Dear Readers,
Thank you for your overwhelming concern for our colleagues in Japan. As many of you know, I traveled to Japan a few years ago to see the tea estates up-close and personal. That trip changed me professionally and solidified my commitment to get into the tea business. I saw first-hand the quality product being produced, the pride the Japanese people have for this thousands year-old plant and the way tea is a part of their culture from sunrise to sunset.
Clearly our hearts and thoughts are with the Japanese people as we “embrace this pain.” To try to determine the overall impact to tea production would be, at this point, premature, but it’s important to know that most teas destined for world markets are already warehoused and have been for quite some time. Tea has a tremendous shelf life if kept in airtight conditions and away from direct sunlight.
What we do know about the impact to the area and specifically the issues surrounding the nuclear reactors, we have inserted a paraphrased article from World Tea News.
According to World Tea News Editor, Dan Bolton, Massachusetts has seen low-level radioactive particles, carried by the jet stream, as of last Sunday. Radiation levels at the gate of the severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant remain high but rapidly drop to a few microsieverts moving away from the plant. To become ill, a person has to be exposed to a dose of about 1 Sievert which is a million times more than the microsieverts detected. REM (Roentgen Equivalent Mammal) measures the impact of ionized radiation exposure in mammals. Mammals become ill at an exposure of 100 REM. An exposure of 500 REM causes death in 50 percent of cases.
The highest concentrations of radioactivity are in the surrounding areas of the damaged reactors at Fukushima. U.S. military flyovers and ground-based inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency showed concentrations that are tens of thousands of times below the threshold that would make individuals sick and the plume depicted in news reports is millions of times below harmful levels.
Wystone’s World Teas has large stockpiles of premium Japanese teas, so your favorites such as Matcha, Jasmine Pearls and Premium grade Gyokura and Sencha are still available. We will keep you posted via this Newsletter and special information blogs as the news develops.
Remember we have over 150 varieties of tea from around the world. We are diversified in our ability to source globally and to have teas from literally every corner of the planet.
First flush Darjeelings from India will be in next month and, if you’ve never tasted a first flush, we will be having a special tea-tasting upon their arrival. Just a note…there has been a bit of drama over these teas. The harvest was being held hostage by the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labor Union for better wages on the estates. As of Friday the dispute was resolved in the workers’ favor. It is important for us to support these activities as the workers were asking for their pay to be doubled to $2.01 per day. Our purchase of these teas helps support the livelihoods of the workers and their families. As you read this, someone, somewhere is hand-picking a specialty tea!
Finally, Wystone’s World Teas will partner with a humanitarian aid organization later this month for fundraiser similar to our activities following the Haitian disaster. For those of you who participated, you know what a special evening of giving it was. Please look for our invitation in the next couple of weeks.
Warmly,
Wy
