Sumidagawa Brewing.
Image: Yumi Nakatsugwa

Asahi YOU. US, Ltd has found an innovative way to further the circular economy. The wholly owned subsidiary of Asahi Group Japan, Ltd, was established in January 2022 with a focus on sustainable products and activities, not only within the Asahi Group but also in collaboration with municipalities, universities as well as other business entities. Coffee and tea companies are now benefitting from two of its craft beers, Kuramae Black and Sayama Green, which are using coffee and green tea remnants or by-products that are infused into the beer.

Kuramae Black is a coffee-blended stout beer, named Kuramae after the location of Asahi’s initial product partner, Ennoki coffee roastery. The company hopes Kuramae Black will become popular among the local community and be recognised as a special product of the region. As a coffee roaster, Ennoki conducts test roasts before finalising the roasting profile of each coffee bean. They were concerned that there was nothing to do with the remaining test-roasted beans after cupping, other than discard them. Subsequently, Asahi YOU. US developed the idea of making a craft beer using the test-roasted coffee bean.

Kuramae Black launched in July 2021. It is brewed in Sumidagawa Brewing, which had been experimenting with a coffee-flavoured beer for a long time, and it was aware that stout beer could be the best to blend with brewed coffee, as it has some similarities in colour and flavour. “Since we source the test-roasted coffee from Ennoki and another two roasters now, we cannot expect a high level of consistency unlike when we order the specific blend for the product. We closely communicate with those roasters about when and how many beans we need for the next batch so that they can prepare the stock,” said Ichiro Moda, unit leader of Asahi YOU. US. “However, it is inevitable that the taste and flavour of the bean as well as those of Kuramae Black are slightly different each time. We positively see this variability as one of the characteristics of Kuramae Black.”

Sumidagawa Brewing, a microbrewery located on the premises of the Asahi Group’s head office, produces craft beers such as Kuramae Black and Sayama Green. It was originally established in 1995, and now is under the management of Asahi YOU. US. When making Kuramae Black, it brews stout beer and coffee separately, then blends them at about 70 and 30 percent, respectively. The stout beer contains 7-8 percent alcohol, which is reduced to 4.5 percent in Kuramae Black.

Left: Kuramae Black. Right: Sayama Green
Images: Asahi YOU. US, Ltd

Going Green

Sayama Green is beer blended with a green tea infusion, which launched in April 2022. Sayama in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, is one of the most famous tea-producing districts in Japan. When making Sayama Green, they use a by-product of sencha called keba-cha (hairy tea). Keba-cha is the surface of the stem of the tea leaves that comes off during the rolling and drying process and is separated from the sencha in the final cleaning by a sorting machine.

When producing Sayama Green, keba-cha is brewed in room temperature water for three hours in order to extract a clear liquor with sweetness and umami, without much bitterness or astringency. After the infused keba-cha is strained, the liquor is boiled for a few seconds to sanitise it. Finally, the cooled infusion is blended with an Indian Pale Ale (IPA) of 30 to 70 percent, with an alcohol content of 4.5 percent.

Keba-cha is sourced from three young tea producers in Sayama: Okutomien, Yokotaen and Ishidaen. Masahiro Okutomi of Okutomien explained, “When neatly shaped whole leaf sencha is sorted, some by-products are collected separately such as stems, powdery leaf, keba-cha and so on. Those by-products are still drinkable and usable teas. They are refined by firing or roasting, then sold as stem tea, roasted tea, or powdery tea in tea shops. Keba-cha can be added to tea bags after cutting into smaller particles.” He said that it is also helpful to clean up the tea- processing machines before resuming manufacturing, since the hairy keba-cha can absorb tiny dust or odour in the machines. “We are pleased to offer keba-cha as a raw material for Sayama Green, that is a unique and effective way to utilise keba-cha and increase its value.”

Asahi YOU. US supplies its craft beers in barrels for catering services, mainly beer restaurants or pubs in the neighbouring areas. The canned products are also sold in liquor shops or ecommerce sites. The company produced 3,300 litres of Kuramae Black in 2022 and estimates it will produce 4,200 litres in 2023. Asahi YOU brewed 4,050 litres of Sayama Green in 2022 and expects 4,100 in 2023.

• Yumi Nakatsugawa has been working as a freelance writer specialising in food and restaurant management. While freelancing, she developed a love of black tea as well as tea- producing countries and tea people. Her passion for black tea has brought her to Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea to see tea production firsthand. Based in Japan, Yumi may be reached at: ym_n@nifty.com.

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A total of thirty-six Highly Commended and thirteen Gold awards were presented by The Leafies judges, which include preeminent tea leaders from brands such as Fortnum & Mason, The Ritz London, Postcard Teas, Twinings, Lipton and more. A selection of Special Awards were also presented to individuals, estates, or institutions that were effecting positive change within the industry in areas such as education, community empowerment, innovation and environmental stewardship.

This winner of the Fortnum & Mason Best in Show award, and therefore the highest scoring tea of the entire competition, is Yame Tea Kumaen’s Gyokuro Saemidori, an exquisite steamed green tea produced by a tiny tea garden in a remote mountainous region in Fukuoka, Japan. Guests at the ceremony were able to sample this tea, brewed by Kazumi Nakatani who travelled from Japan, amongst twenty-five of the award-winning teas made available to taste.

Zealong Tea Estate were another notable winner of the afternoon, scooping three awards in total for its Aged Oolong, Aromatic Oolong and the UKTA Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising Zealong’s phenomenal efforts pioneering a tea culture in New Zealand and demonstrating a tireless commitment to environmental regeneration through its sustainable farming practice. Zealong CEO Gigi Crawford and International Marketing Manager Sen Kong were present at the ceremony to serve their teas and said “this award acknowledges 25 years of hard work bringing about a tea industry and culture in New Zealand by Zealong Tea Estate, we are deeply honoured and grateful to receive this award.”

The Leafies aims to connect primary tea producers with buyers and hospitality professionals and offer exposure to a global tea-focused market. A selection of winners will once again be selected for sale across Fortnum & Mason’s Rare Tea Counter, where six winning teas from last year are still currently being sold. Ottilie Cunningham, tea buyer for Fortnum & Mason, said, “An enormous thank you and huge congratulations to everyone for another successful year of The Leafies. The organisation that goes into the entire thing is immense and it is really exciting to see how much it has grown since last year’s launch.”

New for this year were categories for retailers who are selling tea online or in store and connecting tea drinkers with carefully selected high-quality teas. Triple award-winning Japanese tea shop, Chaki Co was started by three former tea producers in March this year. Dorothy’s Teas, a former UK Tea Academy student and retailer based in Cumbria, UK, won Gold in the BRITA sponsored White Tea category for her Shannon Estate Silver Needles White Tea.

The full list of winners is available on the UK Tea Academy website here.

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Tea has been enjoying its fair share of popularity since the last several decades – centuries, even – so much so that there are people whose day does not start in the true sense without taking a sip of hot tea. Plus, tea is known as a good antioxidant. 

With regard to flavoured tea, the very concept springs from the fact that ‘variety is the spice of life.’ Breaking the monotonous rut is what humankind cares the most about. Tea has come a long way over the last few years in terms of flavours and the way they are being devised and marketed. Starting with fruits, the flavours have made a beeline to flowers, alcohols, and several chemical compounds. For instance, amyl acetate, which gives banana flavour, is distilled from real bananas. The mixture of amyl alcohol and vinegar also gives banana flavour, but then it won’t be termed as ‘natural. Likewise, strawberry flavour could be devised naturally as well as artificially. 

The best part about tea leaves is that most are receptive to flavours. It has been found that green and black tea leaves go well with almost every type of flavour. Dry flavours do well with loose teas, whereas liquid ones work for the teabags.  

There are several variants regarding tea flavours as follows:  

• Natural Extracts: These flavours come from extracts of the essential oils of the blossoms, fruits, leaves, roots, and likewise. The basic function of these extracts is that of contributing to fragrance of teas.  
• Natural Granules: These granules, as the name suggests, come from natural essence that is spread on tea leaves all through. The mixing happens till blending with leaves happens. Most flavours come from granules comprising blossom, herb, and fruit extracts. Also, herbal infusions come as inclusions, which are solid particles of fruits, herbs, spices, and blossoms mixed with tea leaves on direct basis — when steeped, the right taste is obtained. 

• Nature-Close Flavours: These are the flavours extracted through chemical processes. There is not much difference between natural and nature-close flavours except for the extraction process. Preserving turns out to be simpler as compared to natural processes and cost-effective. It needs to be noted that here the extraction is artificial, not the flavour. 
• Artificial Flavours: The name is self-explanatory. The flavours are created artificially to make stronger and better blends. 

Another variety is that of scented tea. It is obtained from flowers like jasmine. Also, smoked tea is popular, which is processed around cypress or pine wood fires.  

Medical benefits of flavoured tea 

Tea has many healthy attributes such as being ‘chock full’ of antioxidants, polyphenols, and catechins, but there are also many medical benefits associated with various teas. 

Earl Grey tea, for example, is a popular flavour that is formed by blending bergamot oil and tea leaves. The medical benefits include improvement in dental health, reduction of anxiety, helping in digestion, increasing energy levels, and body detox. Elderflower tea, a flavoured tea that is especially popular in Europe, is derived from a cream-coloured flower (elderflower) of the elderberry plant. This tea is a rich source of vitamin A, C and several essential nutrients. Apart from Europe, North America is the other major consumer of elderflower tea. In terms of medical benefits, elderflower tea relieves from fever, cough, headache, and cold. The respiratory disorders like tonsillitis, asthma, laryngitis, and others could also be relieved by drinking elderflower tea. 

Though its origins could be traced to China, green tea’s popularity is unmatched across now. Japanese green teas are inclusive of hojicha, genmaicha, tencha, matcha, kabusecha, gyokuro, and sencha. Green tea is available in the form of iced green tea, green tea instant mixes, and green tea bags. The flavours include jasmine, wild berry, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon, and aloe vera. It helps in prevention of loads of ailments like tooth decay, diabetes, cancer, heart disorders by ascertain maintenance of proper blood level and cholesterol all over the body. 

The least processed leaves on the part of Camellia sinensis produce white tea. It comprises juvenile buds. The floral-fruity flavour finds its applications in various industries like pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. It does possess anti-microbial properties and acts as an excellent antioxidant. 

Those vying for clean label products will sync with detox tea, which is conventional as well as organic. Detox tea, as the name suggests, helps in intestinal detox, liver detox, cardiac detox, and likewise. 

Delving into flavoured tea 

By type, bubble tea could be categorised as chocolate, fruits and berries, mixed/blend flavours, and honey. It is popular in the Asia Pacific, India, in particular. The latest offerings include fresh ingredients like fresh fruit, organic cream, green tea, and soy milk. 

Amongst the instant tea mixes, encapsulated tea is trending in certain regions at the moment. Encapsulation is a technique to protect or entrap fragrance and flavours within a coating material. Encapsulated tea reduces the preparation time for the drink. The flavours available include cranberry, raspberry, mango, and lemonade. These flavours are captured by entrapping them within the tea leaves. 

As far as alcoholic tea is concerned, it comes in a wide range of flavours including coconut, mint, peach, cucumber, lime, sweet apricot, mango, and berries.  

In a nutshell, flavoured tea will continue to evolve as the taste buds of consumers will ask for more variations and there would be no stoppage to research being conducted therein. 

• Divakar Kolhe is a tech blogger, is a seasoned digital marketing professional, having worked for numerous online firms in his distinguished career. He believes in continuous learning, considering that the digital marketing sector’s rapidly evolving nature. His forte is analysing the commercial viability of a new breakthrough. 

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Black tea still leads in terms of global production volume, but green tea has seen a slight but gradual gain in share over the last 10 years. According to the London-based International Tea Committee (ITC), the share of green tea production has increased from about 30 percent to 33 percent. Estimates put the world’s total green tea production at 2.1 million metric tonnes (mmt) in 2021.

China drives green tea production, contributing over 1.8 mmt. This makes the Middle Kingdom the provider of over 85 percent of the world’s green tea. In relation to its own production, however, green tea comprises about 60 percent of its total annual production. Green tea holds the largest share in terms of China’s output, with black tea being the next closest at about 14 percent of annual China production. It is worth noting, however, that China’s classification system for teas distinguishes between green tea and flower tea. Because of this, all forms of jasmine green tea – from specialty jasmine green pearl teas to jasmine green tea fannings – are not counted towards the green tea totals but are designated as flower teas. Depending on interpretation, this can serve to under-report the actual amount of green tea produced.

Japan is the next best-known home of green tea production, contributing about 0.8 mmt of green tea per year. The majority of Japan’s green tea comes in two forms. Sencha accounts for a little over one half, and bancha makes up more than a third. Matcha (tencha) and gyokuro each contribute less than 4 percent of the total volume but their average value in USD per kg is more than double that of sencha.

Other well-known tea-producing countries, including India, Argentina, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam either do not parse out green tea production from black, or mainly focus on reporting green tea exports.

China leads in exports

As may be expected, China also dominates in green tea exports. China’s 2021 green tea exports totaled 0.31 MMT, or nearly 85 percent of China’s total exports. Value-wise, however, green tea exports represent roughly 60 percent of China’s exports. China’s average annual export rates reached USD $5.55/kg, with green tea averaging $4.44/kg compared to black tea at $10.25/kg. China’s main export partner has remained Morocco for several years now, as the country has relatively high per-capita tea consumption and a longstanding tradition of drinking green tea (eg Moroccan mint tea).

Vietnam appears to be one of the next largest green tea exporters, though nowhere close to China’s volume. In 2021, Vietnam exported 62,000 mt of green tea, or just shy of half of the nation’s total exports. Vietnam’s top tea export destinations include Pakistan, The Republic of China (ROC), and Russia. It is unclear as to the share of green tea exports among these countries, especially when Pakistan and Russia are known for purchasing significantly more black tea than green.

Japan, on the other hand, exported over 6,000 mt of predominantly green tea. As mentioned above, Japan’s production is largely divided between sencha and bancha. About one-third of Japan’s green tea exports went to the US.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India each exported between 5,500 and 3,000 mt of green tea. Indonesia’s major tea export partners include Malaysia, Russia, and the US. Sri Lanka’s top export destinations include Iraq, Turkey, and Russia. India’s three largest tea export countries include Russia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

US imports of green tea grows

Of the world’s top three tea-importing countries (Pakistan, Russia, and the US), the US provides the clearest picture of green tea imports. Of Russia’s 135,000 mt of imported tea, at least 85 percent of it is black tea. Similarly, tea imports into the US in 2022 showed about 14 percent, or 16,618 mt was green tea. Of that total, nearly 7,000 mt originated from China. A further dissection of US green tea imports reveals that 1,800 mt was organic green tea, of which about 1,000 mt came from China.

Producing countries consume the most tea

Considering that the world’s top two producing countries (China and India) generally keep about 85 percent of their produced tea within their borders, these countries hold sway over global green tea consumption. China’s domestic sales of green tea reached 1.3 mmt. During that period, China only imported about 4,300 mt of green tea.

India’s green tea volumes also remained available for the domestic market. As with China, at least 85 percent of India’s total tea production volume didn’t leave the country. This proportion held true for green tea as well. About 15 percent of India’s green production was exported, leaving about 85 percent within its borders.

The US also held relatively steady in an 85/15 split of black-to-green tea consumption, with more emphasis placed on iced tea.

In relation to per capita consumption of tea, some of the major countries increased their consumption over the past ten years. Most notably was Morocco, a major green tea consumer, which increased an estimated 15 percent per head. China’s per capita also saw a significant rise from just shy of 1 kg per head to roughly 1.75 kg.

The outlook for green tea is positive

Compared to black tea, green tea consumption still appears modest but with positive signs for the future. The UK has seen declines in black tea consumption, while green tea has remained relatively steady. Green tea in the US also holds promise, as consumers are attracted to the reported health benefits of green tea.

The Japanese tea industry still sees potential for the further expansion of matcha exports, with matcha being viewed by international markets as a more premium and health-forward tea option. The nation has seen decreases in production of leaf tea and increases in powdered teas and teas used for RTD. The Japanese government has established initiatives to upgrade tea farms, modernize tea harvesting and processing, and promote Japanese teas in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

China’s expansion of new tea fields also indicates a continued trend toward steady production of green teas. China’s internal estimates classify about one third of the nation’s current tea plants as over 30 years old and recommend removing or replacing these less-productive bushes. A gradual phasing out of old fields and the advent of new fields coming online will help keep China on top as a green tea powerhouse.

• Jason Walker is marketing director of Firsd Tea North America. Prior to his work with Firsd Tea, Walker served in a variety of roles in tea and beverage business capacities. His experience includes business services for small tea companies, a top-ranked online destination for tea consumer education and co-founding a coffee business. His insights draw upon his diverse range of experience in sales, operations and management in the tea world. He may be reached at: jason.walker@firsdtea.com.

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Interest in sustainability continues to intensify among consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, contract packagers, suppliers, and OEMs. In fact, sustainability is one of four key priorities identified in Challenges and Opportunities for Packaging and Processing Operations, a report published in October 2022 by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, based in Herndon, Virginia.

Driving forces include concerns about climate change, carbon footprint, waste, ocean plastic litter, and single-use plastics; a desire to establish a circular economy; regulatory efforts worldwide; and an interest in reusable, renewable, recyclable, and recycled-content packaging and products.

An indication of the level of concern about single-use plastics is an advance notice of proposed rulemaking by the General Services Administration (GSA) in the United States (US), an administrative agency that provides supplies and workplaces for federal employees. The proposed rule, Single-Use Plastics and Packaging, would regulate the use of plastics consumed in both packaging and shipping as well as other single-use plastics the agency buys. Comments were due in September 2022 and are being reviewed to determine how the rule will be finalised.

A concept that Europe embraced decades ago, extended producer responsibility (EPR), is gaining favour in the US and other countries. In the US, EPR laws have been passed in the states of Oregon, Maine, California, and Colorado, and regulators are working on implementation. EPR laws are pending in several other US states. At the same time, industry attitudes toward EPR have shifted from negative to positive with groups like the Plastics Industry Association now supporting the concept. The American Institute for Packaging and the Environment, a coalition of packaging industry entities dedicated to improving packaging and the environment and known as AMERIPEN, plans to present a series of webinars about EPR requirements in the US. The series began in February and continues monthly through July 2023.

Globally, there are new EPR requirements in India, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK). In the UK, data collection has begun in preparation for meeting EPR requirements in 2024.

Progress toward more sustainable packaging

The path to increased sustainability is not necessarily smooth. Hurdles fall into four categories: technical issues, productivity concerns, cost, and environmental awareness. To transition to more sustainable packaging materials, stakeholders must overcome a host of challenges such as security of supply, cost, quality of materials, buy-in from customers and marketing, production efficiency problems, the time and money required to carry out the experimentation and testing needed to ensure the new materials will be successful, and the learning curve involved with implementation.

Stakeholders rely on a variety of tactics to make packaging more sustainable. This includes commitments to recyclable, recycled-content, and/or reusable packaging; replacement of multilayer materials with more easily recycled mono-material structures; interest in biodegradable, compostable, and renewable substrates; source reduction efforts, particularly transitions from rigid to flexible packaging; and carbon footprint reduction.

Materials receiving attention include polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and bio-based polymers. PHA is a renewable plant-based polyester that is biodegradable in soil or marine environments and compostable.

PVA also is biodegradable and compostable, and nontoxic in land and ocean environments. In some cases, it can serve as an alternative to ethylene vinyl alcohol barrier resin. As an extrusion coating on paper or part of a paper lamination, PVA provides strength and a barrier to oxygen, oil, and grease. Its solubility in water makes the resulting paper structures compatible with paper recycling streams.

Bio-based polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polypropylene (PP) are derived from feedstocks based on renewable plants like sugarcane but are equivalent to traditional resins in properties and performance.

On the recycling side, new technologies for the separation and recovery of materials are being developed. This includes marking schemes to expedite sorting for recycling, thermochemical recycling processes, and the collection and processing of plastic waste from the oceans. Meanwhile, demand continues to rise for packaging materials with recycled content. A growing number of plastics with post-consumer recycled content has received a letter of no objection from the US Food and Drug Administration for use in food-contact applications. As a result, it should be relatively easy to source PET, high-density PE, low-density PE, linear-low-density PE, and PP with various levels of recycled content.

To help consumers recycle packaging properly, many US brand owners are adopting How2Recycle labels. Established in 2012 by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the How2Recycle programme seeks to standardise recycling labelling, divert recyclables from landfills, and educate consumers.

A successful transition to more sustainable packaging depends on considering sustainability from the beginning. Nerida Kelton, vice president Sustainability & Save Food at the World Packaging Organisation (WPO), explains, “to apply recyclable packaging design, a certain fundamental knowledge of sorting and recycling processes is necessary. Packaging must, therefore, be suitable for state-of-the-art sorting and recycling processes in addition to its basic functions (eg, storage, transport, product protection, product presentation, and convenience).”

Guidelines from WPO help designers consider these factors early in the product development process and ensure the resulting packaging poses no issues when recycled in existing streams. WPO’s “Global Packaging Design for Recycling Guide” is now available in seven languages with the recent addition of Arabic, Spanish, and Czech translations to the existing offerings in English, German, Georgian, and Hungarian. Ayman Sbeih, chairman of the Palestinian Federation of Paper & Packaging Industries and coordinator of the Arabic translation, said, “Translating the Global Packaging Design for Recycling Guide into Arabic was extremely important to ensure that we take steady steps based on scientific foundations to achieve a circular economy. This will contribute to addressing challenges that face the world in terms of climate change, the environment, and the preservation of natural resources.”

Beyond packaging

For many beverage brand owners, sustainability initiatives extend far beyond packaging to include commitments to zero waste to landfill, net zero greenhouse gas emissions, energy/water conservation, and adoption of renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power.

Other associated goals involve corporate citizenship and include ethical business practices, diversity, and Fair Chance hiring, which provides employment for those with criminal records. Other tactics include compliance with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and participation in organizations such as the Ellen Macarthur Foundation and the Science Based Targets initiative associated with the Paris Climate Agreement.

• Jorge Izquierdo is vice president, market development at The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, which organises the Pack Expo portfolio of packaging and processing shows. This year’s Pack Expo will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, 11-13 September. For more information, visit: packexpolasvegas.com. To learn more about PMMI, visit: www.pmmi.org.

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During the most serious spell of the pandemic from 2020 to the first quarter of 2022, Japanese green tea production, domestic consumption and exports showed only temporary changes and the overall trend in the past decades recovered in a short period of time.

Japan produces steam-type green tea mainly, and the national production has been gradually decreasing in the last two decades according to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). The total yearly production has maintained between 80,000 to 100,000 metric tonnes (mt) in the same period except in 2020 and 2021 when production dropped to 69,800 mt and 78,100 mt, respectively.

“The main harvesting season in Japan is from the end of April to May, when the best quality tea is manufactured from the first flush of the year. While some farmers pluck the spring flush only, others harvest leaves several times till October, and those second, third and autumn/winter teas are well-accepted as ordinary quality tea. Consequently, Japanese green tea producers can adjust their crop yield by reducing or increasing the number of harvesting times,” explained Osami Moriyama, managing director, Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association. “Additionally, tea can be stored for a longer period of time and the increased stock will become an additional supply, which tends to suppress demand resulting in a drop in prices. This is the main reason for the sudden decrease in 2020, but it could have bounced back by 12 percent from the existing tea field in 2021.”

The first ever State of Emergency was issued nationwide in April and May 2020, however, it didn’t intend to discourage the agricultural sector. Therefore, the spring flush tea was manufactured as usual, but it seemed many tea farmers predicted the shrink in demand and reduced later harvests resulted in the decrease of the total crop of the year.

Moriyama said that Japanese tea farmers are facing an aging problem and shortage of successors over the years, which is causing the increase of abandoned tea fields. “[However], tea bush can produce leaves for several decades and it is possible to store made tea without deteriorating in quality for a longer period of time if it is kept under air-tight and cooler conditions.” He added that these are the differences between fresh vegetables and tea. “Therefore, the impact of the pandemic on the tea industry was rather limited and it could get back on track quickly.”

Covid Minimally Affected RTD Sales

One of the significances in Japanese green tea consumption is, about one-fourth of green tea is drunk in ready-to-drink (RTD) form, which has steadily increased since its launch in 1985 when ITO EN put the world’s first canned green tea on sale. While RTD tea has more or less maintained its sales during the pandemic, demand for leaf tea rose sharply in a short period time when ‘staying home’ was strongly recommended. In addition, consumers buy more tea through internet shopping which grew from 9 percent of all green tea purchases in 1999 to 15.1 percent in 2020 per MAFF. Although there is no clear data, it seemed that the restrictions of going out of the house encouraged consumers to order any sort of food and goods online.

Japan’s tea production, imports and demand Source: MAFF

Green Tea Exports Surge

Japan’s green tea export has expanded in recent years, especially, the demand for organic tea and powdered tea including matcha continues to be strong. In 2021, Japan exported 6,179 mt of green tea in total, of which 3,155 mt or 51 percent was leaf tea, and the remaining 3,024 MT or 49 percent was powdered tea. The main export destinations for organic green tea are the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. In 2021, Japan exported 2,254 mt of green tea to the US, of which 1,628 mt or 73 percent was powdered tea, and 604 mt or 26.8 percent, was Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS)-certified organic tea. Meanwhile the EU together with the UK imported 834 mt of Japanese green tea, of which 646 mt or 77.4 percent was organic. The EU only imported 775 mt of Japanese green tea, comprising of 467 mt or 60 percent of leaf tea and the rest 307 mt or 40 percent of powdered tea per MAFF.

Not only the Covid-19 outbreak but other various factors are now influencing the tea industry, such as the rising cost of fuel, electricity, fertilisers, packaging materials, transport and so on, triggered by the Russia’s invasion to Ukraine in February 2022. The sharp depreciation of Japanese yen against US dollar has been affecting to the nation’s overall economy. All those factors are lessening the profitability in the tea trade.

“The Japanese tea industry has more than 800 years of history and has created its unique culture over the centuries. We pay the utmost respect and place importance on this heritage,” shared Moriyama. “However, we shouldn’t stick to the past and need to accept the latest trends which might be considered a wrong path by previous generations.” He added, “If we do nothing, the tea market will not grow in the years ahead. We will need to find ways to provide Japanese tea that meets the requirements or preferences of younger or overseas consumers.”

A leading Japanese green tea brand and the largest RTD green tea manufacturer, ITO EN, experienced a 10 percent growth in leaf tea sales in early 2020 during stay-at-home restrictions. Large size boxes of tea bags met a good demand. While RTD green tea decreased in the same period, it has been recovering since 2021. Export of leaf tea has grown steadily in spite of the pandemic and the sudden surge of sea freight in the last few years. Akihiro Murase, public relations officer, ITO-EN, said “We established the new medium-to-long-term business plan in June 2022. One of the key strategies is to globalise our Oi Ocha brand products. We will try to familiarise the Japanese tea culture, not only to the North America but also throughout the world.”

Japan’s Lesser Known Black Tea Market

Approximately 90 percent of black tea marketed in Japan is imported from four countries; roughly 40 percent from Sri Lanka, 20 percent each from India and Kenya, and 10 percent from Indonesia. A trade association for black tea, the Japan Tea Association (JTA), focuses on imported black tea and promotes its healthy market growth along with government authorities, embassies of major tea-producing countries as well as its 50 member companies.

“Japan’s black tea import had remained stable more than a decade, between 16,000 mt and 17,000 mt a year until 2021,” said Kohei Akiba, managing director of the JTA. However, the import quantity from January to October 2022 showed a decline of 87.1 percent compared with the same period in the previous year, decreasing from 14,297 mt in 2021 to 12,448 mt in 2022 according to Trade Statistics of Japan, Ministry of Finance. In addition to the Russia/Ukraine war, it appears that the Sri Lanka’s political and economic turmoil, which intensified in 2022, has started to affect the Japan’s black tea market. Sri Lanka’s annual tea production in 2022 ended up at 251,499 mt, a 16 percent decrease versus 2021 and the lowest since 1995 when the country produced 245,900 mt per the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

The total value of imported black tea in the same period increased from JPY 9.8 billion in 2021 to JPY 11.1 billion in 2022 or 113.1 percent. “It was caused by the price hike of black tea in producing countries. Besides, the depreciation of the Japanese yen in the foreign exchange market is having much impact,” said Akiba. The Japanese yen has started to fall sharply since March 2022 when one US dollar traded at around JPY 120, then hit JPY 150 in October for the first time in 32 years.

Those unfavourable business circumstances that followed the Covid-19 epidemic have continued for some time. The JTA, however, didn’t suspend most of their black tea promotional efforts including seminars, trainings, various black tea-related events by taking cautious anti-infectious measures in the last three years. Moreover, they are considering new activities such as special iced tea promotions to further expand the black tea market in the country.

Japan’s Coffee Market Holds its Own During Covid

Coffee is supposed to be the most affected non-alcoholic beverage together with the dining industry when restaurants and cafés were requested to restrain operation or shorten opening hours to curb the spread of the Covid-19 infection. “Obviously, the wholesale of coffee to the catering trade had plunged in a certain period time. Also, many note that when most cafés were closed, coffee lovers shifted to enjoy more cups at home,” said Seiichiro Oyama, executive director of the All Japan Coffee Association (AJCA). “In addition, consumers were required to buy more coffee online when they stayed home to keep themselves safe from the disease. However, the available statistics do not clearly show these changes in sales channels or consumer habits.”

According to the AJCA’s statistics, based on the Trade Statistics of Japan, Ministry of Finance, and the AJCA’ survey, Japan’s domestic coffee consumption had shown a steady increase to 470,213 mt in 2018. However, it had decreased for three consecutive years; 452,903 mt (2019), 430,719 mt (2020) and 423,706 mt (2021). The estimated figures from January to October in 2022 showed an increase of 1.1 percent to 363,719 mt versus the same period in 2021, which was 359,713 mt. “Coffee consumption in Japan was likely affected by the pandemic to some extent. However, the decrease started in 2019, which was before the spread of the infection, and the slight upturn in 2022 was not sufficient to return to pre-pandemic levels. Therefore, not only Covid-19 but also other factors may have been affecting the coffee market”, Oyama commented after carefully analysed the trends.

Japan’s tea production and area under tea. Source: MAFF

Other consumer surveys conducted by the AJCA indicated that the volume of regular coffee and home consumption increased significantly in 2020. Whereas instant, liquid, single-serve and decaffeinated coffee products have more or less maintained their current sales trends. Oyama said the coffee market is becoming more diversified, so coffee companies need to offer products that meet consumer demand. “Furthermore, public interest in the health benefits of coffee, the sustainability of the coffee industry, and the recycling or reuse of used coffee grounds has grown noticeably in the last few years,” he shared.

Most of coffee consumed in Japan is imported from Central and South America, Africa and Asian countries located within the ‘coffee belt’. Meanwhile some Japan’s southern-most islands are situated at the northern limit of the coffee belt, and have been producing coffee nearly half a century, although its volume is limited and the cost of production is much higher than major producing countries. In addition, some international coffee companies have started to become involved in coffee production with the cooperation of local farmers in recent years. Oyama encourages those movements, noting that “geographically, Japan cannot become one of the main coffee producers in the world. However, its coffee can be marketed as one of the specialties in the region, and hopefully provide a new joy of coffee for connoisseurs.”

• Yumi Nakatsugawa has been working as a freelance writer specialising in food and restaurant management. While freelancing, she developed a love of black tea as well as tea-producing countries and tea people. Her passion for black tea has brought her to Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea to see tea production firsthand. Based in Japan, Yumi may be reached at: ym_n@nifty.com.

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Following the gradual relaxation of pandemic restrictions in the country since April of this year, the 2022 Japan Tea Festival was prepared with the consideration of keeping the risk of infection low by reducing the number of exhibitors and limiting visitors to up to 500 at a time. Therefore, the festival was divided into four three-hour visitation periods over the two days. The total number of tickets this year was about 10% less than in previous events, but all were sold out. Consequently, a total of 2000 visitors enjoyed tasting green, black, oolong, spice or herb mixed teas, etc., during the ‘Tasting Rally’, the core program. Attendees had the opportunity to buy their favourite teas including some limited items offered especially for this occasion.

Previous Japan Tea Festivals offered short seminars, demonstrations and exhibitions. The 2022 event, however, held only the Tasting Rally. Forty-five exhibitors participated and more than one-third were tea producers in the country. “Concentrating on the tasting rally brought a positive effect for participants, the average sale increased from JPY 5000 in 2019 to JPY 6800 in 2022,” Takeshi Kawasaki, the organizer estimated, adding, “and the amount sold during the two-day event also grew from JPY 11 million in 2019 to JPY 13.5 million this year.”

According to the post-event survey for exhibitors, more than 40 of them showed their intention to return to the next festival [taking place in 2023]. — Yumi Nakatsugawa

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The small and mighty cohort of Generation Alpha, born between 2010 and 2024, are empowered and engaged using digital platforms, including the metaverse, to discover brands and experiences, including coffee and tea culture. Although they may not be actively consuming caffeinated beverages, they are learning which products align with their values and encouraging their millennial parents to follow their lead.

By 2025, McCrindle Research, Norwest Australia, predicts that this demographic will consist of two billion individuals who will be the most racially and ethnically diverse group to date. Defining Generation Alpha is not a simple task as there is still little research conducted directly on this group due to their young age. As a result, most of the information acquired about Generation Alpha is from their parents.

Young but powerful, Generation Alpha demands to be heard. Infographic: McCrindle Research

“We are kind of hypothesising how they will be different than Generation Z, but the one thing that we have often seen is that every generation is a reaction to the one that came right before it,” said Ashley Fell, director of advisory, McCrindle Research, Norwest, Australia, and co-author of Generation Alpha. She emphasised the importance of brands investing the time to understand and empower this generation.

“We often use five keywords to describe them and the world that has shaped them: digital, social, global, mobile, and visual. They have been raised in the great screen age, education’s moving more online, and then we had the pandemic, which really integrated technology into their lives,” said Fell.

Growing up in café culture

Café culture has become normalised by their millennial parents, with children participating in the experience with caffeine-free and child friendly alternatives. This demographic’s milkshake and hot chocolates have expanded into blended drinks that they can customise with a variety of syrups and toppings. Although they are most likely not drinking coffee yet, they have been exposed to the vocabulary and the culture from an early age. Tea and tisanes, more specifically, are being sought out for their wellness attributes and aesthetic experience, with products, like matcha, butterfly pea flower, and turmeric, being used to create brightly hued beverages.

“Mothers are recognising that tea, or more specifically botanicals, should be a part of the conversation,” said Cindi Bigelow, president and CEO, Bigelow Tea, Fairfield, Connecticut. “We have seen that through the success in our new items, specifically, the chamomile lavender probiotics and the new botanical line which is infused in cold water.”

Botanicals and tisanes are popular with Gen Alpha. Image: Bigelow Tea

The last two years have increased the demand for healthier alternatives, with products like, Bigelow’s Cozy Chamomile and Lemon Ginger with probiotics, continuing to be top sellers. “We’ve had a lot of questions about both the health benefits and caffeine levels,” said Bigelow.” Families are trying to drink more water, and products like the botanical line really make it easier.” Bigelow’s Cold Infusion Line, which includes child-friendly flavours including blackberry raspberry hibiscus and peach lemonade acai, has also appealed to parents providing them with the wellness attributes they are seeking in a highly convenient format.

Generation Alpha is influenced by the practices of their parents, so brands have the challenging task of creating products and marketing tools that connect with both demographics. According to The Food Institute, millennial parents tend to seek food that is ethically sourced, organic, and non-GMO. They readily support companies that have brand transparency and provide an effortless digital experience. However, the influence goes both ways, as the older Generation Alphas urge their parents to make purchase decisions that are sustainable and ethical. “Eight out of ten parents that we surveyed said that they’ve had their consumption decisions impacted by the generation alpha children in a positive way,” said Fell. “They’re questioning why we’re using plastic and encouraging parents to purchase reusable products; they are having an influence even though they’re very young.”

Experiential marketing is key

Toy companies have recognised the marketing potential in the coffee experience, with several brands including Fisher Price, Mattel, Hape Toys, and Melissa and Doug releasing coffee and tea themed products, including latte teethers, Barbie cafés, tea sets, and coffee makers designed for the preschool playroom.

“They’re very visual. We often say that this generation is more likely to watch a video on YouTube than read about something on Google,” said Fell. “They’ve got shorter attention spans and expect information to be delivered in an engaging way, so I think that the message for marketing and communication professionals is that they will have to work hard to make the information interesting.”

As the generation ages, they are becoming extremely value-oriented, including wanting to be aligned with brands with a strong purpose. “They’ve got to be personal brand managers, and they’re aware of what they’re putting out online, including how the organisations they choose to purchase from align with their values,” said Fell.

The future of marketing will most likely need to involve engagement through the metaverse, with companies investing in creating simulations where avatars can engage in the product and the experience in a virtual format. “If you ask any big organisation why they’re going on the metaverse, the answer is Generation Alpha, who are already engaged in several platforms including Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnight,” said Fell. “That’s sort of the next iteration of the Internet, and that’s where this younger generation will probably be operating.”

One example of a large brand engaging in the metaverse is Sanrio, Tokyo, Japan, which developed its Hello Kitty Café for the Roblox platform this past April. The simulator allows users to build and operate a café, including making their own café menu. “As the world moves to the digital space, we are evolving with our audience to create authentic digital experiences that are uniquely Sanrio,” said Craig Takiguchi, chief operating officer and head of business development at Sanrio, Inc. “Sanrio’s online presence will allow players of all ages to express themselves through our characters and extend the inclusive and kind Sanrio community to the digital world.”

Responding to a gap in the industry

When Drink Pearly, Toronto, Ontario, launched DIY bubble tea kits, co-founder Filip Pejic anticipated that their core audience was Generation Z and Millennials, who might want an option to brew at home. The product did resonate with millennials, but not in the way the company had initially anticipated. Drink Pearly quickly learned that it was Generation Alpha who were engaged in the experience.

Drink Pearly’s DIY Bubble Tea Kits. Image: Drink Pearly

“Parents send us videos of their children experiencing the product, and they are thrilled with the entire process,” said Pejic. The parents are initially attracted to the product for its convenience and cost. However, Generation Alpha returns to it for the unique experience. “They’ve (the parents) told us that the packaging looks well thought through and that they appreciate the fact that we are transparent and active on social media,” said Pejic. “They are looking for products that they can trust. They want to ensure that there is a real person at the other end.”

Based out of Lanham, Maryland, Flyest’s founder Shanae Jones blends her knowledge of plant science and herbs with pop culture, specifically Hip Hop, to develop a brand that responds to the values of its customers. “I founded Flyest Tea with the purpose of speaking to an entire group and generation of tea drinkers that have been left out of the conversation,” said Shanae Jones, certified herbalist and founder of Flyest Tea. “A majority of Generation Alpha is growing up in a world that stresses the importance of self-care; however, it’s important that they see themselves in that world too. That is why I use hip-hop as a way to connect with a new audience.”

Peppa Pig Afternoon Tea takes place on a bus that tours London. Image: Brigit’s Bakery

The ideation process for new products includes crowd sourcing with their customers through Instagram. For example, their Nip’s Tea blend, for example, was created from customer’s requests to honour the rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle. In addition to creating the blend, Flyest donates the proceeds to an accelerator bootcamp for Black entrepreneurs, further aligning the brand with their consumers’ values. “Hip-hop has become such an integral part of our culture in the same way that I hope to see tea and herbs take hold- it’s about building a community around something that makes you feel good and allows you to express yourself,” said Jones. “Tea can be fun and beneficial at the same time just by you putting your own spin on how you use it.”

Although the individuals from Generation Alpha are still in the process of establishing their voice, it is not too early to foster connections with this demographic. This is already a cohort that is making an impact including influencing their peers and parents on their consumer choices, making it essential that they feel recognised by the brands that they are exposed to. “Every brand product or company is just one generation away from irrelevancy,” said Fell. “Generation Alpha is going to be the largest generation ever who are the most formally educated, and they’re going to have economic influence; if brands don’t engage with them, they’ll edge towards extinction.”

• Anne-Marie Hardie is a freelance writer, professor and speaker based in Barrie, Ontario. She may be reached at: annemariehardie1@gmail.com.

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Tea and coffee have been competing for throat-share in the West for many decades and consumption patterns continue to shift. Markets are becoming more global, new generations opt for wider choices, diversification has become key to growth and social and economic sustainability are today an intrinsic part of the list of goals. There is a desire for specialty teas to move towards a more unified platform, but the path to do so is a challenging one.

In the late 1980s, tea was the leading caffeinated hot brew in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Russia, whilst coffee was the king of the morning in North America and the rest of Europe. The multinational brands were dominating with mostly blended black teas in tea bags, and the premium segment comprised the spring leaves harvested from a few world-famous origin areas, located mainly in India and Sri Lanka. When China came back to the market in 1982, with Deng Xiao Ping restoring private ownership and encouraging foreign trade, the market was shaken up with a wealth of new cups arriving in the West, all unknown and unheard of. These countless varieties of specialty teas, coming in different colours and many different shapes and grades generated a keen need for learning more about them to assess these cups and to understand their high prices.

Importing, trading, retailing & brewing premium cups

In the wake of China’s opening access to its ‘ten thousand teas’, the big issues were how to provide product knowledge for the suppliers/retailers on one side and for the consumers on the other side, how to ensure accurate information and how to manage authenticity concerning origin, process, botanical cultivar, and harvesting period etc.

Green teas were the first to puzzle the Western palates, followed by white teas, oolong and puer teas. All these cups were new and exciting with striking leaves to brew them. After generations of tea buyers, tasters and blenders having been trained in-house by the traditional tea majors and family companies the new specialty teas brought along a fully new challenge.

The big question of how and where to find complete and accurate product knowledge became a key issue in the late 1990s, with many operators doing their own sourcing travels to origin to learn about the product on the spot. Several highly renowned companies were founded during this period by passionate tea explorers and tea travellers, such as the French companies Mariage Frères, Palais des Thés, Jardins de Gaïa, and Cha Yuan; the Canadian company Camellia Sinensis; the British Fine Tea Merchants and Postcard Tea; and the Americans Seven Cups and Rishi Tea, to name a few. These well-known and fully acknowledged tea pioneers have paved the way for many more new operators, attracted by the novelty of this fascinating, exotic and high added value niche market.

Education, teaching and training

To profitably market the new cups, the urgent need for education occurred rapidly and was picked up in various forms according to national market patterns. It was in North America that the first nationwide initiatives were taken to provide accurate knowledge about these new specialty teas to the tea professionals. The Tea Association of the USA founded the Specialty Tea Institute (STI) in 2001, and the Tea & Herbal Association of Canada (THAC) launched the Tea Sommelier Certification Programme in 2006. These educational structures, vetted by the two countries’ domestic tea industry, provide fully endorsed curricula, thus ensuring that the tea professionals will acquire in depth knowledge about specialty teas.

Image: Newby Teas

Peter Goggi, president of the Tea Association of the USA, underlined the importance of the statutory tea associations, which can offer nationwide legitimation and endorsement, which is a significant competitive advantage compared to other self-proclaimed tea schools and tea training educators. STI offers certified education, which leads to graduation, giving tea professionals the status of accreditation by the Tea Association of the USA. THAC’s Tea Sommelier Certification Programme applies similar rules and offers a wide range of educational courses with certifying exams, open to tea professionals and to tea lovers.

In Europe, the tea-sourcing pioneers and specialty tea company founders acquired their tea knowledge on the ground, a learning which is not easy to access by many, hence the need to provide teaching and training to all the other tea professionals at home to prevent mis-and dis-information, and to introduce all the new cups in an attractive and fully competent way. With the national Tea Industry Federations being run by the tea majors, there was no interest to invest in specialty tea education in the early times. Therefore, the private sector followed up and the first tea school in Europe was launched by Palais des Thés in Paris, France in 1999, with the teaching open to all, however without any exams, certification or graduation. Since that time most of the French specialty tea companies have launched their own tea training lectures and tasting sessions and many tea drinkers flock there happily, to learn more about these delicious cups.

With the same objective to introduce tea training and tea education for tea professionals and to open the tea drinkers’ minds to the new and enlarged universe of the ten thousand cups (from China), renowned tea pioneer and tea author, Jane Pettigrew, launched the UK Tea Academy in London (UKTA) in 2016. In Italy, the tea expert, Gabriella Lombardi established the ProTea Academy in Milan in 2016, offering tea education and tea training to tea professionals as well as to tea lovers.

There are company tea courses and private tea schools also in Spain, Denmark, Czech Republic, and Poland, etc., all with the aim to allow the customers to learn more about the many fine cups on the market to foster consumption.

It is important to note that very sophisticated training and education is also sometimes made available by origin country operators, which have established their tea houses in the West, such as Thés de Chine in Paris, and others who come from Taiwan, Japan and Korea, where tea is not only a fragrant cup but intimately linked to ancient cultural traditions.

With the desire to share their own professional experience with tea lovers to foster an in-depth knowledge of these fine cups, many valuable tea books have been authored by well-known tea pioneers since the early years of the new millennium, a further useful tool for spreading tea knowledge in Europe and North America.

Exploring new cups from the Far East

In the early years of the new millennium, black tea producers in Darjeeling, Malawi, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka, etc., became so fascinated with China’s silver needles that they launched their own white teas to display their abilities and skills. White teas were arriving from many new origins at that time, always beautiful, whilst not always brewing to expectation. Responding to a need for ‘good order with basic processing steps properly defined,’ an ISO-tea technical report, ISO/TR 12591 White Tea Definitions, was published in December 2013, after several years of discussions, which defined and enshrined terms and definitions for these beautiful teas. Finally, the white tea-frenzy calmed down as production costs were huge for the untraditional white teas, and today, most of them come from China as before.

Spring harvest from Sikkim Temi Tea

With highly proactive promotion by Japanese major Ito En, matcha was introduced to North America over the last few years, and it has created a true craze for premium green tea powder in the USA and is now gradually gaining ground in Europe too. As some producers in Korea and China were keen to join the matcha-boom, there arose again a need for having some agreed basic rules for the sake of ‘good order’, hence the ISO sub-committee on tea convened a Matcha Tea working group in 2018 and a technical report, which lays down basic rules and requirements, published as ISO/TR 21380:2022 Matcha Tea in April 2022.

There is no end to this yet, since one also finds today puer tea made in Malawi and Laos and elsewhere and Oolong tea from India and Indonesia, therefore two new working groups have been organised by ISO-Tea to continue drafting basic definitions and terms to complete the framework of ISO standards for the new tea categories.

The international level

In 2013, Ramaz Chanturiya, CEO of the Russia Tea & Coffee Federation launched the Tea Masters Cup with the focus on promoting specialty teas with the end consumers through highly educated and knowledgeable tea professionals in the Russian tea market. Highly successful domestically, he then introduced this benchmarking scheme on an international level, embedded in a high-profile event, Tea Masters Cup International (TMCI), in 2015. Up to the Covid disruption, there have been four TMCI competitions in Turkey, Korea, China and Vietnam.

In 2015, the first Teas of the World contest was run by AVPA, a not-for-profit agency, based in Paris, France, with the purpose of promoting terroir food products, such as edible oils, coffee, chocolate and tea. The concept targets the promotion of fine teas, submitted by the producing companies at origin, for a quality assessment carried out by professional tea tasters and tea experts, and awarded with medals for commercial purpose, attracting the media, Western retailers and customers. The fifth contest took place in July 2022 and the number of samples submitted has increased hugely since inception.

Premium sencha cups from different cultivars

In 2018, the European Specialty Tea Association (ESTA), was launched in the UK, with the purpose to create a European-wide platform for the promotion of specialty teas. The plan follows the lines of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), founded in 1998, and unified within SCA in 2017, with a structure of national chapters and accredited tea Certifiers who train, educate and assess.

Outlook for the post-Covid times

With the unending stress generated by the sanitary crisis, tea is becoming the sought-after soothing, relaxing and restoring cup, attracting many new consumers. However, the premium and specialty teas continue to require educated retailers and tea professionals, hence the need to maintain the ongoing efforts for more training, authentic and qualified storytelling and improved competence for brewing practices.

Despite many attempts, there is not yet any fully agreed definition nor an approved set of criteria required for a tea to belong to the category specialty tea, although origin, cultivar, harvesting period, and manufacturing process are most likely to figure somewhere on the list. The market share of specialty teas varies greatly throughout the Western consumer countries, which impacts the degree of consumer awareness and the growth potential. It may well take some more years of training, educating and promoting before reaching comparable market patterns to build a federating platform on European level with the support of the national federations for tea and herbal infusions.

• Barbara Dufrêne is the former Secretary General of the European Tea Committee and editor of La Nouvelle du Thé. She may be reached at: b-dufrêne@orange.fr.

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The store plays a key role in a community collaboration between Starbucks Japan, Togane City and Sanyu Plant Service Corporation, a local manufacturer, which aims to promote circularity and reduce waste, while making a positive impact for the local community. As part of the collaboration, used coffee grounds from the new store will be recycled into cattle feed, and through Starbucks coffee grounds circularity loop, milk from participating dairies is then used to create handcrafted beverages at around 200 Starbucks stores across the Kanto and Kansai areas, including the new drive-thru. In addition, other food waste from the store will be turned into compost to grow produce directly at the rest stop in Togane City, in cooperation with Chiba Prefectural University of Agriculture.

Image: Starbucks Japan

Designed inside and out to reflect the area’s proud local industry, the store features local Sambu cedar and Japanese yew trees, the official trees of Togane City. As part of Starbucks’ global efforts to reduce carbon by 50% by 2030, the store is powered by solar panels on the roof and locally-generated renewable energy. The solar system will include batteries that can provide backup power in the event of an outage.

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All tea leaves are green on the bush, except for rare purple and white leaf varieties. It is the tea-manufacturing process that divides the made teas into the two main families: the black teas, which are fully oxidised and the green teas that preserve their green colour through a heat shock, which halts further enzymatic development, be it with dry heat through panning/frying or by steaming.

These two different ways of processing are neatly divided out between the Asia-based tea-producing countries, where green tea is the ancestral cup, and the former colonial tea growing areas, where black teas are commercially produced for export to the European consumer markets. The cup profiles are contrasting and completely different, which can make it truly uncomfortable to switch from black tea to green tea, unless there are powerful incentives such as highly favourable health benefit announcements or the expectation of discovering highly attractive new flavours and tastes.

There are many traditional local varieties of green teas in China, the world’s biggest green tea exporter with over 300,000 metric tonnes in 2019; followed by Vietnam with green tea exports around 96,000mt, and Japan around 76,000mt. Japanese green teas are usually made with the steaming process, which makes the leaves needle shaped and the premium quality mainly goes to export. Most green teas are marketed as loose leaf and are rarely blended and the CTC process does not apply to them.

The catechin buzz

When green teas started to tip toe into the European markets, it was under the premises of tea and health research, carefully monitored by Unilever for the start, out of their Tea Research Center in Colworth, England, with its carefully tendered tea bushes, well shielded against Britain’s cold winters.

Green tea from Paris, France-based premium tea purveyor, Palais des Thes. Image: Barbara Dufrene

In these early times, mainstream green tea, mostly gunpowder from China, was introduced with messages that made it a remedy cup against aging, strokes and cardiovascular disease, promoting the antioxidant power of the green tea polyphenols, i.e., the various catechins. Doctors were contacted and informed about the benefits of green tea and many then advised their senior patients to drink green tea instead of coffee. This very rapidly rang alarm bells for the coffee companies and generated an important campaign of funding scientific academic research, with the purpose to underlining the health effects of both cups, by elaborating research on the physiological effects of the tea and coffee polyphenols. These compounds all belong to the same big family of natural plant chemicals, but they have many different names and structures etc.

With green tea on the verge of becoming a medicinal cup, as many swallowed the astringent drink for better health, but without any pleasure, new input was required. At that time the European labelling provisions were drafted and hence ISO methods were being developed to allow the measuring of the various cup’s catechin contents, to attract more consumer interest and foster consumption. However, the finalised EU health claim regulations did not include any such health benefit claims for tea, neither green nor black, considering that the science was not sufficiently sustained, which was a blow to mainstream green teas. A new strategy was the switch to flavoured green teas, blending them with attractive plants, such as mint and lemon, to appeal to new target groups, namely younger consumers who had no previous black tea experience and were keen to discover these easy to brew, flavourful, untraditional novelty cups.

Exotic premium terroir green teas

Following the promotion of green tea as a healthy beverage to attract European tea drinkers was the introduction of premium green teas. First came China’s famous Longjing tea, with its lovely flat pan-fried leaf and nutty buttery flavour notes. Originating from Zhejiang’s beautiful and famous West Lake area, the high yield cultivar Longjing number 43 had been fostered in the heart of China’s Tea Science and Research capital, Hangzhou, with its mythical origin story carefully spinning all over the Western tea drinking world.

Matcha tea at a tea salon in Paris. Image: Barbara Dufrene

The West Lake Longjing green tea became the first tea ever to be awarded an EU Protected Geographical Indication in 2011, followed by the same distinction given to the black teas from India’s 78 Darjeeling Tea Estates. This carefully groomed process has made green teas more conspicuous by giving them status, which attracted growing consumer interest for this elegant, tasty, expensive, and healthy premium origin cup.

It was also clear in the early years of the new millennium that consumers needed to be informed and educated, to better understand and fully appreciate the new green origin teas. Tea schools and tea training institutions sprang up, with the founding of the US Specialty Tea Institute for training the American tea professionals in 2002 and the Ecoledu Thédu Palais de Théin 1999 in Paris, France, for educating clients and consumers, as the pioneers and fore runners.

London-based Jing Tea Baojing Gold green tea. Image: Jing Tea

These developments have paved the way, not only for more premium green teas from China, but also for the premium green teas from the neighbouring producing countries, namely Japan and South Korea, with their different taste profiles, attractive stories and hefty prices. They are all riding on the wave of a recently emerged demand, issued by a target group of well educated, widely travelled and affluent tea lovers who are happy to invest in fine green teas and their brewing accessories for their own pleasure and joyful relaxation.

The new premium green teas 

China’s fine green teas are mostly rather robust and hence easy to brew, with freshly boiled water poured over the leaves, extracting the flavours through several infusions, with a great preference for the early spring picks. These cups offer a rich range of pleasant, sweet, buttery and chestnut/nutty fragrance notes, which are familiar to the Western palates. The leaf is always beautiful, after unfolding with re-hydration.

Various green teas and their resulting cups. Image: Barbara Dufrene

Following in the footsteps of China, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture has launched an intense promotion of Japanese premium teas, which also offer longstanding cultural traditions but have a completely different taste profile and more complex brewing requirements. Attracting a growing fringe of knowledgeable consumers who are keen to explore novelty cups, these generally small volume and expensive premium cups also build on the Zen attitude and the high theanine content of the shade grown harvests, which are made into matcha, gyokuro and some premium sencha.

South Korea has picked up the thread and has also started to promote fine green teas in Europe, originating mainly from the volcanic island of Jeju, south of the peninsula. Most of these highly fragrant cups are rare, precious and expensive, but sought after for moments of relaxing and delight, individually or shared with company who also care and fully appreciate such treasured leaves.

Increased availability and further potential

Good mainstream green teas are available on all supermarket shelves, either as genuine leaf or in tea bags, there is also a wide choice of flavoured green teas provided by multinational brands like Lipton, Tetley’s and Twining’s. The premium operators and the small retailers all carry green teas from prestigious origins in their portfolios. There is a growing focus on Japanese green teas, which are being heavily promoted in France, Germany, Italy and in the UK.

Image: Clipper Tea

Statistics from the International Tea Committee’s 2021 Annual Statistics Bulletin show however, that the import share of green tea varies widely, with 3.6 per cent in the UK, 7 per cent in Ireland and 10.4 per cent in Russia – the three big markets where black tea remains the king of the cups – 12 per cent in the Netherlands,14 per cent in Poland, 24 per cent in Germany, 26 per cent in Italy and 57 per cent in France. Adding up the total tea imports of these eight markets, the overall share of green tea imports amount to 12.6 per cent, compared to 8.5 per cent in 2007, which is a moderate growth for a 17-year period.

Supply is mainly sourced from China, followed by Indonesia and Vietnam, with small volumes of premium teas imported from Japan and Korea. China’s premium green teas are hardly available for export, all gobbled up by the affluent domestic consumers who have even recently paid USD $730 for a 500g pre-Qingming Westlake Longjing lot, as reported by the China Tea Marketing Association in Beijing.

There remains a huge potential for expanding green tea consumption further in Europe with the younger generations, who have no previous black tea-drinking experience and are keen on Eastern traditions such as the Zen-attitude and mindfulness, whilst the light colour and taste of the cup continues to attract health-oriented and more senior tea lovers. The pandemic has also increased the focus on stress reduction, healthy hydration and well-being, which is expected to increase the demand for green cups.

• Barbara Dufrêne is the former Secretary General of the European Tea Committee and editor of La Nouvelle du Thé. She may be reached at: b-dufrêne@orange.fr.

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Producing black teas for European consumers was the remit for the new colonial tea estates, which had sprung up in India, Sri Lanka and East Africa after British settlers had gained access to the botanical material. The big leaf tropical variety, Camellia sinensis var assamica, was discovered by British explorer Robert Bruce in the Burmese/Assam jungle forests in the 1820s.The small leaf high grown variety, Camellia sinensis var sinensis, was smuggled out of China in the 1840s by Scottish botanist Robert Fortune.

Tea cultivation prospered and spread outside of China, with research and technology improving both yield and quality, attracting more investment and fostering the emergence of big brands, based on short supply chains, integrated from the leaf to the cup. Dominated by the British tea trade and the London Tea Auction, which closed in 1998, all these cups were black teas, grown as export-cash crop for the West.

Premium black teas from Darjeeling at a tea shop in France

That situation gradually underwent changes from the late 1970s onwards when China softly tip-toed back into the global tea scene, followed by Japan and South Korea, all displaying their ancient tradition of producing green teas, which were their main domestic hot brewed cups. An important expansion of the cup offering was gradually introduced by these newly arrived stakeholders, who promoted their novelty green teas with the help of significant government budgets. A new era began for European tea consumers, who discovered the green, white, blue-green, and dark teas with their completely new taste profiles, leaf and quality grades, and brewing styles.

Black Tea versus Green Tea

Black tea has been dominating the European tea market since inception, with its easy brewing way of using freshly boiled water, a steeping time of several minutes and one spoon per person plus one spoon for the pot, a straightforward and simple way for achieving a tasty brew. The widely shared adding of milk and sugar made the cups not only reviving and rehydrating, but also providing nutritional value, for breakfast as well as for the mid-morning and mid-afternoon break. Black tea was served in factories, company offices and purchased on-the-go, as an intrinsic part of the daily diet.

During the late 19th century tea was also an important vector for social and family gatherings, like sitting together for afternoon tea, meeting out-of-home in a public tea garden, or inviting friends and celebrities for a tea party. Industrialisation followed by globalisation allowed the big brands to bring black teas to any household in Europe, most conveniently with the introduction of the tea bag, and then with ready-to-drink (RTD) teas, all these cups being black tea.

Single origin Ceylon black tea (from Sri Lanka)

When green teas were introduced to Europe, with a first entry point being Chinese food establishment, they were met with surprise by their pale colour and rather weak taste. When premium qualities became available in retail shops, they quickly generated a need for knowledge and learning, because the green tea cups were different from the established black tea profile.The novelty needed to take root, which takes some time.

It is worthwhile to note, that Europe had not experienced any previous encounter with green teas, contrary to the craze in the United States for Japanese green tea, that had developed after the opening of Japan by the Meiji Emperor in the later 19th century, which had boosted the Japanese tea economy, attracted many American coffee consumers to the green cups, and lasted asa significant fashion and consumption trend from the 1870s until World War I.

Premium teas versus mainstream teas

Black teas, which arrived in Europe from India, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and East Africa, have an established market segmentation. The premium cups are mainly single origin leaf teas from prestigious mountainous areas such as the Himalayan foothills of Darjeeling, India and the central highlands of Sri Lanka; and the upper mainstream teas are leaf tea blends, most often assembled from Sri Lanka/Ceylon, Assam and Kenya teas, according to established taste profiles, like strong breakfast, mild afternoon, good with milk. Finally, the mass market black teas are mainly tea bags with blended CTC (cut/crush, tear, curl) teas, i.e. small particles and dusts, usually containing a mix of various origins.

The premium green teas sourced from the traditional origin markets, which are China, Japan and South Korea, are mostly unblended leaf. To attract consumer awareness, there have been long-lasting promotion operations to introduce such quality green leaf to Europe with claims ranging from terroir origin, dedicated cultivars and artisan processing to health benefits. With China and Japan rivalling for throat share, Korea joining in, consumption is taking root slowly but steadily.

Premium black tea from Saitama, Japan

Concerning the mainstream green tea segment, it is important to note, that the CTC process is not applicable for green teas. Mass market green teas are known as ‘gunpowder’, consisting of more or less tightly rolled leaf, they come mainly from Zhejiang, China’s summer harvests, and are made mainly for North African consumers who blend them with mint and herbs to soften the astringency.

All green teas remain newcomers to the Western markets with their untraditional taste profiles that have no background experience on which to build. The fact that they require more skills for knowledgeable brewing ways as well as additional and different accessories makes them less convenient to prepare, which may be one of the reasons for the continued consumer preference and unchallenged market dominance of the long-established black teas.

Amongst the most popular flavourings for robust black teas are the various citrus fruit, such as bergamot and the world famous ‘Earl Grey’ recipes and the ‘Russian Teas’ with orange and lemon added, which all pair perfectly with black teas and smooth out some astringency. Other highly popular recipes are the spicy teas like Christmas teas and of course, ‘chai’, a spicy milk tea.

Classic and new premium black teas

The reputation of the first flushes from Darjeeling and the spring picks from Ceylon’s highland regions have never lost their longstanding fame and ‘must have’ attraction. The same applies to the famous Chinese black teas, namely the Keemuns from Anhui Province, the Dianhongs from Yunnan Province and, of course, the iconic cup favoured by the British Royal family, Lapsang Souchong from Fujian Province. These incredibly fragrant and iconic terroir teas all rank at the top of the list of the European tea consumers’ most favoured black teas, sought after by many discerning and affluent tea drinkers.

French tea experts Carine Baudry and Lydia Gautier, tea book authors, tea teachers and both deeply involved in the premium tea hospitality segment in France, acknowledge that the revival of special afternoon tea offers, namely by the Palace Hotels, focus on the famous premium origin black teas on their menus. This confirms that these exquisite premium black cups have maintained their position as great favourites of the French tea lovers, also because their familiar and appreciated flavour profiles pair perfectly with sweet dishes, such as the highly elaborate French chef desserts.

Premium black breakfast tea from Korea

In addition to the classic famous black teas, most portfolios now also include an interesting selection of newcomers, fine black teas from untraditional origins, namely from Nepal, from Japan, from South Korea, and from East Africa. Skillfully processed, these fine terroir black teas are mostly single estate products and have attracted attention as award winning cups, after competing in their home markets as well as internationally. They greatly appeal to the consumers who look for novelties, whilst staying within a well-established cup profile.

Continuing to dominate

Investigating statistical details, between 2007 and 2020, green tea imports into the main European markets have grown from 8.5 per cent to 12.6 per cent of the total import tonnage; these figures include the UK, Russia, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, and Italy as per the International Tea Committee’s (ITC) Annual Statistics Bulletin. This shows clearly that black tea continues to fully dominate the European tea market in volume and value. However, green tea is gaining progressively in throat share.

Established senior tea drinkers’ preference for black tea will likely remain, whilst younger generations will be attracted by the proactive communication that continues to focus mainly on green teas. As premium quality becomes pricier–due in part to climate change incidents and the lower yields induced by the requirements for certified organic farming–consumers will have to make choices, and they may consider investigating other tea categories. Revamping the image of genuine black tea to highlight its benefits, provenance and profile, is an option that holds considerable potential.

• Barbara Dufrêne is the former Secretary General of the European Tea Committee and editor of La Nouvelle du Thé. She may be reached at: b-dufrêne@orange.fr.

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Although primarily known for its large-scale black tea production, some small but artistic and creative tea-making has emerged in Sri Lanka in recent years. Under this movement, the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association (CATA) was formed by seven founding members in early 2020, and was officially recognised by the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) in July 2020. Previously, the SLTB started to register ‘Handmade Tea (HT) Factory’ in 2016 after examining individual applicant’s facilities and operations which must meet with the Good Manufacturing Practice standard. As of 10 January 2022, eleven factories have been listed in this category.

Meanwhile, there are about 30 large factories that are operating under the regular license of tea manufacturer, which have been making small quantities of unique specialty teas over the years. Some of them are sold through the Colombo Tea Auction that provides a premium category if producers are able to present a minimum of 75kg per lot.

The definition of ‘artisanal tea’ is not yet commonly determined, but artisanal tea is different from mass products in a clear number of ways. For example, some are organically grown, hand-plucked and hand-rolled, but not all. Some producers are trying to maximise the quality of green leaf, while others are focusing on unique appearance. Furthermore, not only the tea made from 100 per cent of Camellia sinensis leaf can be considered artisanal, but also various teas mixed with herbs, flowers or spices.

Leading the artisanal charge

One of the pioneers of handmade teas is Bernard Holsinger of Ebony Springs, which is in the Western area near Kenilworth Plantation. Holsinger was born in 1946 and had worked in leading large estates mostly in the Western High-grown district until 2003. He dreamed of establishing a small tea garden and a cottage-like factory with accommodations to entertain tea lovers from all over the world and provide the joy and experience of homemade tea.

In 1999, Holsinger found two hectares (ha) of land that was over-run with weeds but on sale and affordable, so he bought it. After clearing the weeds, he planted tea on 1.2 ha and built a bungalow with two attached twin guest rooms and one separate cottage for family use on the remaining land. Holsinger planted mainly TRI2043 cultivar on 0.8 ha that has purple leaves with shiny, large and hairy buds, commonly used for Silver Tips tea (white tea). For the remaining 0.4 ha, he chose the Norwood cultivar known for quality western high-grown tea.

Holsinger continued to work for the auction broker, Forbes and Walker, as a consultant, and was invited as an advisor for a new tea factory in Rize, Turkey from 2007 to 2009. Therefore, his Ebony Springs project was accelerated only after his return from Turkey. He innovated nine varieties of unique teas, what he calls Designer’s Tea, such as Tea Urchin, Knotted Tea, White Peony, Hand Rolled Green Tea, etc., and trained local villagers how to make those teas. The estate can produce 15 to 20kg of Designer’s Tea per month from its own leaf and has found good overseas buyers by selling through online malls. Ebony Springs registered as HT0005 in March 2021 and joined the CATA in the following April.

“It is more appropriate to call those teas handcrafted teas, since most of the Ceylon orthodox black teas are artisanal. They are different from the CTC teas manufactured by a fully mechanised process in which green leaves are put from one side then manufactured CTC teas come out from the other side,” said Anil Cooke, the managing director/CEO of Asia Siyaka Commodities plc, an auction broker. He also pointed out that a trigger for increased discovery of handcrafted teas in Sri Lanka was when the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA) along with the SLTB organised a series of Ceylon Estate Tea of the Year and Charity Auctions in tea-importing countries since 2000s. They added an ‘innovative tea’ category in 2010 and encouraged capable producers to participate. The Charity Auctions have taken place in the USA, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Russia and China. The Lumbini Tea Valley is the first gold medal winner in this category.

Lumbini tea reinvents itself

Lumbini Tea Valley is in Deniyaya, Southern Province, near the Sinharaja Virgin Rainforest, a Unesco World Natural Heritage site. Lumbini is a private tea estate with 73 ha of total land and 70 ha under tea where planting was started by Dayapala Jayawardana in 1975. The factory was built in 1984 at an altitude of 452 meters above the sea, and now manufactures about 600 metric tonnes of tea annually: 30 per cent from estate leaf and 70 per cent from bought leaf grown by 1,500 contracted farmers. Since 2000, the founder’s son has managed the estate. Chaminda Jayawardana is known as one of the most enthusiastic and skilled tea producers in the private sector.

Lumbini has been selling its specialty teas such as FBOPF Extra Special, FFEXSP1, etc., by direct export or through the weekly Colombo tea auction. Furthermore, Jayawardena has been handcrafting some teas since 2009, and its ‘Jayachakra Tea’ (Jaya is from the founder’s surname, and chakra means ring in Sinhala language) won the first gold medal in the innovative category in the Charity Auction in Tokyo in 2010.

Since then, Lumbini has continuously won international awards, and expanded its varieties of handmade teas. Lumbini formed a team of four creators who make 11 kinds of artisanal teas from the estate leaf. It can produce 10kg of each variety per month; however, currently, they make those teas only after they get an order so that Lumbini supplies freshly made teas. Jayawardena pays a five per cent of loyalty to each creator from the revenue generated by their handcrafted teas to encourage them with respect for their skill and creativity. Jayawardena is a founding member of the CATA, and deeply involved in its collective promotional activities.

Kaley combats deforestation

About a 40-minute drive from Lumbini south, another CATA member’s estate is situated in Kotapola, Southern Province, which also faces the Sinharaja rainforest. The name of the estate is Enasaldola (enasal means cardamom, and dola means stream in Sinhala), and now it is making handcrafted teas sold under the brand name of Kaley, from the Sinhala word kalé, which means forest. The estate was founded about 25 years ago and has been managed by Kaley Natural Farms (Pvt) Ltd, since January 2015. The owner, Udena Wickremesooriya, has a unique career before he became a tea producer. His father, Gerald Wickremesooriya was a planter, and later he established the first Sri Lanka’s independent music label, Sooriya. Consequently, Udena spent his childhood surrounded by rice paddies, tea, coconut and rubber fields as well as music studios, radio stations and live shows. However, as an adult, he was involved in diverse business areas over 30 years such as finance, foods, aquaculture, apparel, supply chain, logistics, IT, human resources, etc, across the South Asia region.

Wickremesooriya’s (Udena) major motive for becoming a farmer was his concern for deforestation in Sri Lanka. In 2004, he bought 3.6 ha of abandoned rubber estate in Horana, near Colombo, and planted some indigenous forest and fruit trees. On his first visit to Enasaldola estate, which was on sale, he immediately decided to purchase it since out of 20 ha of the total estate land, 9 ha was preserved as rainforest. In the 11 ha of cultivated area, he planted tea (75 per cent), cinnamon (20 per cent), pepper and some fruit trees, along with a variety of nitrogen-fixing species of plants that are sown as inter-crops, and green leaf is sold to a nearby tea factory.

The estate under the original owner was not profitable and poorly managed with excessive use of chemicals. The original owner had emigrated to Australia and wanted to sell the property. Wickremesooriya viewed its potential and devoted himself to realising the harmony of mother nature, local community and the estate by forming a forest ecosystem.

He promptly stopped the use of chemical weedicides and pesticides. After that, in order to alleviate the shock effect on soil caused by the sudden exclusion of chemicals, Wickremesooriya gradually started to reduce the application of artificial input by substituting it with natural fertilisers made from plants and livestock. Kaley finally terminated the use of any agricultural chemicals by 2019.

Although the estate harvests 60,000 to 90,000kg of green leaf per year, Wickremesooriya felt that selling only green leaf to a large tea factory was not sustainable enough. Then, a mutual friend introduced him to Simon Nihal Bell, the managing director of AMBA Estate in 2018. They share their experiences and methods, and Wickremesooriya has started to handcraft teas. They have been closely working together with some other handmade tea producers, which led the formation of the CATA.

Wickremesooriya established a micro-scale tea factory suitable for their hand-crafted teas on the premises in 2020, which was registered as HT0011 in early January 2022. Kaley has launched 14 kinds of handcrafted tea items of black, green, white, and spice-mixed teas, producing about 40kg of them a month. In addition, they have gained the US Department of Agriculture’s organic certification (USDA Organic) in February 2022.

Revitalising a 100-year-old estate

AMBA Estate, which is in Ambadandegama valley, near Ella, Uva Province, has been restarted as a rehabilitation project of the local community by foreign investors. The estate was originally established by Thamba Arunasalam Pillai in 1900 with the purchase of 10 ha of land, who came to work in a British-owned plantation from Tamil Nadu, South India in 1890. Pillai built a tea factory in 1912, and tea cultivation was rapidly spread in the valley, resulting in the Pillai family’s prosperity until his demise in 1942. Unfortunately, his successors couldn’t maintain the business, and the factory was forced to close by 1975.

The revival attempt of the estate began in the late 1990s by a Sinhalese doctor from Colombo, whose an ambition was to develop a traditional Ayurvedic retreat in a quiet place. He bought land in the valley and replanted it with tea and other plants such as coffee, herbs and spices. His intention was succeeded by JSOC Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, which was incorporated by four foreign investors in 2006, and registered with the Sri Lanka Board of Investment. The company is named after the investors’ initials, who are from Italy, the UK, the USA and Uzbekistan. All were either born or worked in Sri Lanka and have been involved in economic and social development projects around the world. The “S” indicates Simon Nihal Bell, who was born in Sri Lanka while his parents are from the UK, and now serves as the managing director of the company and the first chairman of the CATA.

JSOC commenced operation in 2007 and has been committed to materialising an organic farm with accommodations, which can provide distinctive experiences for visitors as well as generate job opportunities and sources of income for the local community. The company started replanting tea and other crops that meet organic farming standards and renovated the estate’s 100 year-old original farm house, line-rooms (housing for immigrated workers), and a close-by planters’ bungalow to guestrooms. The ‘AMBA Farmstay’ began receiving guests in 2013. It has become a popular and favoured place among foreign tourists and has been rated high in major internet travel sites due to its rustic and unspoiled surroundings, and the hospitality of the staff members. AMBA offers 15 rooms that can accommodate 30 guests at a time. From the outset, AMBA’s mission has been to maximise local incomes by showing small farmers how they can create high-value, hand-made products and offer guests authentic tourism experiences, while preserving the natural environment.

Today, AMBA Estate covers 50 ha of total land. Approximately 10 ha is used for tea cultivation, 5 ha for other crops (fruit and vegetables for the farmstay, coffee, cinnamon, pepper, and other spices) and the remaining 35 ha are maintained as a natural forest reserve. The agricultural sector is managed by Rajagopal Karunanithy, the great-grandson of the original founder, Pillai.

The current sponsors of AMBA restarted production of teas in another restored building on the estate in 2011. The mini processing facility stands at an elevation of 1000 meters above sea level and received formal registration as HT0004 from the SLTB in June 2018. Most of the tea bushes are over 70 year-old seedlings, and nearly 2000kg of green leaf a month is hand-plucked. However, only 10 percent of it is suitable to produce their handcrafted teas such as the TGOP, black tea gems, slow withered green, white tea stars etc. Therefore, they can make about 40kg of handmade tea per month, and nearly 100 percent of it is directly sold to their domestic and overseas customers. With the rest of the green leaf they make the Vangedi Pekoe (pounded tea, vangedi means mortar), mini-rolled BOP and the various chais and flavored teas.

Promoting Ceylon artisanal tea

It seems that the most challenging aspect of handcrafted teas is securing constant demand from the market, which enables those highly costly teas to remain economically viable long-term. The main goal of the CATA is to promote artisanal teas by conveying their philosophies, stories, backgrounds, complexities, creativities, and all efforts behind the teas so consumers are willing to try them and pay premium prices for them. The CATA started streaming its webinars in December 2020 to introduce each member’s estate and teas.

Restaurants or foodservice establishments that serve handcrafted teas can play an important role by drawing interests or recognition of consumers directly and efficiently. A good example is bills Ginza in Tokyo, a popular all-day dining that has served AMBA’s tea since 2018. The restaurant was established by Bill Granger in Australia in 1993 and has opened eight branches in Japan since 2008. Three of them, the Ginza, Osaka and Fukuoka stores, serve ‘Afternoon Tea Set’, and only the Ginza branch has Tea by AMBA Estate in the tea selection for the Afternoon Tea (hand-rolled Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe, a black tea, and lemongrass tisane). The partnership between AMBA Estate and the restaurant was initiated by an accidental encounter in London between Simon Bell and the buyer of the bills restaurant who was looking for a special tea that could add charm to their Ginza Afternoon Tea. When their customers order the Afternoon Tea, restaurant staff suggest AMBA’s tea, which is served in bills’ attractive original tea ware. They offer not only tea but also memorable experiences and awareness. It is clear that every effort from ‘leaf to cup’ is significant for the future of handcrafted teas.

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The Nescafé plant-based latte range in Japan includes ready-to-drink beverages to enjoy on-the-go or at home, soluble mixes that can be made by just adding hot water, and capsules for the popular Nescafé Dolce Gusto system.

The two varieties are oat latte and almond latte, both of which are blended with smooth Nescafé coffee.

The launch in Japan follows earlier launches of Nestlé plant-based coffee mixes across a number of countries in Europe, Latin America and Oceania.

Philipp Navratil, head of Beverages Strategic Business Unit, said “We are delighted to bring new coffee experiences with the launch of our Nescafé plant-based lattes in Japan. We are championing the discovery of plant-based food and beverages at Nestlé, and our iconic Nescafé brand is embracing and leading this trend.”

Nestlé is helping people embrace a more plant-based diet, with options across its wide range of food and beverages.

The company has already launched plant-based alternatives to dairy made from rice, oat, soy, coconut, pea and almonds across categories. Examples include non-dairy ice cream, coffee creamers, rice- and oat-based drinks, pea-based beverages, plant-based cappuccinos and lattes, a vegan condensed milk alternative, as well as a range of non-dairy cheese to complement its plant-based burgers.

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The launch of the Ueshima Coffee Company brand brings Japan’s number one coffee to the UK for the first time and challenges the European coffee brands that are currently driving the global coffee market.

Established in Kobe in 1933, Ueshima Coffee Company is on a mission to pioneer Japanese coffee culture across Europe. Driven by its founding principles of craftsmanship, innovation and sustainability, its launch range delivers a line-up of unique, sustainable and premium coffees that represent an authentic taste of Japan.

Available now online at www.ueshimacoffeecompany.com further products will be added to the range in Spring 2021, with plans to roll-out the brand in grocery retail and out of home. A phased launch in other European markets is also planned from late 2021 onwards.

Paul Molyneux, CEO, UCC Coffee Europe, comments: “The Ueshima launch is a key move for UCC. We have capitalised on the rich experience of our Japanese coffee business to develop the brand; which having been honing its craft and expertise for over eight decades, has unrivalled heritage in Asian coffee. This is a single-minded launch that taps into the biggest growth opportunities in the market and will bring a new coffee experience to consumers who appreciate a distinctive cup of coffee.

“Japan is famed for its strong culture, rituals, craft and quality and globally, it ranks as the number one country brand. So, it’s the ideal time to bring Ueshima – and its visually striking, authentic brand identity – to UK retailers and consumers.”

The Ueshima launch range includes beans, roast and ground coffee, Nespresso compatible aluminium capsules and coffee bags in three inspirational blends – Tokyo Roast, House Blend and Fuji Mountain. Created by its Japanese coffee masters (Q Graders), the blends have been developed using original recipes and modern roasting profiles to suit European tastes. The whole range is 100% Rainforest Alliance certified, with 100% recyclable packaging through local waste streams or via its partnership with TerraCycle.

Characteristically smooth, bold in flavour, and low in acidity, Ueshima coffee offers consumers a different drinking experience. Its blends capture the heart of Japan’s unique coffee culture and the type of coffee enjoyed in coffeehouses and homes across the country.

Complementing Ueshima’s authentic flavours is its stylish, Japanese inspired packaging design, that firmly sets it apart from other coffee brands. Each illustration has been thoughtfully crafted by Japanese calligraphy artist KASHUŪ, in a style born out of traditional Shodo calligraphy to evoke the flavour of each of the coffee blends. Shodo is KASHUŪ’s lifelong practice – at the age of 19 she was awarded the highest title of ‘Professor’ by The Japan Calligraphy Foundation and given the calligrapher name ‘KASHUŪ’.

For more information, visit: www.ueshimacoffeecompany.com.

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The monthly average of the ICO composite indicator rose by 4.6% to 114.74 US cents/lb in December 2020. The daily composite indicator fell to a low of 110.35 US cents/lb on 9 December before climbing back up to 116.98 on 17 December. The daily price remained at a similar level for the remainder of the month until reaching a high of 119.21 US cents/lb on 31 December. Prices in December were supported by sustained demand as evidenced by a continued drawdown in green coffee stocks in large importing countries, such as the USA, as well as the depreciation of the US dollar. Additionally, while exports from Brazil have surged due to the sizeable 2020-21 crop, this was partially offset by a decline in shipments from other Arabica producers, reducing the downward pressure on prices.

Prices for all Arabica group indicators rose in December 2020. The average price for Colombian Milds rose by 5.7% to 170.44 US cents/lb, which is the highest monthly average since November 2016 when it averaged 177.85 US cents/lb. After declining in October and November 2020, the average price for Other Milds rose by 4.7% to 157.81 US cents/lb. As a result, the differential between Colombia Milds and Other Milds rose by 20.5% to 12.63 US cents/lb, which is the largest difference since June 2012 when it reached 15.98 US cents/lb. The average price for Brazilian Naturals grew by 8% to 114.96 US cents/lb, while Robusta prices averaged 72.04 US cents/lb, 0.5% lower than in November 2020. The average arbitrage in November, as measured on the New York and London futures markets, rose by 17.8% to 62.05 US cents/lb. Stocks of certified Arabica increased by 8.6% to 1.52 million bags in December 2020, which is the third consecutive month of increase. Certified Robusta stocks amounted to 2.31 million bags, 3.1% higher than in November 2020. The volatility of the ICO composite indicator price increased by 1.9 percentage points to 8.4% as the volatility for all Arabica indicators increased, while the volatility for Robusta prices was 6.1%, unchanged from November 2020. The volatility for Colombian Milds rose by 2.4 percentage points to 8.6%, for Other Milds by 2.2 percentage points to 9.2%. and for Brazilian Naturals by 2.8 percentage points to 12.2% in December 2020.

Global exports in November 2020 reached 10.15 million bags, which represents an increase of 5.7% compared to November 2019. Robusta shipments totalled 3.31 million bags, 10.7% lower than in November 2019 when they reached a record 3.7 million bags. Shipments of Arabica rose by 16% to 6.84 million bags. Brazilian Naturals saw the largest increase, growing 29.9% to 4.21 million bags, reflecting the on-year Arabica crop from Brazil. Colombian Milds increased by 3.6% to 1.32 million bags, as exports from Colombia grew by 8.8% to 1.26 million bags despite lower production in November 2020 compared to November 2019. However, shipments of Other Milds fell by 5.1% to 1.3 million bags as exports from Honduras dropped 48% to 55,500 bags. In the first two months of coffee year 2020-21, total exports were 6.5% higher at 20.2 million bags, compared to 18.97 million bags for the same period last year. Shipments for all groups declined except Brazilian Naturals, which rose by 23.1% to 8.31 million bags. Exports of Colombian Milds decreased by 4.5% to 2.48 million bags, Other Milds fell by 5% to 2.75 million bags, and Robusta declined by 1% to 6.66 million bags. This growth came primarily from shipments of green Arabica, which reached 12.56 million bags, 11.9% higher than the first two months of coffee year 2019-20. Green Robusta exports increased by 1.1% to 5.79 million bags.

In contrast, exports of roasted coffee from producing countries fell by 5.5% to 103,800 bags, and shipments of soluble coffee decreased by 8.2% to 1.75 million bags. Imports from all origins by ICO importing Members and the United States, decreased by 2.8% to 10.58 million bags in September 2020. In coffee year 2019-20, their total imports declined by 4.5% to 129.98 million bags. Imports by the EU in coffee year 2019-20 fell by 2.6% to 78.32 million bags with Brazil, Vietnam and intra-EU trade as the main origins. Imports by the USA declined by 10% to 28.36 million bags, and Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam were the main source. Japan’s imports decreased by 10% to 7.34 million bags with Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia as the top three origins. Imports by the Russian Federation grew by 7.6% to 6.22 million bags, while those of the United Kingdom declined by 13.4% to 5 million bags. Imports by Switzerland, Norway and Tunisia increased by 9% to 3.41 million bags, 0.4% to 802,400 bags and 6.2% to 527,000 bags, respectively.

Green coffee imports by ICO Members and the USA decreased by 5.4% to 95.98 million bags in coffee year 2019-20 while roasted imports declined by 3.7% to 19.6 million bags. However, imports of soluble coffee increased by 1% to 14.41 million bags. Although roasted coffee imports declined for most ICO Members and the USA, Switzerland’s roasted coffee imports rose by 9.6% to 257,000 bags with Italy, Germany and the Netherlands as the main origins. In contrast, soluble imports rose for the USA and all ICO Members except the EU and the United Kingdom. Soluble imports by the EU fell by 2.2% to 7.73 million bags while those of the UK decreased by 7.4% to 1.14 million bags. Re-exports by ICO importing Members and the United States, increased by 8.3% to 4.31 million bags in September 2020. In coffee year 2019-20, their total re-exports rose by 0.4% to 46.93 million bags. Re-exports by the EU in coffee year 2019-20 fell by 0.3% to 38.56 million bags, while those of the USA by declined 6% to 2.66 million bags. Re-exports from the United Kingdom fell by 24.6% to 1.45 million bags. However, re-exports by all other ICO importing Members increased. Japan’s re-exports more than doubled to 309,700 bags due to strong growth in soluble re-exports, particularly to the Russian Federation, Japan, and China. Re-exports from Norway grew by 46.3% to 20,700 bags on increased shipments to the EU, notably Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The Russian Federation’s re-exports rose by 45.7% to 1.59 million bags as both roasted and soluble shipments increased. The main destinations for the Russian Federations’ roasted re-exports were Belarus, the Ukraine, and Georgia and for soluble re-exports were Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Re-exports from Switzerland increased by 14% to 2.34 million bags with much of the growth from re-exports of roasted coffee to France, USA and Germany as well as newer markets like the Republic of Korea and Indonesia. Tunisia’s re-exports grew by 6.1% to 157 bags.

In coffee year 2019-20, re-exports of roasted coffee from the ICO importing members and the USA decreased by 0.1% to 22.54 million bags as increases in re-exports of soluble coffee offset declines in roasted coffee. The EU’s re-exports of roasted coffee decreased by 1.2% to 18.35 million bags, while those of the USA fell by 3.9% to 1.61 million bags. However, Switzerland’s re-exports of roasted coffee rose by 14.8% to 1.82 million bags. Re-exports of soluble coffee increased by 0.7% to 11.93 million bags. Soluble re-exports from the EU rose by 0.6% to 8.5 million bags, and those from the Russian Federation grew by 35.5% to 1.28 million bags. However, re-exports from the United Kingdom fell by 32.4% to 813,000 bags.

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Organised by the Singapore Coffee Association (SCA) in partnership with Food&HotelAsia (FHA), the virtual auction saw bidders from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, UAE and USA vying for 49 lots of specialty coffee. The auction was closely watched on socials, garnering up to 5,200 views.

Santa Elena Estate’s Geisha beans received the second highest bid of US$56 from CoHee Limited, Hong Kong. Finally, Yellow Catucaí from Guariroba Farm, Brazil was sold at US$25 to a bidder from Japan. Other lots that received intense interest from bidders included:

• CAT-129 variety from Ngoli Estate, Zambia (highest jump from US$7 to close bid at US$16);
• F1 Centroamericano, Hy-04 Natural varieties from La Margarita, Costa Rica;
• Caturra / Catuai varieties from Finca Santa Teresa, Panama;
• Arabica Catuai variety from Finca La Valentina, Panama;

Intense discussion on climate change and coffee production

The webinar “Effects of Climate Change on Coffee Production in ASEAN”, held on the same day prior to the auction, saw 133 attendees from 22 countries and regions and over 2,400 social views. Discussion centred on the impact of climate change on coffee farming in the region and how farmers can mitigate the damage caused to the industry in Southeast Asia. Industry professionals from Starbucks, a coffee industry expert based in Vietnam, and BSR deep dived into the issue and shared their views on how farmers and businesses can help reduce climate impact. From understanding business risks to analysing the different factors such as energy use and mono crop culture that affect coffee farming communities around the world, the experts agreed that the impact of climate change can be resolved through openness and collaboration among all the stakeholders.

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The monthly average of the ICO composite indicator rose by 1.3% to 116.25 US cents/lb in September 2020. While prices have increased, they remain low compared to the long-term average of 135.34 US cents/lb between 2007 and 2018. The daily composite indicator started on a high note, remaining above 120 US cents/lb until 14 September, when it fell to 116.97 US cents/lb. It continued to fall during the rest of the month, reaching a low of 108.09 US cents/lb on 29 September. The Brazilian real also fell from mid- to late-September, erasing the gains made over the preceding three weeks.

Prices for all group indicators rose in September 2020 for the third consecutive month, though at a much slower rate compared to August. The largest increase occurred in the average price for Other Milds which grew by 2% to 166.56 US cents/lb. Colombian Milds increased by 0.7% to 168.36 US cents/lb. As a result, the differential between Colombia Milds and Other Milds decreased by 54.7% to an average of 1.80 US cents/lb due to tightness in supply of Other Milds compared to Colombian Milds. Brazilian Naturals rose by 1.8% to 113.81 US cents/lb, and Robustas by 0.1% to 72.77 US cents/lb. The average arbitrage in September, as measured on the New York and London futures markets, rose by 1.1% to 58.73 US cents/lb. After falling for seven consecutive months, stocks of certified Arabica increased by 68.7% to 2.45 million bags in September 2020 compared to August 2020.

Certified Robusta stocks amounted to 1.85 million bags, unchanged from August 2020. Additionally, the volatility of the ICO composite indicator price decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 8.7%. The volatility for Colombian Milds remained unchanged at 8.5%, but the volatility for Other Milds fell by 0.5 percentage points to 8%. Brazilian Naturals volatility declined by 1.2 percentage points to 12.3%, while the volatility for Robusta prices increased by 2.1 percentage points to 8.4%.

In August 2020, world coffee exports fell by 7.5% to 10.04 million bags compared to August 2019. This was the lowest volume of shipments in August since 2015 when exports totalled 9.14 million bags, and may indicate a decline in demand, particularly as prices have increased in recent months while the outlook for global economic growth remains bearish. Shipments of Arabica fell by 6.7% to 6.35 million bags, and Robusta exports decreased by 9% to 3.69 million bags. Other Milds recorded the largest decrease in August, falling by 10.2% to 2 million bags. Exports of Colombian Milds fell by 8.4% to 1.19 million bags, and Brazilian Naturals declined by 3.6% to 3.16 million bags.

From October 2019 to August 2020, global coffee shipments fell by 5.6% to 116.54 million bags compared with the same period in coffee year 2018-19. In the first eleven months of coffee year 2019-20, Robusta exports recorded the smallest decrease, declining by 2.6% to 44.61 million bags. Shipments of Other Milds fell by 9.7% to 23.42 million bags, Colombian Milds by 6.8% to 12.93 million bags and Brazilian Naturals by 6% to 35.58 million bags. Global output in 2019-20 is estimated at 169.34 million bags, 2.2% lower than in 2018-19. Arabica output is estimated to decrease by 5% to 95.99 million bags, while Robusta output is expected to rise by 1.9% to 73.36 million bags. The decrease in output is attributed primarily to the reduction in Brazil, as this was an off year for its Arabica production, as well as to the ongoing low prices. Harvesting in most countries had already concluded by the time the pandemic occurred.

Production in the five largest producing countries increased in 2019-20, except for Brazil, which accounts for around 35% of global output. In 2019-20, Brazil’s Arabica crop was in the off year of its biennial cycle, and the total harvest is estimated at 58 million bags, 10.9% less than in 2018-19. Brazil’s Arabica output declined by 17.4% to 37 million bags while its Robusta output rose by 3.4% to 21 million bags. Vietnam’s harvest is estimated at 31.5 million bags in 2019-20, 0.7% higher than last year. Colombia’s total production in 2019-20 is estimated at 14.1 million bags, 1.7% higher than in 2018-19, as strong growth in the first three months of the coffee year was followed by falling prices and adverse weather. After three years of decline, production in Indonesia is estimated to rise by 16.5% to an estimated 11.2 million bags in 2019-20 due to beneficial weather. Output in Ethiopia has grown steadily after falling by 19% to 5.56 million bags in 2010-11, and in 2019-20 is estimated to increase by 2.1% to 7.7 million bags due to beneficial weather and adequate rain.

Heading into 2019-20, global demand for coffee seemed strong following coffee year 2018-19 when world consumption grew by 4.3% to 168.7 million bags, which was well-above the long-term average of around 2%. However, in 2019-20, global coffee consumption is estimated at 167.81 million bags, 0.5% lower than last year. While there was a surge in demand at the start of the pandemic from panic-buying and stockpiling, consumption in the remaining months of the coffee year is estimated downwards due to ongoing pressure from a global economic downturn and limited recovery in out-of-home consumption, particularly as many countries are starting to experience a second wave of covid-19 at the end of the coffee year.

Compared to the previous year, demand in the top five consumers, which represent 63.7% of global consumption, slowed considerably in 2019-20. After two years of strong growth, consumption in the European Union is estimated at 45.04 million bags, 1.3% lower than last year. In the United States, the world’s second largest consumer, demand is estimated to fall by 0.6% to 27.58 million bags while consumption in Brazil, the third largest, is estimated to decrease by 0.9% to 22 million bags. Demand in Japan is estimated at 7.5 million bags, 0.8% lower than in 2018-19, while consumption in Indonesia is estimated to fall by 1% to 4.75 million bags.

Although both production and consumption decreased, 2019-20 is seen in surplus, with global output exceeding consumption by 1.54 million bags. The ICO composite indicator reached 107.25 US cents/lb in coffee year 2019-20. This compares to an average of 100.47 US cents/lb in 2018-19 when the surplus reached 4.4 million bags. This surplus, coupled with the majority of Brazil’s 2020-21 crop, an on-year in the biennial Arabica production cycle, reaching the market in the next few months, will limit further recovery in prices.

For more information, visit: www.ico.org.

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Based on its mission to familiarise more people with specialty coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee, which was founded in Oakland, California in the early 2000s, entered the Japanese market in 2015. As of September 2020, it operates 20 cafés throughout Japan, and has been expanding specialty coffee-related products such as instant coffee, cold brew canned coffee, along with coffee brewing goods, cups, bags, etc. Those products are now sold in its cafés and online shop.

The vending machine is unique sales method for soft drinks in Japan. The Japan Soft Drink Association estimates that over two million vending machines for PET bottled or canned beverages are in operation in almost all public facilities as well as at every corner of the street nationwide. The machines have been advanced and sophisticated over the years. A cashless payment function is becoming especially popular lately, responding to the move from notes and coins to electronic money or credit cards.

Blue Bottle Coffee Japan started to consider how to utilise a vending machine to distribute their items before the outbreak of the pandemic. It customised a pair of vending machines exclusively for its products, and its icon, the blue bottle illustrations, appear on the white-coloured machines, which now accept cashless payments only.

Shibuya is one of the busiest and most crowded areas in Tokyo, however, Blue Bottle Coffee has not opened a café there, yet. Therefore, the company selected a parking lot, Mitsui’s Repark, in Shibuya as the best site for the installation of their first vending machine. Consequently, Blue Bottle Coffee expects the vending machines can help its existing and new customers purchase its products conveniently and quickly.

Blue Bottle Coffee sells several types of cold brew canned coffee (236ml, JPY 640, each) in the machine. In addition, it sells whole bean coffee (Bella Donovan blend, 200g, JPY 1620), instant coffee (4g stick × 5 per box, JPY1620), and an eco-coffee cup (340ml, JPY 1980), which differentiate its vending machine from popular RTD machines. The canned drinks are cooled at 5 degrees Celsius, and others are kept at 20 degrees Celsius.

“The response from the consumers are quite good so far. We keep promoting the joy of specialty coffee as much as we can, and we view a vending machine is one of the useful and established sales channels in Japan which can offer fast and practical service,” said Megumi Yoshida, Blue Bottle Coffee Japan’s PR manager.

Outside of the United States and Japan, Blue Bottle Coffee also operates cafés in Korea, but the company’s foray into selling coffee through vending machines is currently in Japan only.

• Yumi Nakatsugawa has been working as a freelance writer specialising in food and restaurant management. While freelancing, she developed a love of black tea as well as tea-producing countries and tea people. Her passion for black tea has brought her to Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea to see tea production firsthand.
  Based in Japan, Yumi may be reached at: ym_n@nifty.com.

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Established in Tokyo in 1985, Teej Co Ltd was one of the first companies to introduce the non-blended, garden-fresh teas to Japan. Teej started sell Darjeeling First Flush teas in early July, about two months later than usual, because of Covid-19-related delays. Mori Kuniyasu, the president of Teej, faced unprecedented difficulty procuring the first flush Darjeeling teas this year due to the turmoil in production and transport triggered by the lockdown measures against the disease. However, as soon as it launched, orders from their customers rushed into Teej’s website, and all teas sold out quickly.

The limited logistics worldwide made it difficult to import the tea. Mori received the first flush samples only in mid-May and selected two manufactured before the lockdown; Sungma DJ-2 and Goomtee DJ-6. Furthermore, it was uncertain when the tea would be delivered to Japan, either by air or surface cargos. He decided to use DHL to carry the total of 300kg of tea, two Darjeeling and one Assam (Sironibari C-5 BPS) invoices. The tea was handed over to the DHL Kolkata on 19 May and transferred many times on the way, then finally arrived in Japan on 8 June. Although both the price of teas and expense of transportation were exceptionally high at this time, Mori did not add the rise in costs to his retail and wholesale prices.

When Mori started selling Darjeeling seasonal teas 35 years ago, non-blended teas were new and novel products, which required explanation and education for consumers. Those quality teas are naturally expensive, so Mori has been trying to handle them at an acceptable price range for producers, exporters, catering businesses, consumers, and himself.

From the beginning, Mori noted that just displaying his tea packets on the shelves in supermarkets or department stores did not help consumers to buy them because of their higher price. Therefore, he started to supply restaurants and cafés in order for their customers to taste those teas with a little margin. He also understood that offering the teas at a stable wholesale price makes it easier for shop owners to control the beverage cost. He has also been keeping the retail prices steady as long as they derive a reasonable profit for the company to sustain the business. Mori believes that an affordable price for general public is a crucial factor for the growth of the specialty tea market.

The outbreak of Covid-19 made many Japanese buyers suspend importing the Darjeeling first flush. Others who could buy a tiny quantity are now selling them at prices three to five times higher than that of Teej.

“Tea is a beverage consumed in a daily life, it is basically the same for the seasonal Darjeeling teas,” said Mori. “I always place the most importance on the balance of quality and price. I sometimes experience tough negotiations with producers or suppliers, but I’ve never compromised on quality.”

• Yumi Nakatsugawa has been working as a freelance writer specialising in food and restaurant management. While freelancing, she developed a love of black tea as well as tea-producing countries and tea people. Her passion for black tea has brought her to Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea to see tea production firsthand. Based in Japan, Yumi may be reached at: ym_n@nifty.com.

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