Tea Biz Podcast - Tea Biz

A Taste of Modern Tea
Mike Bunston, OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) is chairman of the London Tea History Association, honorary chairman of the International Tea Committee and serves as Sri Lanka’s Tea Ambassador. He began his career in tea at the Wilson Smithett & Co. brokerage in 1959. Bunston recently visited the Tea History Collection in Banbury, Oxfordshire, to videotape a tasting of modern teas, including milk tea, a Jasmine-Mango fruit tea, and his first taste of bubble tea. Charlie Shortt, co-founder of the Tea History Collection organized the tasting and narrates this exchange.
- Caption: Mike Bunston, OBE, concludes his first tastings of bubble tea, fruit tea and milk tea with a chuckle.
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Charlie Shortt offers tea taster extraordinaire Mike Bunston samples of several modern teas.

See the video

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Bernadine Tay discusses recent innovations in tea with Mike Bunston

A Taste of Modern Tea

I’m Bernadine Tay, founder of Quinteassential teas and one of the founding directors of the European Speciality Tea Association. Join me as Mike Bunston shares his insights into modern innovations in tea after his very first tasting of bubble tea.

Bernadine Tay: When you were first asked to taste bubble tea, did you have any expectations of what this could be? Having tasted millions of cups of tea as a tea taster, what do you think of the texture of the chewy tapioca balls? Or the fruit chunks in this colorful, customizable, Frappuccino-style beverage?

Mike Bunston: I naively thought bubble tea meant it literally had bubbles in it. Because I had tasted a tea champagne, which was made purely out of tea, and I thought it must be something like that. But it was nothing like that at all. It’s totally different.

When I took my first suck, I first got liquid and then got the meal as it were, oh my goodness me. This is an extraordinary sensation. And then of course, they put the three in front of me — very different ones. And the irony was that they [the organizers] had made secret packs as to which I would like best and worst. The first two were sweet. One was just like a smoothie. The second one was more like a sweet orange type drink, a bit too sweet for my taste. But I enjoyed it nevertheless.

As the third one was set in front of me they said “now this one is very different”. It had something like sweet potatoes in it. I believe it was Taro, which made the drink purple. The color was slightly off putting, but I soon learnt it tastes good. It was an attractive drink. And this certainly appeals to the younger generation. I’ve got grandchildren ranging between 20 and 36 and I haven’t had the chance to ask them if they have tried bubble tea.

In regard to the bubbles, my initial view is we could have probably done without the tapioca balls. Then as I got chewing I thought, “this is quite interesting”.

I can see why this attracts people of this generation. A real get up and go by it. You can walk through the street and drink it, if you’re in a rush. A total contrast to the traditional ways of drinking tea, with a teapot and cup. It is fascinating, and clearly they’ve got a great thing here, especially with the colorful and customizable options. The Taiwanese have always been great innovators, for everything.

Bernadine: Innovation is about creating something new that solves a problem. Do you see that with bubble tea?

Mike: If you’re a young person working in London, or any major city in the world, you’ve got a short time to have lunch, you’re out and about and want to meet a friend. You pick up one of those and suck it and chew it as you go along. In a way it’s almost as good as a meal, isn’t it? So, I think it’s trendy and practical, but it gives you all the goodness that you want from tea and everything else with this little added thing with the tapioca bubbles. So I think it’s clever.

Bernadine: The mark of good innovation is its staying power. So do you think bubble tea is here to stay?

You’re right. It begins with an idea that gets improved upon over time. It might take a while for it to gain a foothold, but if it works then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be there forever. I think, in the case of bubble tea, I could have said without knowing much about it that I expect it’s just another fad. Having heard much more and tasting it, I think it’s got staying power for sure.

In summary, I love tea. When I talk about tea, I talk about camellia sinensis. So, anything that has got tea in it, I’m happy with. What I’m not happy with are all the things that say they are tea on the supermarket shelf, like mint tea, or fruit tea with the fruit and no tea. That really upsets me. But if it’s got tea that’s just a great thing.

They’re using tea as a base to make bubble tea and bringing it up, as you say, to the 21st century.

I think what people can do nowadays, with modern technology and all the bright ideas people have, all things are possible.

“I love tea. When I talk about tea, I talk about camellia sinensis. So, anything that has got tea in it, I’m happy. ”
– Mike Bunston

Taro and Lychee

Jasmine and Mango

Milk tea with tapioca pearls

The Tea History Collection commemorates the history of tea, and preserves important items associated with the industry. Viewings and reservations for meetings are by appointment at the privately owned museum and audio visual center in Banbury. To learn more, visit www.TeaHistory.co.uk

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February 25, 2022

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bernadinetay

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Bubble Tea, Fruit Tea, Milk Tea, Tea, Tea Biz Podcast, Tea Education, Tea Events, Tea History Collection, Tea Tasting
A Living Wage Roadmap
A sustainable future in tea depends on a shared responsibility among stakeholders to assure living wages (for workers) and a living income for smallholders. Last fall IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, introduced the Living Income Roadmap, an extension of the Roadmap on Living Wages, launched in 2019. These online platforms provide companies and brands with the resources they need to understand the gap between a living wage and what workers earn. The platform’s wage matrix helps identify gaps and guide businesses to develop strategies to make continuous progress in closing the gap. Case studies show that companies that pay a living wage achieve greater productivity, less turnover, and a competitive marketing advantage by improving the wages and ultimately the quality of life for workers.
- Caption: Judith Fraats, senior program manager at IDH in Amsterdam
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Judith Fraats, senior program manager at IDH

Achieving Living Wages is a Shared Responsibility

By Dan Bolton

A living wage is the calculated wage needed for a basic but decent standard of living. Minimum wages are just that, a floor below which wages cannot fall. A living wage provides workers enough income to cover housing and groceries, healthcare, education and transportation, with a cushion for the unexpected.

The IDH Roadmap on Living Wages helps workers secure living wages in supply chains globally. Achieving living wages is a shared responsibility across the entire supply chain. The program encourages stakeholders to align to strengthen their resolve. Case studies demonstrate that closing living-wage gaps is achievable without price escalation when best practices are employed. IDH has discovered that transparency and sustainable practices, beginning at the farm and extending to every link in the supply chain, adds value that is rewarded by consumers.

Dan Bolton: Why is achieving a living wage for tea workers at origin a priority?

Judith Fraats: Inequality is a big trend that we’re facing globally at the moment. Moving towards living wages enables structural change to break the cycle of poverty. But it also helps us to move towards a more inclusive society and reduce some of these inequalities.

Let’s not forget that an adequate standard of living is a fundamental human right.

Second, we see a growing amount of consumers, mostly in developed countries, that are asking these questions of their retailers and the brands that they consume: Can you prove to us that the workers and the farmers who have been engaged in making this product that they are able to earn a decent living?

Do they earn enough with what you’re paying them?

Dan: In tea, labor issues and wages attract consumer scrutiny and debate. Will your share IDH’s experience in the tea sector?

Judith: I think some of the listeners are familiar with the program that we’ve run on living wages in Malawi called Malawi Tea 2020 a supply chain-wide commitment on living wages.

The objective was to ensure that the Malawian tea industry remained competitive while working towards a living wage for its workers and living income for smallholders.

The predominant focus of this program was on living wages. That program had a wide set of partners — we convened 36 organizations with living wage at its core but also looking at holistically a number of other areas which needed to be incorporated in order to address living wages.

One of the things at the center of this, is that we can’t work on wages if there is no tea industry in the future in Malawi, right? The 9,000 smallholders enrolled in the Farmer Field Schools (FFS) led to a yield increase of nearly 22% the first year and of 41% in the season after graduating. FFS farmers also had a higher percentage of green leaf rated as ‘good’ (73%) compared to non-FFS farmers (56%) in the year after graduation.

Competitiveness is a really important aspect, looking at how can we enhance productivity and quality, but also looking at how can we further improve social dialogue. One of the things that we managed to achieve was the development of the first collective bargaining agreement, for example.

Over a five-year period, we’ve been able to reduce the living wage gap, from two-thirds to one-third. Which means that there is still a gap, but we’ve come quite a long way. As IDH, we’re here to continue working with the tea industry to help them on their journey in living wages, and to make progress to close living wage gaps together.

Dan: Will you explain the difference between a living wage and a living income?

Judith: The term “living income” is coming up more and more because when we talk about smallholders, we are actually not talking about a living wage. That’s when we start talking about living income. The concept is similar. Both focus on achieving a decent standard of living for households. However, living wages applies to a hired worker setting, whilst living income focuses on a self-employed farmer, for example.

Dan: IDH introduced “The Roadmap on Living Wages” to help companies secure living wages along the entire length of their supply chain. Will you explain the roadmap to listeners?

Judith: The roadmap has been built on best practices that we’ve gained throughout the years working not only within the tea sector, but also flowers, apparel, and fruit and vegetables, for example.

It consists of five steps. The first is to identify what is the living wage benchmark for the region that you’re sourcing from. We have a benchmark tool available on the IDH website where you’re able to identify which benchmarks are available for your sourcing regions. Once you know the benchmark, you obviously would like to know whether there is a difference between the actual wages that are being paid by the suppliers within your supply chain.

To help companies in that process, we have developed the Salary Matrix, which is a self-assessment tool for producers to calculate current remuneration including wages, bonuses, cash, and in-kind benefits. This is then compared against the living wage benchmark. The tool helps you to understand the size of the gap, if there’s a gap at all. It also helps you monitor progress over the years and support work with, for example, certification programs that are continuously improving their living wage requirements.

In step three we recommend you find a trustworthy way of verifying those calculations as a principle of self-assessment. One of our goals at IDH is that these gaps are verified by audits through certification schemes. We are not there yet completely. But it’s a process that’s very much ongoing.

“IDH is committed to taking action and working together to have as a minimum a living wage for everyone in the workplace. We encourage more companies to get started. IDH is ready, we have the roadmap and are keen to support you in your living wage journey.”
– Judith Fraats

I think the most tricky step is actually closing the gap. Once the size of the gap is clear, you need creative and innovative approaches to remove these barriers to make progress towards closing this gap, which we believe is a shared responsibility and should be done in close connection with local stakeholders.

The fifth step is sector-specific, and also context-dependent but you can learn so much across from all these different experiences, by sharing insights, learnings, best practices, what has worked well, what hasn’t. This is really key to further advance the living wage journey

Those are the five steps of the roadmap in a nutshell. Last fall we developed the Living Income Roadmap, which mirrors those five steps. They’re the same, although the actual process and implementation are obviously tailored to the smallholder setting.

Dan: What’s the bottom-line benefit to brands and tea companies and how do they sign up?

Judith: We hope that the roadmap provides guidance to companies that want to make progress towards closing the living wage gaps, and also helps to bring alignment within the more academic world on living wages. We’ve built this roadmap to help companies make progress. It is based on best practices with input from the private sector, but also civil society, other NGOs and sustainability and expert organizations. Together they really brought this roadmap to its fruition.

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Tea Sector

Roadmap

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Related
- The Big Picture: Improving Wages by Amanda Penn
- Preferred by Nature (Third-Party Verification Services)
- Different Paths, Common Goal: How More Companies Are Providing Living Wages
- Call to Action: Better Business through Better Wages
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February 21, 2022

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Dan Bolton

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Learning

electric brewers, IoT smartphone powered, push button, stacked infusions, stacked steeps, Tea, Tea Biz Podcast, tea brewers, tsequential steeping
BRU Debuts at CES
Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, BRU is a single-cup specialty tea maker that won several awards for innovation. Swiss engineer and CEO Bogdan Krinitchko partnered with Filip Carlberg to establish the Zurich-based company, which manufactures the BRU Maker One, an IoT (internet of things) powered device that syncs with its own personalized BRU app, allowing users to save their preferred settings such as their brew time, temperature and the water quantity for each cup. The single-cup tea maker uses whole leaf tea, not capsules, with push-button convenience. The tea maker was recently awarded a US patent and is undergoing final certification. Production begins this spring.
- Caption: Filip Carlberg, left, and Bogdan Krinitchko with BRU Maker One, a capsule-free, single-cup specialty tea maker designed to sequentially steep loose leaf tea multiple times with push-button ease.
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Swiss engineer and green tea lover Bogdan Krinitchko on BRU’s debut at CES, Las Vegas.
BRU breakaway diagram
BRU Maker One
- IoT interactive. The BRU app allows users to control temperature, water volume and steep time. It can be programmed to steep the same tea in sequential steps (stacked steeps), and to make teas that reveal their full flavor at ambient temperatures (ambient tea). Use the smartphone app to set alarms, start the tea maker remotely and store brewing profiles for your favorite teas.
- No capsules. Unlike capsule machines BRU permits extra long steep settings to properly extract botanicals in sachets.
- Efficient and economical. BRU saves BTUs because unlike kettles it heats the exact amount of water needed for each cup. Surveys show kettle users boil twice the amount of water they use.
- Convenient, quick, and clean. BRU delivers temperature-controlled hot water on demand, either filtered or tap water. BRU self-rinses with a programmed cleaning routine—push-button brewing with easy cleanup.
Conveniently Unlocking the Value in Loose Leaf Tea

By Dan Bolton

High-grown teas that mature slowly in nutrient-dense soil are more flavorful and complex. It takes a series of infusions to unfurl the leaf, capture volatile aromatics and awaken the tea, coaxing into the liquor healthful plant sugars and phytonutrients. Unlike oxidized, shredded leaves, whole leaf and broken leaf teas deliver greater intensity in later infusions, not upfront. While it is more difficult and a bit messy, tea connoisseurs recognize that it is well worth the effort to prepare fine tea by quickly steeping small volumes in vessels packed with larger quantities of the leaf.

BRU Maker One automates the process by utilizing a small glass brewing chamber and stainless steel leaf strainer. The chamber can be rinsed, filled, and re-filled in sequence. Temperature, volume, and steep times can be programmed for each steep. Steeps can be enjoyed individually or the entire infusion “stacked” in your cup or mug. By keeping temperatures low and steep times short BRU extracts nuanced flavor in green teas without bitterness.

BRU Maker One is a single-cup tea maker designed to extract the full goodness of tea and the best value with consistency, precision, and convenience.

Dan Bolton: You recently returned to Switzerland after presenting BRU to the 40,000 tech fans who attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Will you tell us about that experience?

Bogdan Krinitchko: As a small startup, it was a great experience. We were super thankful that we were supported by SwissTech, which is the Technology Innovation Council of Switzerland (Innosuisse). We were one of 15 startups. I think two had physical hardware to demonstrate at the show. Overall, it was just a great experience and also brought us a little bit of media attention.

Dan: This is the first time that the public has been able to taste tea brewed on the BRU Maker One. How was the new tea maker received at CES?

Bogdan: It was pretty interesting feedback. In the beginning, people who had never heard about us came to our booth and asked, “Is this a coffee machine?” I said, no, this is a tea machine that makes the perfect cup at the push of a button without any capsules. When I showed how the machine operates, how easy it is to use, I think everybody liked it.

We won a 2022 CES Editor’s Choice Award from USA TODAY’s consumer product reviews along with coverage in Reviewed and Gadget. Another award that we won from ENVENTYS Partners (a product launch company. It’s called the NICE Awards (New Innovations in Consumer Electronics) and BBC mentioned us as well so we received great PR attention in the UK.

The product is real, you can touch it, it’s not just an idea anymore.
– Bogdan Krinitchko

Dan: I know that the more than 4,300 tea lovers who backed your Kickstarter project in November 2019 and the 5,500 who contributed via the Indiegogo campaign are looking forward to tasting their first cup of BRU maker tea. Will you update listeners on the final stages of manufacturing and when the tea makers will ship?

Bogdan: We will soon post our monthly update with a deep overview of the machine. Presenting at the show was great timing for us. We even met a few backers at CES. The timing was good because a few months earlier we could not have brought along that machine.

Right after the Chinese New Year’s, we will continue with the certification. Certification takes a couple of weeks. We want to make sure the product is safe and durable.

We are being really careful not to promise an exact ship date since we don’t want to disappoint the almost 10,000 people waiting for our product. We expect to begin shipping in the first half of 2022.

What we can say is the product is real, you can touch it, it’s not just an idea anymore. The injection molds, everything is done. Right now we are working on the whole fulfillment side. This is for us actually a real big handicap, because when we did the calculations back in 2018, we had estimated the shipping cost at around $2 to $3 per machine. Right now, we are facing $10, to $12 to $15 cost per machine. Also, the machine was improved, we added some features and functions that increased cost. Those are currently the challenges that we are solving but we are confident that every backer will get the machine and will be happy.

Related
BRU is exhibiting at the Inspired Home Show, March 5-7, Chicago (Booth SH1)

One button time, temp, volume

Self rinsing brew chamber

IoT App (iOS-Android)

Brews a selection of loose leaf teas including BRU teas selected to optimize taste and convenience

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February 21, 2022

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Dan Bolton

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New Products

ambient brewing, ambient steeping, ambient tea, electric brewers, IoT smartphone powered, push button, stacked infusions, stacked steeps, Tea, Tea Biz Podcast, tea brewers, tsequential steeping
Consumer Identity and Popular Beverages
A lesson from history

What makes one beverage become more popular than another? What makes a beverage take hold at one moment in history over another?

Christine Folch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University in North Carolina, explores these questions through her research on three beverages of the ilex, or holly, genus: yerba matte, yaupon and guayusa.

Of the three ilex beverages, yerba matte is the most well known, but interest in yaupon and guayusa is growing. Has their moment come?

Christine Folch holds the leaves of the yaupon plant outside her home in North Carolina.

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Christine Folch, PhD, in conversation with Tea Biz’s Jessica Natale Woollard

Colonization and the commercialization of caffeinated beverages: A conversation with Christine Folch

From the start of the colonial period in the Americas in the 16^th century, commercialization attempts were made to position these three ilex beverages — yerba matte, yaupon and guayusa — as caffeinated drinks that could compete on the world stage with coffee and tea, which were just entering the market.

Yaupon | Aiton, Emory University
Herbarium(GEO), 898baf6d-30de-4d36-8794-b9f0e5d21ae4

These attempts failed for various social, cultural and economic reasons, which Christine Folch discussed in fascinating detail in her talk at the 2022 Global Tea Institute colloquium in January.

She continues the conversation with Tea Biz’s Jessica Natale Woollard.

Watch the video, featuring Folch’s talk at the Global Tea Initiative Colloquium, hosted by the University of California, Davis, on Jan. 13, 2022. Folch’s presentation begins at 04:37:00.

Jessica: In your talk at the Global Tea colloquium, you share the curious story of yaupon and how it was consumed as a form of protesting British rule. You explain how the beverage remained popular during the US Civil War, particularly in the south, and discuss the reason consumer identity issues impeded its popularity.

How has consumer identity shifted, now in 2022, to give yaupon another chance to enter the caffeinated beverage industry?

Christine: When I first tasted yaupon, the first thing I noticed was, it was really yummy.

The other thing that I noticed quite immediately is where I got it, which was the shrubbery right outside of my window. I made it myself, toasted it, and tried it, and I thought, this stuff is so good. And it’s yard decor.

It raises this really important question: why is it that we in the United States don’t drink something that is quite delicious and grows with little tending right outside of our homes, if we’re in the southern part of the United States?

Read about the work of the American Yaupon Association.

I think that beverages and food come socially encumbered; they come with social implications. The identities of the people who were fans of this beverage, in the 19th century and beforehand, were marginalized identities for various reasons. The primary consumers were Indigenous people. And as we know about the complicated history of North America, there’s this sort of tension about a rejection around Indigeneity, which can be incredibly violent and has been historically.

So, yaupon was consumed by “wrong people” in in the 19th century.

Mr. Scarborough (owner of a “yaupon factory”) stands next to his yaupon processing equipment. Hatteras, Outer Banks (NC), 1905. Photographer: H.H. Brimley. Courtesy of NC Archives

The question becomes, what has changed?

And I think what has changed is that we see other values percolating to the surface. It’s the realization that the communities we thought were marginalized and therefore their consumption was like less desirable, actually those communities have heritage; those communities actually know a lot about land; those communities actually are the source of incredible creativity.

There’s a new openness to that consumption.

Jessica: If our readers are lucky enough to find a café, shop or experience where they can try yaupon and guayusa, is there anything they should know before tasting them for the first time?

Christine: Expect to be surprised by how yummy it actually is.

I’m drinking yaupon right now, and I don’t have any sugar in it. It’s a really pleasant drink that it is less bitter than black tea.

I think you’re going to taste it, and you’ll say, it’s not something I’ve had before, but that’s not bad. I’d like to try some more.

You can get yaupon in the United States by ordering directly from a number of yaupon companies.

The word yaupon comes the Catawba for “small tree.” Even the name itself holds so much about the history of this land.

Schultes, Richard Evans. 1972 “Ilex Guayusa from 500 A.D. to the Present” In Henry Wassen, A Medicine-man’s Implements and Plants in a Tiahuanacoid Tomb in Highland Bolivia, 1972, Göteborg.

Guayusa leaves from above.

Related
- Florida Yaupon Venture Tops $1 Million in Sales
Jessica: Where do you recommend someone take their first sip of the lesser-known ilex beverages, yaupon or guayusa?

Christine: Around your kitchen table with your friends and a good mug.

The thing about these beverages is that they are social; they’re meant to be consumed with other people so. Have a taste test with your roommates; see which one you like.

That’s how I think you should have it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

More from Christine Folch

An Ilex Counterpoint — Christine reflects on why yaupon never achieved the popularity of yerba mate for Comparative Studies in Society and History.

A Tale of Two Quintessential Argentine Beverages — Christine writes about wine and yerba mate for Slate magazine.

Forthcoming book: a cultural history of yerba mate

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February 18, 2022

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Jessica Natale Woollard

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Wellness

guayusa, Tea, Tea Biz Podcast, tea retail, yaupon, yerba mate
First Tea Culture Week in Brazil
Tea Culture Week, scheduled for August 1-7, 2022, will feature online and in-person activities across Brazil. Retailers, marketers, tea educators, and volunteer enthusiasts have been planning the event for months, according to Elizeth R.S. van der Vorst, founder of Amigos do Chá. Events include special tastings, formal afternoon teas, gift offers, and discounts to encourage sampling as well as public presentations, workshops, and gatherings in parks and tea houses.

Organizers include Yuri Hayashi, founder of Escola de Chá Embahu in Sao Paulo, Claudia Sant’Anna, Daniela Folquitto, Daniela Pirozzi, Ligia Gabbi, Luciana Maira, and Eli Vorst,
- Caption: Elizeth R.S. van der Vorst, Consultora de Negócios do Chá, Certified TAC Tea Sommelier
Hear the interview

Eli Vorst founder Amigos do Chá

1a Semana da Cultura do Chá no Brazil

1st Tea Culture Week in Brazil

By Dan Bolton

Brazil will for the first time this year celebrate one of South America’s less well-known tea cultures which dates to the early 1800s.

The more than 212 million people living in Brazil, a country hard-hit during the pandemic, are traversing a familiar path as health-conscious consumers seek plant-based foods and beverages. Brazilians traditionally consume great quantities of coffee and herbal infusions. Yerba mate remains popular in the south of Brazil.

Brazilians drink an average of 10 cups of Camellia sinensis annually – a quantity that has increased from a meager 18 grams per person consumed in 2016 – but remains well below Chile’s 730 grams per head – and much less than Ireland’s 2.2 kilo-per-person average.

In the past five years specialty tea cafes and franchised tea emporiums have flourished, says Eli Vorst. During the period 2013 to 2020 tea consumption increased 25%, “almost double the world average of 13%” according to market research firm Euromonitor.

The popularity of iced and ready-to-drink tea average less than one liter per person is also growing as Brazil develops a thirst for loose leaf Camellia sinensis.

The number of specialty tea emporiums and cafes is growing according to this chart which shows the number of Franquias de lojas de chas e cafes (Tea and coffee shop franchise) locations has doubled in the past decade. Shops specializing in tea and coffee (Lojas especializadas em chas e cafes) have also increased.

Dan Bolton: Eli, Will you describe for listeners the tea market in Brazil?

Eli Vorst: When we started our activities in Brazil in the 1980s, importing teas from the Netherlands and later from Germany, the tea market did not exist yet. We did not have the marketing tools to spread the tea culture.

We had to work in this way: direct sales business-to-business and face-to-face convincing consumers. It was slow going, but we knew that one day this could change.

We can say that the tea market in Brazil started five years ago when there was a “boom” of new tea shops, specialized stores, new tea specialists, sommeliers, enthusiasts, and tea courses. In addition to tea courses, in 2013, we had the first official institution of tea teaching called “Escola de Chá Embahu,” founded by Yuri Hayashi and her husband, Claudio Brisighello.

In parallel with this leap in the market, we saw the growth of a tea community on social networks, which motivated a more significant number of consumers and tea lovers.

In 2020, with the pandemic, we felt a greater demand for a healthy lifestyle, generating a significant increase in the healthy food and beverage sector, including, of course, teas/blends and tisanes.

We feel that the market is growing. Due to our versatility with the Camellia Sinensis and new tendencies within mixology and culinary, we are gaining strength to dispel the myths that tea is just a hot drink to have in the winter season.

Today, our market has a growing number of tea importers, and it is worth mentioning that Brazil also has a small tea producer’s community aiming for quality specialty tea.

See: Obaatian The Brazilian Mestizo Tea

By the way, do you know that Brazil was the first country to produce tea in the Occident? The introduction of tea cultivation in 1812, with seeding, seeds, and the first Chinese tea workers to arrive in Brazil.

Dan: Will you describe the goal you have in mind?

Eli: Our focus is to expand the market and bring in a minimal of knowledge to Brazilian on the stop key. We want also to keep tea culture alive. We will be a little contribution for our tea market.

“The Tea movement is just beginning, a tip of the great iceberg. Tea culture in Brazil is still in its infancy, it may take some time, but we have to start.”
– Eli Vorst

Dan: How do you see the future of tea in Brazil?

Eli: Well, this is the question that I am excited to answer because I am very positive in the tea market, always I have been positive. I have worked 27 years in the tea market here in Brazil and I am still here. I can say that with the help of such engaged and serious people who have knowledge and such a clear vision of our tea market, all this energy can only give us a lot of hopefulness for our future. I believe that in order to obtain a well structured market, it’s necessary to create awareness and consistency with our Brazilian consumer. The consumer is the key. Teaching them is necessary in order to spread this ancient culture.

Education needs to be assertive to obtain concrete results in the future. In time the Brazilian tea market can be visible to the rest of the world. Of course, there is a need for help from various government agencies, with benefits and assistance to tea producers, farmers, and greater openness to importers, who suffer from various impediments.

The Tea movement is just beginning, a tip of the great iceberg, which is to spread the tea culture Brazil. I can categorically say that it has not been easy. We could do it all over again, if necessary, because it is worth fighting for something you believe in: Camellia sinensis is worth it. Tea is worth having as a business and as a lifestyle. But the most touching and important thing is that the tea brings us together in a passionate way, stirring our senses. This is what we like to show and teach, for those who have not yet experienced this delightful beverage, and to those who already know, we asked them to help us to spread this culture around our country.

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About Amigos do Chá

Tea is a delight for the senses and has always been celebrated as a cultural treasure and an art, so our goal and contribution is to bring this comfort, relaxation, pleasure and contemplation to our customers.

About Escola de Chá Embahu

Since 2013, Yuri Hayashi has dedicated her life to teaching others about specialty tea. This pioneering work constitutes the pillars of the Embahú tea school, which has the support of her husband, Cláudio Brisighello and other tea professionals in Sao Paulo.
Related
- Amigos do Cha
- Escola de Chá Embahu
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February 14, 2022

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Dan Bolton

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Amigos dos Cha, Brazil, Brazil Tea Culture, Tea, Tea Biz Podcast, Tea Culture Week in Brazil, Tea Education, Tea Events, Tea Festivals