Drs. Orians and Stepp of the Tea and Climate Change project were recently featured in an article on climatecentral.org. The article, entitled, “Climate Change Poses a Brewing Problem for Tea” discusses how climate change is a affecting tea production and quality in China. Many experts on tea production are also quoted in the article.

You can read the full article here. Also, the original Climate Central article has been re-posted by Green Bizz and Quartz, and referenced in an article featured on Grist.

READING THE TEA LEAVES FOR EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Science 29 May 2015: Vol. 348 no. 6238 pp. 953–954

Our tea project is featured in the May 29th Science magazine in a news article on climate effects on tea quality written by Christina Larson. The news brief is also covered in the May 29th Science podcast where Christina Larson is interviewed on tea and climate. Writer Larson accompanied investigator Selena Ahmed in the field in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province this past March during the spring tea harvest and spoke with tea farmers. She also interviewed other members of our tea including investigators Sean Cash, Colin Orians, and Wenyan Han.

Here are links to the Science feature and podcast followed by Christina Larson’s summary.

News feature: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6238/953.summary?sid=1a2584f7-f3da-491c-ae18-033522065b06

Podcast: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6238/1044.2.full

Summary: The complex mix of phytochemicals responsible for the taste of tea may be far more sensitive to climate than the yields of commodity crops. An ideal place to study the relationship is China’s Yunnan province, known for an oxidized and fermented black tea called pu’er, one of the country’s most prized and already being touched by climate change. Earlier this year, scientists embarked on a 4-year project that examines the linkages among climate, tea quality, and farmer livelihoods. What they find could have implications for scores of other crops, from coffee to chocolate to cherries, whose taste and value also depend on local climates.

Here is a PDF of the complete story Science-2015 Tea and climate-2

Selena Ahmed is talking tea, climate and sustainability at the World Tea Expo this week accompanied by a guided sensory experiment with tea from different seasons she collected from study sites in Yunnan.

Talk Title: Promoting Sustainability and Climate Mitigation in the Global Tea System

Speaker: Selena Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Food Systems, Montana State University

What is the impact of climate change on tea quality and how can tea industry agents mitigate this risk? We will explore these topics from a sustainability framework and guided tea tasting. Tangible business practices will be recommended that can be adopted towards enhanced sustainability of the global tea system.

Here is a link to learn more about the sessions and tea vendors at the 2015 World Tea Expo: http://www.worldteaexpo.com

Experience Everything Tea! 

Co-PI Selena Ahmed was recently interviewed by Dr. Ellie Biggs who is leading a project on climate effects on tea systems in India that is sponsored by the UK-India Education Research Initiative. 

Here is the link to guest blog on the India tea and climate project:

http://teaclimate.com/blog/

Our China-focused tea + climate project looks forward to collaborating with this India-focused tea + climate project. In June, Selena will visit the University of Southampton to give a talk on ongoing collaborative tea quality research in China. On June 16, Ellie and Selena will co-host a session on tea and climate from their teams’  varied perspectives as part of the TEAM UP 2015 meeting that is part of the Ethical Tea Partnership meeting. 

To learn more about the TEAM UP 2015, please visit:

http://www.ethicalteapartnership.org/team-up/