22/05/2024
Did you know that International Tea Day is much more than just some lame “holiday” thought up by a marketing department somewhere? We thought that was the case before we did a little digging and were pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise. International Tea Day was established by the United Nations to help raise awareness of the deep social, cultural, and economic reach of the global tea industry with a special emphasis on supporting tea agriculture and production practices that are sustainable and fair to all parties involved.
The resolution adopting International Tea Day makes note of several critical realities, such as:
• “Tea production and processing constitutes a main source of livelihoods for millions of families in developing countries.”
• “Tea constitutes the main source of subsistence for millions of poor families who live in a number of the least developed countries.”
• “Tea production and processing contributes to the fight against hunger, the reduction of extreme poverty, the empowerment of women, and the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.”
Today is meant to honor all of the extremely hard work that tea laborers, farmers, and producers do every day of the year to make our favorite beverage, passionate hobby, and even somedays, the motivation that gets us through the day. Tea producers like Sunanda, pictured above, who is one of the smallholder growers who supply tea to Forest Hill.
As many of you know, Emily just got back from Sri Lanka so many of the issues that International Tea Day evokes are top of mind right now. It’s also one of the main tea buying seasons of the year, so we have been doing a lot of deep thinking about the kinds of teas we want to have on our list and what the impacts are of these choices.
There are so many different reasons that we might have for picking up a tea, but being part of a chain of trade that actively (and not just tangentially) has a positive impact on smallholders, tea pickers, tea artisans, and emerging post-conflict tea origins is really important to us. It is becoming even more so as we deepen our tea roots with every passing year.
