Camellia sinensis
Hannah Lindquist
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/
chinese-tea/chinese-tea-art.htm
Outline
• Background
• History of tea
– Early history
– Introduction to Europe
– Development of tea
industries
• Tea consumption
– Tea cultures
– Health effects
• Tea today
– Tea production
– Environmental impacts
of production
– Transnational
corporations
• Alternative strategies
Background:
Camellia sinensis
http://www.equalexchange.coop/india
http://www.kokomotea.com/culturestatic-1.php
Early History of Tea
• How old is tea consumption?
– Legend: 2732 B.C.E.
– Chewed by monkeys and humans
• Religious importance
– Originally cultivated in
monasteries as a medicinal herb
• Introduction into secular society
– Diffusion through Asia
– Tea bricks as currency
• Introduction to Japan at end of
6th century
Yak butter tea
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_ark/3843728507/
Tea Comes to Europe
• Tea is introduced to Europe in 1610
• European tea trade with China becomes
easier in the late 1600s and early 1700s
– Improvements in sea travel
– The joint stock company
• British tea trade with China
– East India Company
– Excise taxes on tea imports
– Smuggling
Development of Tea
Industries
• Gaining independence from the tea trade
with China and developing tea estates
– Influence of the industrial and
agricultural revolutions
– Dutch
– British: India, Ceylon, Africa
Assam
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
http://www.thp.org/where_we_work/south_asia/india/map/assam
Tea Cultures
• Japanese tea ceremony
• Development of British tea
culture
– Originally a luxury commodity
– Displacement of coffee
– Effects on women
– Proletarian hunger-killer
Japanese tea ceremony
http://www.holymtn.com/tea/Japanesetea.htm
“The Tea Gardens,” 1778
http://www.beatricehohenegger.com/_font_face__garamond___font_siz
e_4__br_liquid_jade__the_story_of_tea_from_east_t_57579.htm
“The Afternoon Tea Party”
http://www.teaspirit.com/2006/12/10/the-afternoon-tea-partyfrederic-soulacroix/
Tea Cultures
• Creation of
markets in India
• Tea consumption
today in the U.S.
An Indian billboard
advertisement for tea
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030115/biz.htm
Tea and Human Health
• Studies on effects of tea
consumption on:
– Cancer incidence
– Heart disease incidence
• Other health effects
http://www.saidaonline.com/en/newsgfx/green-tea.jpg
Tea Production Today
• World production
• Growing and harvesting tea
• Processing tea
• Labor
World Tea Production
5
4.735961
Metric tons (in millions)
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.96356
2.5
2.524165
2
1.893527
1.5
1.286757
1
0.983785
0.5
0
1961
1970
1980
1990
2000
2008
http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancor
Top exporters in 2007: Kenya, China, India, Sri Lanka
http://faostat.fao.org/site/342/default.aspx
Tea Production Today
• World production
• Growing and harvesting tea
• Processing tea
• Labor
Lipton tea estate in Kenya
http://www.liptont.com/tea_experts/sustainability/national_geographic.aspx
Tea Production Today
• World production
• Growing and harvesting tea
• Processing tea
• Labor
Withering
Rolling
http://hojotea.com/item_e/b07e.htm
Trays used for fermentation
Tea Packing Company
http://www.ethicalteapartnership.org/pages.asp?page_id=30&parent_id=18
Tea Production Today
• World production
• Growing and harvesting tea
• Processing tea
• Labor
Environmental Impacts
of Tea Production
•
•
•
•
Loss of biodiversity
Soil
Agrochemicals
Fuel for tea
processing
http://discoveringkorea.com/2008/12/03/boseong-green-tea/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/289001/108338/Afarmer-spraying-pesticide-on-tea-leaves-in-Sonepur-India
Transnational
Corporations
• Unilever
• Tata Tea
http://www.tata.com/images/article/tata_tea_packs.jpg
http://www.liptont.com/our_products/tea_explorer/index.aspx
Sustainabili-TEA:
More than a predictable pun
I found on Bigelow’s website?
Ethical Production
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