The celebration of Hot Tea Month has been steadily gaining steam (pun intended). Marketers have invested in building momentum in recent years, coinciding with growing interest in wellness and healthy lifestyle habits. Many consumers, particularly in Western markets, are increasingly aware of these benefits and incorporating tea into their daily routines. | Cherry red erythrosine (known commercially as Red Dye No. 3) is widely used to color beverages, snack foods, and candy but is not commonly used to color tea. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned Red Dye No. 3 in cosmetics and personal care products out of concern for health risks. On Jan. 15, the FDA extended the ban to include food products, beverages, and ingested drugs. | Argentine tea produced in Misiones and northern Corrientes has been awarded a Geographical Indication (GI) from the European Union (EU). Tea from these provinces is the southernmost tea produced on the planet.
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The celebration of Hot Tea Month has been steadily gaining steam (pun intended). Marketers have invested in building momentum in recent years, coinciding with growing interest in wellness and healthy lifestyle habits. Many consumers, particularly in Western markets, are increasingly aware of these benefits and incorporating tea into their daily routines.
Hot Tea Month has highlighted traditional black and green herbal teas in the past decade and newer and trendy varieties such as matcha, chai, and bubble tea. The month has become a time for people to explore new types of tea and experiment with different brewing methods and innovations to enhance tea’s cultural and health aspects.
Continued…
Technomic reports that chai, at 4.1%, was the fastest-growing tea category on menus in the US in 2023. In Canada, chai offerings grew by 25% over two years, with specialty tea menu items up by 19.8% and hot tea up by 18.3%.
Technomic asked consumers why they order hot tea away from home. The most common response was “to get a pick-me-up” at 23%, followed by “wash down my food” at 19% and relax or unwind with family and friends (18%). Survey respondents cited “quench my thirst” as the fourth most common reason to order tea, while 18% said they order tea with snacks or indulge in a dessert/treat.
Transparency Market Research (TMR) projects the tea market will expand to $33.9 billion by 2032, growing at a combined average rate of 5.9%. “Rising disposable incomes and growing health awareness in countries like Brazil, South Africa, and the Middle East present opportunities for expansion,” writes TMR.
Technavio Report Projects 5.2% Growth in the US Organic Tea Market
Researchers also cite growing demand for premium teas such as single-origin, organic, and artisanal blends. Customers are willing to pay a premium for high-quality, sustainable, ethically sourced tea.
Technavio projects the US market for organic tea to grow by $93.9 million through 2029. Drivers include organic matcha and premium organic black tea, which are projected to grow at a 5.2% CAGR.
Technavio writes that consumers increasingly seek teas rich in antioxidants like epicatechin gallate and catechins. “organic matcha green tea is leading the trend.”
FDA Ban Imposed in 1990 Extended to Include Food and Beverages
By Dan Bolton
Cherry red erythrosine (known commercially as Red Dye No. 3) is widely used to color beverages, snack foods, and candy but is not commonly used to color tea.
In 1990, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned Red Dye No. 3 in cosmetics and personal care products. On January 15, 2025, the FDA extended the ban to include food products and ingested drugs.
Concerns were first raised about the safety of Red Dye No. 3 during the 1980s when studies linked it to thyroid tumors in laboratory animals. No conclusive studies have been conducted on the connection of dye to human cancer, but Australia, Japan, and the European Union have instituted bans out of caution.
Over the years, ongoing research identified additional potential health risks regarding its role in hormone disruption and cancer risk.
The 2025 ban reflects growing caution over the potential long-term effects of synthetic additives on health, particularly for children who are most likely to consume products containing the dye.
These products include maraschino cherries, PEZ candy, Brach’s candy corn, Jelly Belly candies, strawberry-flavored beverages, toaster pastries, ice pops, frozen fruit bars, the red icing on some cookies, and snack cakes.
Manufacturers must remove the dye from their products by January 2027. In recent years, formulators have replaced synthetic colors and additives with natural alternatives such as beet juice, red cabbage pigment, or carmine, a coloring made from insects.
BIZ INSIGHT — The National Confectioners Association expressed concerns about the cost of reformulations, given that Red Dye No. 3 has not been shown to cause human cancer. Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy director for human foods, told NBC News that “the FDA cannot authorize a food additive or color additive if it has been found to cause cancer in humans or animals.” Once announced, the confectioners released this statement: “Food safety is the number one priority for US confectionery companies, and we will continue to follow and comply with FDA’s guidance and safety standards.”
Argentina tea farm in Misiones. Photo by Carolina Okulovich, La Ruta del Té
Argentina’s Misiones Tea Region is Awarded GI Status
By Horacio Bustos
Argentine tea produced in Misiones and northern Corrientes has been awarded a Geographical Indication (GI) from the European Union (EU).
Tea from these provinces is the southernmost tea produced on the planet.
GI’s recognition of “Argentine Tea” protects the authenticity of its origin and attests to its quality worldwide, enhancing its cultural value and opening up opportunities in international markets.
Designations of origin and traditional production methods are part of a system that protects products tied to specific geographical areas. Introduced in 1992, the system began a broader effort to safeguard traditional foods and agricultural products from misuse and imitation.
It was the work of a whole year led by the General Directorate of Yerba Mate and Tea of the Ministry of Agriculture and Production, with the support of the Undersecretariat of Agri-Food Markets and International Insertion of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries of the Nation.
The effort was coordinated with the Argentine Tea Association, INTA Cerro Azul, and INTI Misiones. The presentation and defense of the request for the GI of Argentine tea before the National Advisory Commission on Geographical Indications and Denominations of Origin for Agricultural and Food Products was carried out virtually.
It is important to highlight that the GI is an intellectual property right that operates under the jurisdiction of the National Secretariat of Agriculture and is regulated by law.
Adriana Yánez, representing the Argentine Tea Association, detailed in her presentation the particularities of the tea from this region. These teas are notable for their high polyphenol content, which gives them antioxidant power; their liquor is reddish or coppery (in black tea) and bright yellow or greenish (in green tea), with good shine and transparency even in cold infusion.
The teas are balanced and smooth in flavor, with low to medium astringency and a certain sweetness, while floral and vegetal notes predominate in the aroma.
These qualities are achieved thanks to the orthodox production process, using rollers and rotor vanes, which has also contributed to its international recognition for its safety.
Studies characterizing Argentine products were also included to support the presentation, with comparisons of the distinct Misiones terroir with other teas worldwide and a compilation of publications and different essays.
BIZ INSIGHT – The first GI in the European Union was granted in 1992 to the French “Roquefort” cheese, a blue cheese made from sheep’s milk and produced in the Roquefort-sur-Soulzon region of southern France.
FEATURE
Professor Morgan Pitelka focuses on tea culture in 17th Century Kyoto, Japan.
Lessons From Japan’s Deep Engagement with Tea
By Dan Bolton
In medieval times, Japanese commanders bestowed teaware on valiant survivors at banquets, explains historian Morgan Pitelka. Later, in the early modern period, tea culture permeated every walk of life in the imperial capital of Kyoto. The prevalence of Chanoyu in the Shogun era, a time of social upheaval and war, provides relevant insights into coping with stressful times today. Pitelka reveals tea’s unique role in Bringing Communities Together during war and peace.
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Professor Morgan Pitelka | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Hot Tea Gains Marketing Momentum | FDA Bans Red Dye No. 3 in Foods and Beverages | Argentina’s Misiones Tea Growing Region is Awarded Geographic Indication Status | Episode 201 | 17 January 2025
Hundreds of tea professionals, educators, and enthusiasts will travel from around the world to attend the UC Davis Global Tea Institute’s 10th Anniversary colloquium on January 30 at UC Davis. This year’s theme is Tea and Peace: Bringing Communities Together.
GTI Founder and Director Katharine Burnett at her desk at UC Davis
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Katherine Burnett on the 10th Anniversary of the Global Tea Initiative at UC Davis
GTI Connects Tea Communities Globally
By Dan Bolton
Joining us today is Professor Katharine Burnett, an expert in East Asian Studies and the art and cultural history of China. Katharine is the founder and director of the UC Davis Global Tea Institute (GTI). She describes how, in 2012, their mutual fascination with tea brought together a research cluster of faculty and librarians to establish a group that would become the institute and organize its first colloquium. This event brought GTI to the attention of the tea industry, which immediately responded with generous support. The collaboration inspired an innovative global educational hub offering advanced studies, continuing education leading to professional certifications, and a new book series, Global Tea Studies, by De Gruyter Brill Publishing. Long-term plans include constructing an on-campus tea center equipped with a sensory theater, processing center, exhibition hall, classrooms, and space for public display of tea art and cultural materials.
BIO: Katharine Burnett is a professor of art history and a 2023 Public Scholarship and Engagement Fellow who co-chairs the University’s Department of Art and Art History. She is also a Faculty Affiliate of the East Asian Studies Program and frequently travels to the tea lands. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Wellesley College and has worked at the University of California, Davis, for 27 years.
Dan: Katharine, what was your inspiration for establishing the institute?
Katharine: Teapots! It was Chinese teapots and their fascinating, unique shapes that first made me interested in tea.
Decades ago, while writing my dissertation, I started paying close attention to a new burst of originality during the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In terms of aesthetics, the way that the artists expressed themselves was completely new and different than before, in a way that might be compared to how cubism differed from the naturalism of its previous era; it just went above and beyond anything done previously. By reading the early texts, I discovered that originality was the paradigmatic value for art of the time. I was surprised to discover that one of the leading theorists was a friend of the foremost potter in Yixing. I recall saying, I’ve got to write an article about this.
Years passed, and I didn’t write about it because tea is not a big deal in American universities. Scholars of course have written about tea since the Tang Dynasty. But I had other concerns, including getting a job, getting tenure, and writing my first book. Time passes, but it was still in the back of my mind.
In 2012, I was named director of the East Asian Studies Program on campus, and I was looking for ways to give this program a higher profile on campus because we have an outstanding faculty. Our wonderful librarian, Axel Borg, approached me and said, “You know, you got to meet this guy, Darrell Corti. He has a major grocery (Corti Brothers), is a world expert on food and beverages, and he collects Japanese art. You’re the Asianist on campus; he will want to talk to you.
Gino, Darrell, and Frank Corti make a memorable all-meat and cheese sandwich at Corti Bros. Gourmet Food and Wine. The photo was taken in 1959 or 1960 at the 32nd & Folsom Blvd location in Sacramento. Corti Bros. was founded in 1947 and helped spark California’s gourmet food revolution. Courtesy Rick Mindermann, Corti Bros.
And I’m like, No, he won’t. I do China. He’s interested in Japan. He’s not going to want to talk to me. But thank you. And Axel kept saying, No, you gotta talk to him.
Okay, so we arranged to have lunch, and Darrell said, ‘Do you want to go to this fancy restaurant or dim sum?’ I’m like, Hmm, let’s find out where Darrell would go for dim sum because he’s this internationally acclaimed food expert. He’s an advisor to the Smithsonian and the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Studies on campus. I mean, he’s an amazing guy. The fancy restaurant is a no-brainer; obviously that’s going to be great. But what would he choose for dim sum?
I learned that Darrell collects Japanese incense burners (which are part of the Japanese tea ceremony), so I brought a few of the incense burners I’d gotten in China. Some of them were in the shape of teapots. I brought some little tea pots as well. We’re sitting there, frankly having a desultory conversation because, as I said, Darrell was not going to be interested in me, a Sinophile, when Darrell suddenly looks down and sees these things on the table. And he picks up a little teapot. He asks, where did these come from? I say, I brought them because we had been talking about incense burners and thought you might find them interesting, blah, blah, blah. Darrell looks at me and says emphatically, “Katharine, What I don’t understand is why doesn’t UC Davis study tea?”
Well, wow. Why doesn’t UC Davis study tea? That is a great question. So, I talked about the article I had intended to write – at this point, for two decades. I explained that we had all these great people we could bring together to study tea: Axel was there at lunch, and he was the librarian at the College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies (now retired). He was aware of the science people on campus who would be interested in tea. I knew the East Asian studies people. We could easily bring them together.
I discovered a grant opportunity on campus, so I said, Let’s get everyone together, write this grant, and propose studying tea. So, we created the All Things Tea faculty research cluster. We applied for the funding grant but got nothing, nothing! Later, I talked to one of the reviewers, and from her remarks, I learned that effectively, we were too ahead of the curve. We were just way too ahead of the curve.
But Darrell—and I really want to give him lots of credit here—wouldn’t let me stop. He introduced me to Wing Chi IP, whom you know.
Dan: Wing-chi Ip is a brilliant scholar, tea artist, collector, and owner of the LockCha Tea House and Museum, which he founded in 1991 in Hong Kong Park. Katharine: He invited me to speak about our ideas for tea studies at UC Davis at the Xiamen International Tea Fair in Fujian in 2014. So I go to Xiamen and give my little spiel: This is what we’re doing at UC Davis. This is what we’re proposing. And I figured nobody would care because why would they? They’re mostly tea traders in Asia, why would they care about what a bunch of academics were doing in the US? I was on a panel with great speakers, but surprisingly, almost all the questions afterward were for me.
Whoa. People were saying, This is great. They had all these ideas and thought this was fabulous. And then they said, Well, what will you do when you go home? Well, I said, I guess I’m going to talk to my chancellor. The people there were so enthusiastic that when I returned to the US, I pursued the concept more avidly with my administration.
Our Development officers took me under their wing and, for a year, took me all around campus to, frankly, all the departments that I’d already talked to on behalf of the All Things Tea research cluster, trying to get broad campus buy-in for the concept, including Grounds Planning and, you know, Facilities Management and all these things. But now, with Development next to me, they’re taking me even more seriously. And after full a year of this, the Development folks said, now you can talk to the Office of the Provost. We met. The Provost was both dubious (a Tea Studies program had never been done before after all), yet enthusiastic. In combination with my various Deans, they offered three years of startup money, and said, Let’s see what you can do! That gave us enough money to start planning and organizing the colloquia and a strategic plan to advance the idea on campus as the Global Tea Initiative for the Study of Tea Culture and Science.
In 2014, we had done a test run of a pair of talks with Wing-chi Ip and the tea scholar Steven Owyoung, and instead of the 40 people or so that I expected, 200 knowledgeable people, industry experts, and aficionados both showed up. It was phenomenal. So when we held GTI’s first colloquium, I knew we would attract a similar audience. But 400 people registered from across campus, across the region, and the Bay Area, flooding in. So that’s 2016, our first colloquium. The topic was All Things Tea
By 2017-18, we had the beginnings of our Tea Advisory Committee and advisory board, which is a philanthropic board. This is an incredibly supportive group. The first members included representatives of International Tea Importers (ITI) QTrade Teas & Herbs, Ito En, Harney & Sons, and Mighty Leaf/Peets.
The board has since expanded to include Crystal Geyser/Tejava, Bei Teahouse (China), Finlays (England and Rhode Island, US), HTH Hamburger Teehandel (Germany), and DAVIDsTEA (Canada).
The advisory group has given me the operating funds to run GTI from year to year and to organize the colloquia and bring in the speakers and host a few on-campus events. It’s such a joy because the people in the tea industry are so lovely. Ostensibly, they are competitors, but they work so nicely together; they all recognize that GTI is important and can ultimately benefit the industry. People in the industry would approach me and say, Katharine, we’ve been waiting for this for 30 years. We’ve been waiting for four decades. UC Davis is perfect because its mission is to educate and share knowledge, and having a university like UC Davis bring serious attention to tea is a game changer.
UC Davis doesn’t care if it’s green or black tea or where it was from—whether it’s from China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Africa, or, you know, Argentina or Colombia. We’re open to studying it all. We have the expertise of brilliant faculty in over 100 departments who can approach the study of tea in important and different ways, and share this research with our students, and spur more studies on tea.
It was wonderful to receive such a warm welcome from the tea industry and have them on board. Now, our industry advisory comprises about nine national and international companies. We hope to continue to expand because we appreciate their sage advice.
The Global Tea Institute for the Study of Tea Culture and Science promotes evidence-based knowledge about tea, the most consumed prepared beverage in the world. GTI is the first and only entity to promote research and teaching in agriculture, health, science, humanities, social science, and industry, and from a global perspective.
UC Davis College of Letters and Science
Dan: Will you talk about the hub concept you’ve championed? The institute has developed close relations with several tea-friendly educational institutions. They share tea knowledge in a very sophisticated way with UC Davis, disseminating the curriculum so that it can be taught face-to-face in classrooms 10,000 miles apart.
Katharine: So, that’s a great question. First, before I answer, I will do a little cheerleading for Davis. The reason why UC Davis is the perfect place, right time, right place, and we just got lucky is that not only is it a leader in agricultural studies, internationally, number one in nutrition studies, and number one or top-ranked in so many other different fields, including things that don’t get ranked by the standard sources.
We have over 100 undergraduate majors. We have over 100 graduate programs, plus four colleges and six professional schools. We’re the world leader in Ag and Environmental Studies and Nutrition, and we’ve been a leader in wine and beer studies forever.
UC Davis is the most comprehensive of all the 10 University of California campuses, and our mission is to teach, research, and spread knowledge through teaching and publication. So, UC Davis is the perfect setup. We believe in collaboration, so I’ve been actively talking to other universities around the world that have tea programs, and they want to collaborate. You still must find somebody to do the actual collaboration, but at least we are building bridges to enable these collaborations to take place, and that’s really important.
Through GTI’s annual colloquia and other soft initiatives, we’re spreading out. Even though we’re very young, we’ve established a name, a brand, and a reputation for excellence.
We launched a professional tea certificate program, the UC Davis GTI Professional Tea Certificate Program, to the public for the first time last year. A new offering of this will be held in 2025. We’re still working out some details, so we don’t have a start date yet, but it is going to happen. The program was developed at the industry’s request, with industry members largely giving the individual lectures as part of this short course.
For our students, the last seven years, we’ve offered a course to our undergraduates, mainly as a first-year seminar that is capped at 19 first-years and transfer students who are new to campus. It’s a nice way to make them comfortable on our campus because it’s big. We have about 41,000 students now. Last year, we ran the course as a large enrollment class, again, co-taught across the disciplines.
This year, we’re beginning to incentivize faculty to create enough approved courses so that we can develop an undergraduate degree-granting program in Global Tea Studies. Faculty can use their incentive awards to buy out their teaching of one course while they write their tea course. The money actually goes to the department to hire someone to teach their regularly-offered course, but the faculty gets the time to write the course and push it for approvals through the system. We need to develop at least six to ten courses for an undergraduate minor and then, over time, grow the number of courses on offer to be able to create a major in Global Tea Studies.
This is happening on this campus, which means that this will be the first, and as far as I can tell, the only place in the US – or anywhere! – to have a Global Tea Studies degree. It will be an umbrella program that will engage faculty from various Colleges on campus, from the humanities and social sciences, engineering, chem, to agriculture, and nutrition, and more. So, ultimately, whatever department you’re in, you could take a course that could be part of this program,
So that’s in the works. Students for years have been contacting me and saying, I’ve just found out about GTI. Can I come to Davis? I’m like, yep, just get yourself into the system. Once accepted as a UC Davis student, you can work with whatever faculty member in your area of interest to work on tea. While we’re still creating the Global Tea Studies Program, you can create an independent study course or write an honors thesis. Grad students are already working on tea for MA, MFA, and PhD degrees. We have graduate students doing graduate work in tea in all sorts of disciplines. We encourage that.
Dan: Let’s discuss how the GTI colloquia is structured and then get specific about this year’s 10th Anniversary event.
Katharine: One of the things that we felt was important at the outset was to have an engaging event that would showcase tea culture and society, science, health, and the industry. We stumbled on that fairly early on and didn’t realize how phenomenal it was as a concept, but it worked beautifully.
It always makes me sad that we can only do a one-day event because it’s worth a whole week of talks, but nobody has that kind of time. So for our colloquia, we encourage different approaches in the talks for whatever theme we set. Speakers address the theme according to their research interests, so there’s a lot of flexibility. The final effect on the day of the talks is like a kaleidoscope. You get one perspective, and then it shifts a little bit, and you get a new perspective, and then you get a completely different vision of tea, and then it shifts again and again. So, the sum of the whole is far greater than the sum of the individual parts.
The overall effect always leaves me saying, “Wow, that was really inspirational.” The ideas that the speakers convey enable the audience to make connections across disciplines. The presentations are thought-provoking, leading to discussions that range from formal conversations led by speakers to discussions amongst the audience themselves. Networking opportunities for business, our students, and the general public are phenomenal.
I’m really proud that we’ve consistently kept the Colloquia live and in person. Except for the COVID years, when we couldn’t meet on-site, there’s always been this human engagement.
Dan: The speakers you invited this year reinforce the idea that human engagement over tea encourages civilized cultural exchange.
Katharine: Absolutely! Human engagement is key. You can do things by zoom, and we’re grateful for it, like this opportunity to speak to you today. But there’s no substitute for human engagement.
To celebrate our 10th anniversary this year, I wanted us to think really big. And what is bigger than world peace?
Now, I know that we couldn’t enact world peace; that’s a little too ambitious, but we can think about it, and the more we think about it, the better it is for us. So we set the theme of tea and peace, bringing communities together. In the fall, our undergraduate Global Tea Club organized a Sip-in for Peace on the quad (inspired by the work of Babette Donaldson) as a way to advertise GTI and the club activities and also to set the theme from the students’ perspective.
Speakers at this year’s Colloquium include Klaus Lange, professor of food, nutrition, lifestyle and health at University of Regensburg in Germany, also an affiliate professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan; Dr. Juan Fernando Ortiz, neurology resident at Corewell Health West at Michigan State University; Morgan Pitelka, professor of history and Asian Studies at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill; and Erika Rappaport, professor of history at UC Santa Barbara.
We will record the event and post it on the GTI website. However, because the recordings must be processed for accessibility, they never go up until several months after the event, when most people have forgotten about it. So, we encourage people to attend the event if at all possible.
GTI Collection of Tea Art and Material Culture
Hallesche Form teapot, designed by Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain (1896-1983) in 1930. Gift of Professor Emeritus Jeffrey RudaCrescent shaped dish, Netherlands, Makkum factory, before 1880. Decorated with an 18th-century tea party scene. Gift of Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Ruda
Through generous donations, GTI has developed its collection of art and material culture relating to tea. Currently, the collection comprises Japanese tea ware and ceramics, basketry, paintings, and calligraphy, as well as Chinese, US, and European teapots and teaware.
Throughout the winter quarter, we will hold a mini exhibition of selections from the GTI Collection of Art and Material Culture on the theme of Tea and Peace in the Reading Room of Special “Rare Books” Collections in Shields Library.
Rounding out our year’s events focusing on tea and peace, we will host some remarkable artists, Aaron Hughes and Amber Ginsberg, in the spring to exhibit and talk about their Tea and Peace project. The talk will be held at 3 pm on April 23 at the Mannetti Shrem Museum of Art. It will be free, live, and open to the public.
The Mannetti Shrem Museum of Art will also be the site of their exhibition, along with another selection of art from the GTI Collection. This will run throughout UCD’s Spring Quarter.
This year, there will be lots of things to see and think about. I hope people will think about how tea can bring us peace individually, whether it’s just a cup at home or soothes you in the moment. Or you share tea with a friend. That communication between friends is so soothing, inspiring, and helpful. Or more broadly, if you share tea among industry or business or government agencies or between nations, because, you know, we’re people first.
Expanding GTI’s Unique Mission
The Global Tea Initiative promotes research and teaching in agriculture, health, science, humanities, social science, and industry from a global perspective. Its more than 40 members include faculty, staff, librarians, and student members working on tea studies. GTI also supports the Global Tea Club (an official ASUCD student organization).
Global Tea Studies
This book series, launched with De Gruyter Brill, will publish scholarly monographs on a single subject or anthologies that may cross disciplines on a shared theme. It will also consider volumes by experts outside of academia that aficionados will cherish. No book series or journal currently provides a fulcrum for this type of work.
Katharine described, “Something new that I’m very, very, very excited to announce is that we founded a book series.”
It’s the Global Tea Studies book series to be published by Brill (founded in 1683) in Leiden, the Netherlands. Brill is an international book publisher and a very well-regarded academic publisher. Two manuscripts have already been submitted for this series. The press expects to publish at least two books a year on tea. They’ve already published many important books on tea. Even before I approached them with a proposal, they were already thinking about the need for a book series on tea. I’m just finalizing the editorial board membership, but I will serve as the editor-in-chief for this. Much to my surprise, I discovered that no other book series in the world focused on tea. Our book series will be open to work in any discipline. If you want to write a monograph or an edited volume with multiple chapters by different authors, great, whatever. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. So the books will be scholarly and they’ve got to be good. But it’s exciting to see. As you say, tea has been written about for 1000s of years; people have been trying to explain tea since the Tang Dynasty.
Building Endowment
Dan: Now that you’ve succeeded over 10 years in creating a solid foundation and brought it to this level, what do you see for the future?
Katharine: Two things; first, other campuses will pick up on this and start to organize concerted efforts for tea studies. This is already happening. I’ve been working with the University of Virginia on a tea conference, a Tea Forum, in 2026. It will not be as big as a GTI event, but it’s still happening. UVA heard about GTI and invited me to come to campus to speak and meet with various faculty members. And they said, “Hey, we could do something like this.” And it went through East Asian Studies. Somebody in art history and East Asian studies there, my peer on that campus, got it funded.
We’ve been collaborating with a group of about six campuses, led by Louisiana State University, to apply for a significant research grant supporting advanced tea science research studies. Whether we get the funding or not, this is a major endeavor and advancement for tea studies in the US.
Every campus has different kinds of strengths, and that’s fine. Other campuses will be able to do various things. We want that kind of diversity, so I think we’ll see more of that kind of thing.
Second, for UC Davis and the GTI specifically, we are seeking endowment funds for at least one professorship in every one of our colleges and professional schools. Endowed professorships will encourage new ideas and perspectives in research and teaching and encourage students to research and teach tea. Endowed professorships will bring outstanding faculty to our campus and retain them to our campus. That kind of position gives a visionary faculty member significant clout and the ability to develop more things for our campus, enhance collaborative works off campus, and spread the word about the importance of tea studies nationally and internationally.
I am so grateful to the Shah family, which runs International Tea Importers. They have given us a pledge to provide the first endowment for GTI. When fully funded, this will ultimately finance a directorship for GTI, enabling security for GTI and enhancing the Director’s ability to advance GTI’s mission.
Finally, we need a GTI building. We don’t have a building yet. Since 2012, when I first talked to campus and grounds planning, they said, “We know exactly where you need to be located: in the high-rent district of campus near the RMI building, near the performance hall, near the Manetti Shrem Museum, near the Conference Center, near the Gorman Museum, all of that. That’s where you need to go.” I agree!
A piece of flat, open land is waiting for our building. When built, people will see it as they drive past on the expressway going east to west from Lake Tahoe or Chicago to San Francisco in the Bay Area.
The Global Tea Institute should have a dedicated sensory theater, processing facility, exhibition space, conference space, and meditation space that would extend into our Arboretum and Gardens and a Chinese or Japanese-style stroll garden. It should also provide functional space, a tea house for teas from around the world, and a bookshop with tea supplies. All that stuff is ready to happen. We just need the funding. One person doesn’t have to give all the money; it can be donated in parts. But if we had those endowments for professorships and building, GTI would be set up for perpetuity.
The tradition of drinking tea, herbal infusions, and spiced beverages during the holiday season has evolved from medieval medicinal remedies to sophisticated and cherished modern holiday customs, reflecting centuries of cultural exchange, religious symbolism, and festive cheer.
Who better to describe this history than our guest today, Santa Claus? Jolly old St. Nicholas recounts the nearly two-thousand-year evolution of holiday beverages.
The History of Tea at Christmas | Santa is reading the Travels of Marco Polo
The Spirit of Christmas
By Jolly Old St. Nick
My first memories are of a magnificent seaside home on the Island of Lycia [LIE see-uh], in a place now called Türkiye [TOOR kee yeh]. It was then the land of the Greeks, who were under the rule of Rome.
Patara [PAH tah rah] was a maritime city, a city of commerce, and the capital of Lycia, [LIE see-uh] distant by road from Athens but close by sea.
Tea was unknown where I lived. In those times, we drank chilled juice, milk with honey, and wine diluted with water, all handed down from Alexander the Great, who conquered Lycia 300 years before the Christian era.
I was born to luxury but cursed by my parents’ early deaths in the plague.
Left with great riches, I devoted myself to Christianity from an early age and vowed to spend my wealth on the needy and disadvantaged children of every class. An acolyte with great religious vigor, I was sent to Myra, where, in time, I was elected bishop. Persecuted and imprisoned for years until freed by Emperor Constantine, I survived to perform miracles, rescue the innocent, protect children, and care for others with generosity.
Sainthood followed my passing in December 343 AD. I became St. Nicholas, San Nicola, and over time, Noel Baba (Türkiye), Kris Kringle, Sinterklaas, Papa Noel, Grandfather Frost (Russia), and in Italy, [BAH boh nah TAH leh] Babbo Natale (Father Christmas).
For 1,754 years, I have been the spirit of Christmas, overseeing the annual winter celebrations with joy.
Here is a brief history of what I’ve seen.
MEDIEVAL CELEBRATIONS
Five hundred years after Roman times had passed, St. Nicholas Day had become a major feast in Europe, where children received small gifts in my honor. Tea was unknown in Europe during his time, but herbal infusions made from local plants like mint, sage, and rosemary were commonly consumed during winter feasts. These herbs were valued for their warming and medicinal properties.
MONASTIC INFLUENCE
Monasteries were centers of herbal knowledge. Monks cultivated herbs such as chamomile, fennel, and mint and used them to make soothing infusions. During Christmas feasts, these drinks were offered to pilgrims and the poor as a symbol of hospitality and charity.
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
As trade routes expanded, Europeans were introduced to exotic spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. These spices were brewed into hot beverages such as “wassail,” a spiced cider, or ale consumed during Christmas festivities and communal gatherings. The word is from an Old English greeting, “waes hael” [WAH sul], meaning to “be whole” or “be in good health.”
MULLED WINE
In the late Middle Ages, mulled wine emerged as the forerunner of holiday drinks. Called [HIH-puh-kras] “hypocras.” Named for Hippocrates, it became a popular celebratory drink, often served warm with honey and spices.
DUTCH INFLUENCE
Dutch and Portuguese traders introduced tea to Europe in the early 17th century. By the late 1600s, it became a fashionable beverage in aristocratic circles and eventually influenced holiday gatherings. The Dutch celebrated Sinterklaas, who wears a red bishop’s robe, miter, and staff with a long white beard and visits on December 5 (the eve of St. Nicholas). Children left their shoes by the fireplace or windowsill and awakened to find treats such as oranges and candy if they’ve been good. Dutch settlers brought Santa Claus to New Amsterdam (New York), where Washington Irving, Clement Clarke Moore, and Thomas Nast established Santa’s modern appearance, arrival by sleigh and home at the North Pole.
EARLY MODERN PERIOD
In Britain and its colonies, including America, tea-drinking rituals became an essential part of social and holiday celebrations. Unique blends with spices, fruits, and herbs were prepared for Christmas and New Year’s feasts. By the 1830s, tea had spawned its own afternoon meal.
VICTORIAN ERA
The Victorians, inspired by Charles Dickens’s depictions of Christmas, embraced tea drinking as a central part of holiday gatherings. Tea rooms and homes served holiday blends featuring cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, and vanilla. Herbal infusions like spiced apple cider and cranberry tea gained popularity due to their warming properties and festive flavors. Historian Erika Rappaport writes that thousands would gather in great halls to take tea, organized by Temperance reformers who taught that “by drinking tea instead of alcohol, consumers would achieve class and gender harmony, political citizenship, and a heavenly home.”
IN MODERN TIMES
Tea companies began producing special holiday-themed teas, blending black tea with festive spices, dried fruits, and floral notes. Herbal teas such as peppermint, ginger, and rooibos are particularly popular in winter. Many cultures preserved traditional herbal infusions associated with the holidays, including Scandinavian glögg and South American yerba mate.
Santa’s legacy has endured for centuries through charitable giving, holiday traditions, and the enduring spirit of kindness and generosity that defines the Christmas Season.
Less well-known is my fondness for tea.
Thomas Nash portrait of St. Nick | 1881 Harper’s Weekly
Top tea buyer Cargill Kenya has been winding down its annual 60,000 metric tons of tea purchases at the Mombasa Tea Auction for some time. A corporate memo laments the loss of Unilever and clients like Van Rees and recommends closing the trade desk and six warehouses after 40 years. It is a strategic move driven by lower commodity prices globally. With a $160 billion turnover, US-based Cargill reported a $17 billion decline in yearly sales in May. | Tea importers in Pakistan are resisting the imposition of a Minimum Retail Price as the base for payment of sales tax, which, at 18%, adds Rs 216 per kilo to the cost of bulk tea. Importers want the tax applied to the import value as a raw product. | The Netherlands-based nonprofit True Price Foundation released a food and beverage report for retail and food service, making the business case for calculating and transparently communicating the hidden costs to people and the environment for producing food.
Cargill Kenya, Ltd., the largest buyer at the Mombasa auction, announced it will cease trading tea after 40 years.
The company purchases approximately 60,000 metric tons annually, which gives it a 15% to 20% market share at the weekly auction. The annual trade value ranges from $180 to $210 million. Sales have declined in the past year following the sale of Unilever’s tea properties to Lipton Teas & Infusions. Cargill also manages six Mombasa warehouses with a combined capacity of 20,000 metric tons.
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Cargill has extensive trade contracts for wheat, maize, barley, and soybeans grown in East Africa. An internal Cargill memo, reported by Food Business Africa, disclosed that the tea business lacks clear synergies with Cargill’s other agricultural and trading divisions, prompting the decision to divest.
Tea operations were initially developed to support Unilever’s tea holdings. However, according to the memo, the business is no longer a strategic fit following Unilever’s sale. The Mombasa operation employs 40 workers.
Cargill Chairman and CEO Brian Sikes, who joined the Minnesota-based company’s board last January, has consolidated the company’s operational units globally in response to declining commodity prices. He announced, QUOTE, “Our recent performance and emerging market trends underscore the urgent need for change.”
Cargill is the largest privately held company in the US, with an annual turnover of $160 billion for the fiscal year ending May 2024, a decrease from the previous year’s $177 billion.
Cargill Kenya is the company’s oldest footprint on the African continent. The tea trading operation was founded in 1948 by the Ralli Brothers, who initially traded cotton. Cargill acquired Ralli in 1984, and the tea operations were integrated into the company’s Agricultural Supply Chain (CASC) Enterprise in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region.
According to Agriss News, Cargill’s clients include Van Rees, Mitchell Cotts, and KTDA-Chai Trading, all of which have transitioned to other service providers.
There are 82 trading companies active in the Mombasa Tea Auction
BIZ INSIGHT – The Eastleigh Voice writes, “Cargill’s exit is expected to create downward pressure on tea prices, potentially reducing farmers’ incomes at a time when they were hoping for improvement through ongoing sector reforms.”
Pakistan’s newly imposed Minimum Retail Price (MRP) for tea imports and locally grown tea is taxing the patience of importers and tea sellers.
Black tea imports dropped 24% in November to $38 million, down Rs 1.78 billion, as an estimated one-quarter of tea imports shifted to illegal channels, according to Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) Chairman Muhammad Altaf.
The 1200 rupee per kilo retail price minimum set by Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for black tea has raised concerns about increased costs and depressed demand. FBR initiated the minimum to enhance government revenue during a fiscal crisis.
Importers protest that the tax should apply to the actual import value of processed tea, mainly landed in bulk for blending and packaging. Instead, FBR levies a standardized 18% sales tax based on a retail market price determined by the government, resulting in a sales tax of Rs 216 per kilo.
If the actual retail price of tea exceeds the MRP of Rs. 1,200 per kilogram, the sales tax is calculated on the higher price. According to FBR, this policy ensures that the tax reflects the true market value of the product.
Tea Association officials said the fixed MRP will increase packaged tea prices by Rs 150 to Rs 300 per kilo, burdening consumers and encouraging the smuggling of lower-quality tea from Afghanistan. Altaf told Pakistan Today that the standardized MSR oversimplifies the complexities of the tea trade and will lead to significant revenue loss by the end of the fiscal year.
The Sales Tax Act 1990 does not explicitly classify tea as a raw material. Instead, tea is grouped with mate under the provisions of the Customs Act of 1969. Applying the tax to the declared import value will lower tax revenue.
Pakistan imported 161,823 metric tons of tea during the first seven months of the current fiscal year (January-July). The tea, mainly supplied by Kenya, was valued at $391 million, an increase of 7.6% compared to last year. Kenya exports 83% of Pakistan’s imports, with Rwanda (4.5%) and Uganda (4%) accounting for the remainder.
True Pricing in Food Retail and Food Service
Nonprofit True Pricing Releases Food and Beverage Report
The True Price Foundation has published an insightful 28-page report on food pricing in retail and food service. The report is relevant to cafes, canteens, restaurants, supermarkets, and tea shops.
The foundation is a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Netherlands dedicated to fully understanding the hidden social and environmental impacts of products not included in prices. “In the context of food, true pricing aims to ensure affordable and healthy food is accessible to people.
The report is free to download at www.trueprice.org and responds to growing momentum for true pricing in food retail and food service.
“True pricing is increasingly becoming a tendering distinguisher in public procurement for catering and supermarkets,” the report describes a true pricing pilot at German retailer PENNY.
Transparency is the heart of the foundation’s work.
“At its core, true pricing is about comprehensive transparency on products, how they are made, and what additional costs might be associated with a transition to a food system that respects the rights of people and ecological boundaries.”
According to the report, “what you can achieve with true pricing depends on the traceability level of your assortment.”
The report identifies several business advantages of true pricing, including greater engagement with consumers, trust in supply chains that help prevent price shocks, differentiation from competitors, and data generation to meet forthcoming compliance requirements for sustainability established by EU regulators.
The report encourages retailers to discover hidden costs and then close the gap between market price and true price, noting that the most significant impacts of food often occur within the product value chain, especially on farms.
The foundation has developed a True Price Method to quantify hidden costs. “The degree of detail of a true price scan increases when a business and its suppliers collect more data, allowing you to make more informed decisions about products or suppliers. Data collection and refinement of the true price scan is an ongoing process.
BIZ INSIGHT—The report advises producers to first align their company with sustainability practices and retailers to incentivize consumers and, with the help of sommeliers, baristas, and waitstaff, communicate in the consumers’ own language. Retailers benefit, for example, by identifying environmental costs that amount to 18% of the purchase price backed by an audit of the supply chain using the True Price methodology.
The tradition of drinking tea, herbal infusions, and spiced beverages during the holiday season has evolved from medieval medicinal remedies to sophisticated and cherished modern holiday customs, reflecting centuries of cultural exchange, religious symbolism, and festive cheer.
Who better to describe this history than our guest today, Santa Claus? Jolly old St. Nicholas recounts the nearly two-thousand-year evolution of holiday beverages.
Listen to the story
The History of Tea at Christmas | As told by Jolly Old St. Nicholas
Top Buyer Cargill Exits the Mombasa Tea Auction after 40 Years | Tea Importers Oppose Pakistan’s Minimum Retail Price | Nonprofit True Pricing Releases Food and Beverage Report | PLUS | The History of Tea at Christmas by Jolly Old St. Nicholas | Episode 198 | 13 December 2024
US Climate Commitment Questioned at COP29 | Argentina’s Tea Harvest is Off to a Good Start | FAO Food Outlook Reveals Rising Coffee and Tea Prices | PLUS | Kurush Bharucha is among the foremost tea tasters in the world and a brilliant teacher. He shares his tasting insights in the latest Tea Journey Taster’s Profile. Read more…
US plans to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement were viewed as a setback this week as delegates assembled in Baku, Azerbaijan, to attend COP29.
The annual gathering sponsored by the United Nations seeks to coordinate efforts to reduce global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions. The world is on track to once again set a record as the hottest on Earth in modern times. For the first time, average temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to pre-industrial times.
According to the New York Times, scientists say nations must cut emissions by 40% by the end of this decade. Instead, global greenhouse gas emissions soared to a record 57 gigatons last year.
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“The consequences of that warming are being felt on every continent,” writes the Times, citing torrential rain in Brazil, flash floods in Spain, hurricanes in the US, and expansive wildfires.
Financial aid for developing nations, many of which grow tea, is a focus of the talks attended by world leaders, green market investors, and climate scientists.
On the eve of the event, more than 650 investors with $33 trillion in assets worldwide urged governments to enact policies to prevent temperatures from reaching catastrophic levels.
The US helped design the agreement under President Barack Obama. President-elect Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement during his first term, a decision reversed by President Biden in 2020.
Almost every country now has a plan to draw down emissions. The US is pumping at least $390 billion into wind, solar, and other clean energy manufacturing. The automotive industry has transitioned to electric vehicles and hybrids. Nuclear power generation is gaining renewed acceptance. During the last gathering, nearly every country, including the United States, pledged to transition from fossil fuels.
The Paris Agreement is a pact stating that nations of all levels of wealth share responsibility for causing climate change. Individual countries set emissions targets. Targets are not legally binding, and there are no penalties for failure to meet goals. In 2017, no country followed the US withdrawal from the agreement, and none have indicated they will do so in 2025 when Trump takes office. Withdrawal requires one year’s notice, meaning the US exit will not be official until 2026.
Scientists say temperatures that trigger extreme weather will only stop if emissions decline. Beyond that threshold, the world risks a significant increase in drought, heat waves, wildfires, and erratic rain, all of which have an outsized impact on tea.
BIZ INSIGHT – Exceeding the 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming threshold for a single year differs from the goal adopted in the 2015 Paris Agreement. That goal was to cap warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius on average over 20 or 30 years to stave off the worst effects of climate change on humanity, including extreme weather. This year, A United Nations report said that since the mid-1800s, the world has already heated 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on average.
Argentine Tea Harvest Underway
Argentina’s Tea Harvest is Off to a Good Start
By Dan Bolton
Automated harvesters and favorable terrain enable Argentina to supply about half of the black tea consumed in the US. The country has optimized production by adopting vegetative propagation using cultivars with yields as high as 2,500 kilos per hectare. For decades, the harvest averaged 70,000 to 90,000 metric tons annually. However, demand is declining as consumers drink less and less flavored, sweetened iced tea. Last year, Argentina exported only 50,000 metric tons.
Export revenue fell to $58.5 million last year, down 10.6%. Growers shut down production mid-season after fulfilling their contracts.
Now, Argentina needs to find new export markets to maintain previous volumes. The domestic market is limited as citizens favor yerba mate by a wide margin, consuming 5.9 kilos per capita annually compared to 250 grams of mainly black tea.
Sales and traffic manager Pedro Newell at Don Basilio SRL explains that long-term relationships with buyers enable producers to balance supply and demand accurately. He said, “Argentina tea producers have had good production for years. It was only last year that we had to finish harvesting before the season ended and only after we produced what was contracted.”
Don Basilio, owned by the Okulovich family, is a tea and yerba mate plantation with a history that dates to 1935. There is plenty of capacity to expand production, says Newell. “As long as the U.S. continues to demand iced tea, Argentina will remain a key supplier, drawing on decades of expertise and production capacity to meet this market’s needs. We are not prepared to move away from a market that, although no longer growing, still represents our highest volume demand,” he said. “At the same time, we are open to exploring new markets and co-developing products tailored to specific requirements,” he said.
He explains that the company is exploring new export partners. Expanding into markets like the European Union presents particular challenges, as compliance with their strict PA regulations significantly raises our production costs.” Ensuring compliance requires manual field cleansing, involving teams of 50 to 70 people manually removing weeds across plantations, he said. Don Basilio supplies tea for iced tea blends to Unilever/Ekaterra.
Chile is a big consumer of black tea, importing $50 to $75 million annually in the past three years. In 2021, Chile imported $7 million worth of Argentine tea, about 10% of the $63 million Chileans spent on tea imports that year. In contrast, Chile imported 74% of its yerba mate from Argentina last year.
BIZ INSIGHT- Argentina is a compelling example of how origins that conform to the demands of destination markets can shape their supply chains to prosper in every conceivable way—until the market does an about-face.
FAO Food Outlook Shows Rising Coffee and Tea Prices
Prices of commodity beverages, including cocoa, coffee, and tea, boosted the global import food bill to more than $2 trillion, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
FAO’s Food Outlook November 2024 report indicates that import expenditures on cocoa, coffee, and tea are anticipated to increase by 22.9% this year, accounting for more than half of the $2 trillion overall increase in value terms.
“That reflects soaring international prices for these commodities due mostly to weather conditions and logistics issues. Cocoa prices reached almost four times their ten-year average earlier this year, those for coffee nearly doubled, and those for tea rose 15% above their usual long-term levels,” according to FAO.
FAO Food Outlook 2024
The Economist Intelligence Unit Tea Forecast projects black tea prices will average $2.83 per kilo in 2024, up from $2.74 in 2023. The World Bank reports the October 2024 average price for tea globally (which includes both black and green tea) was $2.31 per kilo.
Food expenses were also buoyed by higher import costs for fruits and vegetables, according to FAO Food Outlook, released Nov. 14.
Meanwhile, declining import bills for cereals and oilseeds offer relief to lower-income countries. High-income countries account for two-thirds of the global food import bill and will face a 4.4% increase in 2024, while the bills for upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income countries are likely to contract.
FAO’s latest forecasts point to favorable output outlooks across most basic foodstuffs, although global production systems remain vulnerable to risks from extreme weather events, rising geopolitical tensions, and policy changes. These could tip delicate demand-supply balances and dampen prospects for international trade in food commodities and global food security.
The FAO’s biannual publication offers updated forecasts for major food staples’ production, trade, utilization, and stocks and explores topical themes. The latest issue features an analysis of fertilizers, noting sharp drops in quotations for nitrogen products, which closely track natural gas prices and potassium fertilizers. However, phosphate fertilizers have not displayed a broader decline due in part to ongoing trade barriers. Overall, in September 2024, a basket of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium price series had declined by more than 50% since their April 2022 peak.
Kurush Bharucha is among the foremost tea tasters in the world and a brilliant teacher. As a student of his craft, he has always followed the mantra, ‘Practice makes perfect, so perfect your practice’ – which describes his apprentice days when he tasted up to 1,000 cups of tea daily. His expertise, over four decades, extends well beyond the ability to discern quality tea. Seeing synergies across all links in the beverage chain has enabled him to develop a sharp and holistic appreciation of ground realities, constantly pushing boundaries and “asking the right questions to constructively challenge the status quo.” As the former head of global tea expertise at Lipton Tea & Infusions, our guest today is in demand as an advisor, educator, and judge of tea competitions.Read more…
US Climate Commitment Questioned at COP29 | Argentina’s Tea Harvest is Off to a Good Start | FAO Food Outlook Reveals Rising Coffee and Tea Prices | PLUS | Kurush Bharucha is among the foremost tea tasters in the world and a brilliant teacher. He shares his tasting insights in the latest Tea Journey Taster’s Profile. | Episode 194 | 15 November 2024
