Coffee tea international 2 2014 en free

№ 2(114)’2014

IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT CUPOR BEHIND THE SCENES AT A TEACOMPETITION

THE “RUSSIAN GERMAN” WOGAUFAMILY BUSINESS: FROM TEA TOBANKS AND FACTORIES

MOBILE COFFEE, MOBILE TEA 15–16 SEPTEMBER 2014 — MOSCOW

1

contents

Certification in Organic Agriculture Coffee, Tea and Health - Science News Danny Johns, Ultimate Barista Challenge: “This Competition Simply Had to Happen!”

2 EDITORIAL

3 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

4 NEWS

HISTORY14 The “Russian German” Wogau

family business: from tea to

banks and factories

ECONOMICS18 Mobile Сoffee, mobile Tea

22 La Roya — the sunset of Central

America?

REVIEW&STATISTICS26 Certification in organic agriculture

SIENCE28 Tea, Coffee and Health. Science

news

32 Exporting countries: domestic

consumption

32 Non-members net imports of all

forms of coffee from all sources

32 Per capita disappearance inimporting countries

33 Who drinks the most tea?

33 Coffee consumption around theworld

INTERVIEW34 Danny Johns Ultimate Barista

Challenge: “This competition sim-ply had to happen!”

36 In search of the perfect cup ORBehind the scenes at a tea compe-tition.

40 ADVERTISER INDEX

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2626 28 34

12 2222La Roya – the Sunset of Central America?Tea Board of India Fixes Norms to Cut

Pesticide UseWorld of Specialty: New arena for tea and coffee

The world is becoming obsessed witheverything organic. Today, producersof the majority of food product cate-

gories have embraced organic; coffee and teaare no exception. More and more companiesare coming on board, seeing, first and fore-most, an economic opportunity: after all, con-sumers of organic products are willing to paya “purity” premium. Here it is, this new ideathat can rejuvenate the market… right?Unfortunately, things are not quite so simple.I began thinking about this topic after Iheard a presentation at the annual meetingof the FAO’s Intergovernmental Group onTea in May of this year (see pp. 26-27). In

discussions after the meeting, I heard people say that switching toorganic tea means much lower yields, and, consequently, lowerproduction volume. Besides, entering and staying in the organicbusiness requires services such as certification, which are stillvery expensive, meaning that access to the field is still difficultfor small farmers. Thus, many obstacles remain on the road toorganic, and the only thing that can make the entry into thislucrative business more affordable is an increased demand.But there is another side to this problem, the side that has to doexclusively with coffee and tea. These beverages are known allover the world as natural and healthy. It is these very propertiesthat are the cornerstone of the millennia-long love affair betweenpeople and tea and coffee.But if we keep talking about “organic”with respect to these products, the consumer may get the idea thatthe other, “non-organic”, coffee and tea aren’t quite as “natural”and “healthy”. And if this “organic” sentiment takes hold of theconsumers’ minds, the mass market for traditional coffee and teamay suddenly crash! I think this possibility deserves serious dis-cussion among industry professionals; at the very least, majormarket players should consider various hypothetical scenariosinvolving this outcome.In this issue our readers will find information on many other top-ics of current interest – history, economics, new informationaltechnologies in the field of coffee and tea, as well as about newways of motivating consumers and professionals to deepen theirknowledge of coffee and tea and of ways of preparing them.

Always Yours,Editor-in-Chief Ramaz Chanturiya

ED

ITO

RIA

LEDITORIAL

FounderZAO INTERNATIONAL TEA HOUSE

Distributed worldwide among coffee and tea produc-ers,wholesale companies, shops, and restaurants.Printed in Russia. According to the registration certifi-cate of mass media ПИ №777213 from 30th January,2001. Reprinting of materials is allowed only by permis-sion of the magazine. The reference to the magazine«Coffee and tea in Russia» is obligatory. The editorsdon't bear any responsibility for reliability of data placedin advertising blocks or announcements. The editor'spoint of view may not coincide with the author's pointof view. All provided materials will not be returned orreviewed.

Coffee & Tea International magazine has been included inthe VINITI (All Russian Institute of Scientific and TechnicalInformation of the Academy of Sciences Vserossiisky InstitutNauchnoi i Tekhnicheskoi Informatsii (VINITI)) list of synop-sis journals and the institute's data base. Information aboutthe magazine will be annually published in the «Ulrich'sPeriodicals Directory», international handbook of periodicmagazines and ongoing publications. Coffee & TeaInternational is an appendix to the Coffee & Tea in Russiamagazine.

№ 2‘2014

Editorial Address:

Russia, 123060, Moscow,Berzarina str., 36, building 2, of. 214

tel./fax: +7 495 935-87-07Email: [email protected],

www.coffeetea.ru

Printed in

APC Petrovsky Park LLC

PublisherZAO INTERNATIONAL TEA HOUSE

Editor-in-ChiefRAMAZ CHANTURIYA

Deputy Editor-in-ChiefSVETLANA BELIKOVA

Computer-Aided DesignVALENTINA GUSKOVA

Advertising DirectorJULIA CHANTURIYA

Advertising ManagerYANA AFTANDILOVA

Special Projects ManagerELENA TREGUB

Promotion ManagerrJULIA PRAVDOLYUBOVA

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Chairman of the Editorial Board

R.O. CHANTURIYA,General Director, Rusteacoffee Association

Members of the Editorial Board

S.G. BELIKOVA, Ph.D.Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Coffee&Tea in Russia

Editorial Board Secretary

A.V. ELSON,General Director, KLD Coffee Importers

S.V. KASIANENKO,Chairman, Board of Directors, Orimi Trade

A. MALCHIC,Chief Executive Officer, Montana Kofe

R.D. PANZHAVA,Georgian Tea Producers Association

M. PEYRIS,International Tea Committee

D. SHUMAKOV,Head Judge and Member of the Tea Masters Cup

Organizing Committee

I.A. SOKOLOV,Ph.D. in History

V.A. TUTELIAN,Director, Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy

of Medical Sciences, Member,Russian Academyof Medical Sciences

COFFEE&TEA INTERNATIONAL # 2/20142

A – advertising materials

3

CALENDAR OF EVENTSAugust 2014 – February 2014

All materials are provided by support ofWWW.COFFEETEA.RU

8–10 August 2014

Country: ChinaCity: BeijingCompany Page: www.chinaexhibition.com

CAFE SHOW CHINA

11–13 September 2014

15–18 September2014

WORLDFOOD MOSCOW

17–19 October2014

Country: USACity: PortlandCompany Page: www.coffeefest.com

COFFEE FESTPORTLAND

14–16 August 2014

19–22 November 2014

Country: South KoreaCity: SeoulCompany Page: www.wclforum.com

THE 3rd WORLD COFFEE LEADERSFORUM

20–23 November 2014

Country: South KoreaCity: SeoulCompany Page: www.cafeshow.com

SEOUL INT’L CAFESHOW

6–8 February 2014

Country: USACity: AtlantaCompany Page: www.coffeefest.com

COFFEE FEST ATLANT

HONG KONG INTERNA-TIONAL TEA FAIR

Country: ChinaCity: HongkongCompany Page: www.hktdc.com


Country: GermanyCity: Hamburg Company Page: www.coteca-hamburg.com

COTECA COFFEE TEACOCOA, GLOBALINDUSTRY EXPO

WORLD TEA & COFFEEEXPO

Country: IndiaCity: MumbaiCompany Page: www.worldteacoffeeexpo.com


Country: RussiaCity: MoscowCompany Page: www.unitedcoffeetea.ru


Country: RussiaCity: MoscowCompany Page: www.coffeeteafest.ru

23–25 October 2014

Country: ItalyCity: TriesteCompany Page: www.triestespresso.it

TRIEST ESPRESSOEXPO

Country: RussiaCity: MoscowCompany Page: www.world-food.ru


NEWS

4

One of the largest industrial

exhibitions, Tea & Coffee

World Cup Europe, was held in

Warsaw on February 11—13, 2013;

as always, representatives from

Coffee and Tea International were

in attendance.

There were more than 50 expo-

nents, from industry associations

to equipment manufacturers to

providers of packaging solutions

for the tea and coffee industry. The exhibition

attracted producers not only from Poland, but also

from other Eastern European countries. This year,

the exhibition hosted various educational events,

including seminars and coffee and tea cupping ses-

sions. A three-day Cup of

Excellence (CoE) event included

tastings of the best coffee vari-

eties from Brazil, as well as an auc-

tion of small batches of these vari-

eties. The proceeds from the auc-

tion will go to support educational

programs for coffee farmers

sponsored by CoE.

A separate event was dedicated to

Mate tea. Professionals from

Argentina introduced Mate and

told visitors about ways of grow-

ing and consuming it. Among

other exhibition highlights — mas-

ter-classes on creating fruit tea

infusions and on sensory analysis

of black and oolong teas.

The next Tea & Coffee World Cup

exhibition will take place in

Shanghai, China, in March of

2015.

coffeetea.ru

Tea & Coffee World Cup Europe


NEWS

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Tea Board ofIndia fixes normsto cut pesticideuseThe Tea Board has introducedPlant Protection Code for imple-menting practices to minimiseuse of pesticides and improvequality of tea.PPC is a set of guidelines framedby a technical committee com-prising members from the teaindustry, Tea Research Instituteof UPASI Tea Research Foun-dation, Tea Research Associa-tion, international certificationbodies and the Trustea AdvisoryCommittee.According to a Tea Board state-ment, these guidelines areaimed at ensuring best practicesfor crop protection across In-dian tea plantations.Effective adoption of the PPCwould enable the industry tosafeguard the plantation envi-ronment, ensure welfare ofworkers and small farmers andlong-term security of supply,Siddharth, Chairman of TeaBoard, was quoted saying.

versii.com

According to the press-centerof the Tea Board of India,

annual per capita Indian tea con-sumption in Kazakhstan is about1,5 kg. Mr. Zakir Hussain, Directorof Tea Promotion of the Tea Boardof India, stated that Kazakhstanaccounts for 5% of all Indian teaexports. This makes Kazakhstanfifth among Indian tea consumers,behind Russia, OAE, Great Britainand Iran. Total annual imports ofIndian tea into Kazakhstan standat 12,61 mln. kg. Given the veryhigh popularity of tea inKazakhstan, local tea lovers havetheir own website on Kaznet (theKazakh internet space).The Tea Board of India was createdin 1903, after the passage of thelaw “On Imposition of Taxes on

Indian Tea” and the levying ofexport duties on tea. The revenuesthus generated were used to pro-mote Indian tea both in India andabroad. In its present form, theTea Board of India was created onApril 1st, 1953 as part of the IndianMinistry of Commerce andIndustry. Among its primary func-tions are: financial and technicalsupport of tea production andpromotion, including exports; sci-entific research and productionexpansion; improvement of teaquality; support of plantationworkers by creation of social wel-fare structure; financial and tech-nical support of small private teaproducers; gathering, analysis andpublication of statistical dataabout the tea industry.

Coffee and Tea will be subject to excise tax in Armenia

Starting April 1st, the government of Armeniastarted affixing excise stamps on certain goods,including soap, laundry detergent, sunflower oil,cosmetics, preservatives, ice cream, tea, coffee,etc. The government justifies this new initiative byappealing to the need to combat shadow econo-my. Manufacture and import of goods markedwith excise stamps is easier to track, and thus eas-ier to tax.

panorama.am

Belarus raises prices of excisestamps for coffee and tea

The government of Belarus issued adecree on February 5, 2014, raising the

prices of excise stamps for coffee, tea,beer, mineral water, vegetable oil, mobilephones, TVs, notebook computers, motoroil and several other food and non-fooditems. The price of an excise stamp forcoffee and coffee substitutes, flavoredand unflavored tea, sturgeon caviar and itsroe-based substitutes, canned fish, miner-al and carbonated water with sweetenersand flavorings, other non-alcoholic bever-

ages in consumer packaging, beer, weakalcoholic beverages (with ethyl alcoholcontent under 7%) will be Br 500. A simi-lar increase will affect excise stamps foranalog and digital storage media (audio-cassettes, videocassettes, compact disks,etc.) with stored content in consumerpackaging. The decree came into effectupon its official publication. The price ofexcise stamps increases every year to keepup with the rising cost of their manufac-ture.

belta.by

Kazakhstan becomes one of the top five consumers of Indian Tea

bnews.kz

NEWS

7

The preparations for COTECA Coffee, Tea and Cocoa Global IndustryExpo are running at full pace. More exhibition space has already beenbooked for September 2014 than for the whole of the previous COTE-

CA. A total of over 120 exhibitors from 30 nations are expected from 24 to26 September 2014, including many of the market leaders. They are usingthe expo to present their products and services, and for exchanges withtrade visitors on key subjects.

“Early booking by our exhibitors puts us in a very good positionnow, months ahead of the expo,” says Claudia Johannsen, ProjectDirector COTECA. “That is a real success. We are delighted thatCOTECA has developed into a regular event for the internationalindustry”. Exhibitors include many well-known international com-

panies, such as BlaserTrading, Benecke CoffeeGmbH & Co., the CoffeeBoard of India, theIndonesian Coffee andCocoa Research Institute,Toper Roasters and CocoaPanama, H@lssen & Lyon,Dethlefsen& Balk GmbHand the Sri Lanka TeaBoard, Innovia Films,PHUC SINH Corporation,SSP India, CimbriaHeidGmbH, AIYA Europe andIMA INDUSTRIES. COTECA is an internationalnetworking platform,underscoring the advan-tage of Hamburg as itsvenue. The event providesa combination of interna-tional industry expo andconference, with experts

from all stages of the value chain coming to exchange ideas oncurrent trends and generate new business leads. At the previousevent, COTECA 2012, some 3,000 participants from all over theworld obtained information on new products and current devel-opments in the coffee, tea and cocoa sectors. Major benefits atthis event were the large proportion of international exhibitors andvisitors, and the high quality of the trade information.

COTECAin Hamburg, Germany:

Global Industry Expo for Coffee, Tea and Cocoa is growing! A


NEWS

8

According to Sarah Besky, a University of Michigan anthropologist,“Darjeeling's tea industry is in the midst of what most connoisseurs

and market watchers would consider to be a revival, driven in part by

fair trade. But ironically, fair trade and other programs that purport toprovide justice to plantation workers in the age of global ‘ethical con-sumption’ are not having much effect in providing justice to the teapluckers, who are mainly Indian Nepali, or Gorkha women.” In the US, the most-prized first-flush tea leaves—designated SFTG-FOP, meaning “Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe”—sellfor more than $60 for eight ounces. But the field workers who pickthe delicate leaves earn just over a dollar for a full day’s work. “Women in Darjeeling are keenly aware of the irony that they producesome of the world's most expensive tea yet get paid a miniscule frac-tion of what this tea fetches abroad,” said Besky, who lived on the teaplantations talking with workers, plantation owners and area activistsfor months at a time from 2007 through 2010.Workers in Darjeeling's “tea gardens” live in houses provided by theiremployers and are given allowances for food and certain householdnecessities—all in partial payment of wages. “Fair-trade plantationmay seem like an oxymoron,” Besky said. “Plantation workers are notsmall farmers. They are laborers who, like peasants, live and work onland they do not own.”According to Besky, “There is a deep disconnect between national,global and regional calls for justice, and the lives and work of the verypeople in whose names those calls have gone forth. The workers arekeenly aware that in the market for justice, the tea plantation is notgoing anywhere.”

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Fair Trade tea does not Mean Fair Pay for Indian Workers, says new research

The Code establishes general principles ofprofessional ethics, ethical standards,

rules and conventions, to govern all com-mercial activity of producers of sweets,food concentrates and coffee. In particular,

the Code calls for: abstinence from anycommercial activity that violates trade andother fair commercial practices, full disclo-sure of product quality and protection ofconsumer rights with respect to the proper

product quality; assistance in implementa-tion of self-regulatory mechanisms and pre-vention of violations of laws governing eco-nomic competition and protection of con-sumer rights.

Ukraine adopts uniform code of conduct to governcoffee market competition

inpress.ua

A team of young Italian coffee aficionados hascome up with a new concept for a coffeemachine, which they claim to be the world's firstelectromagnetic induction coffee maker.Dubbed "La Fenice," the fully functional proto-type makes both traditional Italian espresso andAmerican filter coffee and uses up to 80 percentless energy than most other coffee machines.Conceived by Stefano Polti, the design featuresa patented electromagnetic induction heaterthat instantly heats the water when the machineis turned on, allowing it to be turned off whennot in use. Most other coffee machines on themarket need a good five to fifteen minutes toheat up before brewing a perfect cup of coffee,while other models are designed to be kept on all day, thus con-suming a lot more energy."We decided to concentrate first on the energy saving theme, engi-neering a new heater system that could use less power and only whenwe need it," says the La Fenice team. "To make it possible we studiedelectromagnetic induction, the technology that revolutionized thehobs industry, improving energy efficiency by up to 95 percent."

Furthermore, La Fenice also includes a special-ized pressure flow rate and temperature control(PCP), which constantly evaluates the tempera-ture of the water and allows for "higher preci-sion" coffee making. A specially designed sensordirectly measures the water temperature andkeeps it at a constant 93° C (199° F)."Unlike most other coffee makers measuringtemperature at the surface of the boiler, 'LaFenice' directly measures the temperature of thewater itself thanks to an advanced [technology],resulting in higher precision," says the La Feniceteam.The current design is inspired by traditional cof-fee machines from the early 1900's and features

two separate coffee making nozzles, one for espresso and the otherfor filtered coffee. Unconventional as it stands, the prototype goesone step further and is compatible with both ground coffee andcoffee capsules.The design team behind the La Fenice prototype is currently seekingstartup funding on Kickstarter, with pledges from US$250 toreserve a unit – if all goes to plan.

gizmag.com

Coffee machine first to use electromagnetic inductionheating

NEWS

9

Coffee flour maybe your newfavourite gluten-free flourCoffee flour, made from the fruitof the coffee plant, might just bethe next big gluten-free bakingnecessity.Vancouver-based startup CFGlobal Holdings has discovered away to turn a by-product of cof-fee manufacturing into a flourwith sweet undertones of citrusand cooked fruit.While still in the manufacturingstage, this nutrient-dense flour isexpected to hit store shelvessometime next year, adding to thealready overwhelming market ofgluten-free flours.

ca.shine.yahoo.com

Visitors of the premium restaurant exhibitionSirha Moscow, held in the Gostinyi Dvor on

March 24—26, were presented to the new com-petition format — Barista Battle. This project ofthe magazine Coffee and Tea in Russia wasorganized jointly with the company DoubleB andsupported by the Association Rusteacoffeewithin specialized platform World of Specialty.The competition was attended by the bestprofessionals of Moscow coffeehouse

Chocolate and DoubleB and in a tense battleMaria Kikinadze (DobleB) has won. All final-ists received souvenirs , and the winner waspaid the money prize from the AssociationRusteacoffee .It is encouraging that the survey, conductedamong the public during the competition,revealed a very high score for quality of coffeethat was prepared by the participants.According to the organizers, this doubtless

merit is not only barista’s , but also coffee’s,which was prepared by the guys, and ofcourse, upscale professional equipment - cof-fee machines Nuova Simonelli, provided by thesponsor, the company Business Russia. Allthese components were assembled together inthe project not accidently, as the Sirha exhibi-tion and World of Specialty platform wereconceived as the exposition of the bestachievements of coffee and tea industry.

Visitors of the premium restaurant exhibition chosethe best barista

coffeetea.ru

ICO’s Chief Economist, Mr. Denis Seudieu,attended the 2nd Forum on African

Coffee Production and Consumption (FES-TICOFFEE) on 29—31 May 2014 in YaoundJ,Cameroon, jointly organized by the Coffeeand Cocoa Inter-Professional Council(CICC), which coordinates private sectoractivities in Cameroon, and the African andMalagasy Robusta Coffee Agency(ACRAM).The Forum was preceded by a meeting of theInternational Women’s Coffee Alliance(IWCA) that also organized a series of train-ing sessions on coffee tasting for women.The theme of the 2nd FESTICOFFEE was“Coffee: The Revival”, and it attracted over300 visitors to the various stands of roasters,farmers’ associations, research institutes and

coffee authorities. The event focused on sus-tainable coffee production and consumptionand included a scientific symposium onRobusta coffee, a coffee tasting day, and a

coffee farmers’ forum on how to producesustainable coffee.At the opening ceremony chaired by H.E. MrLuc Magloire Mbarga Antangana, Ministerof Trade, Mr. Seudieu invited coffee author-ities from Cameroon and the rest of theAfrican continent to promote sustainablecoffee sector through improved productivityand strong domestic consumption to main-tain remunerative prices for farmers.During his visit, Mr. Seudieu had a technicalmeeting with the members of COOPAFER-LOS, a cooperative of women in coffee, toreview a project proposal recently submittedto the Common Fund for Commodities forfinancing. The cooperative’s proposal seeksto improve the participation of women in thecoffee value chain in Cameroon.

icocoffeeorg.tumblr.com

Mission Report: Participation in 2nd Forum on African Coffee Production and Consumption


NEWS

10

World of Coffee ends on a high

Europe’s largest coffee industry event, SCAE Worldof Coffee, Rimini 2014, ended on a high note with

the announcement of the winners of the three world cof-fee competitions, which took place at Rimini FieraBusiness Space in Rimini, Italy.

World Coffee Events (WCE), a sister company toSCAE, announced the winners: the 2014 World BaristaChampion is Hidenori Izaki from Japan, the 2014 WorldBrewers Cup Champion is Stefanos Domatiotis fromGreece, and the 2014 World Coffee Roasting Champion isYu-Chuan Jacky from Taiwan. The World Cezve/IbrikChampion is Stavros Lamprinidis from Greece.

A total of 54 National Barista Champions, 27 NationalBrewers Cup Champions and 9 World Coffee RoastingChampions competed in the 15th World BaristaChampionship, 4th World Brewers Cup and 2nd WorldCoffee Roasting Championship.

All three Championships took place over four compe-tition days at the World of Coffee in Rimini, Italy, as partof the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe's, annualcoffee event. Over 5,000 coffee fans from Europe andaround the globe attended the event, and over 57,000unique viewers streamed the competitions live online.

The three-day event was packed with: workshops,competitions, the World Roasters Summit, forums andthe trade fair also produced a number of other winnersthroughout the show including the New Product of theShow Awards, the SCAE Awards for Excellence and theSCAE Coffee Photography Competition.

Mr David Veal, Executive Director of the SCAEannounced at the show that SCAE World of Coffee 2015will take place in the spectacular location of Gothenburg,Sweden. The WCE also announced that they will be bring-ing the World Brewers Cup Championship, the WorldCoffee in Good Spirits Championship, The World Latte ArtChampionship and the World Coffee RoastingChampionship to SCAE World of Coffee, Gothenburg, 16-18 June 2015. These events are used by the WCE to engagethe speciality coffee community and promote coffeeexcellence and quality worldwide.

NO BETTER WAY FOR A HEALTHY TEA CUP


NEWS

12

World of Specialty has been conceived as a platform for developing premium tea and coffee products;the main idea is to accumulate the best industry experience and know-how and to make it availableto professionals in the hotel and restaurant business. This year, the World of Specialty event

included such seminars as “Tea: Styles and Specialties”, “Era of Pu-erh and other famous teas. A new gener-ation of tea lovers, new tea occasions”, “Coffee: key trends of the new season”, “World trends overview: ideasfor promoting your coffee-house, cafJ or restaurant”. For those who wanted to sample and rate specialty cof-fees, there were cupping sessions featuring unique varieties of coffee: every roaster had an opportunity to

present its product for evaluation by the guests of Sirha Moscow.The only requirement: the coffee must be of exceptionally high qual-ity and come with every bit of relevant information (variety, pro-cessing method, processing station, growing altitude, harvest year,roasting date). For restaurants that were interested in specialty teas,there were degustations of plantation Darjeelings (with some fromNewby Tea) and hand-picked tippy tea from plantations in Georgia(which, by the way, got unexpectedly high marks from many degus-tation participants). But the main focus of World of Tea was compe-tition, and justifiably so: a competition is the best format to showcase the most exquisite tea and cof-fee varieties as well as demonstrate various brewing methods and introduce the audiences to the trueprofessionals who work with these beverages. The first two days were all about tea: World of Specialtyhosted the qualifying round of the National Tea Championship for the Central Federal District.

Sirha Moscow, the largest international premium hospitality and food service exhibition in Russia, tookplace at the Gostiny Dvor Exhibition Center in Moscow, Russia, on March 24-26, 2014. The exhibitionlaunched a new and promising initiative: World of Specialty, a project aimed at promoting high coffee andtea culture in the HoReCa segment.

WORLD OF SPECIALTY: New arena for tea and coffee

NEWS

13

On the third, and final, day of Sirha Moscow, the Tea and Coffee in Russia magazine introduced a new competitiveformat: Barista Battle, organized with support from Double B Coffe & Tea and the Rusteacoffee Association. Thenovelty of the format generated significant interest among exhibition attendees: the setting for competitors wasmaximally close to an actual barista workplace, and any spectator could become a judge. Pairs of baristas preparedbeverages requested by the audience, and their performance was judged not only by the taste and aroma of the finalproduct, but also by the appearance and presentation of the beverage, the friendliness of the barista and the speedof service — criteria important to any coffee drinker. Among the competitors were the most highly qualified pro-fessionals from Moscow cafJs. All finalists received souvenirs, and the winner received a cash prize from theRusteacoffee Association. A poll of the audience revealed that beverages prepared by the competitors were ratedexcellent; this, certainly, is the direct result not just of the skill of the baristas, but also of the high quality of cof-fee itself and of the high-grade professional equipment: Nuova Simonelli coffee makers, provided by BusinessRussia, the sponsor of Barista Battle.Bringing all these events under one banner was obviously not an accident: World of Specialty at Sirha Moscowaimed at presenting the greatest achievements of the coffee and tea industry. The coffee competition proved so pop-ular that the organizers of Barista Battle have promised to hold other such events this year at different venues: thiscompetitive format is not only highly entertaining, but it also popularizes the barista profession, develops the professional skills of the competitorsand improves the quality of service at establishments that focus on high quality coffee. The next Sirha Moscow exhibition will take place, as usual, in March of 2015 at the Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, and World of Specialty will be fun onceagain. The Coffee and Tea in Russia magazine has already started working on the next year’s schedule of events; we are inviting proposals from, andare ready to work with, all who are interested in promoting high tea and coffee culture. See you next time!


HISTORY

14

A LAND OF ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIESThe Russian market has always been a

world of unlimited opportunities for foreignbusinessmen. In Europe, profits were con-strained because of fierce competition, andforeigners arriving to Russia were amazed atthe opportunities available there.

In Europe, it took generations to build asizeable fortune, but in Russia this could hap-pen within a lifetime. An unbounded Russianmarket and a wealth of natural resourceslured Europeans eastward.

Starting with the reign of Peter I the Greatand Catherine II the Great, Russian imperialauthorities actively recruited people ofGerman origin to serve the Russian crown. Weshould not forget that Catherine the Greatwas herself an ethnic German, who so suc-cessfully integrated into the Russian societythat she became the best female ruler inRussian history.

Germans arriving in Russia could settle incommunities and with their families, they wereaccepted to military service at their existingrank, they could speak their language and prac-tice their religion. The transplants repaid Russiain kind: they became the fresh blood of theRussian economy, agriculture and public life.

Among those German immigrants was theWogau family. A detailed history of the familyand its business has already been explored inseveral Russian-language publications by theauthor.

The Wogau family business in Russia start-ed with a trading company founded by PhilippMaximilian von Wogau (1807 – 1880). Thefamily can trace its ancestry to the 16th centu-ry; in the 18th century, the family becamelanded gentry.

THE RUSSIAN BRANCH OF THEWOGAU FAMILY

One branch of the family fell on hardtimes; Philipp Maximilian had no savings andupon his arrival in Russia took a job as acourier in a small brokerage firm. Because ofhis hard work and a profitable marriage (hemarried the daughter of a dye factory ownerFranz Rabeneck), Philipp Maximilian man-aged to establish good connections andbuild up enough capital to start his own busi-ness.

Philipp Maximilian ran his trading busi-ness together with his brother, Friedrich vonWogau (1818 – 1848), selling dyes and tea.Using profits from the tea trade, the Wogaustarted buying and selling cotton.

The Wogau actively intermarried withother “Russian German” families in Moscow,which led to the emergence of a hugeWogau-Mark-Banza-Schuma-cher-Ruperti

THE “RUSSIANGERMAN”

Wogau family business: fromtea to banks and factories

Sokolov Ivan,Historian, PhD

Philipp Maximilian von Wogau

German colonists in the Saint-Petersburgregion

Tea crate, Wogau & Co. Trading Company, endof 19th century. From the exposition of the pri-vate Entrepreneurs and PhilanthropistsMuseum, Moscow

A map showing main trade routes for importing tea into Russia, end of 19th century

15

The Wogau & Co. Trading Company trademark #2 – a lionresting its paw on a heraldic shield

clan (with the Wogau, Mark andBanza families as its core). In 1848Philipp Maximilian became a subjectof the Russian crown and joined themerchant guild.

The Wogau & Co. TradingCompany was founded by M.M.Wogau and a merchant from Revelnamed V.D. Luther. By 1914 theCompany was owned by a group ofrelatives: a son of one of thefounders, honorary citizen R.V.Hermann, Moscow 1st-guild mer-chants M.F. Mark and G.M. Mark andE. Schumacher, a British subject.

The headquarters of the Companywas located in the building belongingto the Anchor Insurance Company(Moscow, 26 Varvarka st.), of whichthe Wogau family later became partowners. The Anchor Insurance

Company achieved great success: itwas one of the leaders of the RussianEmpire’s insurance market.

A NEW PLAYER IN THE TEAMARKET

Soon the Wogau family’s attentionwas attracted by a highly profitablebusiness: tea trade.

The rapid growth of the Wogautea business was made possible bythe lifting of the import ban on theChinese “Cantonese” tea in 1862.This type of tea was carried fromChinese port cities to Europe byEuropean ships. It was inferior inquality to another type of tea, called“Kyakhta”1 tea, which was deliveredto Russia and Europe by land; butbecause the “Cantonese” tea wascheaper, due to lower transporta-

1 Translator’s note: ‘Kyakhta’ is the name of a town in the Russian Far East, on the border between Russia and China, known throughout the 1800s for active Russian-Chinesetrade. Caravans carrying loads of tea originated there; hence the type of tea delivered to mainland Russia this way was called ‘Kyakhta tea’.


HISTORY

16

tion costs, there was sufficient demand for it.Starting in 1862, the Wogay & Co. TradingCompany bought tea on foreign markets, usingBritish companies as intermediaries, for subse-quent resale in Moscow and Nizhni Novgorod.Some of the tea was purchased on the LondonTea Exchange. The Wogau tea business thrived:cheap tea was attractive to consumers, and,although the markup was low, the Companymade good profits because of the high volumeof sales.

The name of the Company – ‘Caravan’ – alsocontributed to its success: the word remindedconsumers of the “caravan” tea, the tea that wasbrought to the European part of Russia by cara-vans via Mongolia and Siberia. This tea was ofbetter quality than the “Cantonese” tea. The factthat consumers associated the name with anancient method of transportation was also afactor in boosting the company’s sales.

THE ‘CARAVAN’ TRADE PARTNERSHIPIn 1893 the Wogau & Co. Trading Company

set up a trade partnership in Russia; the part-nership was named ‘Caravan’, and the businesswas wholesale trade of bulk tea. Caravanimported tea not only from China, but also fromIndia; the Indian tea was sold as ‘Number 105’.

Caravan’s company logo underwent manychanges. Aming the symbols used were the ini-tials ‘TK’ (from the Russian name‘Товарищество Караван’ = ‘PartnershipCaravan’) and ‘TPK’ (from the Russian name‘Русское Товарищество Караван’ = ‘RussianPartnership Caravan’), a lion with a shield (thesymbol of the Wogau & Co. Trading Company)and a country cottage.

The partnership enjoyed steady growth; itsoffices and warehouses appeared in Moscow,Odessa, Ufa, Samarkand.

The Company sold its tea in paper packagesas well as in luxury containers made of wood,glass, tin, porcelain and crystal. The Worgaueven used advanced technology of the time intheir packaging. For example, one type of tincontainers had a built-in device for viewingstereographs (pictures that produced a 3-Dimage when viewed through a special lens),extremely popular at the end of the 19th —beginning of the 20th century. The containerbearing the firm’s logo continued to live its ownlife even after the tea was all gone; children whoplayed with it learned the firm’s name from anearly age, becoming future consumers.

For customers who regularly bought sugar andtea, Caravan manufactured special tea ware withthe company logo. Favorite clients got generousgifts: glasses and other tableware bearingCaravan’s advertising. A lot of tea was sold inteapots, sugar bowls, even kettles. The usefulpackaging from Worgau remained in the con-sumer’s home, while the packaging of other firmswas simply discarded.

In addition to tea containers, the Worgauordered all kinds of other promotional materials

that consumers could see in places they leastexpected. For example, some stores had faiencemoney bins with Caravan’s advertisements.There were even ashtrays with the company’slogo.

Caravan’s stores were located in all majorcities. They welcomed shoppers with beautifultin signs featuring mountain eagles, the compa-ny logo and other themes. The walls inside thestores were hung with paper advertisements,and city streets were decorated with attractiveposters.

Even in places where there were no Caravanstores, the company had business partners who

delivered its products to the farthest corners ofthe Russian Empire.

CARAVAN’S POSITION ON THE TEAMARKET

By the beginning of the 20th century,Caravan was one of the leaders of the tea trade,being one of the top five companies in severalcategories.

During 12 years since the founding date, theCaravan partnership, according to its own data,weighed out 117,547,673 pounds of tea into643,381,059 packages. The state excises aloneamounted to more than 70,000,000 rubles, andthe cost of transporting the tea from productionsites to consumers exceeded 20 million rubles.

The annual volume of tea and sugar sales ofthe Caravan partnership (including commis-sioned sales of brick teas) was at least35,000,000 rubles.

FROM TEA TRADE TO BANKINGIn the 1860s the Wogau & Co. Trading

Company expanded its business and started sell-ing fine English cotton yarnand American cotton.Since the 1870s the compa-ny sold building materials,sugar (both loose andcubed), domestic andimported ferrous and non-ferrous metals, pyrite andanthracite. Investmentsinto these businesses weremade possible, in part, byprofits from the tea trade.

In the 1890s — early1900s Wogau & Co. was alarge barley trader onexchanges in the Volgaregion (Samara andSaratov exchanges) andSaint-Petersburg (Peters-burg and Kalashnikovexchanges). The companyhad exclusive rights to sellthe output of two largeRussian sodium compa-nies: Lyubimov, Solvay &Co. (founded in 1887 withpart of the founding capi-tal coming from Wogau &Co.; mines and factories inPerm’, Ekaterinoslav and

A Caravan partnership store in the Arbat Square,Moscow (part of a pre-1917 postcard)

A rare paper window sign with an advertisement for the Caravan partner-ship tea

A Caravan partnership store in Saratov (a pre-1917 postcard)

Caravan trade seal — front

Caravan trade seal - back

HISTORY

Tomsk regions) and the “South Russia Society forProcessing and Sale of Sodium and OtherChemical Products” (founded in 1897, sodiumand chemical plants in Slavyansk, Khar’kovregion).

Wogau & Co. was also the sole authorizedvendor for the Copper Syndicate (founded in1908).

Tea trade was highly speculative. Profitsdepended to a large extent on the vagaries of themarket, but industrial production allowed thecompany to preserve its tea fortunes and to earnstable returns.

In 1914, the trading branch of Wogau & Co.had six departments (industrial and householdchemical products, building materials, tea, sugar,metals, cotton) and over 650 employees. Thetotal sales volume was about 120 mln. rubles.

Up until the early 1900s Wogau & Co. ran abanking business and had a bank in Moscow; thecompany also was among the founders of theMoscow “Uchyotni” Bank (1869) and a part-owner of the Russian Foreign Trade Bank and theCommerce Bank of Riga.

Wogau & Co.’s entry into the banking busi-ness was not an accident: this allowed the com-pany to issue credit to itself at low interest ratesand on favorable terms. At the end of the 19thcentury, the tea trade required an enormousoperating capital because of large-scale pur-chases of tea.

It is commonly stated that the Wogau & Co.Trading Company existed from 1859 to 1917; butthis is inaccurate. Recently found documentsindicate that the company continued to exist (insome form or other) at least until March-April of1918.

THE WOGAU CLAN: INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE

Considerable profits from the tea tradeallowed the family to invest its money into themost secure asset with a steady appreciation:real estate. Members of the Wogau-Mark-Banza-Schumacher clan owned many buildingsand much land in Moscow and in the surround-ing regions. Every family owned several buildingsin Moscow and a number of estates in the sur-rounding country, where they usually spent theirsummers.

The Wogau clan owned six adjacent buildingson the Vorontsovo Polye street in Moscow, withseveral other buildings on nearby streets. Atsome point, the Wogau warehouses were alsolocated there. One of those six buildings wasdestroyed by a mob in 1915, during anti-Germanriots caused by the hostilities between Russia andGermany during World War I.

Before the war, the whole street was joking-ly named ‘Wogau highway’ by the locals. Butthere was another major road and two minorstreets in Moscow that actually bore the name‘Wogau’. One of the railroad stations on theway out of Moscow is to this day named ‘Mark’,in honor of the Mark family (automobile and teabusiness), members of the Wogau-Mark-Banzaclan.

Many country estates belonging to the fami-lies of the Wogau clan were known for theirlarge scale and beautifully decorated grounds.Unfortunately, most of them were damaged ordestroyed during anti-German riots in 1915.

APPROACHING THE ENDBy the beginning of the World War I, the

Wogau family had built and controlled one ofthe most extensive trading and industrial con-glomerates in the Russian Empire. WhenGermany declared war on Russia, it therebythreatened the positions of German-ownedenterprises there.

The longer the war dragged on, the harderlife became for German businessmen in Russia.As part of the campaign against an “overrepre-sentation” of ethnic Germans among Russianbusiness elites, in 1916 the Russian governmentseized control of the Wogau & Co. There wassome talk about nationalization, but it neverhappened.

In spite of the war with Germany, Russianauthorities tried to protect the life and propertyof ethnic Germans in Russia. At the same time,however, large portions of the Russian societyturned against German businesses, and this ledto a series of anti-German riots.

In addition to the anti-German backlash, thegovernment’s takeover of the Wogau & Co.allowed its competitors to start pushing the com-pany out of the Russian tea market. Under suchcircumstances, the Wogau and their relatives hadno choice but to start winding down their opera-tions, trying to save what they had, includingtheir tea-trading fortunes.

Although Wogau & Co. formally operateduntil March-April of 1918, most operations hadbeen ceased by 1916. Many members of theWogau clan managed to escape to Europe, tak-ing some of their money with them. Othersremained in what became Soviet Russia.

One of the descendants of the Wogau fami-ly — a well-known Russian writer BorisAndreevich Wogau (known under the pseudo-nym ‘Pil’nyak’) – met a tragic end: he was exe-cuted in 1938 at the time of the infamous“purges”.

FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTUREThe Wogau family has had a distinguished

history in Russia. Arriving from Germany duringthe first half of the 19th century, the family start-ed a trading business, selling paint, chemicalsand metals; one of the branches of the familyeven went into agriculture. Eventually, the fami-ly business empire came to include industrial pro-duction, trade, insurance and banking business-es.

In all, the Wogau family owned 24 enterpris-es with the total capital of 90 mln. rubles andsales volume of 120 mln. rubles. The Wogau wereamong the leaders of the tea market, earningenormous profits from tea trade.

Some of us here in Russia still fondly remem-ber the Wogau family and their Caravan partner-ship. Let us hope that the history of Wogau &Co., interrupted by the First World War and theBolshevik revolution of 1917, will continue in thenew Russia.

17

A Caravan partnership shop sign, from the collec-tion of V. Yenin

1 Gubkin, Kuznetsov& Co. 1891 10,0002-3 S. Perlov 1912 5,0002-3 The Popov brothers 1883 5,0004 V. Perlov 1894 3,0005-7 Peter Botkin 1893 1,0005-7 Caravan 1893 1,0005-7 Medvedev 1899 1,0008 Wysotsky& Co. 1898 500

Rank(bys-hare-cost)

PartnershipFirst year

sharestraded

Nominalsharecost

(inrubles)

Nominal share cost of various tea trad-ing companies and the first year of

share trading

1-2 Gubkin, Kuznetsov& Co. 10,000,0001-2 Wysotsky& Co. 10,000,0003 S. Perlov 2,500,0004 Peter Botkin 1,800,0005-6 Caravan 1,500,0005-6 The Popov brothers 1,500,0007 V. Perlov 1,200,0008 Medvedev 600,0009 Klimushin 300,000

Rank(by theamountof capi-

tal)

FirmPrincipalCapital

(in rubles)

Principal capital of the largest teatrading companies in the Russian

Empire

1 Peter Botkin 1,800,0002 Wysotsky& Co. 10,000,0003 Gubkin, Kuznetsov& Co. 10,000,0004 Caravan 1,500,0005 Klimushin 300,0006 Medvedev 600,0007 V. Perlov 1,200,0008 S. Perlov 2,500,0009 The Popov brothers 1,500,000

Rank(by

return-persha-

re)

FirmPrincipalCapital

(in rubles)

Ranking of the largest tea tradingcompanies in the Russian Empire by

return per share


ECONOMICS

18

LET US BEGIN WITH PURE SCIENCEFICTION

One very useful and interesting capabili-ty would be to express-analyze a beveragein order to determine its composition and(optionally) to identify it. Imagine for amoment that you dip (or drop, if you like alittle more drama) your phone into a teacup,it chimes and informs you about the tea’svitamin content, the amount of minerals,antioxidants and l-theanine; or it tells youthe precise brewing recipe and the amountof this tea you need to consume to instantlyattain fame and fortune.Impressed? So am I — but this is still little more than a silly fan-tasy. Except for one thing.

A mobile app can be an interface to aknowledge base (local or remote, doesn’tmatter). The question of identifying a bev-erage “cold” remains, it must be admitted, aweak spot in this whole schema — so let usnot venture beyond the highest-leveldescriptions. Suppose that you have foundyourself face-to-face with a cup of teaabout which you have at least some minimalamount of information. Maybe a name.Maybe ‘Darjeeling’. You feed this name tothe database and it asks you for all kinds ofspecific information (take a photograph ofdry tea leaves and of the brewed beverage,choose the most suitable format for tasteand aroma descriptions, specify the exactbrand of tea and where it has been pur-chased, etc.). And then it gives you all theinformation it has on this tea. The mostprobable point of origin, harvesting season,

a brief historical survey (or a not-so-briefone, if you prefer), brewing and drinkingtips and gastronomical profile. Convenient?You bet! Impressive? Beyondwords! Useful?Enormously! And besides, fashionable, styl-ish and youthful. By the way, if anyone askshow much such a system would cost todevelop and to keep up to date, look theother way and mumble incomprehensibly.

A more down-to-earth version of such asystem would bea simple interactive ency-clopedia: beverage descriptions, pictures,recipes, tips, funny stories — all the usualbells and whistles. The quality of such anapp will depend entirely on the quality of thesource materials and the expertise of thedevelopers.

A tea- or coffee-themed app can be apart of a rating system for cafJs, restau-rants and other establishments where youcan kill an hour or two while sipping onsomething flavorful. Like this: you walk intoa cafй and your phone cheerfully informsyou that previous visitors rate the coffeehere as tolerable, tea as mediocre, mostoften order espresso made from a houseblend and something named “GoldenDiamond Platinum Premium”. But, thephone hastes to add, this is the average rat-ing, our experts have a slightly differentopinion — and here follows a ten-pageinformation explosion, preceded by a shortsummary. And at the very end — the nameof the most attractive waitress. Such an apphas every right to exist: it creates an illusionof convenience to the end-user and exten-

sive marketing opportunities for its creators.In other words, everyone’s a winner.

Finally, tea- and coffee-themed mobileapps can be pure entertainment. Onenamed ‘Oracle’ can read the tea leaves (orcoffee grounds) based on a photographand give you detailed and thoughtful adviceon what to munch on during your morningtea. Another one — ‘Tea dietologist’ — cangather information about your lifestyle andphysical shape and give you recommenda-tions on the amount and type of tea youneed to consume. ‘Doctor Coffee’ candetermine the optimal brewing strength anddosage of your coffee depending on thetime of day, your pulse, blood pressure andplans for the day. And other pleasant silli-ness.

All this is fantasy.

AND NOW TIME FOR A REALITYCHECK

A very cursory one reveals that two typesof apps have dominated the field: informa-tional apps and rating apps. This is to beexpected: rating apps can be profitable, atleast in theory, and informational apps arebound to emerge simply because all “legacy”sources — websites, books and referencematerials — can easily be converted to themobile format (entirely novel apps of thiskind do appear from time to time, but theyare always a minority).

We need to mention right away that alarge majority of tea/coffee apps that canbe classified as informational are internetstore portals. These apps frequently lookquite impressive: they have detailed productdescriptions, brewing recipes (often richlyillustrated), scores of customer reviews —but the tone is too unflinchingly positive,the product lineup is limited and everythingis for sale. Such apps are convenient, free ofcharge (the app, not tea and coffee) andoften quite interesting. But the heart yearnsfor something different. Unfortunately, notmuch is on offer.

SOME NOTE WORTHY MOBILEAPPS

TRA Tocklai. The app, commissioned bythe Tea Research Association of Assam,India, is an organized and more or less read-able collection of materials from theAssociation (which, in addition to otherthings, is a leading tea research organization

Before we discuss available tea- and coffee-themed apps for mobile devices, let us articulate our (gross-ly unrealistic) expectations for these apps. Basically, letyour imagination run wild as you think about“how great it would be if my phone (or tablet) could…”

MOBILE COFFEE, MOBILE TEA

Denis Shumakov

ECONOMICS

19

in India). The functionality and the interface(let alone the appearance) of the app arequite below contemporary mobile stan-dards. And the content itself is fairly idio-syncratic — but undoubtedly practically use-ful for specialists and a curiosity for tea afi-cionados. The URL for the app is too long togive here, easier to type the name into asearch engine.

For only around twenty dollars you canget the Tea app from the App Store(https://itunes.apple.com/ru/app/tea/id397979692); this one is at the same time a quite

extensive tea reference and a personal teadiary that allows storing and rating your pri-vate tea recipes. Among other general tea-reference apps (not tied to a specific locale orretailer), I liked this one the most. The major-ity of the rest of the pack take the traditionalAmerican approach to tea — lumping togeth-er pure and flavored teas. Unfortunately,studying the difference between osmanthus-infused tea and orange-flavored tea is not avery exciting pastime.

There are many more reference apps forcoffee (and just plain many more apps for

coffee — for obvious reasons), but I amunable to reliably judge their quality. Theprincipal and nearly universal differencebetween reference apps for tea and coffeeis that the latter do not place emphasis onterroir1,millJsime2 or the intricacies of theproduction process, but on the brewingmethod. Virtually every mobile app for cof-fee is to some extent a collection of brewingrecipes. And almost invariably with an abili-ty to store and analyze your own recipes andexperience. Two examples are Coffee Pedia(https://itunes.apple.com/ru/app/ cof-

1Тerroir (French) – the ability of a product to reflect in its taste and aroma the characteristics of the region where it was produced — D.S.

2MillJsime (French) – the ability of a product to reflect in its taste and aroma the characteristics of a particular year’s harvest — D.S.


ECONOMICS

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fee-pedia/id703369089?mt=8) and«Coffee Mania» (https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai ls? id=com.a4droid. coffeemania&hl=ru), althoughI could mention at least two dozen simi-lar apps.

A special category of mobile tea-cof-fee reference apps includes collectionsof complementary recipes in which aparticular dish is tied to a particular bev-erage. As a rule, these apps are veryattractive and convincing — because it isreally hard to take a bad picture of apiece of pastry. Another category —mobile versions of coffee-themed publi-cations (I couldn’t find any tea-themedones) with all the usual features.

Among rating apps the coffee-themed ones reign supreme. There arescores of them, all different kinds — butto get a good feel for this category, it issufficient to take a look at Beanhunter.It is an interface to the eponymous site(http://www.beanhunter.com/) thatstores cafJ ratings and reviews from allaround the world, but with an obviouspredominance of Australian venues. It isnot essentially different from hundredsof others: a map, a website link, guestreviews, ability to rate the atmosphere,service and coffee quality plus runningaverages of these ratings. Such appsbecome useful and convenient afterthey accumulate a critical mass of rat-ings and reviews.

Very well positioned are apps for col-lecting information about preferencesof particular individuals (for example,https://itunes.apple.com/app/coffee-order/id311879629). They collect dataabout coffee preferences of John andMary, analyze them and can provide rec-ommendations for Sue and Bill.Theoretically, this is useful. But in reality,it is hard to predict people’s preferences,and the inference from “Bill has ordereddouble espresso five times already” to“Bill probably likes double espresso” isone that any normal adult can make onhis or her own.

And, of course, there is a multitudeof apps that are purely for entertain-ment, although sometimes they manageto create an illusion of usefulness. Teatimers, coffee compasses (directing youto the nearest cafJ), various beverageoracles and horoscopes, etc. These makegreat gag gifts — but little more.

A SAD CONCLUSION

And so it turns out that outof all thefantasies that we came up with at thevery beginning, only rating and enter-tainment apps have something to dowith reality. We can argue about tea orcoffee reference apps. But one thing isclear: the number of revolutionary,breakthrough mobile apps that couldinfluence the development of tea andcoffee culture is zero.

Butat the same time, there are scoresof apps. The consumer has an illusion ofchoice, spends time, and sometimesmoney, making that choice — and, forthe most part, is happy to consume aninformational product of mediocre qual-ity, but with an attractive marketingdesign. In this aspect the tea and coffeemobile app market is the same as anyother market. Including the tea and cof-fee market.

A HAPPY CONCLUSIONOn the other hand, if you have not

been devastated by the disappointmentin the functionality of existing tea andcoffee mobile apps, you quickly realizethat the shortcomings of the apps havelittle to do with the apps themselves.

Any mobile app is first and foremosta tool for turning thematic information-al resources into thematic informationalproducts. And thematic informationalresources (pardon the repetition) areformed out of a multiplicity of struc-turally similar pieces of informationcharacterizing a particular product. Andnow let’s translate this gibberish intoordinary human language.

Imagine for a second that somemanufacturer puts a packaged tea onthe market along with the most detaileddescription, including harvest date andlocation, variety of tea plant, quality ofraw materials, amount of tea producedin the batch, climate conditions, soilchemistry, altitude above sea level, anytechnological procedures the tea hasundergone, date of packaging and thewhole logistical chain from plantation toconsumer. Plus standardized descriptionof the taste and aroma of the tea, bio-chemical data about the brew, brewingand drinking recommendations.

Keep that picture in your mind andmake one more assumption: not just asingle tea, but thousands of teas withsuch descriptions appear on the mar-ket.Then the informational transparencyof the product will instantly changefrom an indulgence of one seller into areal value for consumersand into aneffective and, most importantly, highlysophisticated tool of added value cre-ation for sellers.

Informational transparency of a bev-erage — whether tea, coffee or wine —opens the field for collector-consumers,taking both the market and the consum-ing public to a qualitatively new level.This transparency becomes a link in thebeverage’s technological chain and givesproducers and sellers new abilities tomanipulate the product’s characteristics.

And the particular method and theparticular type of device the consumerwill use to get this information do notmatter in the least. Make informationavailable to him — and he will find a wayto pay money for it and to enjoy theprocess.


ECONOMICS

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A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORYRoya, also known as ‘coffee rust’, is a

name of the fungus hemileiavastatrix. Thedisease has been around for a long time: thefirst reported cases were in Kenya in 1861,and that moment marks the beginning ofroya’s takeover of the modern world. It isbecause of roya that we have Sri Lankan teasand rubber plants in the Philippines and Javatoday. Roya is also one of the causes of thedrop in coffee production in the 1970s Braziland in the 21st century Colombia. The way the

disease spreads is simple: the spores of thefungus, only able to survive in a warm andhumid climate, are carried along by the wind.

After the fungus lands on a coffee plant,there is a germination period of 24—48hours, after which one starts to see ocher-orange spots on the leaves — the sign ofinfection. In 3 to 5 months, a single spore canmultiply to about 400,000, a growth ratecomparable only to the growth of canceroustumors. The Guatemalans themselves saythat once roya lands on a plant, it is impossi-

ble to stop its spread. The consequences ofthe infection are devastating for the plant: allits energy goes into fighting the fungus, theplant loses its leaves and may eventually die.

The productivity of a diseased tree isinversely proportional to the scale of infec-tion: the more orange spots on leaves, thefewer ripe red berries during harvest time.The first symptoms of the fungus’ uncontrol-lable spread were discovered in Guatemala asearly as 2011. Farmers did not pay muchattention to them: as long as coffee had beengrown in Guatemala, people believed that a2—3% infection rate at a plantation does notportend tragedy.

Indeed, specially developed chemicals hadallowed to contain the spread of the diseasein the past. But 2011 became an exception:the combination of high humidity and subse-quent unusually high temperatures produceda greenhouse effect so beloved by the royafungus.

What followed could as well have beentaken from a doomsday thriller scenario.Outbreaks of the disease, at first confined toaltitudes under 1 300 m, gradually began toclimb higher, and roya advanced all the wayup to altitudes of 1,700—1,750 m, anunprecedented event in Guatemalan history.The first victims of roya were large coffee-growing regions: San Marcos and Oriente.The fact that both of these regions had plan-tations at all altitudes was likely the factor

La Roya –La Royathe sunset of Central America?the sunset of Central America?

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. It’s only the second day, but my ears, used to hearing foreign speech after years of trav-els, begin to pick out a word from the leisurely conversations of local farmers: ‘la roya’. The contrast between thesoft, melodic ‘l’ and the resounding ‘r’ is so prominent, that the mind unwillingly turns from peaceful contempla-tion of coffee plants to the processing of the tonal information: the music of the voices reveals confusion, disap-pointment and, deep down, some hope as well. Today the subject of la roya dominates everyday conversations,brings disputes to an end and comes up when there is nothing else to talk about. What exactly is la roya, what isthe magnitude of its impact on Guatemalan coffee, is there light at the end of the tunnel – these are some of thequestions I will attempt to answer in this article.

Guatemala, Coban. Roya in all its splendor

ECONOMICS

23

that precipitated the tragedy. Afterdevastating these territories, royamarched on to plantations in Atitlan,Coban and Fraijanes. The last ones tofall were Antigua, Acatenango andHuehuetenango. The disease spreadlike lightning: by April of 2011 out-breaks were noted in all coffee-pro-ducing regions of the country; howev-er, the scale of the damage varied byregion.

FACTORS DETERMININGROYA’S IMPACT ONGUATEMALA’S COFFEE-PRODUCING REGIONS

Let us consider factors responsiblefor the differences in the spread ofroya in different regions ofGuatemala. We can identify threemajor groups of factors that affectedthe spread of the disease: geographi-cal, agricultural and economic.

Geographically, the coffee-grow-ing map of Guatemala is quite diverse.Different regions have different alti-tudes and microclimates. Some cof-fee-growing regions are adjacent toeach other, and othersare isolated bymountain ranges. The altitude and themicroclimate in a particular regionwere probably the most important

determinants of roya’s spread. Forexample, comparing the Coban,Fraijanes, Atitlan, San Marcos andHuehuetenango regions, we saw com-pletely different pictures. Relativelylow altitudes in Coban, multiplied bythe most humid microclimate in thecountry, led to the most serious cropdamage from roya — up to 45—50%of the entire harvest. The same pic-ture,albeit on a slightly smallerscale,was seen in Fraijanes and Atitlan.The mountainous San Marcos “gotaway” with 35—40%, whileHuehuetenango, with altitudes up to2,000 m, had a “modest” 20—25%. Bythe way, the damage in the most aridand cool region of Guatemala,Antigua, did not exceed 20-25%. Weshould also remember that Antiguaand Huehuetenango are isolated, andthis factor helped slow down roya’sspread in these regions.

The scale of roya’s impact on theharvest also shows a different pattern:the most affected regions are thosethat produce mostly bourbon andmaragogype coffees (the latter lostmore than half of its harvest in 2013-14). At the same time, regions that beton more disease-resistant Arabicavarieties, such as Caturra and Catuai,suffered less damage.

Guatemala, Atitlan. The farm is practically destroyed by roya

Vladimir Savinov,SFT Trading


ECONOMICS

24

Another factor was the need to keep theplantations shaded by other plants. Gravileaand Inga trees, the primary shade trees in theregion, have the capacity to retain moistureclose to the ground, which created the mostfavorable conditions for the fungus.

Finally, one of the major factors that facil-itated the spread of roya in the country wasthe macroeconomic situation. During 2011-2013, Arabica prices had fallen to one-thirdof their previous levels, and incomes of themajority of Guatemalan farmers had alsofall-en considerably. A simple lack of money wasresponsible for coffee trees not receivingsufficient amounts of fertilizer and antifun-gal chemicals for two years. For example,most Guatemalan coffee farmers believethat coffee trees should be sprayed with anti-fungal solution at least four times a year. In2012-2013, there was enough money only fortwo, at most three, spray cycles; fertilizerswere applied in insufficient quantities, if atall, and replacement of old trees by new onesand grafting was done sporadically.

On the other hand, large producers fromthe aforementioned Antigua region, whosecoffee has always been the most expensiveof all Guatemalan varieties, managed to stopthe spread of the disease by applying addi-tional fungicides and were the first to startplanting new, more roya-resistant Arabicavarieties.

In sum, the roya epidemic was the conse-quence of an unlucky confluence of environ-mental and climatic factors plus the macro-

economic situation. Differences in the mag-nitude of roya’s impact on different regionsin Guatemala suggest that these three fac-tors will also be important in other places:roya has already spread to all CentralAmerican countries, Mexico, Peru and sever-al others. Thus, we are faced with a pressingquestion: is there a future for CentralAmerican washed Arabica coffee? And if so,what will this future look like?

WHAT NEXT?The situation with washed Arabica in the

rest of the world is not much better: here ishow the export volume of several Central,North and South American countries for2013-2014 compares to the previous year’svolume:

Now, with these numbers in hand, let uscontemplate the future of Central Americanwashed Arabica. The situation in El Salvadortoday is dire: the head of one of the major

companies noted that in 2013/2014 thecountry is expecting its worst coffee harvestin 150 years, all because of roya. The onlything that can help save some of the harvestis strong and steady rain, forecast to hit thecountry in the near future.

Coffee harvests in Mexico and Nicaraguahave also suffered significantly, but the finalextent of the damage caused by roya will notbecome clear until the end of June, whenthese two countries will have shipped most ofits coffee. The fact that the harvest inNicaragua has been delayed by 1 to 1.5months is also a sign of hope.

If we try to estimate the total impact ofroya in Guatemala by March of 2013, the fol-lowing picture emerges. Around 200,000hectares of coffee plantations have beenaffected (about 80% of coffee-growingland in the country). Last year (2012—2013),the harvest was down by around 15%. Atpresent, exports are down by a close 17%,but the bulk of the shipments of coffee occurfrom March till May, and already at the endof March many Guatemalan exporters aretalking about empty warehouses and barely atrickle of new coffee coming in from planta-tions. Most likely, the total drop in exports in2013—2014 will become even greater than it isnow: it is estimated that around 30% of theharvest has been lost, the worst in 20 years.In February of 2013, Guatemalan authoritiesdeclared a state of emergency, and the gov-ernment has been debating whether to pro-vide special subsidies to farmers to combat

COUNTRY EXPORT VOLUME % change, 2012 to 2013

Costa-Rica -20%El Salvador -57%Guatemala -17%Honduras -18%Mexico -48%Nicaragua -47%Peru -8%Dominican Republic -31%Colombia +36%

Source: www.mildwashedcoffees.org

Guatemala, Fraijanes. Bourbon and the more roya-resistant Catimore varieties

ECONOMICS

the spread of the disease. One question thatremains is whether the funds allocated bythe government of Guatemala will be suffi-cient to bring about a significant improve-ment. Planting of new trees will help, but notright away: an improvement is expected nosooner than 2015—2016, when the newlyplanted trees start producing berries. Thepicture is similar in Honduras.

The only bright spots are Costa-Rica andColombia. Costa-Rican export numbers sug-gest that the country has been successful indealing with the adversity, and the produc-tion there will likely not suffer as much as inthe neighboring countries. Finally, Colombiais the only source of good news in the over-all gloom and destruction caused by roya.The country is at last returning to the exportlevels of recent past and, judging by the rateof growth of its coffee exports, has fullyovercome the consequences of the roya epi-demic of the first decade of the 21st century.Essentially, Colombia today is the soleexporter of washed Arabica, with othercountries unable to make their shipmentsbecause of the spread of the disease.

So — what does the future look like forCentral American coffee in comparison withColombian and other washed Arabicas? Ashort answer is: not very bright. Most likely,for the next two years, until the 2015—2016harvest, we will see a significant reduction inexports of Central American washedArabicas, caused by the spread of roya andthe need to replace existing Arabica varieties

with new, more disease-resistant ones.Evenignoring any possible accompanying changein quality, we must admit that the battle forconsumers will be lost by the CentralAmerican Arabicas for the next two years.With shrinking supply, the prices of thesevarieties will go up, and coffee roasters willstart thinking about alternative sources ofcoffee: we are already seeing a gradual shiftaway from Nicaraguan and Honduran vari-eties toward the Colombian ones. The situa-tion will most likely only get worse in the

foreseeable future: an oversupply ofColombian varieties, together with relativelylow prices, will induce many roasters toadjust their recipes to favor Colombian cof-fee.

Actually, the stability and prosperity forColombian farmers will likely last more thantwo years. The resistance to change amonglarge coffee producers is quite high: once arecipe has been established, it will stayunchanged for years, in absence of any cat-astrophic changes, such as those directlyaffecting the physical availability of rawingredients.

On the other hand, high prices of Arabicain general, and of washed Arabica in partic-ular, will once more push roasters toward anunpleasant choice: either to search for morestable and reliable alternative sources of sup-ply of washed Arabicas or to sacrifice qualityby turning to unwashed Arabicas orRobustas. Here again, those who choose thefirst alternative will most likely turn toColombian coffee.

We also must not forget about thegrowth of washed Arabica production inBrazil, the largest coffee producer in theworld. It is likely that the shortage of washedArabica will become an additional incentivefor Brazil to intensify its efforts in this direc-tion.

The consequence of this tectonic shift willbe the fact that as early as 2015—2016,Central American coffee growers, having bythen (we hope!) remedied the damagecaused by roya, will face serious challengesmoving their coffee reserves onto the marketin the face of greatly increased competition.

What are the Central American coffeeproducers to do in this situation? Count ontheir own resilience and relatively high pricesto help them weather the storm caused byroya, and also hope for the loyalty of theircustomers; in two years, these factors will,possibly, give Central American coffee vari-eties a chance to recover and adapt to thechanging market. And “la roya”?Unfortunately, it is here to stay.

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Guatemala, Antigua. The 2013-2014 harvest is in good shape


NEWS

26

According to the 2012 data,organic agriculture represents asignificant and growing share

of world agricultural production. 37.5mlnhectares are certified organic agriculturalland (0.9% of global agricultural lands);almost as much land (31 mln hectares) hasbeen designated as organic wild collectionareas (Finland/berries, Zambia/honey,India/medicinal plants).There are 1.9 mil-lion organic producersin 164 countries(e.g. India 600 000, Uganda 190 000,Mexico 170 000).Certified organic tea/ma-teis grown on 97,592 hectares in 21 coun-tries.

Certification helps achieve three maingoals for the organic food industry:itprotects scrupulous producers andprocessors, builds trust and avoids con-sumer confusion and, finally, facilitatestrade via conformity assessment.

But certification is only one elementof a more complex organic guaranteemechanism that helps provide assurance

that products labelled ‘organic’ really areso. Among other organic guarantee sys-tems are such mechanisms as technicalreference standards (IFOAM or Codex),legislation (mandatory or voluntary),inspection (internal or external) and cer-tification, accreditation of certificationbodies (public or private) and equiva-lence (or agreements) with export coun-tries.

Organic standards are one of the mostimportant elements of the organic guar-antee system. Standards serve as refer-ences for practices and allowed/prohib-ited substances, food/feed crops, live-stock, processed products (food andbeverages), fibers, wild-harvested prod-ucts, aquaculture. Among the mostwidely recognized standards we canmention the IFOAM Basic Standards forOrganic Production and Processing (inuse since 1980 for foods, fibers, aquacul-ture and social justice), as well as theFAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius

Guidelines for the Production,Processing, Labelling and Marketing ofOrganically Produced Foods (in use since1999 for crops, livestock, bees, process-ing and, since 2011 in the making, aqua-culture/seaweeds).

With the importance of the organicdesignation for economic and ethicalreasons, a lot of effort has been goinginto ensuring conformity to the organicproduction standards. Methods such asinspection, certification and labellingseek to demonstrate that a product hasfollowed specific production require-ments, as described in the organic stan-dard of specific markets.The IFOAMCriteria for Programmes CertifyingOrganic Agriculture and Processing fol-low ISO 65+ conditions specific to organ-ics (e.g. factors determining frequencyof inspection, inspection for GE prod-ucts, chain of custody, inspection ofgrower groups). Accreditation of organiccertifiers generally takes place according

This article is based on the presentation given by Nadia El-HageScialabba, Senior Officer, Climate,Energy and Tenure Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, at the FAOIntergovernmental Group on Tea session in Rome, Italy, May 5-6, 2014

Intergovernmental Group on Tea, Rome, 5–6 May 2014

CERTIFICATION INORGANIC AGRICULTURE

Nadia El-Hage ScialabbaSenior Officer, Climate, Energy and Tenure Division

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

REVIEW&STATISTICS

to specific organic standards and verifi-cation processes, such as InternationalOrganic Accreditation Service (IOAS),conformity to European standards EN45011 or ISO 65 and governments accred-itation programmes (e.g. USDA).

The certification process that focuseson exporting organic operators is orga-nized in view of specific markets. Eachoperator decides which CertificationBody (CB) to use; in addition, the opera-tor must comply with domestic regula-tions (where applicable), with exportmarket regulations (where applicable)and with its own CB’s and the buyer’s CBrequirements. In order to facilitate themovement of organic products acrossborders, some kind of mutual recognitionbetween CBs is necessary. This may takeseveral forms: common accreditationstandards (e.g. USDA, IFOAM), re-certi-fication based on the other CB’s inspec-tion report (document review), integrat-ed inspection (one inspectionmultiplecertifications) and joint inspection pro-grammes.

One problem for this mechanism isthat this type of third-party certificationis commonly too costly for smallholders;hence, a set of different mechanisms isused in this sector. For some smallhold-ers, their production and processing arecertified through Internal ControlSystems (ICS) – recognized by EC andothers. An ICS relies on internal inspec-tors for annual inspection and recordkeeping, while the external bodybecomes the auditor of the ICS. Anothermechanism is group certification sys-tems, which commonly gather about 50producers under one organic certification“umbrella”.

Currently, the “division of labor” in theorganic food industry works as follows.Inspection and certification of organicproducts and producers is performed bygovernment agencies (using governmentcriteria) and/or private bodies (usingIFOAM standards and other norms), fol-lowing ISO 65. Accreditation is the job ofnational accreditors (governed by the IAFguide) and/or international accreditors(IOAS),following ISO 62. Finally, techni-

cal standardsare established and main-tainedby international bodies such asIFOAM or Codex, through national legis-lation (mandatory or voluntary) and/orby private labels.

With respect to organic certification,the state of the global market as of 2012was follows. In 2012, 1.9 million farmersfrom 164 countries were certified organ-ic, with a global sale of certified productsof US$ 64 billion (44% in USA, 44% EU,4% Canada, 2% Japan). The globalturnover of organic certification might bein the range of 400 million Euros (basedon estimated market value). Manyorganic farms are organized for groupcertification; for example in India, only545 of the 733 172 farms are certified asindividual farms.Besides third-party cer-tification, participatory guarantee sys-tems (PGS) are on the rise for domesticmarkets (e.g. India and Brazil recognizePGS).

Organic guarantee systems today areas varied as the countries in which theyoperate. Today, 110 countries haveorganic regulations:69 countries havefully implemented such regulations, 19have finalized regulations but have notyet fully implemented them, and 12countries are in the process of draftingorganic legislation. In addition, there aremore than 121 private organic standardsof CBs, with standards extended to socialjustice, restaurants, fisheries, eco-tourism, cosmetics (e.g. Global OrganicTextile Standard). There are a total of549 organic certification bodies world-wide (in 85 countries), with a few oper-ating in most continents. Certified opera-tions are found in almost all countries of

the world; emerging markets(Argentina, China, India, Braziland Korea) have, or are about todevelop, organic import require-ments.

With such a wide array of cer-tification mechanisms, somecommon ground is needed notonly to ensure thatcountry/regional standards aremutually recognized, but also toassure that small and mediumproducers in every country andregion of the world have access toorganic markets. During the lastdecade (2002-2012), these objec-tives have driven the work of two

international organizations: theInternational Task Force onHarmonization and Equivalence (ITF) andits successor, Global Organic MarketAccess (GOMA). These organizationshave focused on facilitating dialoguebetween private and public institutionsinvolved in trade and regulatory activitiesto reduce organic trade barriers; develop-ing opportunities for harmonization,recognition, equivalence and other formsof cooperation within and between gov-ernment and private sector organic con-trol systems; and facilitating internation-al organic trade and access of developingcountries to international organic mar-kets.

These organizations have developedtwo practical tools for achieving equiva-lence of organic standards. The ITF devel-oped IROCB (the InternationalRequirements for Organic CertificationBodies). This tool helps governmentsdetermine if foreign certification bodiescomply with equivalent performancerequirements. If a foreign CB operatesaccording to IROCB requirements, it canbe recognized (approved) based onequivalence. Another tool developed bythe ITF is EquiTool (Guide for AssessingEquivalence of Organic Standards andTechnical Regulations). EquiTool providesguidelines for assessing equivalencebetween two or more standards fororganic production/processing, whichinclude the following components: pro-cedures to use for the assessment, crite-ria to use for deciding if differences inthe standards can be rationalized and theAnnex for determining common objec-tives.

Implementing EquiTool requiredexpanding its Annex 2 into CommonOrganic Regulatory Objectives (COROS).This task was accomplished by GOMA:COROS was finalized in April 2011 in coop-eration with IFOAM’s Organic GuaranteeSystem.The COROS tool sets 10 objectivesfor systems management, soil fertility,synthetic inputs, pollution, harmful tech-nologies, animal welfare+health, integri-ty, identity and fairness. COROS is cur-rently being used for development of AsiaOrganic Standard (AROS), promotingrecognition of existing organic standards,bilateral and multilateral comparisons ofstandards and self-evaluation for futurebilateral equivalencies.

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THE EFFECTS OF CAFFEINEINGESTION ON THEREACTION TIME ANDSHORT-TERM MAXIMALPERFORMANCE AFTER 36HOURS OF SLEEPDEPRIVATION

Makram Souissi et al.1

The purpose of the presentstudy was to investigate therelative efficacy of caffeine inges-tion for counteracting the nega-tive effect of 36 hours of totalsleep deprivation (TSD) on bothphysical and cognitive perfor-mances.

Thirteen healthy male physicaleducation students volunteered toparticipate in the study.Participants reported no sleep dis-orders, were non-smokers, anddid not consume caffeine or alco-holic beverages.

After four consecutive nightsof sleep in the laboratory, partici-pants performed four test ses-sions: after placebo or 5 mg/kg ofcaffeine ingestion during a base-line night (RN) or a night of 36

1 The effects of caffeine ingestion on thereaction time and short-term maximal per-formance after 36 hours of sleepdeprivation. Makram Souissi et al.,University of Sfax, National Centre ofMedicine and Sciences in Sport (CNMSS),University of Sousse, Tunisia. Published:Physiology & Behavior 131 (2014) 1–6. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.

REVIEW&STATISTICS

TEA, COFFEE AND HEALTHScience News

hours of TSD. During the RN, partici-pants nocturnal sleep was synchro-nized to last from 22:30 to 07:00.During the TSD, they were notallowed to sleep at all and were keptawake by passive means such uswatching TV.

During each test session, partici-pants ingested a caffeine or a place-bo dose; after a 60 min rest, they per-formed the reaction time, the squatjump (SJ), and the Wingate tests with15 min of recovery between the SJand the Wingate test.

Simple and choice reaction time.The reaction time was used as anindex of individuals’ motor perfor-mance. The test consisted in answer-ing rapidly to a visual stimulus on acomputer screen by pushing a buttonon a keyboard.

Squat jump test. The subjectswere asked to perform a SJ withoutany load. In the SJ, the subjects lowerthemselves into a squat position and,after a brief pause, jump upward asquickly and as high as possible.

Wingate test. The Wingate testconsisted of a 30 sec maximal-effortsprint on a friction-loaded cycleergometer against a constant resis-tance related to body mass. The high-est power output over 1 sec (PP) andthe mean power (MP), correspondingto the ratio between total work doneand time to do it (i.e., 30 sec), wererecorded.

Profile of mood states (POMS).The POMS consists of 65 adjectivalitems (e.g., tense, scared) developedto measure 7 aspects of mood (anxi-ety/tension, depression/dejection,anger/hostility, confusion/bewilder-ment, vigor/activity, fatigue/inertia,and friendship). The responses toeach item range from 0 to 4, withhigher scores indicating more nega-tive mood (0 indicates “not at all”,and 4 indicates “extremely”).

POMS. The statistical analysisrevealed that depression, confusion,fatigue, and anxiety increased andvigor decreased after the TSD in com-parison with the RN. However,depression, confusion, fatigue, andanxiety decreased and vigor increasedafter the ingestion of caffeine incomparison with the placebo duringTSD.

Wingate Test — Peak Power.There was a significant effect forSleep, indicating that PP wassignificantly lower during TSD in com-parison with RN after the ingestion ofplacebo. Likewise, a significant effectfor Caffeine and a significant interac-tion Sleep х Caffeine were observed,indicating that PP increasedsignificantly during the TSD after caf-feine in comparison with placeboingestion. However, during RN, no

29

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30

significant difference was observedbetween placebo and caffeine inges-tions.

Wingate Test — Mean Power. Therewas a significant Sleep effect, indicatingthat MP was significantly lower duringTSD in comparison with RN after placeboingestion. Likewise, a significant Caffeineeffect and a significant Sleep х Caffeineinteraction were observed. During theTSD, a significant increase of MP wasobserved after caffeine ingestion in com-parison with placebo ingestion. However,no significant difference was observedbetween placebo and caffeine ingestionsduring RN.

Jump Performance (SJ). There was asignificant Sleep effect, indicating that SJwas significantly lower during TSD incomparison with RN during the placebocondition. Likewise, a significant Caf-feine effect and a significant interactionSleep х Caffeine were observed. Duringthe TSD, a significant increase in SJ per-formance was observed after caffeine incomparison with placebo. However, nosignificant difference was observedbetween placebo and caffeine ingestionsduring RN.

Simple and choice reaction timetasks. There was a significant Sleepeffect and Caffeine effect for the simpleand the choice reaction time. Likewise,the Sleep х Caffeine interaction wassignificant for both the simple and thechoice reaction time. The post hoc analy-sis revealed a significant increase for bothsimple and choice reaction time after TSDin comparison with RN during the place-bo test session. Likewise, a significantdecrease for both simple and choicereaction time was observed after caf-feine ingestion in comparison with place-bo during TSD test session.

Our results showed that simple andchoice reaction time, PP and MP duringthe Wingate test, and the SJ performancewere adversely affected by 36 hours ofTSD. However, caffeine ingestion mayimprove both cognitive and physical per-formances after TSD.

Consistent with previous reports, ourresults showed a significant decrease insimple reaction time 60 min after caf-feine ingestion. With respect to theshort-term maximal performances dur-ing RN, the present study showed that PPand MP were unaffected by caffeineingestion in the afternoon. These resultsare in agreement with previous worksthat showed no significant variation inphysical performance after caffeineingestion.

The present study results showed thatTSD affects the cognitive performance(i.e., an increase in the reaction time). Ithas been reported that both TSD and par-

tial sleep deprivation impair the ability tomaintain wakefulness, increase the sub-jective sleepiness, reduce motivation,and, perhaps most critically, degradecognitive performance. The presentstudy’s results demonstrated that theingestion of caffeine could improve cog-nitive and physical performances after aperiod of TSD.

BLACK TEA IMPROVES ATTENTION AND SELF-REPORTEDALERTNESS

E.A. De Bruin et al.2

Tea may be a likely candidate forimproving attention in everyday life. Inthe two systematic studies described inthe present paper we investigated theeffects of two commercially availableblack tea blends on attention and self-reported alertness using a double-blind,randomized placebo-controlled, cross-over design. In the first study, a relativelystrong tea blend containing 2.6 g/L teasolids (PG Tips tea) was used; the studywas repeated later with a slightly lessstrong tea (Lipton Yellow Label tea; 1.9g/L tea solids) to find out whether theeffects were dose-dependent.

Twenty-six volunteers (20 females)aged on average 30.7 years took part instudy 1, and 32 volunteers (15 females)aged on average 30.3 years participatedin study 2. Participants were regular caf-feine consumers (average caffeineintake 306.4 mg/day in study 1 mg/dayand 280.1 mg/day in study 2).

In study 1, participants received twoservings of placebo tea in one conditionand two servings of black tea in the othercondition over the course of 60 min. Instudy 2, participants received three serv-ings of placebo tea in one condition andthree servings of black tea in the othercondition over the course of 90 min.Visits were separated by at least 6 daysand at most 14 days.

Participants arrived at the laboratoryat 12:00 midday having consumed onlytheir normal breakfast and water, andhaving abstained from alcoholic bever-ages and caffeinated foods and med-ications from 9 pm the previous day.Participants were provided with a stan-dardized lunch, and were required toconsume an identical meal on eachvisit.

Following lunch, participants complet-ed a set of attention tests. After this firstset of tests (baseline), they consumedthe first drink during a 10-min break. Theythen completed the second set of tests(session 1), after which they consumedanother drink during the second 10-minbreak. After that, another set of tests(session 2) followed. In study 1, the par-

ticipants received two drinks and com-pleted three test sessions per condition intotal. In study 2, the participants receivedthree drinks and completed four test ses-sions per condition in total.

The switch task measured the abilityto shift attention between different tasksets. During each trial, one letter and onenumber were displayed on the screensimultaneously for 1 s. The letters wererandomly drawn from a set of four vow-els (A, E, I, or U) and four consonants (G,K, M, or R) and the numbers from a setof four even (2, 4, 6, or 8) and four oddnumbers (3, 5, 7, or 9). Participants wererequired to respond to even numbers, butonly when the font color was purple, orto vowels, but only when the font colorwas red (instruction counterbalancedbetween sessions). The font color andtherefore the task ‘switched’ every threetrials in a predictable manner.Participants completed four 2.5-minblocks of 144 stimulus pairs during eachsession in both studies. This test hasrepeatedly been shown to be sensitive tothe effect of caffeine and theanine onattention.

The intersensory attention task mea-sured the ability to selectively deployattention to stimuli presented in the visu-al and auditory modalities. Each trial con-sisted of an auditory cue instructing par-ticipants to attend to either the auditoryor visual modality followed by auditorystimuli or visual stimuli (unisensory), orboth auditory and visual stimuli (inter-sensory) after 1200 ms. Participants wererequired to perform a discrimination task(same or different) in the cued modality.Participants completed six (study 1) orfour (study 2) blocks of trials during eachsession, each containing a total of 100cue–stimuli pairs and lasting approxi-mately 5 min. This test has previouslybeen shown to be sensitive to the effectof theanine on attention.

Self-reported mental state was mea-sured using the Bond-Lader visual ana-logue mood rating scales. Participantswere asked to indicate how they felt atthat moment on sixteen 100-mm visualanalogue scales anchored at either endby an adjective pair (e.g.,Tense/Relaxed). The individual scoreswere combined to form three factors:Alertness (alert, strong, clear-headed,coordinated, energetic, quick-witted,attentive, proficient, interested),Contentedness (contented, happy, ami-cable, gregarious, tranquil), andCalmness (calm, relaxed). The Bond-Lader mood rating scales are frequentlyused in studies of pharmacological drugsand previously demonstrated increasedself-reported alertness following caf-feine with or without theanine.

2 Black tea improves attention and self-reported alertness. By E.A. De Bruin et al., Unilever Netherlands, Unilever United Kingdom, Institute of Neurology, London, UnitedKingdom. Published: Appetite, Vol. 56 (2011), pp. 235-240. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd

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The order in which the tests wereadministered was fixed in each session inboth studies in the following order: inter-sensory attention task, switch task,Bond-Lader mood rating scales.

ResultsStudy 1Intersensory attentionParticipants made more correct

responses on the intersensory subtasks,and responded faster after tea comparedto after placebo. There were no maineffects of tea or tea-by-session interac-tions for correct responses or reactiontimes on the unisensory subtasks.

Task switchingParticipants made more correct

responses after black tea than afterplacebo tea. There was no main effect oftea on reaction times. Switch costs werepresent as expected but not influenced bytea.

Mental stateParticipants felt significantly more

alert and less calm after tea than afterplacebo. There was no difference inContentedness between the conditions.

Study 2Intersensory attentionThere were no significant differences

in the number of correct responses orreaction times between the tea andplacebo conditions, but there was a trendfor more correct responses in the visualunisensory subtask after tea.

Task switchingParticipants made more correct

responses after tea than after placebo.There was no difference in reaction timesbetween the conditions. Switch costswere present as expected but notinfluenced by tea.

Mental stateParticipants felt significantly more

alert and there was a tendency towardsgreater feelings of contentednessafter tea than after placebo. There wasno difference in feelings of calmnessbetween the condition.

Both studies indicated that teaimproved attention as demonstratedwith improved performance on objectiveattention tests and as self-reported on amental-state scale. Together, thefindings on the switch task and intersen-sory attention task suggest that teaimproves the ability to focus attention onthe task at hand but does not influenceswitching between task rules.Alternatively, the finding that the effectsof tea were strongest on the task per-formed towards the end of the test ses-sion could also indicate that tea maycounteract effects of fatigue.

TEA CONSUMPTION AND MENTALHEALTH IN AGEING: FINDINGSFROM ETHNIC CHINESEPOPULATIONS

Lei Feng3

Using large data from community-based cohort studies in ethnic Chinesepopulations in Singapore and China, mycoworkers and I have systematicallyexamined the role of tea drinking onmental health in aging in recent years.We are particularly interested in cogni-tion and depression in the elderly.

To examine the cross-sectional rela-tionship between tea drinking and cogni-tive functioning, we analyzed neuropsy-chological data of 716 non-dementedChinese older adults from the SingaporeLongitudinal Ageing Study (SLAS). TheSLAS neuropsychological test batteryassessed a wide range of cognitivedomains. After adjusting for potentialconfounders, total tea consumption wasindependently associated with betterperformances on global cognition, exec-utive function, and information process-ing speed. Both black/oolong tea andgreen tea consumption were associatedwith better cognitive performance

To establish longitudinal associationbetween tea consumption and futurecognitive decline, we analyzed data from1438 SLAS participants who had com-plete Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE) data at base line and a median of16 months after baseline. Compared withsubjects with rare or no tea intake, theodds of having cognitive decline for sub-jects with low, medium, and high levelsof tea intake were 0.74, 0.78 and 0.57,respectively.

We replicated the above findings oncognitive benefit of tea drinking usinglarge population-based data from oldest-old (80-115 years old) subjects in theChinese Longitudinal Healthy LongevitySurvey (CLHLS) cohort. In this project, cog-nitive function was assessed by repeatedmeasures (four times) of the verbal fluen-cy test. Adjusting for age, gender, years ofschooling, physi-cal exercise andactivities score,tea drinkers hadhigher verbal flu-ency scores thro-ughout the fol-low-up period.This work sup-ports the conclu-sion that the cog-nitive benefits oftea drinking is evi-dent even in verylate stage of life.

Two studies were conducted to testthe hypothesis that tea consumption isassociated with less depressive symptomsin late life. The first study was based onlongitudinal data of 1615 subjects fromthe SLAS cohort; tea consumption infor-mation was collected at baseline anddepressive symptoms were assessed atfollow-up visit. We found that higher lev-els of tea consumption were associatedwith lower risk of having depressivesymptoms at follow-up visit. The propor-tion of participants with depression atfollow-up decreased with increasing teaconsumption (6.6%, 5.3%, 3.2% and1.8% for none, low, medium and high teaintake respectively).

Recently, we replicated the researchfindings on tea and late life depressionwith community based data from theConfucius Hometown Aging Project(CHAP). Among the 1368 CHAP partici-pants that were included in the analysis,165 (12. l %) were weekly and 489(35.7%) were daily tea consumers.Compared with non/irregular tea con-sumption, the odds ratios of having ele-vated depressive symptoms were 0.86for weekly and 0.59 for daily tea con-sumption; the linear trend of the associa-tion remained statistically significantwhen further controlling for history ofstroke, transient ischemic attacks, andpresence of carotid plaques.

In summary, our findings from ethnicChinese populations suggest that teaconsumption is associated with bettermental health in ageing. However, firmconclusion must be supported by morelongitudinal studies and clinical trials.Since previous studies were all limited inusing self-reported questionnaire data toassess tea intake, I propose that objectivebiomarkers of tea intake should be usedin future studies. Clinical trials on teaextracts or bioactive compounds in teamust be conducted as only interventionalstudies will be able to provide the definiteanswer on whether tea or tea com-pounds really can promote mental healthoutcomes in ageing.

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3 Tea consumption and mental health in ageing: Findings from ethnic Chinese popu-lations. By Lei Feng, Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin Schoolof Medicine, National University of Singapore. Published: International Journal ofTea Science, Vol. 9(2-3), 2013. © 2013 Tea Board of India and International Societyfor Tea Science.


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EXPORTING COUNTRIES: DOMESTICCONSUMPTIONCrop years commencing: 2008 to 2013 (000 bags)

PER CAPITA DISAPPEARANCE IN IMPORTING COUNTRIES Calendar years: 2007 to 2012 (kilogram)

NON-MEMBERS NET IMPORTS OF ALLFORMS OF COFFEE FROM ALL SOURCES Calendar years: 2007 to 2012 (000 bags)

Source: ICO

Source: ICO

Source: ICO

Cropyear 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

JPravdolubova

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Who drinks the most TEA?

Average annual per capita tea consumption (pounds, decimal comma):

Source: greenrussia.ru/news/sreda/1385-potreblenie-kofe-v-mire.html

COFFEE consumption around the world

Per capita coffee consumption (cups per day, decimal comma):

Source: gizmodo.com/the-worlds-biggest-coffee-drinkers-visualized-1502533056

JPravdolubova

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INTERVIEW

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— Danny, how did you come up withthe idea of the Ultimate BaristaChallenge?

— I think the Challenge just had to hap-pen. We have been very methodically, Iwould even say inevitably, moving toward it.First, we started barista competitions andregional events in the USA that were run bythe SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association ofAmerica); then we became co-organizers ofthe International barista competitions (run

by SCAA and SCAE) in 2001-2005. The waybarista competitions were becoming moreand more popular meant that success wasinevitable, both at the national and at theinternational levels.

There were many of us: certified judgesfor national and international barista com-petitions, barista trainers, sales specialistsand cuppers. Besides, we had years of expe-rience in making and promoting specialtycoffee, plus a real passion for competition.

The goal of our company, Whole CupCoffee Consulting, was to put the barista firstin the world of specialty coffee. We werelooking for alternatives to standard coffeecompetitions, and we came up with the ideaof Ultimate Barista (or master barista, byanalogy with top chefs in the world of cook-ing). Master baristas from different countrieswould travel the world competing with localbaristas, or with other challengers duringbarista competitions, where winner takes all!

DANNY JOHNSUltimate Barista Challenge:

“THIS COMPETITIONSIMPLY HAD TO HAPPEN!”

Aliona Velichko

Danny Johns — a former professionalbarista, author of many publications andwidely popular books about coffee — was theinvited Master of Ceremonies at WorldBarista Championships in 2001—2004.He has been certified as a judge in all cate-gories for virtually every specialty coffee com-petition (WBC, Tea & Coffee World Cup Asia,European Barista, World Latte Art Champion-ships (International) and the Ultimate BaristaChallenge). This remarkable individual is cur-rently the producer and global coordinator ofthe ULTIMATE Barista Challenge in five coun-tries. We managed to catch up with him andask him a few questions.

INTERVIEW

35

— Аnd what is the difference betweenUltimate Barista Challenge and WorldBarista Championship?

— If we look at the official scoring criteriaused by judges for both of these specialty cof-fee competitions (WBC and USBC), we seethat they are very similar, because they weredeveloped by the same person: Sherri Johns,my wife.

But UBC differs from WBC by its style,greater competitive spirit of its participants,the level of audience involvement and higherlevel of interaction between judges and baris-tas. During WBC competitions, only the baristais allowed to speak during his or her perfor-mance, and the judges must remain silent. Asa former judge of these competitions, I mustadmit that it is very difficult to keep quiet,especially when you want to learn more aboutthe beverage, the coffee and the barista’s per-sonal story.

During WBC competitions, barista performby themselves, the format is quite rigid, mov-ing around is not allowed. But during UBC, twobaristas “duel” with each other, being on thestage simultaneously, making beverages andat the same time presenting them to thejudges.

At the end of a UBC performance, baristasand judges start a conversation, during whichbaristas tell judges and the audience abouttheir coffee, their skills, experience and muchelse, showing the judges their knowledge andability to engage an audience. This is some-thing all baristas usually need to do for theircustomers in the workplace. Afterward,judges have an opportunity to ask questionsand make comments on the beverages thathave just been prepared for them.

Thus, UBC has some new rules, for exam-ple, the requirement that the competing baris-tas discuss their beverages with the judges.The judges, in turn, give baristas advice abouttheir beverages and brewing skills, as well asevaluate the performance as a whole.

Meanwhile, the audience is actively participat-ing in the discussion. The whole preparationprocess looks the best when both baristas fin-ish their beverages on time!

— Which countries have already hostedthe Ultimate Barista Challenge and how doyou decide where the next competition willbe held?

— The UBC has been hosted by the USA(twice), South Korea, China, Indonesia andRussia. Usually we get invitations fromprospective hosts during various cooking andequipment exhibitions and during tea and cof-fee expos.

— What made you decide to organizeUBC in Russia?

—We have always had a very positive expe-rience participating in various specialty coffeeevents in Russia. In 2006, we took part in theRussian Latte Art competition in Moscow, anddecided then and there that we wanted to holda UBC competition in Russia. And when, in2010, a Russian company called Kafema,based in Vladivostok, approached us in Chinaand offered to coordinate UBC events inRussia, we agreed. UBC is interested in pro-moting its competitions throughout this greatcountry.

— What, in your opinion, affects thedevelopment of UBC, and how will it farein the future?

— I think that one of the major factorsimpacting UBC throughout its history is theprofessionalism of its baristas and judges; Ishould also mention the trends in the special-ty coffee, cocktail and culinary segments.Among other factors is our active participa-tion in culinary and product exhibitions,where we showcase specialty coffee competi-tions.

Among our judges are chefs, food industryjournalists, liqueur and cocktail specialists;

these people make the competition moreinteresting by bringing their unique perspec-tives to it.

— How do you handle the enormousamount of logistical challenges whenpreparing to hold the competition in a par-ticular country?

—Our rich experience organizing WBC,USBC and regional events, coordinatingbarista jams, cupping sessions and trainingseminars has helped us develop a “template”of sorts that makes the whole organizingprocess very flexible and allows us to handlechallenges without getting stressed. Our com-petitions are always organized with utmostprofessionalism, because it matters for theirsuccess. We are very careful selecting our UBCpartners in other countries, and we are con-stantly searching for new and innovativeshows.

— What are the requirements for secur-ing an Ultimate Barista Challenge fran-chise?

— UBC always strives to broaden its audi-ence all over the world, so as we grow, thenumber of our organizers will grow as well.Interested parties can get in touch with us andget additional information by sending arequest to [email protected].

— Why should baristas participate inUltimate Barista Challenge — how do theybenefit from it professionally?

— In addition to wonderful prizes from thesponsors, awards from UBC and travels tocoffee-growing countries, the participantscan perfect their coffee-brewing skills, makenew friends and get an invaluable competi-tion experience. They can travel with UBC todifferent countries and take part in the com-petition.

Andon top of all that — it is great fun!

The coming of spring wasmarked in many Russian citiesby qualifying rounds of the TeaMasters Cup, with the main com-petition taking place for the sec-ond time during the annualUnited Coffee & Tea IndustryEvent. The competition is thebrainchild of two brothers, Davidand Ramaz Chanturiya; C&TIsat down with them to savor acup of exquisite Darjeeling (pur-chased, by the way, at the lastyear’s charity tea auction in Mos-cow) and to get the story abouthow this competition was born.

C&TI: So – how did it all begin?Ramaz: Speaking very generally, it start-

ed with thoughts about the future of the teamarket, an analysis of various routes itsdevelopment can take, a search for the bestpossibilities.

C&TI: Can you be a little more specific?What do shifts in the global tea markethave to do with competitions? It doesn’tseem that there would be any connectionat all…

Ramaz: Let us attempt to retrace ourthought process; I hope it will help us see theconnection.

OK, imagine today’s tea market, the con-sumption of tea in the world, where and howtea is sold, when and how it is consumed. Inmany countries – including economicallydeveloped ones – tea, one of the most popu-lar beverages in the world, with a thousand-year history, has become nothing more thana routine element of the food consumptionprocess. Consequently, the main goal of thetea industry, including those who grow tea, isthe most effective satisfaction of the massconsumer demand for this beverage. Andbecause there are billions of tea consumers inthe world, technology reigns supreme, per-fecting the methods of production, process-ing, packaging and distribution.

OR

Svetlana Belikova, Aliona Velichko

INTERVIEW

In search of the PERFECT CUP


Behind the scenes atA TEA COMPETITION

With this approach, whether we want it or not, the tea itself – itsessence, its power – gets lost. And this is not someone’s maliciousintent; no, it just seems that this is a particular stage in the develop-ment of our civilization today: with growing population and con-sumption, the primary focus is on meeting this colossal demand, onpreventing hunger and its inseparable companion – tension andinstability in the world.

David: I would like to add to this that practically in every tea-pro-ducing country the business is highly concentrated; this is the conse-quence of the realities just now mentioned by Ramaz. In order to sur-vive, businesses have to increase production and cut costs. The num-ber of companies in the tea industry is decreasing, as is the interest inthe business of tea – and there is a risk that people will lose interestin the tea itself. The task before those who have devoted their livesto tea is to help preserve this beverage for future generations in itsoriginal form, as it has been created and perfected by nature; pre-serve its character and the unique properties that moved people tobestow on it the title “Queen of the Camelias”. And the time to act isright now.

C&TI: But it is not clear how this situation can be remedied…Ramaz: Let’s continue. Analysis of the market data from the last

20-25 years shows that the bulk of the tea business is concentratedin the mass segment, with its own laws and logic. And despite fre-quent criticism of this industry, I must emphasize that it has animportant function: mass consumption is the reason why tea hasremained one of the world’s leading beverages. Today this segmentis going through difficult times almost everywhere: competition forthe mass consumer is so fierce that many companies are faced withfalling profits (although few would openly admit it). Add to this thereaching of a “technological plateau”, with no new breakthroughsolutions in sight – and it becomes clear why many in the tea businessare feeling like they have reached a dead end.

David: Of course, some people have been trying to put some-thing new on the market – ice tea, pyramid bags, new flavors… Butnone of this can take the place of tea as such. After all, tea is a clas-sic, conservative beverage, albeit with some liberal tendencies, andthis is what has kept it at the center of attention for five thousandyears.

Ramaz: And so, this explosive growth of the mass market haspreserved the high popularity of tea. But at the same time, becausetea has become one of the most accessible and “democratic” bever-ages in the world, the concept of tea as such has lost its focus, hasbecome washed out. In many countries today the word ‘tea’ bringsto mind not a plant, a botanical species, but a brewing method. Andthis can be detrimental to tea in the long run.

That is why I think the time has come for tea to start graduallyregaining its lost position in order to balance the situation somehow,to reassure consumers and fans of the beverage, to restore the con-fidence of the tea business and to attract new players to the market.

David: But we need to do this by using new methods, by creatinga relatively new market segment – a segment for tea with unique fla-vor characteristics. That is, with characteristics that not only give teaa unique taste and aroma, but elevate it to a new status and give itsome extra added value.

C&TI: In other words, you are saying that we need to reversethe process of market concentration?

Ramaz: No, no, not quite. We are saying that we need a new seg-ment in the tea market, a segment that will sell extraordinary tea,with a large number of small enterprises.

David: Think of the markets for wine, coffee, tobacco productsand many others: they have a mass segment and a specialty segment.The mass market has its function – to meet basic demand, and it hasits dedicated distribution mechanism – supermarkets. But things aredifferent with specialty products. They get sold through dedicated

channels that are fine-tuned to handle products of different quality:specialty stores, clubs, the internet, multi-level marketing.

Ramaz: Just to make clear: when we are talking about “quality”,we do not mean high or low quality, but simply a certain set of char-acteristics of a product.

David: Mass production will continue meeting basic demand fortea. These two segments must exist together, in harmony – theyneed each other to survive.

Ramaz: I must also emphasize that many large and responsiblecompanies understand the significance of this balance in the teamarket and try their hardest to maintain it.

C&TI: You speak of the specialty tea segment as if it were anew thing; but doesn’t it already exist? For instance, in Russiathere are tea clubs selling specialty tea, and this tea has a spe-cial status. These establishments are quite popular. And in theUSA there is an explosion of specialty tea stores, and even thefamous coffee chain Starbucks has been paying attention: it hasrecently acquired Teavana, a large chain of tea shops.

INTERVIEW

37

INTERVIEW

Ramaz: Of course, of course… You are right. Weare not talking about creating a wholly new segmentfrom scratch. The foundation is already there; but thedifferent components are isolated, and the way it isnow, it will be a long time before it can become a busi-ness-model for thousands of new enterprises. In itscurrent form, the segment lacks economic power, hasinsufficient “customer pull”.

David: Absolutely true! Obviously, there are spe-cialists and entrepreneurs who love and value tea – butthere are too few of them. The segment lacks the crit-ical mass it needs to function properly… Each of thoseindividuals is dealing with the uninformed consumerone-on-one. And the specialists lose because they can-not communicate with each other. Not only that: theyactively interfere with each other by offering contra-dictory information and advice. There are no schools,no systematic approach, no fundamental knowledgethat would allow consistent perception and under-standing of tea. It is as if everyone had the same 5 let-ters and tried to make a different word out of them: itconfuses consumers. No business can grow until theplayers agree on the fundamentals. And the disorient-ed consumer for the most part simply refuses to paythe price that specialty tea truly deserves.

C&TI: OK, we think we understand now: youare trying to use competition as a tool to createsome kind of order, to create conditions for the“tea people” to come together and start cooper-ating with each other?

Ramaz: In some way, yes. The main idea is that thenew segment needs constant and efficient communi-cation, a platform for putting into practice a commonframework for understanding the unique characteris-tics of tea – a “methodological” component, if youwill. We also need to stimulate the creation of power-ful distribution channels.

Let me be a little more specific. The rating method-ology should be uniform and clear to buyers and sell-ers alike. For this reason, tea education is important forall segment participants, on both sides of the barri-cades (laughter). This, by the way, also affects thecapacity of the distribution channels for specialty tea.But the driving force of the new segment, in my opin-ion, should be tea masters, people who not only knowhow to make tea, but who are also familiar with pro-duction and processing technology, who have ency-clopedic knowledge of the tea industry and the abilityto communicate this knowledge to the masses.

Tea Masters Cup is a competition that can bringsuch people together. We call them ‘masters’; othersmay use the word ‘sommelier’ or some other label forthese professionals… but the word doesn’t matter:what matters is a powerful community of people wholove tea.

David: We need to be clear: this is not a competi-tion among varieties of tea – there are scores of themin virtually all tea-producing countries – but amongpeople who bring this beverage to consumers. Thegoal is not just to see who has the best skill and knowl-edge, who is the closest to the top; it is also to shareexpertise, to get familiar with new trends that cansubsequently be implemented back at one’s homeestablishment. This competition is a platform for peo-ple who know tea, who can help consumers with


INTERVIEW

selecting and preparing tea. This competitive format involves presenting differenttypes of tea, methods of preparing and serving them, taste and flavor combina-tions, as well as professional skills in identifying different varieties of tea.

In addition – and I think this is very important – the competition provides an orig-inal format for presenting tea cultures of different countries and people.

Ramaz: In essence, the Tea Masters Cup is a place for a “live” exchange ofknowledge about tea. The competition format allows us to bring together in differ-ent countries and regions people who wish to be identified as tea experts. This is aplatform for specialists who want to share their methods and approaches to brew-ing tea, to show off their skills, to learn a thing or two from others, to try somethingnew, to experiment. And a large community of tea masters sharing their knowledgewith each other, developing common approaches, interacting with consumers willlead to the emergence of the demand for specialty tea and to the formation of anew market segment.

David: On top of everything, this competition is a social “elevator” of sorts forthe young men and women who have decided to make tea a big part of their lives.They can also become the driving force of this new segment, since specialty tea can-not have “traditional” distribution channels. In order for such tea to have its ownaudience and followers, different promotional mechanisms must be devised. Andtea masters are the people who can do this.

Ramaz: So, we see our task as making tea master into a popular profession. I willemphasize again: a tea master is a person who knows how to select tea, how to pre-pare and serve it, who is familiar with various production technologies, who knowseverything about tea.

C&TI: How ambitious are your goals? Are you looking beyond Russia andthe Tea Masters Cup?

Ramaz: Right now, we are at the very beginning of our journey. Our goal is tohelp create specialty tea markets not only in Russia, but in all countries that areready for it. And I must say that quite a few countries look ready. We are currentlyworking on scheduling national competitions in interested countries and hope tohold the first World Cup in 2015. We have already determined the host city: Istanbul,Turkey.

David: I must add that the new segment will be viable only if it is truly global. Weneed to create an international movement of tea masters; exchanges between themwill lay the foundation for the new segment in individual countries.

Ramaz: One more detail is important here: the whole tea community needs towork together to create a uniform methodology of rating the knowledge and skillsof tea masters. We need to educate and train judges extensively, to ensure thatjudges and tea masters – and, eventually, advanced consumers – speak the samelanguage, the language of tea.

This is a very important task that can only be accomplished through a collectiveeffort, and I am happy to report that we have already received a general commit-ment of support from tea communities in Great Britain, India, Canada, China,Turkey, South Korea and other countries.

Another task is coming up with a universally accepted definition of specialty tea.Among other things, we need to think about how to label the new segment that willbe promoting specialty tea. We will bring this question up for discussion for the firsttime during the Moscow International Tea Symposium that will be held in Septemberas part of the United Coffee and Tea Industry Event (UCTIE).

C&TI: Given the envisioned scale of the project, one has to ask: is the wholething going to be fueled exclusively by enthusiasm?

Ramaz: Of course, the idea will not become reality without the enthusiasm ofdevoted tea lovers; but the competition format will attract sponsors as well. Anycompetition is a venue for people who are interested in a certain product, and thistarget audience is invaluable for many companies working in the tea industry. Thismeans that these companies will have an incentive to support this audience. And wehope that the combination of personal enthusiasm and sponsorship will get the pro-ject going much faster!

David: In general, any tea-themed event is a good opportunity to showcaseone’s company or brand. Tea is an all-around wholesome product, so being associ-ated with tea is an asset for any business, even if it is not directly involved with tea.

We wish you good luck and success in your endeavors! The tea community issure to keep a close eye on this project.

Tea Masters Cup is a competi-tion aimed at establishing thehigh culture of tea, developingskills and exchanging knowl-edge among professionals of thefood service industry, raising thequality of tea and the level ofservice in tea-serving establish-ments, as well as promoting teaculture among consumers.

The competition is comprisedof three Categories:

1. The Tea Brewing Category: thetea master must demonstratehis/her skill at brewing tea bypreparing and presenting threebeverages:

• a dark tea (fermented orpartially fermented);• a light tea (weakly fer-mented or partially ferment-ed);• a “Master’s tea” (a uniquerecipe beverage based onany type of tea, pure or fla-vored).

2. The Tea Set Category: the teamaster must demonstrate theskill of creating a tea composi-tion (a tea paired with a light-food item).3. The Tea Tasting Category: thetea master must demonstratethe tea tasting skill (the ability toprecisely identify the tea sam-ples presented for degustation)

‘Tea Masters Cup’ is a trade-mark of the ‘Coffee and Tea inRussia’ and ‘Coffee and TeaInternational’ magazines


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