They Found a Flavor and They're Sticking to It

Consistency - that’s the key to success for many tea brands, especially those from large corporations like Lipton, Tetley, Twinnings, etc...   Their customers know that the flavor in yesterday’s box will be the flavor in today’s box.  But, just how is consistency possible?  How does tea from one batch taste like tea from another made months or years later?

The taste of all produce, even tea, changes depending on the season, the growing environment, and production techniques.   For example, grape vines are well known to be sensitive plants and the differences in a wet or dry season affect the flavor of the grape and ultimately the wine.  Wine enthusiasts revel in the flavor variations in a winery’s wine, which are recorded as vintages and noted by year on the bottle labels.  The Camellia Sinensis – the tea plant – is also sensitive to its climate and environment.  For tea connoisseurs the variations can be delightful.  Large tea corporations, however, seek to avoid changes in their brand flavor despite the unavoidable taste changes from harvest to harvest.  Their recipe for consistency is the use of both tea blending and tea tasting experts.

I talked with representatives from Igara Tea Factory of Uganda, Africa’s 3^rd largest tea producing country [1], who discussed with me some of the practices of the tea corporations they sell to.  Corporations make their brand flavor consistent by mixing multiple teas sourced from hundreds of plantations from all corners of the world.  One tea bag might contain upwards of 40 different teas from many different countries.  The result is that seasonal differences in one area of the world, or irregularities in production in one plantation, won’t affect the overall taste of the final product because the tea from one locale is only a small percentage of the whole.

Tea tasters are the next step towards consistency.  Trained tea tasters test the tea (what a tongue twister!) to maintain the brand’s consistent flavor and quality.  Here is a short interview with a Lipton tea taster explaining his work.

 

(Click on the photo link.)

__________________________________

 [1] Bloomberg News, January 11, 2013

Cute, Collectible and Kenyan

Click here to find on Amazon.com

The two time winner of the World Tea Expo’s Buyers Choice Award for Best Black Tea (years 2011 & 2012) was again at the World Tea Expo in 2013. That’s Ajiri Tea, also known as the “Tea on a mission company.”  Ajiri Tea sells black tea exclusively from Kenya.  The word Ajiri means “to employ” in Swahili.  Ajiri Tea's  mission is to create employment for Kenyan women and to educate Kenyan orphans.  100% of Ajiri Tea’s net profits after taxes goes to the Ajiri Foundation, which provides education to Kenyan orphans.

Not only does Ajiri Tea have award winning tea and a noble mission, but its tea boxes are the cutest I’ve ever seen!  The labels on the boxes depict idyllic Kenyan village life and animals.  Each label is one-of-a-kind as they are handmade by the Kenyan women using dried banana tree bark and recycled magazines.  The boxes look like collector's items.

Kenya is one of the top three worldwide exporters of black tea, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, which found that Kenya in 2010 had roughly 32% of the global tea export market.[1]  Kenya’s Export Promotion Counsel says that today Kenya is the leading exporter of black tea, with Sri Lanka coming in second.[2]  Kenya's major markets for tea are Pakistan, Egypt, United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan.[3] Surprisingly, Ajiri Tea was the only Kenyan company at the 2013 World Tea Expo in Las Vegas.  Perhaps, having been founded by an American family, Ajiri Tea knows firsthand the wide potential in the growing American demand for tea. 

---

[1]  FAO Document:  http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5143e/y5143e0z.htm

[2]  Kenya’s Export Promotion Counsel website at http://epckenya.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69&Itemid=80

[3] Kenya’s Export Promotion Counsel website at http://epckenya.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69&Itemid=80

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083BO45A/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0083BO45A&linkCode=as2&tag=teadre06-20&linkId=D3KQFP5P7YKJ6RGQ

Tea Song

The McGetigans band from Ireland really loves their tea.  Have a cup while you enjoy their music at this link!  "Tea Song"

Germany and Tea

Don’t think of Germany as a major tea country?  You may want to think again. 

While Germans may not be known for being major tea drinkers[1], Germany is actually a power house in the tea community.  Indeed, Hamburg Germany is considered by some to be the tea trade capital of Europe because about 70% of all tea traded in continental Europe is handled in the city.[2]

How much tea do Germans drink?  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Netherlands reports that Germany is the third largest tea consumer in the European Union, with a market share of 10%.[3]  East Frisia is Germany’s top tea drinking region, drinking 12 times the national average.[4]   East Frisia, a region in northern Germany, has a robust “teatime” tradition dating back to the 17^th century.  East Frisian tea is typically “a thick, dark, malty tea served in espresso-size porcelain cups” with “a piece of rock sugar in the bottom and heavy cream.”[5]

As noted by the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, Germans are known to “have a reputation for demanding the highest quality” in tea.[6] Indeed, the German Tea Association has adopted a Code of Practice for Quality Assurance.  The Code provides guidelines for tea sampling and issues requirements for pesticide examination.[7]

I visited the booths of a few Germany companies while attending the World Tea Expo 2013.

 

Halssen and Lyons impressed me with their innovative design in their new product tea to go, that is “Teatogo.”  Teatogo is a tea bag integrated into a disposable cups lid. 
When steeping is complete, the user simply pulls the tea bag into a pocket in the lid to remove it from the liguor without needing to remove it from the cup. Halssen and Lyons gave me a sample to try and I found getting rid of the tea bag was fast, clean and easy.  No wonder Halssen and Lyons patented their Teatogo system.

---

[1] Tea & CoffeeTrade Journal, (Volume 177 Issue 11) 

[2] DeutscherTeeverband, 2010

[3] CBI Report on Black Tea in Germany 

[4]  DeutscherTeeverband, 2011. 

[5] New York Times, February 24, 20013 Travel Article

[6] Tea & CoffeeTrade Journal, (Volume 177 Issue 11) 

[7] Deutscher Teeverband website (German Tea Association)

World Tea Expo 2013 – Tea Pots and Tea Pops

Did you think it would only be about the tea leaves at the World Tea Expo?  Well, tea pots and tea pops would prove you wrong.

What’s a Tea Expo without beautiful tea pots?

In the middle of the convention floor filled with tea merchants selling tea beverages, Fuji Merchandise Corporation displayed a large selection of Japanese tea wares.  I couldn’t help but stop and take a picture of their teapots.  I thought for sure these pretty porcelain tea pots would be expensive.  The tea pots, however, were offered at only $10 - 12.50.  But, this importer of Japanese wares only sells to retailers, so I imagine these prices may get marked up.

 

How about a tea pop?

The Winner of Best New Product by the 2013 World Tea Expo is TeaPops by DeeBee’s Organic Frozen Treats.  This company  out of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada makes pops from green, white and black teas, as well as rooibos.  DeeBee’s Founder, Dionne Laslo-Baker, PhD, was inspired to make the pops when looking to give treats to her young sons.  Dionne calls herself a “fanatic about the food her family eats.”  It’s not surprising then that these pops are ridiculously health and spirit conscious as they are organic, kosher, vegan, dairy free, gluten free,  soy free and nut free.  Discerning customers who appreciate Dionne’s fanaticism will purchase for the quality of the pops.  If they purchase one box, they will be yearning for more.  Dionne gave me a sample of her pops at the Tea Expo and they are undeniably yummy - to kids and adults. 

Like us on Facebook

We just launched our Tea Dreams Facebook page!  Come visit and be sure to "like" us.

https://www.facebook.com/TeaDreams

World Tea Expo 2013 (Tea processing seminar)

We took a two day seminar on tea processing at the World Tea Expo.  We, the students, actually processed the fresh cut tea leaves and created yellow, green and black teas.  The class culminated with students drinking our own finished creations.

First, Eva Lee, co-founder of the tea estate, Tea Hawaii & Company, flew in fresh cut tea leaves for the class.  The leaves were grown within the rainforest at the summit of Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano.  Lee, prior to the class, had cut and separated the leaves as appropriate for the creation of green, yellow or black teas.

Next, we students heated the leaves only for the green and yellow teas, but not the black.

We rolled and shaped the leaves for all three tea types. 

The smell from the leaves as we crushed and pressed them was amazing.

We ended the first day of class leaving the leaves for the yellow tea sweltering in a sauna.  We also set aside the leaves for the green and black teas in the open to oxidize overnight.  The next day we roasted the tea leaves to finalize the process.  At last, we brewed and drank our delicious creations.

Embarrassing Tea Moment at the World Tea Expo 2013.

Despite being surrounded by tea and tea merchants everywhere on the convention floor of the World Tea Expo 2013, I still managed to have an embarrassing tea moment. 

“Are these cute little golden balls chocolates?”  I asked the exhibitor at a Taiwanese company’s table.  She had the good graces not to laugh.  No, these delicate looking bon bons exquisitely wrapped in golden foil and arrayed in a beautiful tin box were balls of tea.  Expensive little balls of aged Pu-erh tea sized for individual cups.

In the next aisle, when I saw sparkling silver and gold bon bon looking balls at another exhibitor table, I made up for my earlier mistake.  I proudly marched up to the exhibitor and regaled her with my knowledge of Pu-erh.  She said that she was pleased that I didn't think the balls were chocolates like so many other expo attendees!  She then gifted me with lots of samples of both raw and ripe Pu-erh.  I can't wait to try them back home!

World Tea Expo 2013

World Tea Expo 2013 Tea merchants from all over the world, large and small, are here in Las Vegas this week for the 2013 World Tea Expo.  My sister and I and thousands of other tea enthusiasts have flocked here as well.

I was near giddy with excitement when Rajiv Lochan of Lochan Tea gave me a cup of the Darjeeling tea, second flush, from the Jungpana Estate in Darjeeling. I couldn't say “yes!” fast enough to a gift sample bag of the tea leaves. 

We started our day with a seminar on tea cupping and how it is used in commercial quality control. 

We then combed through the vendors on the convention floor. We spoke with the winner of the Expo's 2012 Best New Product. Brandon Ford, the owner of Vintage Teaworks creates wine inspired tea blends.

 
We chatted with the ladies of Octavia Teas and got samples of their ginger peach white tea and blueberry green tea.  

We took in the colors of bowl after bowl of tea leaves on display.

We smelled the aromas of leaves.