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92 barista magazine JUST LIKE COFFEE TREES, tea plants thrive at high elevation, require ample rainfall, and grow in healthy, fertile soil. However, tea cultivation differs from coffee growing in many ways. When it comes to how the two products are processed, exported, sourced, and pur- chased, the differences grow even greater. Here is a closer look. Tea is harvested more frequently. In China, much of India, and other tea-producing powerhouses, tea can be harvested all year. This differs from coffee, where despite the rare country like Colombia with twice-a-year harvests, most coffee countries' trees reach harvest only once a year. Tea leaves—like coffee cherries—are handpicked: Harvesters take the two to three most recent (i.e. younger) leaves on a tea tree, removing the stem with the leaves intact. Tea is ready to brew when exported. Unlike green coffee— which undergoes processing at origin but must be roasted after export to become a fi nished product—tea is a ready-to-serve beverage when shipped. Tea comes from farther-afi eld origins. While a smattering of tea is grown in North America, the majority of tea production takes place in Asia and Africa: The top four producers are China, India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, which together represent 75 percent of global production. This is a big departure from coffee, where many coffee professionals can reach origin via a manageable fl ight to Latin America. Visiting tea at source, on the other hand, requires a substantial investment of time and money. Tea prices are less volatile. Because coffee is traded on the commodities market, its price fl uctuates wildly on the whims of hedgers, weather in Brazil, and many other factors. Tea prices are determined by elements like rarity, quality, marketability, and demand—and because they aren't tied to a commodities market, they're fairly consistent from year to year. Many tea suppliers of- fer multiple-year contracts to their customers that can guarantee fi xed pricing over the longterm. Tea is even more deeply rooted in tradition. Sure, coffee has cherished rituals like the Ethiopian coffee ceremony that have been passed down through generations. But no coffee ceremonies have quite the tradition of tea, which originated in China almost 5,000 years ago (!). Ancient tea rituals abound in Asia, including the Japanese tea ceremony (dating back to around the 12th century) and China's gongfu tea ceremony (originating around the 18th century). In part because of its long history steeped in tradition, tea produc- tion is largely opaque. One tea type, for example—pu-erh—has a mys- terious production process that its practitioners keep a closely guarded secret. From a sourcing perspective, tea lacks the transparency of coffee: Most tea is sold at auction with no connection to or information on the actual farmers who grew it, who typically lose their ties to the product once they've given it to the warehouse. "It's much harder to connect all of the dots between the plant and the people drinking it than in coffee," says Heather of The Jasmine Pearl, "because of how many hands it has to go through." As with coffee, transparent sourcing can be attained in tea—and some origin-minded tea sourcers are estab- lishing direct relationships and sourcing more transparently. But tea so far has lacked the industry-leading transparent sourcer or consumer outcry to spur a more transparent supply chain. Tea is slow. It's not directly related to its origin, but tea is an inherently slow-paced beverage. Rather than the grab-and-go culture associated with coffee, tea is a deliberate drink that is steeped, sipped, and lingered over. This slowness has been refl ected in its snail-paced-but-steady growth, as well as its tradition-minded growers' adherence to ancient practices. We'll likely continue to see deliberateness as a key trait of this treasured beverage, the venerable leaf. —Chris Ryan HO ES TEA ORIGIN DIFFER FROM COFFEE ORIGIN Coming Summer 2017 Equator Coffees at Historic Fort Mason Center equatorcoffees.com /equatorcoffees @equatorcoffees @equatorcoffees