Tea in News (Week 13)

1. Tempest in a Tea Egg: Chinese Mock Video Portraying Them as Poor

When it comes to tea and politics it’s not only the ‘tea party’ in action. Now tea has caught itself in a battle between China and Taiwan. Wanna know more about tea eggs and how to make it? Read more in this article: Chinese tea eggs recipe

2. The true cost of your cup of tea

Though we all love tea, we have to be aware that tea pickers in tea producing countries such as Sri Lanka are suffering from poor working conditions. Marco Picardi did a great job by publishing this article to make us all aware. Here’s a quote:

Finally, once the minimum tealeaf quotas are met, the women carry the day’s pickings, collected in large sacks, back down the hillside to be weighed before they are transported to a nearby processing factory up at the top of the valley. An average 18-kilo haul brings in around 380 rupees ($3)

A tea picker in Sri Lanka. © Luca Picardi

$3 is by far less than what a picker in China currently receives, about 15$ including food and a place to stay. It’s still not much, but it has improved significantly in recent years.

3. Japanese tea” city hopes heritage to help restore production

The historical city of Uji in western Japan is putting pressure on the local assembly to approve a draft ordinance that encourages residents to serve guests to the city with local tea, known as Uji Tea, instead of alcoholic drinks.

It’s strange isn’t it? Why would Japan, a country that is so famous for its tea, need regulation to promote it’s tea culture? Tea serving should never be regulated, instead the local community should be proud of it’s heritage and realize how interesting the tea culture really is to international guests.

4. Tea prices at auction drop
What we normally expect from products that we consume on a daily basis is that the prices should be quiet stable. Not for tea. Based on our experience, tea is probably the most volatile commodity product in the world. Unpredictable weather conditions is one factor that can hurt harvest and increase seasonal prices. On the other hand, as more countries ares starting to produce tea, we see an increase in supply and therefore this helps to keep prices low. The latter only holds for lower end mass production teas though.