STiR coffee and tea magazine

6 STiR coffee and tea | 2024 Issue 6 (December / January 2025) Executive Editor Emily Mclntyre emily@coffeetea.media Associate Editor Diana Jendoubi diana@coffeetea.media Tea Correspondent Dan Bolton (Canada) Contributing Writers Aravinda Anantharaman (India) Emilio Bonnet (Colombia) Eugene Gerden (Georgia) Seth Griffin (Vietnam) Bhavi Patel (India) Matthew Swenson (USA) Art Director Somjet Thitasomboon snt@octobermultimedia.com Administrative Assistant Sommai Jekaram asj@octobermultimedia.com Subscriptions Malisa Kongkatitum malisa@stir-tea-coffee.com Sales Director Emerson Leonard edl@octobermultimedia.com Director, October Inter Co., Ltd. Boonthin Tubsongkroh brt@octobermultimedia.com Founding Editor & Publisher Glenn Anthony John glenn@coffeetea.media c/o October Inter Co. Ltd. 159/19 Soi Ramkhamhaeng 110, Saphan Sung, Bangkok 10240 THAILAND. Tel: +66818299409. www.coffeetea.media Published by A Member of In This Issue W Subscribe to STiR Coffee and Tea Magazine 1 Year – US$75.00 2 Years – US$145.00 3 Years – US$210.00 For inquiries, contact: malisa@stir-tea-coffee.com Secure online payment: https://www.stir-tea-coffee.com/subscribe e have a fantastic mix of news and deep dives, factory and farm, and consumer and producer in this issue, the last of a momentous year: 2024. A thread running be- tween each article, writer, and reader of STiR is how interconnected we all are in our industries: coffee and tea, the most beloved beverages on earth. This interconnectedness is explored in a number of articles, but especially in Coffee Supply Chain Dependencies, page 18. The article continues the "Good Growth" column concept into a discussion of the "Butterfly Effect" in play in the coffee industry: the war between Russia and Ukraine steeply increased coffee prices in the USA. On that note, Dan Bolton, our tea correspondent covers the potential impact of President- Elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on foreign products, which will push coffee and tea pricing upwards of 15-20%. These pieces (US Tariffs Loom Ominously, page 10 and US Tea Industry Responds to Potential Tariffs, page 17) are part of the larger exploration of current news found in our Coffee Report (page 10) and Tea Report (page 14). Argentina, which currently relies on the United States as its primary client for its tea export market, is diversifying in response to exactly this kind of risk, as Dan Bolton outlines in Diver- sifying Argentina's Tea Bounty, page 26. Another interdependency between farm and cafe is the sustainability of the land and the coffee and tea that sits on it, explored in a few great pieces in this issue. First, we have Scaling Biochar for a Circular Coffee Economy, page 23, which dives deep into the ancient Amazonian practice of biochar and explores how it can be utilized to sequester carbon in soil. We also look at vetiver grass, which has been successfully used to filter and absorb toxic wastewater from coffee processing (Decontaminating Coffee Wastewater with Vetiver, page 12). Vetiver pits have been used in Ethiopia and other places with great success. In the United States, we examine the interconnectedness between tea brands and their co- manufacturers (Tea Co-Packing in the US, page 32) while taking time to understand the risks that arise when low-acid beverages like coffee are bottled for mass consumption (Raising Safety Awareness in the Specialty Coffee Industry, page 38). Our Q&A this issue is with Thaleon Tremain, the CEO and co-founder of Pachamama Cof- fee, North America's first coffee roaster and retailer wholly owned and governed by farmers (page 8). We extend our look at how farmer ownership shifts a business model through a feature about two new farmer-owned tea factories in India (Farmer-Owned Factories: Moving Indian Tea Forward, page 20). We examine the evolution of Japanese specialty coffee (Japanese Coffee Sector, page 30) as well as the two-way cultural connections between Indian tea drinkers and the colonists who introduced cultivation of the native-growing plant to India in How Tea Became Chai, page 35. All told, it's a compelling issue that encourages you to think twice, maybe three times, about how your actions affect others and how deeply you are affected by the entire supply chain. Emily McIntyre Executive Editor

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