Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/763665
16 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 6, 2016 (December/January) Tea Report: Jane Pettigrew CHINA Retail Tea by Apple Designer The new Xiao Guan Tea retail store in Jinan was designed by Apple store designer Tim Kobe as a luxury, modernist space that features full-height framed fixtures contrasted with large open spaces. Xiao Guan Tea marketing director Jiang Mei said the interior displays a "clean finish in bronze, brushed steel and wood grains. The simplicity and flow of the space results in a streamlined 'tea vault' that is divided into three sections — tea library, tea bar and large screen display to help customers understand the eight different kinds of tea, choose those they wish to taste, and purchase teas to carry home in beautiful gift boxes." "The new store allows tea lovers to engage all their senses in an appreciation of tea that is totally different from the traditional Chinese approach," according to Jiang Mei. Chinese tea has always been portrayed with traditional images. "We broke the traditional way of tea selling with a brand new method, redefined and created by Xiao Guan Tea. "By taking the customer's perspec- tives, providing extremely high quality tea and achieving the ultimate consum- ers' experiences, we believe all these will lead the Xiao Guan Tea to success and expose the traditional Chinese tea to the world with a brand new image," said Jiang Mei. INDIA Teabox Nitrogen-Flush Teapacs Teabox, a global direct-to-consumer tea company based in India, has launched individually-packaged tea bags sealed at source using a natural nitrogen flush that keeps the tea fresh longer. Teabox is the first tea company to use nitrogen flush wrappers, a technique common to packaged foods such as potato chips. This technique creates a non-reactive environment that protects TeaPac tea from oxygen, light, heat and moisture – elements that compromise the integrity of the tea, causing deterioration and, ultimately, loss of flavor. "Coming from a tea family and spending much of my childhood amongst tea estates, I grew up drinking some of the world's best teas – so I know how fresh tea is meant to taste," says Kaushal Dugar, founder and c.e.o. of Teabox. "At Teabox, we want to ensure that every cup of tea consumed is the freshest in the world, but we know that not everyone has time in their day to steep loose leaf. We created TeaPacs so that anyone can enjoy the world's freshest tea, anywhere at any time. It's tea as it should be." Founded in 2012, Teabox works directly with an extensive network of growers across India and Nepal to source more than 150 teas. Teas are plucked, processed, and packaged within one week using Teabox's proprietary cold chain process. The new nitrogen flush pyramid- shaped teabags come in 18 varieties including English breakfast, Earl Grey, masala chai, and mountain rose. TeaPacs are priced at $10 for 16 pyramids. Customers will be able to mix and match any 3 boxes of their favorite teas for $30 and shipping will be free. Learn more: www.teabox.com/teapac. India Smallholder Training In October the Tea Board of India conducted an Awareness Program on Plant Protection Code (PPC) for the small tea growers of North Bengal. Dr. A. Basu Majumder, Tea Board research officer, discussed in detail the various aspects of the plant protection code, its aim and objectives, and various provi- sions for its implementation. More than 80 smallholder farmers from various self-help groups of small tea growers participated in the workshop and took part in discussions about major insect pests, diseases, and weeds that cause problems for tea, detailed strate- gies on their integrated management, and the dos and don'ts of pesticide spraying. Participants were also given a handout in Bengali summarizing these important discussion points. Bijoy Gopal Chakravarty, president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association (CISTA), congratulated the Tea Board for such an initiative in providing technical support on the usage of pesticides in tea cultiva- tion. He said that such workshops in regional languages will not only help growers in producing quality green leaves but also enable them to reduce the cost of agro inputs by the correct choice of pesticides. Xiao Guan Tea shop in Jinan, China Nitrogen flushed TeaPac wrappers Training tea workers to apply pesticides Solar panels at Dholka tea factory, India Solar Energy for Wagh Bakri Wagh Bakri Tea Group, the Kolkata- based premium tea company, is the 3rd largest packaged tea company in India. To power its Dholka factory in the Ahmedabad District of the state of Photo by Wei Xuliang