Week 4: White tea tasting with Joshua

This week we were fortunate to have Joshua in the states and also have him lead our Friday morning staff tea tasting.  We finished off the series with Silver Needle, White Peony, White Buds and Moonlight White.

It's a treat to be able to learn so much about white tea from Joshua himself.  He prepared the tea in cupping sets and allowed us all to visually inspect, smell and taste all four teas. 

He talked about the history, processing and brewing methods of all of these teas.  
 
It also got us excited about the upcoming white tea harvest.  White tea is usually harvested the last few days of March and the beginning of April.  We are only weeks away from the highly anticipated spring tea harvest!

White tea originated in Fujian, China.  From there we offer the traditional and organic Silver Needle and White Peony.  However, we also offer two white teas from Yunnan, China, one of the oldest tea cultivation zones.  Those teas are organic and fair trade certified and hand harvested from ancient tea trees deep in the jungle. Through these teas we are able to blend together ancient tea history with a newer type of tea.   


Looking back at last year, 2010 was a difficult year for farmers.  The weather was not as cooperative as it has been in the past.  Young buds were shocked with a freeze as they emerged causing  farmers to summon farming wisdom.  Despite any challenges they might have faced they still provided us with tea we are proud to share with our customers.  We are fortunate to have such talented partners at origin and have Joshua creating relationships with those who grow and process our teas.  Through that direct contact he is able to relay information on specific teas such as he did at our tasting.  

Brewing up a New Chai in support of the Jane Goodall Institute

We are absolutely thrilled to launch our new Masala Chai Concentrate! The new chai is an improvement upon our previous formula for a few different reasons: the flavors are richer and deeper, the packaging is more environmentally friendly and will take less fuel to ship it around the globe, and most importantly, we’ve partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute! Proceeds from each sale of the concentrate benefit Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Program.

Jane Goodall has worked for almost fifty years to protect animals, habitats and communities around the globe. The Roots& Shoots Program that she founded in 1991 is a youth-driven, global network of more than 8,000 groups in almost 100 countries. Together, youth from around the globe take action to improve our world through service learning projects that promote care and concern for animals, the environment and the human community.

Rishi Tea’s Masala Chai Concentrate is an organic and Fair Trade Certified™ microbrewed blend of energizing spices and rich vanilla infused with a full-bodied single origin forest grown black tea. Unlike other companies that use soluble tea and flavor extracts, we use traditional Indian spices that are slow brewed for more than 20 hours and ethically sourced, wild-grown black tealeaves from an ancient tea tree forest.

The Fair Trade black tea is harvested in Yunnan, China’s Mannong and Manmai villages, and helps support more than 220 families living and working in the villages. Ancient wild-grown forest tea comes from a sustainable, biologically diverse ecosystem. Less than 2% of the world’s tea is harvested in such a low impact and truly organic manner.

Joshua, Rishi Tea founder and tea buyer shares “Our Masala Chai goes above and beyond its organic and Fair Trade certifications. Promoting biodiversity, preserving soil and species and preventing erosion is critical to sustaining the environment but few large-scale tea farms work to this aim. Rishi’s direct trade of sustainable forest tea is a market driven solution for environmental conservation and pairs well with what the Roots & Shoots Program is all about.”

Rishi Tea’s organic, Fair Trade and Kosher Certified Masala Chai Concentrate is also fat free, gluten free and vegan. It’s available at Whole Foods for $5.99 and will be available at www.rishi-tea.com soon!

Video: Ancient Tree Teas & Fair Trade in Yunnan

Thanks to the wonderful people at TransFair USA for shooting this video and for all of their great work supporting Fair Trade around the world!