STiR coffee and tea magazine

26 STiR coffee and tea | 2024 Issue 3 (June / July) A By Diane Faulkner t this very moment, billions of people around the world are enjoying tea. From uniform tea fields in Japan, to the rolling green hills of Kenya, experienced pickers painstakingly pluck two leaves and a bud from only the upper- most branches. Or do they? Maybe shears are used, cutting down to the fourth leaf. Or a mechanical harvester takes the leaves up by six. Does it actu- ally matter to the average tea drinker how their favorite drink is harvested, let alone grown, or how the workers who spend their lives in the field are treated? As consumer demographics shift and as the tea sustainability movement sees large developments, more and more, the answer to that question is yes. Industry Players Bet on Sustainability Quarter two of 2024 sees a couple of big moves in tea regarding that end. First, Japan's Kirin Holdings Company (Kirin Hold- ings) and Kirin Beverage Company (Kirin Beverage) took a step toward sustainability by partnering with Rainforest Alliance (RA). The partnership's focus is on regenerative agriculture. The bet is that, by working with RA, the tea industry can take what coffee has done with its Coffee Scorecard and create its own Tea Scorecard. The Future of Tea Isn't What You Think It takes an experienced and skilled picker to pluck only the best tea leaves and buds from the bush. However, many industrial tea farms now use mechanical harvesters that don't differentiate between the good and bad leaves, also impacting the subsistence-level laborers who depend on the work to feed their families. Photo courtesy the Rainforest Alliance. The Rainforest Alliance unites farmers and communities worldwide with companies and consumers committed to protecting nature. Photo courtesy the Rainforest Alliance

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