Before I talk about the development of our new canned Raspberry Tea, I want to share more about Cha de Magoma, the tea garden in Mozambique that is the exclusive tea supplier for our canned line.
When my co-founder Chef Spike Mendelsohn and I traveled to Cha de Magoma, in Zambezia Province, we instantly knew it was a special place. The landscape was breathtaking – green rolling hills, surrounded by fragrant eucalyptus trees, laced with waterfalls and streams flowing throughout. Organic standards include a minimum buffer to protect the farms from any potential pollution sources (such as factories or farms where chemical pesticides or fertilizers are used) but the buffer from any potential pollution sources in Cha de Magoma is several times the minimum requirement. Roughly ten thousand people live throughout the tea fields. In addition to picking tea leaves, they grow their own crops for food and income.
Even with the higher-than-normal Fair Trade wages that Cha de Magoma pays the tea pickers, Zambezia Province is one of the poorest provinces in one of the poorest countries (186 out of 192) in the world. The average life expectancy is 54.6 years. Not only are cholera, malaria, and AIDS major threats but residents lack access to medical services to diagnose these illnesses. When we met with the Worker’s Council that decides how our Fair Trade premiums are spent, they requested we focus our donations on building a pathology clinic that can test, diagnose, and provide basic treatment for illnesses. Without access to this kind of resource, villagers need to travel 90 minutes, which is especially challenging since they lack access to cars. This year we will be contributing and raising funds for the medical equipment needed to launch this facility.
Raspberry Tea has always been a popular variety, but we wanted to make sure ours was not just a flavored tea, so we found a delicious supplier of raspberry juice concentrate from Canada and made sure the tea delivers a clear tea note while also carrying a fragrant fruitiness that makes this Just Sweet Enough. And then we let Barry and my New England roots come out in the limerick:
We brewed up black tea with Raspberry
Sweetened it up, but not very
We call it “Just Ice”
It tastes wicked nice
Honestly yours, Seth, Spike & Barry