• Q|A Supriya Sahu

    A money-losing federation of small grower co-operatives in Tamil Nadu, the largest of its kind in India with a history dating to 1965, languished for decades before Supriya Sahu emerged as a leader with a singular message: produce tea that builds the lives of farmers and a better future. “That’s our ambition, to transform an organization that was a sleeping giant into one that can show the world that a small growers’ organization can be the best among the best,” she says.

    Supriya Sahu, managing director of INDCOSERVE in Tamil Nadu
    Tasting Room
    Tea tasting at INDCOSERVE

    Awakening a Sleeping Giant

    Supriya Sahu arrived in the Nilgiris in 2019 to head INDCOSERVE, a cooperative of tea farmers started by the government of Tamil Nadu. In less than two years, she has turned this 55-year-old loss-making cooperative into a profitable one. INDCOSERVE’s 30,000 small farmers and 16 tea factories produce 14 million kilos per year, with a newly launched retail range. We talk to Sahu about how she has pulled this ambitious and audacious plan that can well serve as a blueprint for small growers across the country.

    Aravinda Anantharaman: This is your second deputation in the Nilgiris. When was the first one? And how did the second one come about? What did you do between these two deputations to the Nilgiris?

    Spuriya Sahu: The first one was 20 years back, between 1999-2002, when I was posted as the Collector of the district. I worked for the government of India for almost 10 years. I worked mostly in the ministry of information and broadcasting where I looked after the policy aspects of broadcasting, basically the licensing of the television channels and community radio and content regulation on television channels, et cetera. Those were my earlier assignments. After that, I was posted as Director General, Doordarshan. After competing 10 years, it was time to do something at the grassroots. Tamil Nadu government was kind enough to post me here because there was an opportunity to work with the farmers. So having worked at the policy level for a very long time, I think it was very important, interesting to touch base with the ground reality to see what’s happening in the field.

    Aravinda: When you took over managing INDCOSERVE, where was it at? What did you inherit?

    Supriya: Basically it’s like a sleeping giant. That’s what I’m telling my team all the time. That it is like a sleeping giant and we are awakening it slowly. It has a huge potential and it could be a game changer in the tea industry. I am saying this because of many reasons.

    One, I think our greatest strength is that we are a cooperative. It is a democratically elected institution. INDCOSERVE is not headed by officers, but by farmers themselves. How many organisations can boast of that? The chairman of INDCOSERVE is a small farmer himself. We have 16 factories. Each factory has a board and the board is headed by a small farmer. How does it help? It helps because then they have a direct role to play in whatever they do. Almost all these small growers have been with us for more than 20 years, 30 years; we are doing enrolment of new members, which is a continuous process.

    If profitable, as a very large player in the sector, we can be a game changer for the tea industry. Because we can set standards and benchmark us, which we were not doing earlier. With all due respect to my colleagues before me, I think most of them were holding the position as an additional charge. They were managing it remotely, sitting at Chennai or elsewhere. You did not have such a senior officer managing it from the headquarters. And that makes a lot of difference because you are there 24 by 7 to handle the affairs of the institution.

    Aravinda: How is INDCOSERVE set up?

    Supriya: It’s a cooperative federation. There are 16 factories affiliated to us. INDCOSERVE was set up by the government in 1965. Then the first factory was inaugurated at Kundah. Over a period of time, several factories have come up. We have about 30,000 members, 30,000 small tea growers who are members. That makes us one of the largest tea co-operative federations in Asia. And of course the largest cooperative federation in India. Because you have the bought leaf factories, you have STGs.

    If you look at the North Indian tea sector, it’s mostly estates. There are some small growers also, but they are not affiliated in a cooperative structure. Whereas in South India, it is mostly the bought leaf structure, but like a federation people coming together, working for themselves, this may be the only one in the country.

    Aravinda: The cooperative model is challenging. What were INDCOSERVE’s challenges?

    Supriya: We had several brainstorming sessions with our small growers. I also started something called open house where every Monday, any small grower can drop in here.I wrote about 30,000 letters to small growers, saying that I’m here to serve you. Here is the number to my office, my office address, my email. Please tell me what shall we do. That letter was also very emotional because I also wrote to them as the previous district collector who served them 20 years back. I have that connection with the people of this district.

    We had several rounds of discussions in the field, and then we identified several challenges, which we have documented. The most important challenge was that INDCOSERVE could never emphasise on quality of our teas. We were not even known. Nobody knew about INDCOSERVE as a brand, as an entity.

    Now maintaining quality of tea leaves is a biggest challenge because we are not like a big estate where people can just ask their labourers to pick two leaves and one bud. Here, farmers just pick the leaves and bring it to us. We did not have leaf supervision standards in the factories. That was the biggest challenge we identified. But then, how do you make sure that 30,000 farmers understand how important is the quality of leaves? How do we make them understand that the quality of the leaf has a repercussion on the quality of the tea that we make.

    We did several demonstrations telling our farmers that when you bring this kind of a leaf, this is the tea you produce. We launched something called as a mission quality, which was at three levels: what we will do at the INDCOSERVE level, the factory level and the grower level.

    We started from the grower level. We have about 200 leaf supervisors. They are the people from the community, about 20-30 of them with each factory. Their job is to collect the leaf from the growers bring it to a collection centre, or the grower brings it to the collection centre. The transportation vehicle brings it to the factory. We trained all our leaf supervisors. That was the most critical because whenever a farmer brought the leaves, they were able to demonstrate, that you give this leaf, this is what we will produce. I would say about 55% to 60% of the leaf quality has improved dramatically, thanks to this kind of an interaction which we did at the grower level.

    Then we also had several hours of meetings where we trained small grower representatives. One interesting thing in the Nilgiris, here the Badaga community, who cultivate land, who are the main supplier of tea, is a very cohesive, a very tight knit community. In fact, the entire village is like a family. If they see a value, they will tell everybody in their community to follow it. It’s a discipline, it’s coming together, it’s a team work. So that really helped us.

    At the factory level, they did not have any standard operating procedures at all, no SOPs were in place. We consulted private bought leaf factories. We consulted some private estates like Chamraj. We learned, we went to them, we took our teams to see how a private sector company operates. And it was a huge learning. We took our MDs, we took our Chairman … it was an eye opener. Because they saw that the factories were so clean, so hygienic, so well maintained; packaging was so good, marketing was fantastic. They felt we can do it. So we introduced SOPs, we introduced monitoring of the liquor, we appointed quality officers. We appointed a Chief Quality Officer at the INDCOSERVE level. And at the factory level, we appointed five quality officers monitoring the quality of teas across the factories. They’re all experienced people who have worked in the private sector for a very long time.

    At INDCOSERVE level, we have introduced a weekly and a weekly internal certificate mechanism. We give an internal certificate with quality grades. There is a healthy competition to get the A quality, because we have told them that those who will get the maximum number of these certificates will be eligible for an annual award. We are introducing an award system to incentivise the factories, as well as the MDs.

    These were the major things that we introduced as far as the quality, but then I can go on talking about it because there are many things that we did, in marketing, in building a brand and things like that.

    Aravinda: Just to go back a bit, when you wrote those 30,000 letters, did you get responses from the people?

    Supriya: Many people did. About 35 or 37 called me to say, you have to do this, our factory is not operating at the optimum capacity. Their feedback was so good, so precise. They knew what was happening in the machinery. Many people also said that the tea maker was not good, or that the staff were not paying attention.

    They also had an issue with non settlement of their dues. In fact, that was another major reform, We were not announcing the base price of the green leaf, which means if I am a farmer, I won’t know much money I will be paid upfront. We started announcing the price on first of every month. The farmer knew if I supply my leaf, I will get this. He or she was able to compare it with the private factory.

    We were paying much less than the price determined by the tea board of India. That was not instilling the confidence. I think most of the grievances were attached to this, that they were not getting the base price determined by the Board.

    Many of my factories were making a loss. We took a calculated risk in ensuring that we give the price determined by the board, to be on the right side of the law, and because it’s their right. I’m still happy to say in the last one year, except maybe for two months, we have been able to pay either the tea board rate or above.

    We got more leaf. We’ve been able to operate our factories at an optimum level. It built the confidence of growers in the organization.

    Kattabettu Tea Factory
    Kattabettu Tea Factory

    Aravinda: Was there infrastructure upgrade to the factories?

    Supriya: Most of our factories are 30 to 40 years old, some as old as 50. No upgrade had happened and only some machineries had been upgraded. There has not been an integrated upgrade of the machinery. We have got an upgradation plan as well as funding support from the government of Tamil Nadu and NABARD, under a scheme called as the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund. We have got about INRs 18.5 crore. We are renovating five factories which in the next six months will be state-of-the-art factories.

    Aravinda: What makes up INDCOSERVE’s product portfolio?

    Supriya: So we introduced the Bedford (named for the famous neighbourhood in Coonoor), BlueMont, Honey Hill, Marlimund, which is the local lake here. We introduced about 11 new varieties of tea. Earlier, we had 3, which we are supplying in the Public Distribution System (PDS) system, all three were dust. We just used to sell it through auction centres. For the first time we introduced leaf tea. That market we were not tapping. Plus we came out with a niche product, which is under packaging right now, the Nilgiri kahwa. We experimented, we have patented it. It has green tea, it has almonds, it has got saffron, it has elaichi (cardamom), laung (clove), and it has got rose petals. So now we are in the process of packaging it and bringing it out. So likewise, we are in the process of making a Nilgiri-Madurai jasmine, a mint tea, a masala … these are some of the varieties which are coming soon.

    Aravinda: Why the need to create a brand for INDCOSERVE and not just continue on the auction route?

    Supriya: We realized during our field assessments that we were a hundred percent dependent on the supply in the PDS. We are the largest supplier of teas in the PDS system of the government of Tamil Nadu. That makes us the largest supplier of tea in PDS anywhere in India because we are the only state where our teas are available in ration shops. We supply about 2,000 tons of tea annually through 30,000 shops of the government of Tamil Nadu. That’s our main business, that’s our bread and butter. It’s about 200 tonnes a month. It is very challenging, but then that gives us a very nice market to our famers because the tea that we supply in the PDS is not free. People have to buy it. It’s only an outlet that the government of Tamil Nadu has very kindly provided.

    But our factories were making losses. They did not explore other avenues, newer markets. They were quite content within the space that was made available to them. They were also bringing the tea to only one platform, Tea Serve,  The tea market is volatile; we were vulnerable. Therefore there was a need for us to kind of explore other avenues. Why not explore selling packaged teas, that can be displayed on the shelf. If you want to sell, you have to create a brand.

    We opened the Indco Tea House. We have two now, one at Kattabettu and another at Bedford. We are opening four in Chennai, in the metro stations. We have launched the tea trucks, we are calling them as tea vandis, a tea and a snack shop. This is again a very unique concept coming from a cooperative federation. They are very beautiful vehicles. Five vehicles are already operating and 20 more vehicles are joining our fleet in next three months. They are in Botanical Gardens and Doddabetta, those locations. The new vehicles will go outside the Nilgiris too. They are very popular with tourists because apart from what people want, they also serve wholesome food like thennai mururku, payasam made of samai rice. The local whole foods is also being used, which is healthy and nutritious. And we have partnered with the local Toda tribal group to operate these vehicles.

    Our dream is that we should be like Cafe Coffee Day chain or Starbucks. Why can’t we, a home grown outlet, be like that?

    INDCO’s Tea House

    Aravinda: The shift to making leaf tea, how did that go down with the factories?

    Supriya: I must say that it is much more easy to convince local farmers, and it was easier to convince our growers then to convince the officers. Because I think they have a vision which is much more far reaching. It was not very difficult to convince them because leaf was not selling at all because South India is mostly dust market. So you will find that the dust used to get picked up, but the leaf would not sell or sell at a very low rate.

    Thanks to these efforts, with leaf tea, we almost doubled our turnover in one year. We have almost doubled our farmers’ income. Out of 16 factories, except three, everybody was making loss in 2018-19. Last year, except three, everybody has made profits.

    Another thing we decided to do, which is the game changer for our organization, is we have gone ahead with the international certifications like fair trade. Our fair trade audit got concluded just now. We will know in a week’s time about the audit outcome. Outcome is not important. What is important is the process. We have three of our 16 factories who got trustea certification for the first time. When they went through the process, our farmers and our officers looked at our factories. They looked like they were bombed, they were so dirty with microbial infections, with  people not conscious about the cleanliness, the hygiene, the workers safety, the workers, rights.

    Now all our factories have workers restrooms, excellent toilets, all newly constructed or renovated, clean drinking water, safety gears, boots, shoes, and fire safety.

    When they went through the process, I would say it is an internal journey.

    Why should a government body always be referred to as not producing good quality tea, inferior, not clean? We want to break all these stereotypes. So we have established one model at Kattabettu where the entire factory is better than a private factory, and with our own money.

    When we have also eco-restored the factory, that is another futuristic area we are going to, where we have planted sholas, grasslands. We have created an eco-center within the factory saying that we are located in a biosphere and are responsible for the ecology.

    We have demonstrated to our officers and to our farmers, that, look at it, you have done it. Your organization has done it. So why not others? And others are coming and doing it.

    We have set up teams. There were hardly any people here. We have a separate marketing team. We have a quality team. We have a technical team who looks at all these aspects. We have appointed an Environment officer, somebody who will look at the environmental aspect of our factories. We burn wood which is not good. We need to find alternatives. We are looking at LPG to have the gas-fired factories. We’re looking at the options, like solar. One of our factories at Kaikatti, at converting into a completely solar integrated roof system, making it a carbon neutral manufacturing unit.

    Aravinda: Are you still using the Tea Serve auction platform?

    Supriya: Tea Serve was set up in 2000. An internal study conducted pointed to some bias in selling our teas. There was no electronic platform at that time. Tea Serve was the first electronic auction platform in India. Another reform we brought was on Tea Serve. Tea Serve was operating on outdated software and we were not aligned to the all-India software of the tea board. As a result, our market was limited only to some 15-20 buyers. We migrated to the software platform of the tea board.Now we are at par with any software platform. Earlier we were not taking our teas to any other auction. Today, instead of one, today, we are selling at five auction centres. We are at Kochi, at Coimbatore, at Coonoor auction centres; we are also part of their new experiment with the Japanese auction system. Within a year, we quickly moved over from a very archaic and old system at which we were operating to a dynamic platform and we are aligned with everybody else. Whenever we find that we need to balance the market, we can use this platform. So strategically, I think it’s good to have Tea Serve, but it is not good to confine ourselves only to it.

    We have an all India platform available to us. Definitely our teas are fetching much better than ever before. The average price of tea was never more than INRS 62 to 65. Now, it is never below INRs 100. As a result, we have been able to pay a historical price to other farmers when we paid them in the month of September – 28 rupees per kilo of green tea leaf, which is the highest ever in the history of INDCOSERVE, thanks to all these initiatives being taken.

    Aravinda: Are you making more leaf or more dust tea?

    Supriya: We make about 14 million kilograms of tea every year, all grades of tea, leaf and dust. We adjust according to the market. Whenever the leaf prices are more, we can tweak our manufacturing process to make 60% leaf and 40% dust. All these things have been brought into the system now. So there is a market consciousness, market intelligence.

    Aravinda: Are you making green teas?

    Supriya: Not yet, but our factory is getting ready to make orthodox and orthodox green teas. We were not even making orthodox until now.

    Aravinda: Is India the market or is export also part of the plan?

    Supriya: Export is definitely a very big thing on our agenda this year. If we are looking at improving our farmers’ income, if we really want to play an important role in their livelihood, improving further their livelihood opportunities, then I think we need to find markets abroad.

    Thanks to COVID, we have not been able to really travel and do that kind of market exploration. But, recently we have appointed an export consultant, on a part-time basis to help us look at the export market. Very good inquiries have come in and we are pursuing them.

    Aravinda: What’s the brand INDCOSERVE story?

    Supriya: If I put myself in my farmers’ shoes, then our story would be that we want to produce a tea which is sustainable, which is ethical and, which goes … these words are very commonly used, like empowerment … but we really mean that we want to produce a tea, which builds the lives of farmers towards a better future. From an organization that was a sleeping giant to one that can show the world that a small growers’ organization can be the best among the best, that’s  what our ambition is.

    Aravinda: Is tea farming of interest to the Badaga youth now? Will this stop the migration to the cities?

    Supriya: With the organic cultivation that we are promoting now, we are registering our farmers to move towards the organic cultivation in the next 3-4 years. That is the plan. I think the young people are getting interested in this new and niche areas. If the factories are old, the machinery is dilapidated, if there is no technology, we cannot attract young people, they will not find any value in it. So we are renovating our factory, we are modernising our machines, We are moving towards eco-friendly technologies like LPG, solar. We are also moving towards a massive digitisation. We have launched a growers’ app. I mentioned to you some time back about the annual awards. We are introducing the young tea grower award. We want them them come into the boards during the election. That’s when change will happen. We want young farmers to come. They will come only when they look at the factory and say, it’s next gen.

    Aravinda: What has turning profitable meant?

    Supriya: We are not looking at profitability only in terms of money. We are looking at it in terms of what role we played for the people for whom we were established. For us, profitability will be in those areas, look at the UN sustainability goals – poverty, hunger. Did you provide livelihood opportunities? Did you reduce their vulnerability to situations like Covid?

    Yes, we did. During Covid, we were the only cooperative, only factories operating with all precautions, because there was a huge demand for tea from various other states, especially from Kerala. Where we supplied 2000 tonnes in a year, we supplied it in 21 days to Kerala. None of our farmers had to borrow. None of our farmers had to face the brunt of Covid. That is where our profitability, our existence matters. Did you reduce the vulnerability of your farmer to  unprecedented crisis like Covid. That’s where we played a very important role.

    We are very proud about the fact that when this order was asked, whether we will be able to do it, within three days, all the farmers, they sprung into action. We opened up factories, supported by the government of Tamil Nadu. Farmers bore the gloves, the masks, the sanitation, and the medical checkup. We were the only people working. We worked through the entire COVID period and we fulfilled our commitment and earned INR 21crores, which we distribute it to our farmers. I think, this is where the real profitability or the success of an organization lies, when you are able to support your farmers in situations like this.

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    Aravinda Anantharaman

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  • Timely Tea Delivery

    Early harvests in China, India, and Kenya sent new teas to market early this year – a fortunate head-start. Unlike last year, labor availability is good despite COVID-19 restraints, tea regions report fine weather, and orderly processing is raising expectations of a bountiful crop. In this segment Jason Walker, spokesperson for Firsd Tea, the US division of the largest green tea supplier in the world, discusses two remaining challenges impeding timely tea delivery.

    Jason Walker on obstacles to timely tea delivery.
    Map shows ships idled for days waiting a berth at ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, Calif.

    Finally Under Way

    Early harvests in China, India, and Kenya sent new teas to market early this year – a fortunate head-start. Unlike last year, labor availability is good despite COVID-19 restraints, tea regions report fine weather, and orderly processing is raising expectations of a bountiful crop. Two hurdles remain. Transport is stretched to the breaking point as reinvigorated economies stir from pandemic weariness. The second hurdle is cost. Wholesalers, retailers, and importers that last year bore the weight of spiking prices must now make up for lost earnings. Expect significant price increases for both specialty and commodity teas for the foreseeable future.

    Tea Biz: COVID-19 and the chaos of lockdowns this time last year presented unique delivery challenges. Describe how the logistical hurdles differ for the 2021 harvest.

    Jason Walker: We did see locations and origins that either could not get any tea out at all, or we saw that they could not get anything out on their regular schedule. There were multiple variations of disruption that were happening last year.

    For example: Some growing areas in China saw a shortage of workers to harvest the spring crop. Then you may have packing or processing facilities that were locked down or running a skeleton crew. On top of that- even if your workforce could pluck, process, and pack on schedule, shipments could still be hindered

    This year we are seeing a more steady flow. We are seeing harvests started earlier. Compared to last year things look like they’re much more on track. Especially in terms of harvest and processing/packing

    In October the dollar costs of shipping really started to ratchet up.

    Things were behind schedule.Then we started to see there was an inadequate supply of either ships or containers.  Things were piled up because of ports that had been closed. Port closures caused shipping routes to get rearranged, and it took time to re-position and resume normal flow.

    Then you had increased demand for online retail. Lots of new equipment and personal items were getting shipped. People who used to spend their money on a on a dinner out now buying exercise equipment and things like that. You just have more stuff trying to get on the water at the same time. 

    It takes months for all that to shift back into what it was. Containers were not even available for weeks sit at ports waiting for days or weeks just to get loaded onto a ship. 

    I tracked one of our ship’s on Vessel Finder just to see where it was day by day.

    I had heard the stories of logjams at LA and Long Beach ports, the online vessel tracking service let me see just how our shipments might be impacted. By taking a screenshot daily, I saw how our shipment waited in a line of ships offshore for about 7-8 days before being cleared to dock and unload.

    Every single day we saw it just sitting there waiting its turn to get unloaded.

    Then we began hearing stories that some of those ships were returning empty because the rates for East Asia into Western US were four times the going rate.

    We are seeing still seeing some of that.

    We had to share some of that burden of costs with our customers. 

    Tea Biz: In 2020 importers, wholesalers, and retailers eased the price shock for consumers by absorbing some of the sharp increase in transportation costs. This year prices are expected to rise with retailers promoting pre-orders and fewer free shipping offers. What advice can you offer to reduce the cost of transporting tea.

    Jason Walker: We have been trying to encourage our customers and everyone out there to make their best projections that we can know roughly when you need it. That helps everybody along the line prioritizing the order. It also average out. You may pay higher rates now, but may be able to offset that later as the cost of things goes down and we all can adjust our prices.

    Projections essentially help ease the strain on the logistics chain. Container shipments, warehouses, and truckers are better equipped to send and receive the right amounts of product while compensating for delays caused by a strained system. The alternatives are to either overprepare (potentially overwhelming the system), or under-prepare and risk being left without. We recognize it can be tough to make projections in these unparalleled circumstances but the benefits outweigh the costs. Depending on the size of the customer and their orders, clients are providing 6-month or quarterly projections. As a result we have seen fewer interruptions due to better planning. Observers in ocean freight, major ports, and domestic trucking all indicate the overall instability may continue until late spring or early summer.

    Firsd Tea has been tracking and sharing updates we receive from logistics partners and sharing that via our newsletter and blog:

    Shipageddon: Plan Ahead
    Shipageddon: Continues Through Chinese New Year
    Shipageddon: November Update

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  • Tales of the Tea Trade

    “It was at this point that Mr. Toshiro gestured me to push my hand into the soil, which I did until I was past his elbow; the light, aerated soil offered little resistance. On removing my arm I was instructed to taste the soil, which I did without hesitation. How could something that was growing such healthy plants be anything but good for me? It tasted sweet, soft and gritty. If it hadn’t been gritty, I would probably have gone back for another handful.” (Page 23)

    Tales of the Tea Trade Book Review
    Review at a glance
    Tales of the Tea Trade

    Intensely Human and Heartfelt

    “It was at this point that Mr. Toshiro gestured me to push my hand into the soil, which I did until I was past his elbow; the light, aerated soil offered little resistance. On removing my arm I was instructed to taste the soil, which I did without hesitation. How could something that was growing such healthy plants be anything but good for me? It tasted sweet, soft and gritty. If it hadn’t been gritty, I would probably have gone back for another handful.” (Page 23)

    That’s a quote from Tales of the Tea Trade by Michelle and Rob Comins.  Voted our favourite book of the year in October 2020 by Tea Book Club members. I’m Kyle Whittington from the UK and founder of Tea Book Club, we are an international group of tea lovers and readers who meet up online each month to discuss tea books. 

    Tales of the tea trade was also shortlisted for the Andre Simmons Book Awards in 2020. 

    Here are my thoughts:

    After a general but thoughtfully written introduction to tea and its types (pages 6-55), Michelle and Rob take us on a journey to the different countries they source their tea from (pages 56-183). Taking turns to voice the stories, we hear from both Michelle and Rob, as well as the fascinating people they’ve met on their travels. This book is intensely human and heartfelt. You really feel a connection with Michelle and Rob, their love of tea, the places they go and the people they meet. 

    The book is thoughtfully laid out so you know right away who is speaking and can easily pick out the stories from tea people alongside interesting asides such as baking their own oolong (page 38)  and people’s relationships with tea. Countries are arranged in chronological order based on when they started growing and producing tea, a different and thoughtful approach. The book is easy to hop in and out of, reading sections that interest you, if you’re not a cover-to-cover reader. Overall a pleasure to read and a must add to any tea bookshelf. 

    Thoughts and comments from Tea Book Club members:

    “I truly enjoyed the whole book” (Nadine, UK)

    “I absolutely love the way they outlined the book, the flow and I love the bits at the end, such as the meditation (pages 187-189). A lovely way to finish it.” (Jin, USA)

    “I think it’s wonderful, it’s almost like meeting those people. I want to drink all of these teas. They really showcase the people and the teas. It’s not about them telling, it’s about the people and the teas.” (Nadine, UK)

    “Definitely the storytelling, the personal connection. They put a face to the tea, they put people to the tea.” (Alison, UK)

    “Peoples attitudes and passions about where they came to tea from, why they were doing it.” (Laura, UK)

    “I really enjoyed the chapter on Korean tea (pages 100-113). I’ve never had Korean tea before, so it was really nice to immerse myself in that world.” (Jin, USA)

    Harvest Schedule

    “I like the table where you can see and compare the different harvest times depending on where they are and the different names of the picking seasons depending on where they are (page 30).” (Kristine, Sweden)

     “It was really nice for me reading about my friend in Nepal (pages 156-165). I didn’t read it from end to end, just hopped on and off reading different sections.” (Elke, Germany)

    “I love in the Chinese chapter about the clay and the pot making (page 80) and how they’re using different types of clay for different types of tea. For me it’s new and I haven’t really tasted the differences between using different teas and different clay.” (Kristine, Sweden)

    Some things that came out of the book:

    It made people more appreciative of the farmers, the work they put in, and their care for the tea. 

    Made them feel more mindful about the teas they buy. 

    Another reader commented: “Something that really got my attention was on tea preparation. They wrote that to taste tea really well requires people to have a quiet and compassionate heart. A good reminder that tea requires one to be peaceful.” (Greta, Sweden)

    You can purchase the Tales of the Tea Trade directly from cominstea.com or, of course, on Amazon

    If you’d like to join us for next read, visit teabookclub.org or @joinTeaBookClub on Instagram. 

    Kyle Whittington
    Kyle Whittington

    Comins Tea

    Michelle and Rob Comins, as well as authoring this wonderful book, own and run Comins Tea, a direct-trade fine tea merchant, with teahouses in the city of Bath and the picturesque town of Sturminster Newton in Dorset, UK. Definitely well worth a visit if you’re in the area or visiting the UK. I had the most wonderful afternoon at their Bath teahouse with friends a couple of years ago tasting a range of delicious teas (I couldn’t resist leaving with several teas and some wonderful teaware of course). With lockdowns in the UK this last year they have been doing loads of great stuff online, so check out their tea school and programs on offer on their website [www.cominstea.com]. — Kyle Whittington

    Michelle and Rob Comins
    Michelle and Rob Comins

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  • Maruyama: 21st Century Japanese Tea Production

    Maruyama Fields Shizuoka
    Meticulously groomed Maruyama Tea farm in Shizuoka, Japan

    Production Fields are Mechanically Harvested

    By Ian Chun | Yunomi Life

    With clockwork precision, the Shinkansen—Japan’s Bullet Train—smoothly pulled in to the Kakegawa train station. The trip from Tokyo to the heart of Japan’s tea production region operated with the characteristic technological sophistication that is this country’s trademark. While the image of tea leaf pluckers wandering among ordered rows of tea plants (beneath the benevolent gaze of the majestic Mount Fuji) pervade industry advertising, the foundation of Japan’s tea industry has been its incorporation of new technology. It has been apparent in the incorporation of shading in the cultivation of tea leaves in the 16th century, to the development of steaming and rolling in 1738 by Nagatani Souen, to the invention of machines to mechanize the laborious six-hour sencha hand-rolling process by Takabayashi Kenzo in the late 19th century.

    In the late 20th century, as Japan urbanized and the farm worker population plunged, as the average age of farmers crept upward to 68 years old in 2020, the development and incorporation of new technologies to maintain productivity and quality has been important to the health of the tea industry.

    In the fields, we see tractor like tea trimmers and harvesters, in the modern processing factories, the machinery allows for the finest adjustments to account for differences in the leaves, and in the daily weather — the craft of tea creation combined with technology to supply an entire nation.

    Perhaps the area of development that gets the least attention are the technologies used to preserve tea quality. Hashimoto Naoyuki, international sales director at Maruyama Tea in Kakegawa, Shizuoka, explained the technology behind the refiner and wholesaler’s tea quality. “Green tea,” he explains, “still has about 5% moisture content in the leaf when we purchase it from the production factories. We need to store it at low temperature or the flavor quality will go bad in a few months after harvest.”

    Maruyama installed its first -25C refrigerator in 1996. Hashimoto-san showed me a few of their storage facilities where the rooms are ordered in levels of temperature — 10C to 0C to -20C. Asked if there is an ideal temperature for tea storage, he replied, “The colder the better, but colder temperatures require more energy and so has a higher maintenance cost.”

    He pointed to the large fans at the ceiling blowing in the sub-zero air.

    “And when you remove the tea, you need to do it in stages. Japanese summers are very humid so you have to slowly acclimate the leaf to room temperature before handling it.”

    The tea leaves at this state is called aracha, literally “rough tea”; it is tea at its unfinished state, and besides removing stems and broken leaf bits to refine the aracha, Maruyama Tea’s facility also green roasts the leaf (in Japanese hi-ire, pronounced “hee-ee-reh”). By controlling the roasting time and temperature, refiners are able to add different levels of sweet toastiness to a green tea leaf. More importantly, the reduction of the moisture content in the leaf to 1-2% guarantees that the leaf quality will last for at least a year on store shelves without significant decline in quality. This process allows the manufacturer to prepare (green roast) leaf at anytime after harvest to start the clock for maximum quality. After green roasting, the leaves are nitrogen flushed and vacuum packed to remove as much oxygen as possible to maintain best quality, and placed back into the refrigerated storage rooms to await shipment.

    The other very impressive aspect of Maruyama’s facilities is the level cleanliness— the FSSC22000 level cleanliness, a food safety standard, requires workers to dress in protective suits, and undergo an air shower before entering the clean room environment for leaf processing and packaging. This helps to ensure a sanitary, dust-free environment for refining tea and grinding matcha.

    • Kakegawa, Shizuoka
    • Matcha grinder
    • Tasting room
    • Tea is harvested both mechanically and by hand.

    Yakuji Maruyama Tsuyomatsu, the founder of Maruyama Japanese Tea, learned his tea making skills working for Kyoyeki-Sha prior to establishing Maruyama Tea in 1933. Maruyama has always believed in creating a cupful of tradition and innovation. This philosophy led the company to work with local farmers to master deep-steam sencha, a Kakegawa cultivar shaded for a few days prior to harvest and then steamed for 45- to 60-seconds to make Fukamushi Sencha. President and heir Katsuhisa Maruyama continues the company’s tradition of technological innovation.

    A canopy of traditional grass forces tea leaves to produce additional polyphenols and healthful catechins.

    Matcha is a mainstay for Germany’s Wollenhaupt Tee

    Marco Sinram, head of tea trading at Wollenhaupt, a Hamburg-based supplier of Japanese tea, writes that family-owned Wollenhaupt and Maruyama share a similar ownership structure and philosophy in management style.

    Wollenhaupt

    Wollenhaupt imports Japanese teas exclusively from Maruyama. “Since 2018 we have entered ever-closer cooperation to focus on promoting Japanese teas to the western markets,” said Sinram. Wollenhaupt, founded in 1881 and Maruyama, founded in 1933, retain traditional values and time-honored practices while embracing technology and production efficiency.

    Last year Wollenhaupt constructed a large volume, cold-chain distribution hub to ensure timely tea delivery on short notice. Tencha, processed in Japan using traditional horticultural practices, is ground only when it needs to be packed against an order. Until then, it remains as the raw material, stored at minus 20°C,” said Sinram.

    He explained that Maruyama’s ability to nitrogen flush and vacuum pack tea is critical to meeting the expectations of beverage and culinary matcha clients in 70 countries. Shipments arrive every eight weeks. On arrival Wollenhaupt refrigerates teas at a constant temperature below 8°C. Container lots and a regular shipping schedule lower costs, and “stock never stays too long. This ensures absolute fresh quality to the customer,” writes Sinram. 

    Learn more at www.wollenhaupt.com.

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  • Drink Plants | Enshi Floods

    Tea Industry News for the week of July 20

    • Drink Plants
    • Tea Outlook Promising
    • New Teatulia Tea CEO
    • Enshi Floods
    • Bigelow Wellness
    An all-plant tea assortment of green and black tea, floral, fruit, and berry botanicals.

    Drink Plants

    “Consumers across all generations are re-shaping the landscape for beverage product development,” according to a Cargill Insights Report titled Blending, Brewing, and Blurring the Lines… Creating a New Breed of Beverages.

    “Traditional beverage categorizations are losing relevance, which is blurring the lines of classic categories and creating opportunities—especially for coffee and tea manufacturers—to meet these demands at the expense of soft drinks,” Cargill writes.

    Tea is the go-to beverage in the nonalcoholic market which is estimated at $854 billion globally. Euromonitor estimates the value of RTD (ready-to-drink) tea at $67 billion globally.

    “Beverages that are inherently functional have seen growing momentum, which has paved the way for new beverage products touting specific health benefits, according to The Hartman Group’s report, “Modern Beverage Culture.” Consumers are increasingly conscious of beverage calories, and they now want a drink to do more—such as provide energy, added protein, or provide other nutritional benefits,” according to the Insights Report.

    “Millennials are the poster children of this new beverage era. Their demands and aspirations are driving much of this emerging beverage culture,” according to The Hartman Group. A consumer survey by Hartman reveals “nearly three in four millennials (73%) always have a beverage on hand, compared to Gen Xers (63%) and Boomer (58%).”

    Cargill Report: Note the desire for more tea (22%)

    “Millennials say that beverages play an important role in their health and wellness and that they like beverages to do something — such as provide energy or nutrients,” according to Cargill. “The win-win may be to address consumers’ changing and variable aspirations for beverage consumption with new drinks that mix both function and fun (think tea-beer combos or hard kombucha). These products will likely see a growing appeal, especially among younger consumers,” according to Cargill.

    “More than half of consumers are now using products made with plant-based ingredients, and this trend is only going to increase,” according to Cargill. “Powerhouse beverage categories like coffee and tea are leading the way by working to provide new consumption options while addressing health and wellness trends. Coffee and tea have existing health halos; they have been able to capitalize on this to support the creation of healthier energy drinks, while also serving as a better-for-you flavoring or mixer in high-end cocktails.”

    Tea on Trend

    Non-alcoholic beverages will generate $10 billion more in sales this year, reaching $160 billion, according to market research contained in The U.S. Beverage Market Outlook 2020.

    Proprietory surveys by Packaged Facts show significant changes in retail channel trends and consumer motivations across eight retail channels.

    “Despite the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, large segments of the U.S. food and beverage industry have managed to balance losses in the foodservice sector with gains on the retail side as consumers even now continue to shift their food and beverage spending from restaurants to stocking groceries at home,” according to Packaged Facts.

    “We predict sales will spike in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus but will likely decline in 2021 as demand reverts back to more normal levels before returning to typical growth patterns from 2022 to 2024,” says Jennifer Mapes-Christ, food industry publisher for Packaged Facts. The study predicts US nonalcoholic beverage sales of $170 billion in 2024.

    Plant-Based Beverages are Trending

    Plant-based beverages are a hot trend in the market as consumers increasingly integrate plant-based foods and drinks into their diets, according to Packaged Facts.

    What’s driving new interest in the segment:

    ? consumer demand for healthier, natural products

    ? consumer demand for more and better protein sources

    ? the consumer perception that plant-based food is more environmentally sustainable

    ? the increasing number of people who identify as flexitarians, consuming more vegetarian or vegan meals but not exclusively eating that way

    The report also cites the popularity of functional and wellness beverages, specifically tea.

    “As with all food categories, consumers are demanding more from beverages. Beyond reduced sugar and cleaner labels, people want drinks to make them feel better, stay healthier, and perform at higher levels. The coronavirus pandemic has further elevated people’s desire for products that help keep them healthy. Immunity-boosting products and ingredients had been trending over the last several years already and have been jumping off the shelves as people look to stay healthy amidst the coronavirus pandemic,” according to the report.

    “Turmeric has been perhaps the hottest ingredient to boost immunity and is a cornerstone of many new products, along with ingredients such as ginger and Echinacea. Beyond these, marketers continue to enhance drink functionality with ingredients such as antioxidants, adaptogens, vitamins, probiotics, Coenzyme Q10, and BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids),” according to the report.

    Click here to obtain a copy.

    Teatulia Names New CEO

    Co-founder Linda Appel Lipsius is stepping down as CEO of Teatulia Organic Teas. COO Tim Bradley will take her place.

    Denver-based Teatulia, founded in 2006, partners with growers in Bangladesh to supply organic teas and herbs used in making a range of hot teas, iced teas, and canned teas, including a newly introduced sparkling soda sold in foodservice and grocery.

    The company also operates the Teatulia Tea & Coffee Bar next to its Denver, Colo., headquarters.

    “Lipsius has built a universally-respected brand known for doing things better: From the 3,000-acre regenerative garden itself to Teatulia’s stunningly sustainable packaging to the long list of awards Teatulia has received for quality and using business as a force for good,” according to the company.

    Bradley previously worked 10 years as COO at Open Road Snacks in Centennial, Colo. He joined Teatulia in July 2017. A former consultant, he is endorsed for his work in sales and marketing and brand management.

    “We are grateful beyond words for her contributions over her many years at the helm, and excited to foster the mission and continue the growth Linda nurtured as founder and CEO,” writes Bradley.

    “Linda and I have worked together for the last three years to create a team that is truly positioned to take this company to new heights,” he said.

    Lipsius credited “a mighty team of the most passionate, creative, tenacious and intelligent individuals I have ever known” for the company’s success during her tenture, as well as “my most extraordinary partners throughout the journey – Kazi Anis Ahmed, Kazi Inam Ahmed, and Kazi Nabil Ahmed MP.”

    Submerged street buses in Enshi, China. Massive flooding eases Chinese drought.

    Too Much Rain Relief

    The tea-growing region drained by the Lancang (Mekong) River is humid, with annual rainfall greater than 800 millimeters annually, yet a 10-year drought persists. Last year the region received 888.4 millimeters of rainfall according to meteorologists, but 180 reservoirs remain bone dry and 100 rivers ceased flowing as of April 15, according to the Yunnan Water Resource Department.

    Near constant rainfall since the beginning of the month promises relief but at a high cost. On July 3 Kunming was drenched, leading to several deaths, and the displacement of thousands as well as significant crop loss along the Baishui river (which rose 27-feet overnight).

    Enshi, the center of tea production in Hubei Province, has seen the worst flooding in decades with 10,000 along the Yangtze River trapped in their homes. Damage is estimated at $11.5 billion with 28,000 homes lost. The water level at the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric facility, is 50 feet above its flood-limit level with inflows of 61 million liters a second, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

    Yunnan, which is home to 46 million people, sits on a rugged mountainous plateau sloping from the northern highlands south. During the period 1950 to 2012, the Province, experienced 59 drought years, half considered severe.

    Droughts have occurred more frequently in recent years, a condition attributed to global climate change. More than 80% of Yunnan’s rainfall now occurs during the period of May through October. Winters are dry and getting warmer. There is insufficient capacity in reservoirs to supply agricultural needs during periods of unusually high temperatures. The drought, which began in June 2019 resulted in shortages of drinking water in Menghai County and lowered yields of Pu’er by a third according to some growers.

    In past years the north and eastern sections of the province were more susceptible to dry weather. Now the tea-rich hills in the southwest are hardest hit. Annual precipitation in the Lancang River basin in 2019 was 680.4 mm, according to the China Meteorological Agency. The total is about 25% less than its long-term average, according to a report by CGTN.

    A studio published in the journal Ambio reveals that during the period 1978-1996, cultivated land increased 6.1% (167,400 hectares) in Yunnan. A report describing the impact of droughts on reservoirs and streamflow found the frequency of severe and exceptional droughts in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin has increased over the past 119 years, and all countries in the upstream and downstream of the basin have been severely affected. 

    As the downpour continues, Song Lianchun, director of China’s National Climate Center, told reporters that the number of days of heavy rain in China has risen by roughly 4% each decade over the past six decades.

    New line of cold water infused botanicals from the Bigelow Tea Company

    Bigelow Botanicals

    Bigelow Tea® has introduced a new line of cold water infused botanicals. Bigelow Botanicals™ Cold Water Infusions use real fruit and herbal combinations to inspire everyone to stay healthy and hydrated throughout the day, according to the company. The infusions are a “healthy alternative to sugary drinks, are zero-calorie, caffeine-free, and contain no artificial anything.”

    Easily infused by the glass or on-the-go, tea drinkers simply place a tea bag in cold water for a few minutes, squeeze the bag and stir, or leave in for more flavor.

    Bigelow Tea uses only high-quality ingredients and has specially curated the following botanical infusions that slowly come alive once cold water is added. Flavors include:

    • Watermelon Cucumber Mint
    • Blackberry Raspberry Hibiscus
    • Cranberry Lime Honeysuckle
    • Blueberry Citrus Basil
    • Strawberry Lemon Orange Blossom

    To ensure each cold-water infusion makes a positive impact on the environment Bigelow uses minimal packaging and no plastic bottles (waste reduction is a top priority at this certified B Corporation). The overwrap used to hold each bag works to keep each flavor fresh until sipped by the glass or used with reusable water bottles for the on-the-go consumer.

    Cindi Bigelow, third-generation president & CEO writes that “With today’s growing awareness and need to live a healthy lifestyle, we created these beautiful cold water infusion blends to support your wellness choices.”

    “It’s truly unlike anything else and really does help you to drink more water throughout the day,” writes Bigelow. The range is gluten-free and non-GMO. The botanicals are sold in boxes of 18 individually-wrapped bags at a suggested retail price of $3.99, about 22-cents per serving.

    Learn more at www.bigelowtea.com.

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