STiR coffee and tea magazine

Volume 4, Number 1

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22 STiR tea & coffee industry international AZORES Garden Seeks China tourists The island of Sao Miguel in the Azores has been growing tea commercially since the 1870s. Chinese experts were employed in the 1880s to advise on cultivation and processing. The Gorre- ana tea factory, established in 1883, today produces 40 metric tons of black and green tea every year and is a popular tourist attraction. Now the tea estates are hoping to become a popular venue for Chinese tourists. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, stayed briefly in the Azores in July 2014 on his way home from a visit to South America and a Chinese Tourist Welcoming training event was held last October to discuss how to attract more Chinese visitors to the islands. It is hoped that more Chinese travelers will visit to enjoy whale watching, the natural beauty of the landscape, and the unusual experience of drinking green tea made at a European tea garden beside the Atlantic Ocean. Learn more at www.gorreana.org CHINA Bad Year for Spring Tea Last October the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture released a planning and production report about tea production in China in spring 2014. Because of drought in the Yangtze River district and low temperatures and persistent rain in early spring, last year's spring teas were badly affected. The report explains that measures have now been taken to improve the management of tea gardens and to deal with other issues in the industry, such as the expansion of tea areas, the extension of the harvest period, and total harvests. The cultivated tea area, which was growing rapidly in 2013, has now been controlled to an increase of 299,821 acres, 4.8% up, but an overall drop in growth of 3% on the previous year's total expansion. Because of low spring temperatures and early rain, picking times in eastern China were delayed last year by 7-10 days, but the good weather that followed allowed an extension of the picking period by about a week. And China's total output has continued to increase to a total spring harvest of 924,000 tons, up 9.54% on the previous year. INDIA Indian Tea Sales 2014 Wholesaler and online retailer Indi Khanna of Tea'n'Teas offers this assessment of the 2014 India tea harvest. "In the north of the country, although there was a drop in crop during the first half of the year, the overall averages have been marginally higher. While both CTC and orthodox quality teas sold at premiums throughout the season, at the other end of the spectrum, the inferior sorts continued to be heavily discounted. While Darjeelings continued to meet with good demand, overall there was a decline in price levels compared to 2013. Exports fell but the domestic market remained buoyant throughout the season and this augers well for the industry being ample proof of the market having an appetite for quality teas and having the ability to pay for the quality. "In the south, buyers were very selective, bought the good teas and dumped those that did not meet their requirements. As the season progressed, average prices kept dropping fairly substantially, particularly for the medium and plainer kinds. Buying patterns for the best CTCs and Orthodox teas remained rather irregular, with export activity being totally dependent and driven by conditions in other origins (for example Mombasa). The major losers of this trend were the medium and plainer teas, which saw a very erratic export enquiry throughout the year." Assam Explores Purple Tea Pradip Barua, tea expert and senior advisory office at Tocklai Tea Research Institute (TRI) in Assam, has said that Assam could become the next region after Kenya to cultivate purple tea. The purple clone TRFK 306/1 was originally from TRI in Assam and the varietal has been found growing wild in the forested areas of Cachar.Kenya is currently the only country that cultivates the varietal but Barua say that "Assam has tremen- dous potential to produce purple tea, as it is the tea of the future as far as health Tea Report: Jane Pettigrew Correction: Tea Tasting Tool Box The Global Tea Report in the December-January issue of STiR Tea & Coffee Interna- tional, on pg. 26, incorrectly reported the launch of "La QuintEssence du Thé" by Palais des Thé. The September 2014 launch was by tea professionals Carine Baudry and Clothilde Dutry. Baudry is in charge of the Palais des Thés Tea School in Paris, a post she has held since 2003. Dutry is a barista, tea taster, founder, and owner of "Ici & Ail- leurs", a terroir tea, coffee, chocolate, and sugar counter in Rouen. Learn more at: www. laquintessenceduthe.com

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