co. in 2004, Henrietta Lovell has charted her own course in tea.

    Henrietta Leads the Way

    By Kyle Whittington | TeaBookClub

    Since founding the Rare Tea Co., in London in 2004 Henrietta Lovell has traveled the globe sourcing direct for the world’s five-star dining rooms and developing relationships at the farm level where her commitment to fair pricing for the finest tea and charitable work set a standard. “If I can make people appreciate tea, it will change the world,” she says. Rear more…

    Listen to the Interview
    Rare Tea Lady Henrietta Lovell.
    Tea History Collection founder Denys C. Shortt OBE

    Tea History Collection

    By Dananjaya Silva | PMD Silva & Sons

    The Tea History Collection in Banbury, UK, founded by Denys Shortt OBE has hosted a full calendar of events since opening in May. This tea industry resource is now undertaking the daunting task of digitizing bound volumes recording the trademark and ownership of colonial gardens from the early days of tea. Listen as Shortt discusses the importance of preserving tea company heritage online to be shared by all. Learn more…

    Listen to the interview
    Denys Shortt on the importance of digitizing tea history for all to share.

    News

    A monument known as the Tea Daughter at the entrance of Moulvibazar district at Srimangal, Bangladesh. Photo courtesy Faizi Tea Estate, credit: Shomoyeralo.com

    Bangladesh Tea Rebounds

    By Dan Bolton

    The tea sector in Bangladesh is expected to return to near pre-pandemic production levels after setbacks in 2020. Like neighboring Assam, Bangladesh experienced a spring drought, high temperatures, aggressive pests, and the onslaught of the pandemic. Despite these challenges production through July is ahead of last year’s totals and estimated to reach 86 million kilos. Read more…

    Spring bounty could become a fall shortfall as synthetic fertilizer supplies dwindle. Kandy tea garden in morning light by © Luboslav Ivanko | Dreamstime.com

    Sri Lanka Tea Yields Feared to Decline

    By Dan Bolton

    Sri Lankan tea growers are experiencing the first effects of the country-wide ban on chemical fertilizers and plant protection chemicals (PPC).

    After a productive spring, the fall harvest is predicted to decline beginning in October.

    Herman Gunaratne, one of 46 experts picked by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to guide the transition to organic-only inputs told Agency Press France (AFP) that “The ban has drawn the tea industry into complete disarray.”

    Gunaratne who manages the Ahangama Tea Estate, said “The consequences for the country are unimaginable.” was removed from the Green Socio-Economy after disagreeing with the president, according to AFP.

    President Gotabaya ordered a halt to inbound shipments of fertilizers used to cultivate food crops such as rice and cash crops including cinnamon and pepper. Growers are concerned that plants accustomed to a rich diet of nitrogen and phosphate will take time to adjust to organic compost and manure.

    Tea is the nation’s highest-earning export, generating $1.25 billion in foreign currency from the sale of 300 million kilos of tea annually. Sri Lanka harvested 187.8 million kilos through July. Mid-year crop yields were 20% ahead of the half-year mark set in 2020 but prices were higher on average last year.

    Meanwhile, the fiscal crisis facing the country worsened as the Sri Lankan rupee depreciated 20% against the US dollar and British Pound. Food inflation is at 11.5% and long queues at food markets signal shortages. The government has invoked rules that fix prices and prohibit the hoarding of staples such as paddy, finished rice and sugar which briefly increased to SLRs 200 per kilo.

    Sri Lanka’s economy, heavily dependent on tourism, declined 3.6% in 2020 and foreign reserves are at record lows.

    Biz Insight – During the next month Tea Biz will interview several key decision-makers, tea researchers, and non-government agricultural experts to discuss the pros and cons of switching Sri Lanka to organic-only cultivation.

    McLeod Russel Settlement Resolves Insolvency

    India’s largest bulk tea producer has settled with creditors to resolve financial peril.

    PP Gupta, managing director of Techno Electric & Engineering, agreed to terms for repayment of a delinquent INRs 100 crore ($14 million) loan by McLeod Russel India, saying “this is now behind us, and we wish the company good luck.”

    Techno triggered the insolvency on Aug. 6 by filing a formal application with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for redress.

    McLeod borrowed the funds in 2018 and failed to make timely payments due to shortfalls in revenue from tea. The company sold several tea gardens to meet its obligations, but the sums were insufficient to satisfy creditors. McLeod currently owes its lenders approximately INRs 1800 crore (about $245 million). A resolution process, led by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will now proceed.

    The company operates 31 tea estates in Assam and two in West Bengal, producing a combined 44 million kilos of Indian tea annually with additional holdings in Africa and Vietnam.

    — Dan Bolton

    • Read more… links indicate the article continues. Learn more… links to additional information from sources.

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  • Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 33

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    Listen on your favorite player

    Hear the Headlines

    | Timely Tea Delivery Faces Troubled Waters
    | Tea is Thriving in the Convenience Channel
    | Iran Tea Production Increases 25 Percent

    Seven-minute Tea News Recap

    Tea Price Report
    April 28 – Sale 34

    India Tea Price Watch

    Assam’s annual floods have arrived this week with 16 districts affected. India’s Ministry of Commerce also suspended seven sections of the Tea Act, 1953. It appears several reforms are underway to lift regulations, including the recent relaxation of norms to obtain export and distribution licenses. – Aravinda Anantharaman

    Features

    This week Tea Biz puts Burmese chefs in the spotlight for their culinary contributions to tea.

    … and then we travel to London where Unilever unveiled four guiding principles of regenerative agriculture a topic currently trending in tea.

    Regenerative Agiculture

    By Dan Bolton

    Can a world that has already eroded a third of the planet’s soils feed a population of 10 billion without intensive agricultural practices that rely on heavy inputs of fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides that sustain monoculture farming?

    To answer this question, the Tea Biz Podcast and Blog is undertaking a series of interviews with thought-leaders in tea from organizations such as the Rainforest Alliance, growers in Sri Lanka, where a nationwide ban on the import and manufacture of plant chemicals was instituted in May; and with multinationals like Unilever, a company with extensive tea holdings that recently unveiled its basic principals of regenerative agriculture. Read more…

    • Next in the series is a conversation with the Rainforest Alliance on how regenerative agriculture differs from sustainable farming.
    Listen to the Interview
    First in a series of podcasts on regenerative agriculture
    Laphet Thoke
    Laphet Thoke, fermented tea leaf salad.

    Tea Leaf Cuisine

    By Aravinda Anantharaman

    Pickled tea leaves may sound a bit out of the ordinary but not for Southeast Asian chefs. Burma, now known as Myanmar, is an ancient crossroads influenced by the cuisine of bordering Bangladesh, China, Thailand, and Laos. It is here that laphet has become a national dish that is now finding its way to US and European consumers as branded packaged goods. Learn more…

    Listen to the review
    Aravinda Anantharaman on the versatility of tea.
    Imports in TEUs are approaching 550,000 per month at Los Angeles area ports, far exceeding totals for the same January through July period during the past four years. In August idled ships numbered a high of 44.

    Timely Tea Delivery Faces Troubled Waters

    By Dan Bolton

    The disruption of global supply chains is getting worse. Container vessel reliability for tea shipments crossing the Pacific continued to decline this summer as prices reached new heights. The World Container Index for eight East-West routes rose to a composite cost of $9,613 for the week of August 19 – up 360% compared to the same period last year. Consignments of tea shipped from Shanghai to Rotterdam increased 659% to $13,698 last week. Sobhanadri Jonnalagadda at Spisys Ltd. in Telangana, India, reports that the cost of booking a container destined for Hamburg from Hyderabad increased from £3000 to £9000.

    Port congestion, backlogs at container terminals locked down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and rapidly increased volume dashed hopes for a return to normalcy until next spring. Logistics costs considered manageable by tea wholesalers early this year are now seen as out of control. Inflation is a growing concern, but the unpredictability of delivery dates is causing far greater problems.

    Green tea exporter Zhejiang Tea Group’s US operation, Firsd Tea, advises tea buyers to calculate projected inventory needs for at least six months and consider adding 20% to projected volumes to avoid out-of-stock conditions and transportation delays.

    This week there were a record 44 container vessels trying to offload at Southern California ports, an all-time high. And ports are getting busier as the holidays grow near. Imports in TEUs are approaching 550,000 per month at Los Angeles area ports, far exceeding totals for the same January through July period during the past four years.

    On arrival shortages of dockworkers, crane operators, warehouse staff and qualified truckers cause further delays. Driver shortages are at all-time highs forcing companies to offer incentives. Qualified drivers are now earning $27 per hour. FreightWaves reports that refrigerated carrier J.S. Helwig & Son increased pay 4 cents to 62-cents per mile for experienced drivers – that’s $1240 for a 2,000-mile round trip. New hires earn 50 cents per mile and a $1000 signing bonus.

    Biz Insight – The likelihood of a ship arriving on time was better than 80% in 2019 is now “hovering around 40%”, according to logistics analysts Sea-Intelligence. Add port and trucking delays and buyers this fall (whether they are consumers ordering Christmas tea online or wholesalers booking containers) — will experience delivery times extended by four to six weeks.

    Foxtrot online for delivery nationwide and locally with a 60-minute guarantee, soon to be 30 minutes.

    Tea is Thriving in the Convenience Channel

    By Dan Bolton

    Convenience outlets thrive at locations near where people live and in 2020 people stayed close to home.

    In-store sales at US grab-and-go outlets rose for the 18th year in a row to $255 billion in 2020. Beverage sales are a top category, accounting for 20% of all sales. Ready-to-drink iced tea makes up about 5% 4.7% of that total, trailing soda, juice, energy drinks, and bottled water, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).  

    New York-based Nielsen reports that overall, tea grew by 11.1% through April 2021.  During that period liquid tea generated $3.4 billion in sales, RTD tea earned $142 million. Green tea sales were up 72.7% during the pandemic to $18.6 million, Nielsen.

    In 2020 the dramatic decline in commuter trips, lockdowns and a consumer shift to grocery and home meals increased their spend but cut trips to convenience stores by more than 20%, according to NACS. The number of transactions declined 14% as basket sizes grew 18% compared to 2019.

    The pandemic had a huge impact on self-serve beverages. Hot dispensed sales fell 33.4%, and cold dispensed beverages declined 7.9%, reflecting the drop in footfall amid stay-at-home orders and work-from-home schedules, writes NACS. In contrast, beer saw unprecedented growth accounting for 6.3% of total convenience store sales due to the closure of bars and restaurants (only 12.4% of 150,000 US convenience stores are licensed to sell beer).

    Market research firm Technomic writes that US beverage sales overall declined 31% by volume in 2020. Spending declined 29% with cold dispensed beverage volume down 30%.

    Biz Insight – Foxtrot markets, an upscale convenience chain is known for its 60-minute delivery guarantee “is the corner store reimagined” says venture capitalist David Barber. Stores feature locally baked treats, coffee, freshly brewed tea, and organic wine, craft beer, gifts, and everyday essentials.

    Foxtrot is an upscale, hyper-convenient convenience chain

    CEO Mike LaVitola told Forbes that half of the company’s transactions occur online for delivery nationwide and half in-store. He said the company intends to introduce hyper-convenient 30-minute delivery and expand its selection of private-label convenience items in larger, 4,000 square foot stores.

    The start-up has raised $65 million in January from the likes of former Whole Foods Market CEO Walter Robb and Momofuku restaurant founder David Chang. The chain, founded in 2014 in Chicago, currently has 13 locations with nine to open in 2021 and 50 within two years. New locations include Dallas and Washington DC and Austin, Tex., Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, and Houston.

    Harvesting tea in Gilan, Lahijan province, Iran

    Iran Tea Production is Up 25 Percent

    Iran’s Tea Organization (ITO) reports a 25% increase in tea production so far this year and higher export numbers as well. During the first five months of the year, Iran harvested 114,445 metric tons of raw leaf, valued at 6.5 trillion rials (about $155 million US), according to ITO. The tea organization considers 51% of the harvest premium grade, down from 79% in 2020.

    Iran is a net tea importer, No. 6 in the world, spending $236.3 million on tea in 2020, according to World’s Top Exports.

    In recent years growers began exporting increasing quantities of tea. In 2020 4,000 metric tons of teas were shipped to 12 countries regionally including Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, India, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia as well as Canada, Australia, Spain, and the Czech Republic. In 2020 tea exports averaged 86 cents per kilo. Sales totaled $6.5 million, up 2.6% compared to 2019.

    Iran’s tea industry employs 55,000 families cultivating tea on 70,000 acres [28,000 hectares].

    — Dan Bolton

    Upcoming Events

    September 2021

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  • Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 32

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    Hear the Headlines

    | Afghan Tea Market Concerns as Taliban Conquers Kabul
    | Foodservice Recovery Rates Vary Widely by Sector
    | Researchers Confirm Heart Healthy Aspects of Tea

    Seven-minute Tea News Recap

    Tea Price Report
    April 21 – Sale 33

    India Tea Price Watch

    Afghanistan is an importer of green and orthodox black tea from India and in 2020-21, about 760,000 kilos of tea was exported from there. At the moment, the movement of cargo between the two countries stands interrupted. – Aravinda Anantharaman

    Features

    This week Tea Biz visits Darjeeling, India on word of the sale of the iconic Jungpana and Goomtee tea estates to Anshuman Kanoria, principal at Balaji Agro International and chairman of the Indian Exporters Association

    … and then to London where Kyle Whittington reviews The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, a novel by Lisa See.

    Anshuman Kanoria discusses his company’s acquisition of two of Darjeeling’s best-known tea gardens.

    Restoring Darjeeling’s Reputation from the Roots Up

    By Aravinda Anantharaman

    The sale of two iconic Darjeeling tea gardens focused attention on the ongoing challenges facing growers in this fabled tea-growing region. Jungpana and Goomtee were acquired by the Santhosh Kanoria Group, which owns the tea export company Balaji Agro International. The group also owns Tindharia estate in Darjeeling. We spoke to Anshuman Kanoria, Chairman of Balaji Agro and Chairman of the Indian Exporters Association about this acquisition. Read more...

    Listen to the Interview
    Anshuman Kanoria on India’s unrealized potential in tea
    Lisa See has written a “brilliantly layered book” writes Whittington

    The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

    By Kyle Whittington | TeaBookClub

    New York Times best-selling author Lisa See has written several novels revealing her fondness for tea. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, however, uniquely explores the mysterious world of Pu’er. Reviewer Kyle Whittington writes that See’s novel “consists of so many brilliant layers… for the tea reader this is a wonderful story, packed with great tea content that will either develop or ignite an interest in, and a desire to explore the world of Pu’er.” Read the review…

    Listen to the review
    Kyle Whittington reviews The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
    A tea break for Afghan farmworkers. Afghans annually drink 1500 cups of tea per capita. Kahwa (a tea and spice blend) and green tea with mint are favorites. Photo by © Karl Allen Lugmayer | Dreamstime.com

    Afghan Tea Market Concerns as Taliban Conquers Kabul

    By Dan Bolton

    Afghanistan is a major tea-consuming nation and a smuggler’s paradise for tea. The country became a profitable middleman by clever manipulation of border regulations that were only recently reined in after decades of openly flaunting Pakistani Customs enforcement.

    Since tea trades in US dollars, money in Taliban controlled bank accounts is frozen. Bank withdrawals are limited and in-bound remittances from Western Union and MoneyGram have stopped. The East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) reports bidding at the Mombasa auction on tea bound for Afghanistan slowed as the Taliban occupied Kabul but EATTA explained that Afghanistan gets its Kenyan tea via Pakistan where there have been no disruptions at all, according to The East African. Shipments between India, another major source of tea, and Afghanistan were halted this week.

    Afghanistan’s banks are closed, halting direct deposits for salaried workers. Interbank transfers are subject to sanctions imposed by western powers decades ago to curtail terrorist activity. The Financial Action Task Force, warned member countries they must ensure that “no funds or other assets are made available, directly or indirectly” to the Taliban or face fines and censure by the United Nations and the US along with many of its allies. During the 20 years since the Taliban was last in power, many businesses transitioned from cash and writing checks to digital banking. Prices for basic commodities like bread, oil, and tea have doubled since the government collapsed and the economy is in freefall.

    In 2020 foreign aid from the US and Europe accounted for 43% of the economy. Remittances from Afghans living outside the country were nearly $800 million last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Given near universal sanctions due to a global blacklisting of the nation’s central bank, the Taliban will find it difficult to borrow or trade essential commodities, making taxes on citizens and local businesses the Taliban’s sole source of funds in a $22 billion economy.

    It is too soon to know how the collapse of the Afghan government and the return of the Taliban will alter the tea market, but smuggling was rampant during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime. In Helmand province, traders said that “if we smuggle 40kg (heroin), we give the Taliban 4kg.”

    Pakistan Customs lists black tea and green tea as two of the five most smuggled commodities. Tea exports to Pakistan surged in 2020, increasing 18.7% in value compared to 2019, making it the world’s highest-valued tea import market at $590 million. Kenya accounted for $497 million of last year’s import spend, growing 27% following a decision by the Indian government to no longer export tea to Pakistan.

    Afghans prefer green tea to black, yet hundreds of thousands of kilos of black tea are landed annually at the Port of Karachi, Pakistan. Until recently Pakistan charged a combined 38% tax and duties on tea making the import cost of tea 32% higher than tea imported into Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a landlocked nation so huge quantities of African tea, mainly from Kenya, are delivered to the Pakistani port tax-free, taxed at a low rate at the Afghan border, and then transported to large warehouses where it is broken into retail packets and smuggled into Pakistan. Smugglers pay a 12%-15% bribe and transportation cost, pocketing the difference.

    Biz Insight – Pakistan’s Competition Commission considers smuggling to be “the biggest threat faced by the domestic tea industry, causing loss of millions of rupees to the government and forcing legal importers out of business,” according to a 2019 report. A crackdown on violators in late 2020 led to a 55% increase in customs duties collected (a proxy for illegal trade) and evidence of a concerted effort by Pakistan to decrease the cost of legal imports, making smuggling unprofitable.

    It will take years to rebuild some US foodservice sectors to 2019 consumer spending levels.

    US Foodservice Recovery Rates Vary Widely by Sector

    By Dan Bolton

    Sales at Quick Service Restaurants (CSR) and the Supermarket Prepared Foods segment are well ahead of pre-pandemic totals but “everyone in foodservice is starting from a really different point,” reports Ann Golladay, senior project director at Datassential Research’s Baltimore office.

    Datassential calculates that — overall — consumer spending in foodservice declined from $806.7 billion in 2019 to $701.4 billion in 2021 and will not return to pre-pandemic spending levels until 2023.

    Golladay explained to webinar participants Aug. 19 that Fast Casual, once the darling of the industry with the largest real growth will not reach pre-pandemic spending levels before 2023 “and that will be nominal growth that does not include inflation,” she said. Golladay estimates inflation at 5% per year “so you will probably have to back down these projections 10% by then,” she said. Consumer spending at fast casual restaurants declined 19% in 2020. The segment is projected to generate $67.4 billion next year compared to almost $68.7 billion spent in 2019.

    A survey of the nation’s grocers found that 74% reported increased sales in 2020. The consumer spend for prepared foods at supermarkets in 2022 will be $38.8 billion, rising by 119% compared to 2019 dollars.

    Recreation, lodging, and convenience store foodservice segments will take even longer to recover. Lodging, for example, will have only achieved 71% of its 2019 consumer spend by 2022.

    Until workers return to downtown offices, the business and industry foodservice sector, projected to reach pre-pandemic sales of $6.9 billion, will never recover.

    Tea Biz Insight – Jack Li, principal at Datassential identified five “x-factors” that could disrupt the official projections. These include new variants, vaccine mandates, additional and extended lockdown, sustained inflation, and a combination of labor and supply chain bottlenecks.

    Tea flavonoids reduce risk and severity of adverse cardiovascular events.

    Researchers Confirm Heart Healthy Aspects of Tea

    By Dan Bolton

    Accumulating evidence of tea’s heart health benefits led researchers to conduct an umbrella review describing and critically evaluating the totality of medical evidence to date.

    Their findings: “It is reasonable to judge that two cups of unsweetened tea per day has the potential to decrease CVD (cardiovascular disease) risk and progression due to its flavonoid content.”

    The peer-reviewed paper authored by Abby Keller and Taylor Wallace and published in the Annals of Medicine, examines 10 years of studies, from 2010 to 2020, that identify several biological mechanisms showing a decreased risk and severity of cardiovascular disease in tea drinkers.

    The authors write that “Results of population studies commonly suggest that tea consumption is inversely associated with several health outcomes. Shorter-term clinical intervention studies provide additional evidence that tea consumption has the potential to affect intermediate outcomes and biomarkers of disease in healthy, at-risk, and diseased populations.”

    Based on this umbrella review, the researchers observed that the consumption of tea as a beverage “did not seem to be harmful to health; therefore, the benefits of moderate consumption likely outweigh risk.” 

    In Memoriam

    Miriam “Mim” Enck, president of The East Indies Coffee & Tea Company, in Lebanon, Penn., passed away Saturday, Aug. 14 after a short illness. Since 2018 Enck has operated the company founded by her late husband, Walter Progner who started the specialty tea retail business in 1976. She was 75.

    Upcoming Events

    August 2021

    POSTPONED: Beijing International Tea Expo, Beijing China
    August 27-30, 2021 | Beijing Exposition Center (the recent coronavirus outbreak forced Beijing authorities to halt all events that attract large crowds. Watch this space for new date when it becomes available.)

    September 2021

    Caffé Culture Show, Business Design Center, London
    September 2-3 | The European Speciality Tea Association will host a Speciality Tea Hub on the exhibition floor with a tea brew bar, a members’ lounge, educational seminars and small exhibitor pods.  Admission is free | Program | Register

    Level Up, Virtual
    September 29 | The Tea & Herbal Association of Canada will host a mid-year meet up from 10 am to noon. Admission $55 (CAD) Members $50. Agenda | Register

    Click to view more upcoming events.

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  • La Gravitea Café

    La Gravitea is a remarkable tea café with hundreds of selections of fine teas inspired by the travels of founder Avinash Dugar but aside from specialty teas, what makes La Gravitea special is that the young staff are all hard-working graduates of the local school for the hearing-impaired. Aravinda Anantharaman visits this tea café with heart.

    A virtual visit to La Gravitea cafe in Jameshedpur in the north Indian state of Jharkand
    Staff at the La Gravitea café L to R, in the front, Suraj Thakur, Chandra Prabha, Nandita. In the middle, Monika Mahato, Amit Kumar Singh, Amit Lahari. Back row, Shakuntala Hansda, Nikit Sharma and Navin Kumar

    For the Love of Tea

    By Aravinda Anantharaman

    Jamshedpur in the north Indian state of Jharkand is an industrial town famous for its steel industry. It’s closest link to the tea regions would be Kolkata, nearly 300 kilometers away. But one man here has succeeded in putting the town on the tea map with his café, La Gravitea. He serves a dizzying range of teas from special Darjeelings and Japanese matcha to iced teas and flavored blends alongside a menu packed with popular café dishes. But what makes La Gravitea newsworthy is that its staff is entirely hearing-impaired youth.

    Avinash Dugar who started and runs La Gravitea, talks about how it began. In 2015, he decided to step away from corporate life. He thought his calling lay in adventure sports but while travelling through southeast Asia he happened to visit a tea bar in Hong Kong. More used to India chai stops, this was a revelation in what a tea bar could be. Avinash returned to India, keen to start selling tea inspired by what he had seen. He set up a kiosk with 70 teas on offer, teas he had learnt to source from all over the world, brew and serve. He thought he would do for tea what the chain, Café Coffee Day has done to popularize coffee in India.

    Until one day, among his customers, he saw a hearing impaired young woman. He struck with a conversation with her brother who mentioned that there were no jobs available for the hearing impaired. This struck a chord with Ashish and he decided to expand his kiosk into a full-fledged café, and employ hearing impaired youth.

    The local school for the hearing impaired gave him names of their alumni who had not found employment. Avinash visited them and spoke to their families. Many were reluctant to send their daughters to work. But he went on to hire six girls, and trained them in running La Gravitea, from cooking dishes and brewing tea to operations and service. Six years have passed and the first set of girls have since moved on and he’s hired others, also hearing impaired. And tea? La Gravitea’s menu has since doubled and offers a range that includes several types of chai, tisanes, Darjeelings, and Assams to teas like Japanese matcha, sencha and Yerba mate. Along with tea, La Gravitea is is also fast becoming a museum for teaware.

    La Gravitea displays a large selection of teapots from around the world. Photos courtesy Avinash Dugar.

    On a Saturday afternoon, I get a WhatsApp tour of La Gravitea. I spot a teapot shaped clock, several teapots from across the world, a prized Victorian moustache tea cup procured from Kolkata, samovars, some vintage teaspoons and several collectibles. Avinash talks about a consignment that’s made its way slowly through Customs, one that holds a 4.5 foot tall teapot from China which will make him the owner of the largest teapot in the country. He confesses to a great love for teapots, adding that he has a teapot tattooed on his arm. La Gravitea is an unusual tea café, which showcases all the things its owner seems to love – teas from all over the world, vintage teapots, the French language, a desire to do good for the community.

    What seems to tie it all together is that it’s all heart!

    Carmel Junior College
    Carmel Junior College students on campus

    Carmel Bal Vihar

    Sister Flavian, a former principal at Carmel Junior College in Jamshedpur, established the vocational program at Carmel Bal Vihar in June 2010. The school for the hearing impaired in Sonari, offers practical skills for its 130 students because “a Class X pass certificate is not enough these days as a lot of challenges lie ahead for differently abled students as they go out in the world,” sister Flavian told the Telegraph of India.

    “I decided to provide vocational training for students after some parents highlighted the employment problems faced by students after they left school,” she said. Graduates from Jharkand and many other states who attend the school have since found work as beauticians, tailors and, thanks to Avinash Dugar, in foodservice.

    Carmel Bal Vihar is affiliated with Carmel Junior College establish in 1997 and administered by the congregation of the Apostolic Carmel Sisters of the Catholic Church.

    — Aravinda Anantharaman

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  • Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 26

    Tea Biz Podcast Logo

    Hear the Headlines

    | Darjeeling Experiences a Severe Downturn
    | Researchers Discover Expanded Role for Microbes in Tea Making
    | Oxfam India Defines Living Wage for Assam Tea Workers

    Seven-minute Tea News Recap
    Tea Price Report

    This week, the focus is on declining tea exports from India, which is a cause of concern to the industry. The tea associations have issued a press release that the industry is bracing for a decline of 30-40 million kilos this year, compared to 2020. Read more…

    Features

    Tea Biz this week travels to South Africa to discuss with Carmién Tea founder Mientjie Mouton the beneficial aspects of the European Union’s decision to register rooibos as the first African food product to receive protected designation of origin.

    … and then to Scotland where Dananjaya Silva discusses with nine local tea growers how the short summers and cold winters of a far northern terroir contribute to the unique flavor of Scottish tea.

    Carmién Tea founder Mientjie Mouton
    Carmién Tea founder Mientjie Mouton walks a field of rooibos

    Rooibos Revived

    By Dan Bolton

    Carmién Rooibos Tea founder Mientjie Mouton explains the significance of the European Union’s decision to award Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) to rooibos, a registration that attests to the authenticity and commercially guards traditional processing methods to protect suppliers in the region where unique products are grown. Read more…

    Carmién Rooibos Tea founder Mientjie Mouton
    Catherine Drummond-Herdman at her Megginch Castle tea garden.

    Scottish Tea

    By Dananjaya Silva | PMD Silva

    Scots have a long history of growing Camelia sinensis in faraway lands ? from the jungles of Assam to the hills of Ceylon. A group of Scottish ladies have decided to follow in their ancestor’s footsteps by banding together as the Tea Gardens of Scotland. I’m Dananjaya Silva from PMD David Silva & Sons, and today I sit down with Kate Elliot, Catherine Drummond-Herdman, Pinkie Methven, and Veronica Murray-Poore to talk about tea grown from seed on micro tea plantations in Perthshire, Fife, and Angus Scotland. Learn more…

    Tea growers in Scotland discuss their tea gardens and aspirations for Scottish tea
    Darjeeling’s tea planters are experiencing difficult times.

    Darjeeling Experiences a Severe Downturn

    By Dan Bolton

    The West Bengal tea community that surrounds Darjeeling is experiencing difficult times. Only 45 of the 87 tea gardens within the protected geographical origin are routinely auctioning tea. Production has declined from 16 million kilos 15 years ago to fewer than 7 million kilos in 2021.

    Tourists are few. As COVID-19 infections decline elsewhere, the pandemic persists in the foothills of the Himalayas forcing travel restrictions. There were 1,500 active cases last week, with 88 new infections on July 8, a number greater than Kolkata recorded that same day.

    In June, the Telegraph India reported that more than 10% of Darjeeling’s tea gardens were up for sale but saw no buyers. Absenteeism, political turmoil, and climate change are often cited as reasons, but the main concern is the declining volume in production.

    Rajah Banerjee, the heir to Makaibari Tea Estate, describes the situation with clarity and insight. “Darjeeling now faces a large-scale decline,” he writes.  “Commercially, Darjeeling tea has been weathering a waning export market, explained by outdated management practices and exploitative middle-men. But there is a far more powerful factor at work now — the region’s ecology was already facing deforestation, making the seismically sensitive area vulnerable to topsoil loss and land-slides. Pushing the tea gardens closer to the edge now, climate change is bearing down on tea yields, impacting the livelihoods of thousands in the industry.

    “As emissions rise, intensifying global warming, changes in the melting of the Himalayan glaciers are causing temperature rises in Darjeeling — this has led to insect proliferation which damage the crop. Alongside, a lack of precipitation during dryer winters and unseasonal inundations during plucking seasons have drastically changed our harvesting window, reducing an eight-month harvest period to just six. Uniquely, Darjeeling is the world’s only region that produces teas in four seasonal ‘flushes’ or harvests. While each has its distinctive flavor, color and aroma, the four flushes share one common thread — the regularity of the seasons themselves. Currently though, between prolonged droughts and unusual rain, tea growers are facing erratic and shrinking yields,” he writes.

    Tea Board data shows that in 2020, Darjeeling’s production stood at 6.7 million kilos. This year, the second flush which makes up 20% of the annual production is seeing a reported decline of 200,000 to 300,000 kilos. April-May 2021 production stood at 1.22 million kilos (Source: Tea Board of India) 

    Biz Insight – News of gardens being sold has been recurring from this region. In 2020, the Singbulli and Nursing Tea Estates were sold. Okayti in June is the latest estate to be acquired. The 1600-acre high-altitude estate operates a factory that dates to 1888. The new owners are local and offer a hopeful vision of Darjeeling whose first concern is serving the domestic market. The estate was sold to Chai Chun, a unit of Siliguri-based Evergreen Group, a firm that operates Chai Rasa cafes and boutiques. Founder Rajeev Baid envisions a world-class tea academy to draw students of tea culture and tourists to an estate that produces organic tea using orthodox process as well as cut, tear, curl packet tea. The company processes 15 million kilos of tea across a broad range of 165 varieties supplying premium and bulk tea in quantities that benefit from scale.

    Expanded role of microbes in tea making

    Researchers Discover Expanded Role for Microbes in Tea Making

    By Dan Bolton

    The oxidation of tea leaves during orthodox processing is essential but not exclusively responsible for the flavor in tea.

    The finding that bacterial and fungal communities also drive tea processing suggests the microbiome of the leaves can be manipulated to create greater quantities of tasty compounds due to fermentation.

    A team of researchers at Anhui Agricultural University in China cleverly demonstrated that black teas, withered, rolled, and oxidized before drying are less flavorful when sterilized. Their paper, Black Tea Quality is Highly Affected during Processing by its Leaf Surface Microbiome, which was published in the June issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, shows that microbial fermentation, present in non-sterilized control samples, produced tea with lots of catechins and L-theanine, an amino acid specific to tea. Tea made from the oxidized but sterile leaves was less flavorful and lacking in many of the complex compounds that tasters identify in premium teas.

    The experiment showed that caffeine and theanine were found in the same quantities in green tea with or without leaf surface sterilization. “However, the sterilization process dramatically decreased the content of total catechins and theanine in black tea, indicating that microbes on the surface of tea leaf may be involved in maintaining the formation of these important metabolites during black tea processing,” according to Prof. Ali Inayat Mallano.

    Oxfam India Defines Living Wage for Assam Tea Workers

    Oxfam India, a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations, released a study last week that determined the minimum living wage for tea workers in Assam is INRs 887 rupees (about $12 per day). Workers make far less per day and are working fewer days due to COVID-19 restrictions. Only 39% of workers can be considered as permanent, the remaining 61% contract their services with fewer benefits. The study calculated a minimum of INRs 285 per day for food for a family of four and INRs 599 for non-food expenditures.

    Biz Insight – The study of 5,000 tea workers in seven districts was conducted in October through December 2020. Oxfam CEO Amitabh Behar in appealing for improved wages described “a stark gap between the current wagers that tea workers receive vis a vis the living wages that has been calculated.”

    – Dan Bolton

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