john snellApr 115 minTea and sustainability. Focus on the fundamentals!I am an exasperated onlooker, when it comes to sustainability efforts in the tea and other commodity industries. Yes, I have sat on a...
john snellFeb 238 minThe black tea box we built and finding our "Houdini" moment. Maybe it's because my taste buds are shot or my memory or both but the classic seasonal teas don't taste quite like they used to or, at...
john snellOct 29, 20212 minThe Freight Boom, a gold rush for some but not for all.This week the Freightos Baltic Index shows a dip in container rates, Hooray! But wait, still 320% over a year ago and still a gazillion %...
john snellOct 19, 20213 minIs Tea trying too hard?Every time you see an advert for a tea (CS or otherwise) that purports to protect or deliver an antidote for a clinical condition or...
john snellAug 11, 20215 minWhat's good for the goose.. the ethics of profit and opticsEvery time a story about the marginal returns of tea farmers (not excluding other products but I am a tea chap!) I wonder at how we ever...
john snellJun 10, 20213 minOut of the ashes of conflict, the organic rebirth of a disrupted tea originThe Portuguese, responsible for the introduction of tea to Britain and spawning a global revolution in drinking habits, were also...
john snellMay 25, 20212 min"A puppy is not just for Christmas" nor is tea! A 365 day commitment.The International Tea Day was successfully and impressively celebrated/recognized by Governments, Tea bodies and companies the world...
john snellApr 21, 20214 min"Something is wrong in the state of Denmark or The chasm between global tea production and consumersFirstly, apologies to Denmark. I love the country and the inhabitants, I have met, but the phrase is apt in that it talks to a troubling...
john snellMar 26, 20213 min(N) Ever Given proves that the best laid plans can run aground!I was in the middle of writing my next dit and then this came across the airwaves, or more correctly across the Suez! Now whether this...
john snellMar 5, 20213 minThe Clash foresaw the plight of Kenyan tea harvesting back in 1982 "Should I stay or should I go?" could have been written to describe the quandary of the Kenyan tea producer and the decision to move from...
john snellFeb 23, 20213 minGeorgia, The oldest new tea destinationAsk people where tea is grown and penny to a pound they will not mention Georgia, the republic of not the state! Ask them to point it out...
john snellJan 4, 20215 minBlending, a two dimensional art entering the fourth dimensionWhen I started in the tea industry, the art or science (if some are to be believed) of blending was focused on consistent product...
john snellNov 30, 20203 minTea and the Soviets, an Azerbaijani heritage!As the conflict in the caucus area of Nagorno-Karabakh reaches, what we all hope will be, a longer lasting peace, I suspect that this is...
john snellOct 28, 20203 minTea, sugar, age, covid and oil: A Mauritian tea story.If you have never visited Mauritius then you should! Sitting at the bottom and left quadrant of the Indian ocean , this slice of Africa...
john snellMay 21, 20202 minTea, the 364 days between International days of recognitionInternational Tea Day is like a new puppy at Christmas, too easy to ignore during the rest of the year, yet we need to understand this 24...
john snellMay 15, 20203 minICED TEA, COVID 19 AND PLATOI am probably not alone at viewing the growing COVID19 statistics in the US and feeling somewhat perplexed (ok , I am being polite) at...
john snellApr 13, 20203 minWhose fault is it? Not mine! Why the Tea industry struggles for balance.The tea community is very much like the investor community or the home owner community, they all believe it is their God given right to...
john snellApr 13, 20202 minThe silver lining COVID 19 for the tea industryIs it too much to suppose that there will be a silver lining to the current pandemic, sweeping the Globe? Personally, I don't think so;...