Most serious tea drinkers know that China, Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and India are established tea powers. However, if you were to list of 4 to 5 countries that could grow into becoming tea powers over the next 100 years, who would be on your list and why? I am also talking mainly with regard to orthodox tea production rather than CTC.
Here, are some possibles to consider:
Asia
Korea
Nepal
Vietnam
Thailand
Indonesia
Malaysia
Sikkim
Bangladesh
Middle East
Turkey
Georgia
Iran
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Africa
Kenya
Rwanda
Mauritius
South Africa
Re: What Do You Think Are The Emerging Tea Nations?
Interesting question.
By weight, Turkey is already producing more than 2 of the so called super powers (Japan and Taiwan). I think Turkey has a lot of potential- 2 reasons immediately spring to mind; large amounts of fertile land on the Eastern Black sea coast, and a location that is relatively close to Europe, if that matters for transport and logistics in this day and age. That being said I never tasted loose leaf Turkish tea, just teabags, and that was a while ago when I got started, my palate still thought Tetley was wicked.
African farmers are also realizing that there's more profit for them in tea than in coffee. The other Middle Eastern countries like Iran probably consume much of what they produce themselves.
By weight, Turkey is already producing more than 2 of the so called super powers (Japan and Taiwan). I think Turkey has a lot of potential- 2 reasons immediately spring to mind; large amounts of fertile land on the Eastern Black sea coast, and a location that is relatively close to Europe, if that matters for transport and logistics in this day and age. That being said I never tasted loose leaf Turkish tea, just teabags, and that was a while ago when I got started, my palate still thought Tetley was wicked.
African farmers are also realizing that there's more profit for them in tea than in coffee. The other Middle Eastern countries like Iran probably consume much of what they produce themselves.