| Retail Sales Projections are Ho-Hum for the Holidays: Sales growth adjusted for inflation will be in the single digits, the lowest growth rate since 2018 | UC Davis Global Tea Institute Launches a Training Program for Tea Professionals
PLUS | More than 30,000 tea workers and supporters, mainly from the indigenous Bataga Community living in Ooty, Kothagiri, and Coonoor in the Nilgiris mountains of South India, participated in a silent hunger protest on behalf of farmers. The demonstrations ended last week, but only after the High Court took cognizance of the petitions that urgently plead the case for fixing a minimum price for green leaf. Aravinda Anantharaman reports.
Holiday sales forecasts are in the single digits, online sales estimates are more upbeat.
Retail Sales Projections are Ho-Hum for the Holidays
By Dan Bolton
North American consumers are “trading down,” leading to projections of ho-hum holiday sales based on pre-season surveys.
“Consumers are skittish, and retailers will have to be on their toes, focused on making sure the products and the prices are right,” writes Forbes, quoting marketers who anticipate “a modest increase in sales with narrowing margins.”
Adjusted for inflation, Bain & Company projects real US holiday retail sales in the low single-digits, well below the 10-year average and the lowest since the financial crisis.
Deloitte writes that holiday sales will likely increase between 3.5% and 4.6% in 2023. According to Deloitte, E-commerce holiday sales are projected to grow between 10.3% to 12.8% compared to the 2022 season.
Overall, Deloitte projects holiday sales will total $1.54 to $1.56 trillion from November to January. In 2022, holiday sales grew by 7.6% and totaled $1.49 trillion in the same period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Deloitte forecasts e-commerce sales will grow to between $278 billion and $284 billion this season. A survey by Bankrate reveals that 39% of holiday shoppers plan to do most of their shopping online, while 23% plan to shop in person.
Bankrate found that 50% of holiday shoppers will begin before Halloween, with 12% starting as early as September. November is the busiest month for shoppers, but 13% percent say they don’t shop until December, according to Bankrate.
More than half (54%) say they feel financially burdened this year, with 33% saying inflation will change how they shop. Another 25% expect higher prices to strain their budgets, and 13% attribute their shopping stress to concerns they will be forced to spend more than they’re comfortable spending.
“While September feels early to be talking about holiday shopping, it’s very smart to start thinking about it well ahead of time,” writes Bankrate.
BIZ INSIGHT – Sales of conventional hot tea are flat. In contrast, globally, sales of functional teas are growing at a faster 6.4% pace that is expected to accelerate through 2027. The market for herbal teas will add $885 million in sales by 2027, according to Technavio.
“Millennials and baby boomers are expected to be the major customer base for the herbal tea market as they make up the majority of the current workforce,” according to Technavio.
Shifting consumer preference towards online sales channels positively impacts the growth of the global herbal tea market, writes Technavio. Demand for herbal teas is expected to increase as consumers become more health conscious. Online channels offer consumers a wide range of products at discounted prices,” according to Technavio.
Tea is intricately woven into India’s cultural tapestry. In its latest marketing campaign, Tata Tea Premium acknowledges and elevates several of the Indian state’s distinctive patterns in fabric and symbols of pride, drawing attention to the tea company’s extensive range of hyperlocal blends. Tata tells the story of extraordinary weavers by digitally enhancing their homespun artistry in an interactive tribute to handlooms. Aravinda Anantharaman reports on this eye-catching effort.
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Tata’s latest TV for its premium line of tea features a celebrated singer at the heart of great campaigns that evoke nationalistic pride and emotion, which ties in with what Chai means to people across the country.
G20 Delegates visit the Tea Board India Pavilion Experience Zone on Aug. 25.
Limited Resources Restrain Marketing Efforts by Tea Board
By Dan Bolton
A Parliamentary committee is reviewing concerns raised in a report by India’s auditor general that identified lapses in enforcing tea industry regulations by the Tea Board of India.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit, titled “The Role of Tea Board India in the Development of Tea in India,” reviewed board activities during a five-year period ending in fiscal 2022.
Auditors drew attention to these concerns:·
The board’s inability to curb smuggled tea and tea untraceable to origin used for blending for sale in domestic markets.·
The lack of a “well-defined strategy” to register growers (large and small). In March 2021, 38% of small growers were unregistered.·
Failure to monitor tea processing facilities by conducting timely inspections and laboratory testing.·
Lack of a database to track yield per hectare, labor productivity, new plantings, aging tree stock, and distribution of cultivars.
In addition, a mandate to auction 50% of the country’s tea was not enforced. Auditors found that most registered buyers did not purchase tea at auction.
The CAG audit brings to the forefront a discussion of the importance of supporting small tea growers (STG) and bought-leaf factories that now supply most of the country’s tea.
In a press release shared with the media, the board writes that “in line with the Government’s added focus on the development of the small growers’ sector, the tea board has been making sustained efforts to bring the STG sector into the mainstream value chain through collectivization, innovation in products, better packaging, and incisive marketing.”
“This endeavor has aligned with the fact that the STG sector now accounts for 52% of tea production of 1,375 million kg during 2022-23.” The board listed its many regulatory responsibilities and noted that “being a state-run body, can’t act on the contrary,” reads the release.
The Board acknowledges that the views given by the industry veterans conform with the central government’s renewed focus on “ease of doing business” and “marketing.”
By emphasizing “marketing” domestically and globally, the Tea Board “strives to enhance per capita consumption in India and increase import shares in the major export destinations in the face of wholly export-oriented producers such as Kenya and Sri Lanka,” reads the release.
BIZ INSIGHT – The audit is welcome as it brings to the front burner the critical need for additional resources for the Tea Board of India to market and promote its tea. Regulations such as inspection and laboratory testing of factories are essential. Compiling statistics and making them readily available to the industry is essential. Cooperating with law enforcement is expected, but are tea board employees suited to halt smugglers? Should the board intervene to force buyers and sellers to auction half their tea?
India’s Trustea Code rests on a foundation of legal requirements, but in contrast to the work of the Tea Board, participation is voluntary. There is a reason 65% of India’s tea producers adhere to the code. It promotes safe operations and continuous quality improvement, but 100% compliance is unrealistic. The cost of forcing compliance is wasted. The market rewards compliance with carrots. Regulators wield only a stick.
Young adults in the US are drinking less alcohol, according to Gallup Polling.
Overindulgence and High ABV Tea
By Dan Bolton
Three in five Americans (62%) drink beverage alcohol, and one in five US drinkers admit to imbibing too much, continuing a three-decade decline in overindulgence, according to Gallup Polling.
Since 1978, Gallup has asked adults, “Do you sometimes drink more alcoholic beverages than you think you should?” While the percentage of drinkers overall has held steady, averaging 63% since 1939, Gallup reports a decline in those who responded yes to overindulging from a high of 35% in 1989, falling to 19% in 2023. Overindulgence averaged 18% during the first three years of the pandemic.
Young adults in the US cut back on alcoholic drinks.
“When the 13% of nondrinkers who say they don’t drink because of past problems with alcohol are combined with the 19% of drinkers who report drinking more than they should sometimes, the result suggests a population rate of 16% of U.S. adults who may currently struggle with alcohol abuse or did so in the past,” Gallup reports in its most recent Consumption Habits poll, conducted July 3-27.
Men are more likely to overindulge than women (21% vs. 16%), and younger adults are more likely to overindulge than adults 35 and older. Adults with household incomes of at least $100,000 are more than twice as likely to overindulge as those earning under $40,000 a year, of whom only 10% say they occasionally drink too much.
BIZ INSIGHT – Beer remains the most popular alcoholic beverage in America, preferred by 37% of alcohol drinkers. The category includes spiked teas, which are seeing a strong increase in popularity. Hard teas lead sales in the fermented malt beverages category for the first time. FMBs include hard lemonade, ciders, and similar sweet, beer-like beverages that don’t taste like beer. Thirty years ago, liquor was the drink of choice for 20% of respondents. In the past few years, that average has risen to 30% of those responding to the Gallup survey. In 2023, the total increased to 31%, an all-time high.
India’s Oldest Captive Elephant Dies at 89
Tusker Bijuli Prasad, the oldest elephant in captivity in India, passed this week at 89. Taken from the wild in the 1940s, the young bull elephant spent most of his life clearing forested land and deftly pulling spent tea bushes from the soil.
Bijuli passed on 22nd August at the Behali Tea Estate in Assam, where he lived. Bijuli was said to have been rescued from the wild in the 1940s. He was unusually strong and once fought off poachers seeking his tusks.
He was sold to the Williamson Magor company in Assam and was named by Philip Magor himself. Bijuli Prada became a working elephant in the Borgang Tea Estate in the Sonitpur district in Assam and worked there from the 1950s until he retired in 2018. He was a big part of the company, so much so that McLeod Russel, part of the Williamson Magor group, adopted an elephant as the logo. Elephants rarely live beyond 80 years. After retirement, Bijuli lost his teeth and had to be fed a boiled mash of rice and soybean by handlers.
– Aravinda Anantharaman
FEATURE
Tata Premium Ad Campaign
India’s Vivid Handloom Legacy
By Aravinda Anantharaman
Tata’s latest TV campaign for its premium line of teas features a celebrated singer at the heart of great campaigns that evoke nationalistic pride and emotion, which ties in with what Chai means to people across the country. And that’s not all. The brand also launched one of the largest 3D LED anamorphic auto activations ever seen in the country in time for Independence Day at the DLF Cyber City Mall in Gurugram. Tata’s Desh Ke Dhaage campaign, celebrating India’s vivid handloom legacy, pushes creative boundaries to bring the consumer an experience that will visually delight and establish powerful connections.
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Tata’s TV campaign for its premium line of teas features a celebrated singer at the heart of great campaigns that evoke nationalistic pride and emotion, which ties in with what Chai means to people across the country.
UKTA Director Jennifer Wood and Jo Selman-Smith, a project manager with the UK Tea Academy who, in 2022, oversaw the launch of The Leafies, join Tea Biz this week to discuss the academy’s international judging of tea in 12 categories with correspondent Dananjaya Silva. This year’s competition is open not only to farmers and suppliers but also to tea retailers worldwide. The deadline for entries to arrive in Scotland is Sept 18.
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UK Tea Academy’s Jennifer Wood and Jo Selman-Smith with Dananjaya Silva
Cover of 176-page Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Role of the Tea Board in the Development of Tea in India
Auditors Find Lapse in Factory Inspections, Unregistered Smallholders, Lack of Well-Defined Strategy
By Dan Bolton
A government audit of India’s Tea Board during the five years ending 2021 found numerous flaws in its regulatory mandate and a failure to address concerns raised a decade ago. Glaring omissions include the lack of a strategy to identify and register smallholders — a first step in supporting the tea industry’s financial well-being, development, productivity, and promotion in domestic and overseas markets. Small tea growers supply more than half of the tea grown in India.
“Thirty-eight percent of small tea growers were not registered as of March 2021 and were out of the ambit of Tea Board’s regulatory activities and development assistance,” according to the report. Auditors also found that 119 of 1,573 large growers were not registered. The Tea Act mandates regular inspection of processing facilities to maintain quality.
“However, factories were not adequately inspected in the five financial years,” according to auditors, who noted, “The shortfall of inspection ranged between 79 and 92 percent, which showed poor monitoring on the part of the tea board.”
Samples for laboratory testing were not submitted every six months. In addition, all tea factories discard waste tea. A rate of 2% is evidence of culling inferior leaves, but between 72% and 78% of factories reported less than the 2% minimum, and several factories reported no waste. Mandates on district-wide records documenting the age of plants, yield, labor productivity, and replanting were not maintained in a database, and committees required to monitor the monthly green tea price were never met.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit, titled “The Role of Tea Board India in the Development of Tea in India,” recommends a “well-defined strategy” to identify and register smallholders, step up the pace of inspections and enforce existing mandates such as the requirement that 50% of India’s tea be sold at e-auctions.
The 176-page report was submitted to Parliament on Aug. 8. The audit revealed identity cards, mandated in 2018, had been issued to only 137,800 of the 222,746 known small growers (about 62%). Auditors found that no IDs were issued in Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, or Manipur. As of April 2021, only 42-44% of tea was sold at auctions. Buyers were registered, but 61% to 68% did not purchase tea at auction.
BIZ INSIGHT – The previous audit, conducted for the fiscal period ending 2016, documented the practice of mixing Nepal tea with GI-protected Darjeeling leaves, which continued through the subsequent audit period. Auditors estimated that 96% of Nepal tea exports were to India, “The main purposes of importing Nepal tea are re-exporting upon value addition and for blending” not for sale in the domestic market. According to auditors, blending imported tea with Darjeeling, Kangra, and orthodox Nilgiri or Assam teas was not properly monitored, with 90 of 127 importers operating without a license.
Production up at Kenya tea estates
Kenya Tea Production Up, Tea Exports Down
By Dan Bolton
Kenyan tea exports declined by volume and value through June as fair weather boosted yields and benefitted growers. The Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) reported a 29% decline in value, and export volumes fell to 191,000 metric tons during the first half of 2023 compared to 243,000 metric tons during the same period last year. Kenya exported $432 million worth of tea (Sh 62.1 billion) through June. Value is impacted by the Kenyan shilling’s downward spiral against the US dollar, which benefits exporters.
A shortage of foreign exchange reserves and the conflict in Sudan and Yemen reduced sales, and economic troubles limit what Pakistan and Egypt can spend. Pakistan remains Kenya’s top tea destination, importing 65,728 metric tons this year, followed by Egypt at 28,600 metric tons and the United Kingdom at 20,546 metric tons.
Auction prices were higher last year, averaging $2.56 during the first half of 2022 compared to $2.29 in 2023.“Auction prices have been declining since the second quarter of 2022 owing to lesser demand due to recession in the global market,” according to KTB.
May was a strong month for tea producers, who harvested 7.63 million kilos more tea than during 2022, totaling 58 million kilos for the month, adding to an April harvest of 49.5 million kilos.
May marks the cessation of the long rains over most parts of the country; rainfall recorded across the country was moderate and well distributed,” said KTB.
Tea production increased to 273,640 metric tons in the six months, an increase compared to the 271,300 tons harvested by July 2022.
China tea exports decline.
China Tea Exports Decline | Travel Restrictions Ease
By Dan Bolton
China Customs data for tea exports to all destinations through June amounted to 175,000 metric tons, a 3% decline in tea volume compared to last year. According to the China Tea Marketing Association, export value for the period was $847 million, a year-on-year decrease of 14%.
Tea exports amounting to $2 billion annually are a small fraction of China’s overall shipments but follow a trend of slowing export growth. During the past year, the country’s exports dropped 14.5%. Exports to the US accounted for only 13.3% of US imports during the first half of the year, the lowest share in 20 years. Exports to the European Union also sagged.
Decoupling is evident, according to Bloomberg News. The US imported about $203 billion in goods from China in the first six months of the year, 25% less than in the same period in 2022, based on the latest unadjusted data from the Commerce Department. The figures are not adjusted for inflation.
The Asian country is now the third-largest merchandise provider to the US, behind Mexico and Canada. Goods imports from Mexico were up 5.4% in the first half from a year ago. Germany and Japan round out the top five.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, US imports from China fell to $33.5 billion in June, the lowest since the immediate onset of the pandemic.
On an annual basis, China had ranked as the top supplier of goods to the US for more than a decade, with the trade ties between the two countries reaching a peak last year. Bilateral trade is being challenged by the widening split between Washington and Beijing over human rights issues, fair trade, and competition for technology and markets, writes Bloomberg.
CTMA reports that the average export price from January to June was $4.84 a kg, a year-on-year decrease of 11.47%.“China’s green tea export volume was 146,300 tons, accounting for 83.6% of the total export volume, a decrease of 6,251 tons, or 4.1%; black tea export volume was 13,400 tons, accounting for 7.7% of the total export volume, a 4.5% decrease that amounted to 636 tons,” according to CTMA.
Exports of Pu’er, white tea, jasmine tea, scented tea, and dark tea all declined.
Shipments of oolong tea were up 13.8% to 11,000 metric tons, the only category that increased.
BIZ INSIGHT – Last week, in a rare sign of cooperation between the world’s largest two economies, the U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT) agreed to increase the number of Chinese passenger flights allowed to fly to the U.S. to 18 weekly roundtrips on Sept 1 and increase that to 24 per week starting Oct 29, up from the current 12, according to Reuters. The Chinese government agreed to the same increase for American carriers, lifting pandemic-era restrictions on group tours for the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Australia.
Entry is now open for the Leafies International Tea Awards, organized by the United Kingdom Tea Academy and in partnership with Fortnum and Mason. The awards are open for entries across the globe. This is Dananjaya Silva, and I sat down with UKTA Director Jennifer Wood and Jo Selman-Smith of the UK Tea Academy to talk about this year’s awards, what’s new, and how to enter.
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UK Tea Academy’s Jennifer Wood and Jo Selman-Smith with Dananjaya Silva
India’s small tea growers (STGs) and bought-leaf factories (BLFs) split the average auction prices within growing regions according to a formula last revised in 2013.
| Consultants BDO India has six months to complete an extensive report on cultivation and processing costs | US Fast-food Outlets Have Yet to Rollout Boba Nationally | The European Speciality Tea Association Offers Tea Barista Foundation Certificates to Coffee Shop Staff
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Hear the Headlines | Seven-minute Tea News Recap
PLUS
Tea Biz travels to Sri Lanka to attend the Dilmah School of Tea hosted by Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company CEO Dilhan C. Fernando. The school teaches that knowledge inspires passion. In this interview, Fernando shares his passion for modernizing the tea experience for consumers ordering tea at restaurants, hotels, and resorts.
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Dilhan C. Fernando, CEO Dilmah Ceylon Tea
India Tea Board to Review Tea Price-Sharing Formula
By Dan Bolton
Raw leaf price sharing, implemented in 2004 and revised in 2013, protects tea smallholders and ensures that bought leaf factories (BLF) retain enough of the final auction price to operate profitably.
This week the Tea Board of India hired consulting firm BDO India to review the current split, which varies by region—smallholders in the West Bengal tea belt currently receive 58%, and BLFs received 42% of the average auction price paid for tea. In Assam, the formula is 60% for STGs (small tea growers) and 40% for the factories that process smallholder tea.
Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, President of CISTA (Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association), has pressed for a revision of the formula for several years.
Chakraborty told the Hindu Businessline, “The cost of production has changed substantially in the last ten years.” The share paid STGs should increase to reflect these costs, he said.
In 2007 the Center for Education and Communication calculated the cost of green leaf cultivation ranged from Rs. 6.29 in Assam and 6.27 in West Bengal to Rs. 5.33 in Tamil Nadu, with a high of Rs. 7.62 rupees per kilo in Himachal Pradesh.
The data for this analysis was collected from the United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations. The 33-page CEC study breaks out the cost of cultivation (STG) and processing (BLF)—the cost of production is the total. In North India at that time, CEC calculated the cost of production at $1.62 per kilo. In South India, the cost was calculated at $1.48 per kilo. The CEC calculations assume a 2000 kilograms per acre yield, at least 12,000 kilos harvested.
Since that time cost of labor, fuel, and fertilizer has soared. In 2007, for example, the price of urea, the world’s most common nitrogen fertilizer, was $280 per ton. On June 1, the average urea price was $623 per ton, costing $.68 per pound of nitrogen. The tea industry is India’s largest private-sector employer, estimated at 10 million workers.
Productivity varies significantly. The output per person in Assam is estimated at 2.2 kilos per worker per day. In Kerala, productivity averages six kilos per workday.
Last October, Nalin Khemani, the chairman of Bharatiya Cha Parishad (BCP), told the BCP Annual General Assembly that the cost of labor per hectare in running a tea garden in Assam is Rs 787.5 as against Rs 341.8 in the southern state. BCP is an association of tea planters and factory owners.
“’The cost to the company (composite value of wage and social responsibility) of a man-day beyond a certain point is an economic impossibility for the industry. Over 60% of the total budget of a tea company is allocated to wages,” said Khemani.
Smallholders have much lower fixed costs. The Tea Farming Project in 2018 reported smallholders could turn a profit in the fourth year after planting based on sales of 3,7000 kilos of the raw leaf at Rs. 17 per kilo to earn Rs. 22900 profit (about $280 in US dollars). Researchers used India’s price-sharing formula to determine the Rs. 17 per kilo rate.
The BDO contract gives the consultancy six months from June 2023 to conduct field visits to gather relevant data on the cost of doing business from farmers in the major tea-producing regions. Growers in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim will be asked to participate online, completing surveys and interacting in virtual meetings.
The board mandated visits to Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Tripura, where the concentration of small tea growers is sufficient for conducting primary research. The contract calls for discussions with Tea Board officials, Tea Research Associations, STGs, and BLF associations, all producers’ associations across India (estate factories), and individual surveys with growers and factories.”
Chakraborty is concerned that because so much of India’s tea is purchased directly, the study will not adequately assess the price paid for tea. India’s price-sharing formula “was based on the Sri Lanka model, which has succeeded because 100% of their teas are routed through auctions. But in India, only 40-42% of sales happen through the auction. PSF will only be popularized when 100 percent of tea is sold via auction,” he said.
Jack-in-the-Box introduces three bubble/boba tea drinks.
US Fast-food Outlets Have Yet to Rolllout Boba Nationally
By Dan Bolton Jack-in-the-Box, a San Diego-based fast-food chain with 2,200 locations, is testing bubble tea. It is the latest large US-based chain to experiment with black tea with sweetened milk and tapioca pearls.
None have announced a national rollout despite the growing popularity of bubble/boba drinks.
McDonald’s introduced bubble tea in Austria and Germany in 2012, and in 2021 added Brown Sugar Boba McFlurry. Milk tea is on the menu in Hong Kong (first offered in 2020), Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines but not in the US. Overseas customers can also buy Ovaltine boba and, in Japan, matcha boba. Milk tea was tested at several US stores but never rolled out nationally at McDonald’s 13,500 US locations.
In December 2021, Starbucks tested two iced coffee drinks made with coffee pearls. Baskin-Robbins introduced a Tiger Milk Bubble drink in May 2022. Dunkin featured popping bubbles in June 2021 but does not offer milk tea boba.
Forty-two percent of boba tea globally is black tea paired with fruit purees (the favorite) or herbals. Bases can also be coffee, chocolate, or vegan- and lactose-intolerant-friendly plant and nut milk.
The website Chew Boom, which tracks boba tea expansion, writes that Jack-in-the-Box recently added three brown sugar boba drinks to its menu to test demand in Long Beach, Torrance, and San Diego.
One is a classic milk tea with boba, the second is an iced coffee with boba, and the third is a vanilla shake with brown sugar boba.
Boba chains are expanding. The global bubble tea market was valued at $2.29 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from $2.46 billion in 2023 to $4.08 billion by 2030, according to Fortune Business Insights. Fortune projects a combined annual growth rate of 7.5% through 2030. The Asia Pacific market is the largest at $1 billion in 2022.
The largest boba retailers are in Taiwan and China. Bubble tea suppliers are concentrated in Taiwan, where customs reported a 330% increase in sales of boba products in 2021, according to Nextrends Asia. According to The Business Times Newspaper, beverage companies spent $3.7 billion launching milk tea brands. North America has emerged as the second-largest market. Taiwan-based Gong Cha recently opened its 200th US location. Demand in Europe is growing, with Chatime Group (China) and Bubbolitas operating since 2009. African, Middle Eastern, and South and Central American markets trail.
The Jack-in-the-Box teas are priced at $4.74 for 16 oz boba drinks, and the shake is advertised at $6.24, according to Chew Boom.
ESTA’s Launches Tea Barista Foundation Course at World of Coffee, Athens
ESTA Offers Tea Certificates to Coffee Shop Staff
By Dan Bolton
The European Speciality Tea Association (ESTA) will offer an education module to teach coffee shop and café staff the fundamentals of tea service at next week’s World of Coffee event in Athens.
ESTA Executive Director David Veal writes that Tea Barista Foundation is one of the basic modules of the association’s education initiative, the Tea Certification Programme.
ESTA aims to provide the leading authoritative tea education program in Europe and beyond, explains Veal.
“One of my personal and professional goals is to be able to go into a coffee shop, look at the menu, and see specialty tea have equality with specialty coffee in terms of presentation and choice, quality of product and skill, passion and knowledge that the barista can pass on to the customer,” said Veal. The module is an important step in achieving that goal, he added.
The course teaches practical skills, including brewing and tasting tea, and will further cover basic knowledge of tea, hygiene, and workflow behind the bar and touch on customer service skills and menu building.
Tea Barista Foundation can be followed as a 4-hour course in the classroom or two sessions online. To earn a certificate, students must pass an online written exam and receive a positive skills report from the authorized tea certifier teaching the course.
Course Content
Tea vs. Coffee | Tea plant, leaves and beverage | Botanicals | Blends| Storage understanding | Hygiene | Workspace management | Importance of water | Tea Brewing Fundamentals | Brewing Methods | Tea Tasting Tools | Café Management | Common Brewing Tools | Customer Service | Popular tea menu extensions | Learn more…
FEATURES
Dilmah School of Tea 75th Edition, Dilhan C. Fernando on stage.
Teaching Hospitality Pros to Share The Magic of Tea
By Dan Bolton
Dilmah Ceylon Tea CEO Dilhan Fernando was energetic on the Colombo Hilton’s grand ballroom stage, inspiring a room filled with chefs, restauranteurs, and mixologists with insights into the “magic” behind camellia sinensis. This was the 75th edition of the Dilmah School of Tea, a training program which has graduated 6,000 alumni during the past 15 years.
Dilmah Ceylon Tea was founded in 1988 by Dilhan’s father, Merrill, who recently celebrated his 93rd birthday. Merrill was one of six Sri Lankan tea tasters selected in 1950 to replace British tasters following the country’s declaration of independence. Forty years later, Dilmah launched the first native producer-owned brand to offer tea handpicked and packed at its origin. Dilmah teas are authentic, ethically sourced, and packaged unblended; many are sold as single estate and served at some of the world’s finest hotels and resorts.
Fernando recorded this interview between sessions.
Brook37 founder Mou Dasgupta says the new era of tea is not just introducing tea but also explaining how you consume it. We are saying that yes, traditionally, you drink tea from a cup, but why not break the barriers and drink tea from a champagne glass or chill the tea and drink it in a martini glass? Make other drinks using tea. Open up your imagination; don’t be bound by the past. Take our old drink, modernize it, and just do fun things with tea.
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Mou Dasgupta, founder of Brook37 The AtelierMou Dasgupta, founder of Brook37 The Atelier
Elegance Begins with the Leaf
Mou Dasgupta is pursuing her passion for tea after 25 years of trendsetting corporate leadership in the financial services industry. She developed a love for fine-quality tea while living in West Bengal, India, where she attended university in Calcutta. She trained in the sciences and holds a master’s degree in software engineering. “Brook37 is proud to bring fresh thinking and an ethical and sustainable mindset to all we do,” she says. “Our unparalleled tea selection of flavors, aromas, and colors from around the world, along with exquisite packaging, help you choose a positive and aspirational lifestyle.”
Dan Bolton: Thank you for taking the time to talk about your vision of a new era in tea and how it led to the launch of Brook37, a premium brand sourced directly from suppliers in the most famous of India’s tea-growing regions. What are some aspects of this new era?
Mou Dasgupta: In describing a new era of tea, I want to talk about tea reimagined in the USA.
The new era of tea is not just introducing tea. It’s also explaining how you consume tea. So we are saying that yes, traditionally, you drink tea from a cup, but why not break the barriers and drink tea from a champagne glass or chill the tea and drink it in a martini glass? Make other drinks using tea. Open up your imagination; don’t be bound by the past. Take our old drink, modernize it, and do fun things with tea.
That’s how I feel that the younger generation may find it more interesting. When I go to a friend’s house, they offer me Diet or a regular Coke, or maybe a club soda as a non-alcoholic beverage. I want people to offer tea. It is a non-alcoholic beverage with fantastic health values. So, keep our tea caddy next to your wine bottle and open a beautiful tea caddy when your special guests arrive. That’s how I want to position tea.
Dan: You grew up drinking good tea.
Mou: I moved to the USA from a place that is about 300 miles from Darjeeling about 25 years back, and one of my big struggles was to find the high-quality tea that I used to drink before I moved to the USA.
Over here, you can find great coffee stores everywhere, but finding a great tea shop takes a lot of work. Tea is also looked upon as a health drink. It has many health values, but I want to make people understand that tea can bring people together. Tea can reconnect people and rejuvenate; it’s a drink that can elevate the moment, and it’s a non-alcoholic drink with value like fine wine. And you know, in wine, the quality of the grapes, the soil, and the weather drive how the taste and the flavor will vary. Darjeeling tea is exactly like that. I want to make people aware. I want them to taste Darjeeling tea and see that it’s a different drink altogether.
Dan: Many brands position themselves as premium, but only a few succeed in conveying the elegance visible in your color palette, your choice of tins, and a clever pairing of an engraved traditional silver-plated infuser with a modern silver measuring spoon in your gift set Will you discuss your view on what makes a tea premium?
Mou: First, elegance starts with the look of the tea leaves. A high-quality tea leaf is not dust. It’s a long, beautiful leaf, and it is rolled to perfection. It’s dried to perfection. It’s hand-picked at the perfect time. Recently, on a trip to Darjeeling, I noticed a tea leaf plucked before the rain could taste and smell different than a leaf plucked after the rain. It’s the elegance of flavor. It’s the elegance of taste.
To that, we added silver accessories. When you drink a high-quality Scotch or a single malt, you could drink it from a plastic cup, but most drink it from a beautiful crystal glass. High-quality Darjeeling tea demands that kind of setting. It is more than just flavor and not just the tea’s color. It’s also the accessories, all of them, that elevate the moment.
That’s where beautiful packaging comes in and where the look of the tea matters. So that people feel it’s a beautiful moment that they’re creating, whether it’s with their children, whether it’s with their grandchildren, whether it’s their significant other, or by themselves. Tea is an elevation of the moment — any moment.
Dan: You have a wonderful founding story. You first found success as a software engineer, angel investor, and executive director of JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley before directing your talents to tea.
Mou: My primary inspiration is that for 25 years, I have been looking for this kind of tea. I had a very hard time finding Darjeeling tea like the tea that I enjoyed in India. In our Country, in the USA, the tea comes through many hands a lot of the time, and every time you open a bag, the quality of the tea goes down.
When I left my job and decided I wanted to do something on my own, something more meaningful, tea kept coming back to me.
I realized this was an opportunity because all the best quality teas get picked up by Germany by Japan right away from Darjeeling. In most cases, they don’t come to our country. We are deprived of that highest quality. Brook37 is buying exclusive small lots of seven to ten kilos of the best Darjeeling offers.
That’s what drove me. I don’t want to just bring the tea; I want to bring the whole experience with it. We call ourselves the Chanel of tea because we present tea as a high-end beverage that celebrates life. We have created a brand that will catch everyone’s attention, all the sensorial organs, the look, smell, touch, and feel all of it together. That’s what inspired me.
I didn’t want a company that was all about money or finance. It was not a motivating factor for me. I wanted to have a responsible company. There is a saying that we do not inherit nature or the environment from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
I didn’t want a company that was all about money or finance. It was not a motivating factor for me. I wanted to have a responsible company. There is a saying that we do not inherit nature or the environment from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
The environment that I’m borrowing from my children, I want to give it back in good shape in a conscious way. From day one, we have been building a conscious brand, plastic-neutral, biodegradable, and reusable packaging, certified by 1% by the planet, etc. It must be empowering, and it must be socially conscious.
“There is a saying that ‘we do not inherit this earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’ I want to give back in good shape the environment we have borrowed from our children.”
– Mou Dasgupta
Dan: Will you share your inspiration for creating a women-led team with listeners?
Mou: It’s not a conscious decision. I didn’t come in saying that I was only going to hire women. But 90 percent of the people working in our brand are women. We found the best talents who happen to be women. The best tea pluckers are women, and the best tea packaging laborers are women. Our tea sommelier happens to be a woman. Our photographer and videographer is a woman. Even our marketer and our social media leads are women. I just happened to have a team of women I found to be the best at their work.
By elevating Darjeeling tea, we also elevate the people back in Darjeeling. It’s with pride that we produce one of the best teas in the world. I want them to share that sense of pride. Darjeeling should be a name that stands above the rest, not just a tea; it is a distinguished beverage, and hopefully, Brooke37 will give that to them.
Dan: Will you discuss sourcing? That’s a challenge in Darjeeling right now, with many of the 87 registered estates in distress, several recently acquired, and all experiencing an overall decline in production from around 10 million kilos 10 years ago to six million kilos in recent years.
Mou: My primary goal is to bring the best quality tea in my country to the USA. And it is not to promote Darjeeling’s biggest tea growers or tea estates. It’s really to work with anybody who is growing high-quality tea.
We are looking for small growers. We’re looking for entrepreneurs innovating new types of teas and bringing them here at a good price. I do feel that, at times, the prices are compromised. When someone gives 70% to 80% off the price of tea, that is just dust of Darjeeling tea, and calls them Darjeeling, they are diminishing Darjeeling tea to the world. Sometimes the price paid at the back end is too low and unfair to the tea growers.
We are ready to pay $100 for a bottle containing five glasses of fine wine but not ready to pay $100 for 40-50 cups of the finest tea. If we don’t elevate Darjeeling to that point, people in the back end will always suffer.
I alone don’t have the power to eliminate poverty in Darjeeling. I make sure that I at least do my part. I promote their work, I promote their tea, and I promote their small businesses because I am also a small business owner.
