STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 21 JAPAN Matcha: What is it? Matcha is the surprise "superfood" tea. Conservative forecasts are that sales will hit $6 billion by 2023. Most of the market is in the Asia-Pacific region but it is growing as a niche product in the US in tea, other beverages and food. One issue that seems likely to become important for its future as a premium product is to avoid the growing ambigu- ity that recalls te history of Darjeeling as a brand. What is matcha? More particu- larly, what is this matcha? In traditional teas, matcha has for a millennium been associated with the ceremonial grade, a unique harvesting and tea making process, impeccable preparation and, of course, the Japanese tea ceremony. Almost all the new growth is for culinary grade, much of it coming from, China, particularly Zhejiang Province. Ads for "matcha tea" on Amazon and other online sites generally spell out their origin and grade, but matcha green tea powder is often left unidentified. Many of the Chinese and other matchas do not follow the meticulous and complex Japanese farming process of covering bushes to retain chlorophyll, stone grinding, and small leaf selectivity. There are some excellent varieties being produced in, for example, Assam and by specialty growers in Nepal and regions in China. There's a lot of low grade green tea powder ambiguously marked as matcha and much of the very tea product is cheap or a good reason. But consumers have little knowledge in general that there are indeed wide differences among matchas. As market demand grows so quickly, supply of the best matcha simply cannot keep up. Only 2% of Japan's tea production is for matcha. This 2,000 tons is mostly consumed domestically, with around half of it Ceremonial grades. Kyoto, Uji, and Fukishama are the main centers for farming along with Nishio, the largest. A straw in the wind of coming blurring of the distinctions is the China application to trademark its Nishio matcha in Japan. KENYA USAID/NASA Reduce Crop Loss Four million of Kenya's population depend on tea for their living. It's a marginal existence. The average small- holder farm is just 1.04 acres and generates an annual net income of $1.075. (USAID figures, June 2017) One of the biggest threats they face is from crop losses of $200 a year that are the direct result of recurrent, localized, and unpredictable frosts. In 2012, 30% of the entire crop was lost in Nandi. If farmers could get a 72-hour advanced warning of frost in their area – its occurrence may vary across a few kilometers of terrain – they would cut the loss by $80: a month's income or the annual school tuition or one of their children. They can now do exactly that with exactly those results. Since 2015, USAID and NASA have offered free public data through their SERVIR program: satellite geospatial data delivery, remote sensor- ing to monitor ground temperature and other conditions, and three-day forecasts transmitted to farmers via mobile phone maps displays. This permits growers to harvest early and change their rotation for picking young leaves. SERVIR is being deployed across the globe, for flood forecasting in Bangladesh to forest fire monitoring in Guatemala. It's likely, if NASA funding continues, to become the small farmers' GPS. It's free, accessible, and unique. There is no other way that Kenya's smallholders could escape the frost risk. SRI LANKA Virgin White Teas White teas are for many tea lovers the best of the best. They set the very highest standards of growing, harvesting, and delicacy of handling. They are the least processed tea with every leaf and bud selected and plucked in a short season, often just a week or so. The subtlety and complexity of their light flavors and aromas Several of the world's most highly regarded white teas are now grown in Sri Lanka. This is part of the expansion of great white teas from being almost entirely grown in China, with Silver Needle, Shou Mei, and Bai Mudan (White Peony) the three dominant varieties. Now India offers some outstanding Moonlight whites. Kenya produces a fine Silverlake. And Sri Lanka has added Virgin White tea to the nation's distinctive whites of which the most renowned is Adam's Peak. It is a deliberate throw- back to the Imperial Tribute Teas of early China. Tribute teas were reserved for the Emperor. The very best, such as Longjing Dragonwell, were untouched by human hand. Young virgins, wearing gold gloves and using gold scissors, delicately plucked the stem at dawn and placed it into a gold basket. The tea making principle underlying the royal show biz ritual was to minimize any contamination to the delicate leaf – sweat, body odor, germs, metal (hence the gold scissors). Sri Lanka's Handunugoda estate applies the "untouched by human hand" standard, less the job qualification, in growing its Herman Virgin White. The tea pluckers gather just 160 grams of leaf per day, versus the general 30 kilo output. Only 10 kilos are made per year and the tea is stocked only by the most prestigious French tea house. The price is US$1,500 a kilo, about $42 an ounce and $3.50 a cup. Is it worth it? It is to someone. More interestingly, it raises the question of just how far the limits of selectivity and delicacy of processing can go in making a fine tea great. There are plenty of excellent Silver Needles on the market at around $8 an ounce but, say, an Adam's Peak seems to fully merit its typical (when available) $40 and Castleton's comparably priced Darjeeling Moonlight White is less costly per cup than coffee from that name that has a place on every corner. UK Selling English Tea to China Surprises in the global tea industry come from consumers and work their way back to producers. Recent examples are bubble tea sweeping across Asia from its Taiwan niche and now taking off in Europe and the US, cheese tea that Defining matcha

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