Where tea and origins meet to create that perfect cuppa!
Did you know that during the last ice age, a possible wide plain connecting Asia and North America called as the Bering Land Bridge lead to human migration between these two continents?
Don’t worry, I have not suddenly switched to writing about history, and this is most definitely a food-related post. This act of migration and the resulting cultural connections inspired the name of a tea company that connects people across countries through tea, some great stories of its origins and an immense love for the product. Meet Jake and Heather Kreilick, founders of the Lake Missoula Tea Company.
Jake has a background in environmental activism, and Heather works with spacial data and GIS systems. At a time when they were contemplating career changes, tea presented itself to them. They tasted loose leaf tea at their friend’s tea company in Washington and were immediately drawn to the product and the business idea. After a year of groundwork, they opened the doors of their tea company in October 2012.
While most people would set out to source tea, and set their venture up, Jake and Heather decided that their company would support small-scale artisan tea farms, providing them with strong markets. This husband and wife team is not only specific about the farms they work with, they also make sure they visit the farms to understand the source.
“Through our friend Tobin, the concept of what we were doing -a tea bar and a tea shop became clear to us. But our primary focus through this set up is educating and informing our customers about the virtues of tea. We quickly discovered that we had to travel to get more knowledge, to get a better sense of where these farms were coming from, and to build a connection to the actual product. It gives you a lot more confidence in being connected to the producers and the consumers. If you step into our store, you will see that the atmosphere is such that there is always a conversation going about the farms, the people who work there and the benefits of drinking tea. In order to do all of this, we had to have direct sources and build those personal connections,” Jake shares over a Skype call.
Ancient tea trees in southern Yunan, China, a sustainable tea farm in Colombia which supports and promotes education, river restoration and recycling, and a tea farm from our very own Assam that supports the elephant population in the region- these are just a few examples of where the tea comes from for the Lake Missoula Tea Company. On their website, Heather and Jake share their travel stories and important information about these farms.
“The farms that we work with are generally small farms. For example, the farm in Indonesia is couple 100 hectares, and we source Oolong teas, an organic green tea as well as a red organic black tea from them. We also source a purple tea from Kenya. This purple tea is drought and frost resistant, so they are in fact planning ahead for the changing climatic conditions. This tea is also rich in antioxidants, making it a wonderful product overall,” says Heather.
Lake Missoula Tea Company also sources the first of its kind Certified Elephant FriendlyTM Tea from Bodoland, Assam. Tenzing Bodosa the first farmer to obtain this certification ensures his farming practices do not harm the elephants in the region. “The certified plantations eliminate electrocution risks to elephants from fencing and power lines, drainage ditches and other hazards that may injure elephants, and eliminate risk of poisoning of elephants,” the Elephant Friendly Tea website explains in their “About” section. Lake Missoula Tea Company has been selling Elephant FriendlyTM tea from Tenzing’s farm for about one and a half years now. They are visiting Assam in early September, and they plan to include more Elephant FriendlyTM tea from a second farm which has recently obtained certification. “Hopefully we get to see the elephants this time,” they say excitedly talking about their upcoming travel plans.
Heather and Jake’s tea journey gives you major travel and tea drinking goals. As passionate as they are about the product and visiting these farms across the globe, their efforts highlight the lesser known side of tea and tea farms. Does having a quality food product help better convey these stories about the source and the issues they are addressing? “I think it’s important for people to understand that we are all connected in this. When we talk about the source, people understand that there are families who work on these farms, and they made a decision to change the way they did things. They took risks, hoping that it would benefit the environment, the people or the elephants around the farms. People have a better understanding of the issues, and they feel they can contribute by purchasing the right product. The fact that we can bring that connection to them on the other side of the globe is definitely through the product,” Heather explains.
Adding to this conversation Jake says that it is important to have good economic alternatives for people who want to commit to sustainable practices which have a positive impact on the environment and the ecology. As a tea company, he adds, they want to be able to raise the consciousness of the consumer.
So is tea going the coffee route where consumers have become selective about the source and quality of the product? “We are not quite there yet,” Jake and Heather agree,” but we are moving in that direction. It is a growing market, and we have to educate that market and ensure that it keeps growing.”
Bottom line is– “People still want good tea, but they also want a better handle on where the tea comes from. Given an opportunity, they want to make a difference.”
