A survey of 2,000 adults found that these stress headaches break down to three times a week and that respondents recalled having brain fog just as often. Reviewing their current stress levels, the survey found that 41% said they’re at their peak stress for the year so far. [Although the survey was among Americans, the symptoms and causes of stress are similar across many countries. For example, according to Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition Survey 2021, globally, stress and anxiety now rank as the second most common health concern. Many of the other top reported issues, including sleeping problems and headaches, tend to be closely linked to high stress levels.]

Results of the new online survey – conducted by Talker Research for Traditional Medicinals between July and August 2024 – showed that while 30% are hopeful that their stress level will go down by the end of the year, a quarter of respondents think there’s a chance it’ll go up (26%). Yet, 45% have never taken a mental health day or sick day from work solely because of stress.

Comparing their stress levels to previous years, 38% of those surveyed said that 2024 has been more stressful than 2023, but less so than 2022 and the preceding years.

What is it about this year that is exacerbating their stress levels? Respondents are worried about their finances (35%), the economy (28%) and their physical health (25%). Others are troubled by the news landscape — particularly the 2024 presidential election (20%) and other world issues (19%), both of which I’m surprised are not higher percentages. In terms of how respondents are combatting these high-intensity moments, results showed that a majority feel overwhelmed during these times (58%).

What’s Stressing Americans Out?

1. Personal finances — 35%
2. The economy — 28%
3. Physical health — 25%
4. Family — 25%
5. Mental health — 24%
6. The 2024 presidential election — 20%
7. The news/world issues — 19%
8. Work — 16%
9. An unexpected life event — 15%
10. Romantic relationship — 13%

In an exclusive article for T&CTJ, “The caffeine paradox: sleep, anxiety and the endless rise in caffeine consumption,” Matthew Barry, insight manager, food & beverage, Euromonitor International, wrote, “Although consumers’ stress and anxiety levels remain high, their desire for caffeine has not waned. In fact, the demand for higher caffeine products is actually rising.”

How can these two clear trends coexist? Why are consumers eager to increase their caffeine consumption while also being concerned with their stress levels and sleep quality? Barry posited that the explanation is found in the caffeine paradox — higher levels of stress and sleep troubles lead, paradoxically, to higher demands for caffeine. “At the core of consumer stress is the desire to accomplish more. And this desire creates more stress, which leads to more caffeine consumption for sufficient energy.”

In the Traditional Medicinals survey, respondents shared that they know they’re stressed when they have trouble sleeping (42%), feel irritable (37%), fatigued (34%), have headaches (33%) or feel worried or paranoid (31%). Other respondents said their stress manifests through an inability to focus (30%), restlessness (29%), racing thoughts (27%), brain fog/mental unclarity (23%), or panic attacks (23%).

“With cold and flu season approaching, self-care and stress management are more important than ever,” said Kristel Corson, chief marketing officer at Traditional Medicinals. “Half of those surveyed believe that stress is often the main cause of them getting sick, and when asked what season is most stressful, the highest percentage of respondents (26%) said winter given seasonal changes and the holidays.”

To combat stress, 47% of respondents turn on some music, while another 39% look for comfort in their favourite TV shows and movies.

Food has its own calming effect, with nearly a fifth of respondents sharing that they have a snack (17%) or drink a cup of tea (14%) when they need to bring their stress down.

Seven in 10 agree that their overall mental health would be better if they were able to reduce their stress (71%), highlighting a need for self-care routines to be an important part of the stress solution.

However, incorporating self-care strategies into their daily life is a hurdle for one in seven Americans, leaving nearly half wishing for simple options that fit into their busy schedule (47%) as opposed to elaborate routines. When thinking about a “de-stressing regimen,” an equal percentage of respondents want long-term overall wellness and the ability to alleviate stress quickly (23% each).

“We believe in integrating ancient herbal wisdom with modern scientific advancements for a holistic approach to wellness,” said Corson. “Just 37% of survey respondents think that trendy stress relief options are successful, while nearly half felt confident in more traditional methods like yoga, meditation, or a calming tea.”

Given the conflict in the Middle East, the Russian/Ukraine war, inflation, high costs of goods, and in the US, back-to-back devasting hurricanes along with a contentious presidential election,

consumers’ stress will not likely abate anytime soon. Furthermore, high-caffeine product launches have not tempered while decaf sales remain sluggish, suggesting that the caffeine paradox, Barry highlighted in the April 2022 article will hold true for the foreseeable future.

Barry concluded the article, noting, “That leaves coffee and tea where they have always been — powerful tools in coping with the larger challenges of life. The underlying stressors of the modern world are beyond the power of the industry to solve. But manufacturers can offer a range of products to help alleviate possible burdens, from those who want as much caffeine as they can consume to those prioritising mindfulness and looking to cut back.”

Tea and coffee manufacturers have done just that. So go ahead and grab that 300+ caffeine RTD coffee, that iced ginseng wild apple mint tea, that lavender coffee latte, or chamomile lavender tea — whatever you fancy, as there’s really no choice.

• Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.
  Keep in touch via email: vanessa@bellpublishing.com Twitter: @TCTradeJournal or LinkedIn: Tea & Coffee Trade Journal

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Traditional Medicinals developed this line of organic herbal teas to address the increasing demand for solutions to rising stress levels. A recent survey of 2,000 adults by Talker Research for Traditional Medicinals highlighted this need:
• Looking at current stress levels, 41% of those surveyed are at their peak stress for the year so far.
• Seven in 10 respondents agree that their overall outlook would be better if they were able to reduce their stress (71%).
• Stress headaches are present three times a week and respondents recalled having brain fog just as often.
• 47% of respondents seek simple self-care strategies that fit into busy schedules. Top stress relief methods include music, entertainment, snacking, and tea consumption.
• Just 37% of respondents think that trendy stress relief options are successful, while nearly half felt confident in more traditional methods like yoga, meditation, or a calming tea.

“We live in a time when responsibilities, worries, and other life events can leave us feeling tense, overwhelmed, lacking focus, and drained of energy,” said Taryn Forrelli, chief science officer at Traditional Medicinals. “Plants have always supported us in managing stress; and with tea, we can share nature’s medicine with more people in a way that is both convenient and sustainable. By harnessing the power of adaptogens and other high-quality herbs, our Stress Ease® line of herbalist-formulated teas help people build resilience and boost vitality, so they can thrive in the face of challenges.”

Introducing the New Stress Ease® Line:
• Stress Ease® Focus tea: For daily balanced energy, focus and stress support with evident effects from the first cup and consistent results with ongoing daily use, , this caffeine-free tea is a bright, minty blend featuring wild apple and adaptogens like ginseng and eleuthero for mental clarity and sustained energy.
• Stress Ease® Immune tea: For daily immune system and stress support, offering reliable benefits with regular consumption, this aromatic, warming blend with adaptogens like astragalus and reishi mushroom balances immune response and manages occasional stress.
• Stress Ease® Tension Relief tea: For quick comfort and relief of stress, tension, and irritability, this herbal, minty-citrus blend features herbs like skullcap to support the nervous system.

“In today’s world, Americans are grappling with unprecedented stress levels from various sources — financial pressures, health concerns, political uncertainty, and more. This makes simple stress management not just desirable, but essential,” said Kristel Corson, chief marketing officer at Traditional Medicinals. “Whether it’s enhancing mental focus, supporting immune function, or easing physical tension in the neck shoulders, and body, our Stress Ease® line empowers individuals to take control of their well-being, one cup at a time, so they are ready for anything.”

As part of Traditional Medicinals’ ongoing commitment to sustainability, all three teas in the new Stress Ease® line are certified organic and adhere to its rigorous certified B Corp standards. These standards ensure accountability, verification, and transparency in our ethical practices, fair relationships with farmers and collectors, and environmental stewardship. Stress Ease® Focus represents the continued evolution of our dedication to ethical sourcing with its FairWild certification, supporting wild collectors and the planet’s biodiversity.

Traditional Medicinals’ new Stress Ease® teas are now available at select retailers nationwide and online here.

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With 100,000 cups of its teas drunk every hour, globally, Traditional Medicinals shares its herbal remedies and teas with two million people a day, providing itself the opportunity to inform, to be transparent, and to raise issue of importance, as well as bringing them each a little bit of nature in every cup.

Traditional Medicinals’ story begins more than 50 years ago, when Drake Sadler who co-founded the company with Rosemary Gladstar, met in the woods of Northern California where they were both living in the late 1960s. Gladstar collected plants and was teaching students and young people about the herbs and formulas that had been passed down through her family.

“Her great grandmother was a herbalist from Armenia [who taught her daughter], [who in turn, taught her daughter]. All this knowledge was passed down, as it always has been, in an oral tradition with women from generation to generation. They were the ‘medicine women’ in their communities and Rosemary was the medicine woman in her community,” explained Sadler, chair of Traditional Medicinals. Gladstar had a small shop and people would come to see her seeking remedies for their ailments.

Meanwhile, Sadler came from a background of social development. He worked for the US government on what was called the War on Poverty, setting up social programmes in poor communities. At this time, Gladstar wanted to further educate the community about herbal education, so she started packaging her herbal formulas and inserting inside information she had written to provide further explanation about the herbs they were using to treat the illnesses. This was the founding purpose of Traditional Medicinals – herbal education – and why the pair decided to launch it as a business.

The second founding principle came as Sadler and Gladstar began to visit the countries and communities from which they were sourcing plants. There they discovered that the herb and spice communities were quite impoverished. “This then triggered the evolution of the company’s second purpose,” said Sadler, “which was to build sustainable communities where these plants came from.”

Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat packaging circa 1980. Image: Traditional Medicinals

When Traditional Medicinals began, it offered nine products, each chosen to meet specific consumer needs and address ailments people had come in for, such as sore throats, problems sleeping, digestive troubles or morning sickness. “But that quickly expanded. I think within the first two or three years we had about 20 products,” commented Sadler. “People were like, why can’t I get this? What about that? So, Rosemary was formulating remedies that people needed. We weren’t trying to come up with the latest flavour or something, it was all about consumer needs.” Now Traditional Medicinals has more than 60 products (teas, lozenges, and capsules), which still change according to consumer needs and the ingredients they are interested in, such as dandelion, raspberry leaf or hibiscus.

These trends and demands also vary by region; Joe Stanziano, newly appointed CEO of Traditional Medicinals (see the announcement in People News) added, “according to industry data, the stress/relaxation segment has the highest regional share in California and has the lowest regional share in the mid-south; whereas the immunity segment has the highest regional share in the mid-south and lower in the northeast [of the US].”

Sustainable from the start

The majority of these products are distributed across the United States, but its market generally covers Central and North America. “The products are in a lot of countries I visit, but we don’t have a strong foreign strategy,” said Sadler. “There’s only so many places we can be and be there successfully […] There’s a limit: there’s a limit to these plants, there’s a limit to our capacity to produce […] We’re not trying to be the biggest, we’re just trying to be the best.” This notion is something integral to the workings of Traditional Medicinals.

Sadler spoke about how both he and Gladstar were interested in Buddhism during the origins of the company, one of the principles of which is ‘right livelihood,’ which he said they have always strived to embody within the company. “The notion of right livelihood is how business, or how people, should conduct themselves when they’re doing business. And the fundamental of right livelihood is to do no harm. So, conducting business in a way that helps people and does no harm, no harm to the environment, does no harm to each other, does no harm to the community.” This is something Sadler said distinguishes Traditional Medicinals from many other businesses.

This ethos also guides the company through purchasing and working with organic and fair-certified suppliers. Traditional Medicinals made a commitment to using quality and efficacious ingredients to deliver tangible health benefits. Its first certified organic products were in the late 70s, and then fair-certified ingredients began in the 90s. “The company has a real commitment to its stakeholders from these supply communities all the way through our trading partners […] We operate from a place of integrity,” said Sadler, and sustainability has always been a part of this, whether it is environmental or social.

When Sadler and Gladstar first started visiting their source communities, they would find children working in fields and not going to school, because their parents needed them to work and often there weren’t schools for them to go to. “So, then the next time that we would come back to those communities, we would bring books; we’d bring books written in the language of that country, school books. And we’d ask, ‘Can we hire a teacher and have children learning in the evenings? Would you give them room to study? We will hire the teacher and bring the books,’” recounted Sadler, explaining how the company’s opportunities for scale of impact have expanded since its founding. “Now we build schools. We have five schools in one remote area of Rajasthan [India], five schools just in this little remote area and there’s 2,000 kids going to school there every day.”

Traditional Medicinals now works in 43 countries through fair certification projects and partnerships. Its community projects in these regions impacts tens of thousands of farmers and collectors and their families, in areas such as health, hygiene, education, economic development, food and water security and women’s empowerment, the latter of which is especially crucial, said Sadler.

Historical Traditional Medicinals packaging. Image: Traditional Medicinals

Since the beginning of humankind, people have been experimenting with plants for food and medicine, for clothing and for shelter. Now in modern times, 50 percent of the world’s medicine contains plants, 80 percent of which are not farmed and must be collected in the wild, Sadler shared. It is in these remote areas that they grow and are collected by indigenous people, the vast proportion of which are women. This is why “we want to work on projects that empower them, raise their voices in the community, educate them better. And make sure that their daughters are going to school.”

While these practices have been embedded in the company since its founding, Sadler noted that there has been a strong increase in demand for sustainable activities from consumers, particularly young consumers who are wanting more information about the products they buy. “Young consumers really want education, they want to know what they’re consuming, they want to know about the ingredients, they want to know where those ingredients come from, they want to know who’s involved in the production of those ingredients, whether they’re farmed or collected, and how they’re manufactured and under what conditions,” he said. “They really demand transparency and this is wonderful. This is the way it should be. We should be knowledgeable about the products that we’re using and under what conditions they’re produced.”

Not business as usual

Integrity, right livelihood or transparency, however Sadler’s Traditional Medicinals’ ethos manifests itself, it is all under the umbrella of sustainability, and safeguarding resources and people’s livelihoods for the future, a pressure that is becoming increasingly urgent, something Sadler feels keenly. “There’s no more business as usual. We’re done with business as usual. I’m fed up with business as usual. I’m fed up with corporate America. I’m fed up with billionaires who are acquiring wealth,” he emphasised.

“That’s not the answer for the future. That’s not how we’re going to survive as a species. It is my belief that business has not only an opportunity, but an obligation to lead in the evolution of business as a platform for social change.”

Sadler said he is now focused on creating a structure of ownership within the company that ensures this purpose “is embedded in the company’s operating system, it’s part of its daily governance. So that it can’t be disrupted,” long after he is no longer there to steer it.

Newly appointed CEO, Stanziano, is taking up this mantle, and explained how he hopes the company will continue to evolve. “Traditional Medicinals has built a strong legacy as a leader in herbal wellness and as a Certified B Corporation, deeply rooted in sustainability and social responsibility. As we look to the future, my vision is for Traditional Medicinals to continue advancing its mission-driven approach, placing people and the planet at the forefront of every decision we make, even as we adapt to the evolving market landscape and changing consumer needs.”

Stanziano said that in the next 20 years, he sees Traditional Medicinals “solidifying our position as a global leader in herbal wellness by broadening our market presence and diversifying our product portfolio. We’ll achieve this through our strategic partnerships and collaborations with local communities and suppliers, ensuring that our sourcing and production practices remain sustainable and transparent.

Our commitment to environmental stewardship is unwavering, and in 2023, we took a significant step by aligning with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), setting ambitious goals to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050,” he said, adding, “looking 50 years ahead, I envision Traditional Medicinals sharing more of its leadership position to inspire – empowering global communities and consumers to embrace the healing power of plants and live in harmony with nature. Our focus will be on innovation, continuous improvement, and expanding our impact, ensuring that we remain a trusted source of wellness for generations to come.”

Over the last 50 years, from its roots as Rosemary Gladstar’s homemade herbal remedies, passed down through generations, and shared with her community, to a far-reaching company, who’s impact stretches even further than it’s teas, Traditional Medicinals has managed to maintain its founding ethos and principles throughout.

This is something that Sadler articulates accordingly, “People think we’re a tea company. We’re actually not. We’re a tea company, but the tea company is actually the means to an end. It’s the work in those supply communities and educating people about herbal medicine, that’s really what we do and the products are the means to an end. They’re what financially support the purpose. It’s not the other way around.”

• Kathryn Brand is an associate editor with T&CTJ, while still writing for several of Bell’s other magazines. She joined Bell Publishing at the beginning of 2022 after graduating from the University of East Anglia with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. She may be reached at: kathryn@bellpublishing.com.

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“As we enter our 50th anniversary year, the members of our board of directors are very pleased to welcome Joe Stanziano as the company’s new CEO,” said Drake Sadler, Traditional Medicinals co-founder and chairman. “His spirit of innovation, strategic growth mindset, and dedication to transparency, accessibility, and authenticity in leadership align seamlessly with our purpose focused organisation as we look towards the next 50 years at Traditional Medicinals.”

After 50 years of serving consumers high-quality medicinal teas and lozenges, Traditional Medicinals offers more than 60 unique products, sources from more than 35 countries globally, is a California Benefit Corporation, and holds B Corp certification. As CEO, Stanziano will lead a strategic and intentional growth plan that both advances Traditional Medicinals’ position as the leader in herbal wellness and elevates the company’s purpose-driven mission to create a positive impact and to prioritise people, products, and the planet over profit.

“And as we welcome Joe to the Traditional Medicinals family, we also want to express immense gratitude for the contributions of former CEO, Gary Gatton, who came out of retirement to support our mission and growth for the past few years,” continued Sadler. “His dedication and leadership have been critical to our success, and we wish him all the best as he transitions towards retirement in the months ahead.”

Throughout his tenured career at Smucker’s, Stanziano saw the Fortune 500 company’s revenue grow from $500 million to $10 billion, overseeing the largest business division. Having worked in various sectors including coffee, peanut butter, and consumer foods, Stanziano most recently served as senior vice president & general manager of the coffee division for six years, including well-known brands like Smucker’s, Dunkin’, Jif, Pillsbury, and more. Stanziano led manufacturing, marketing, operations, research & development, and supply chain for several brands. He currently serves on the board of directors at Ocean Mist Farms fresh produce, and previously served on local nonprofit boards supporting his community.

“I’m honored to be joining the incredible team at Traditional Medicinals,” said Stanziano. “I have been inspired by the products, people, and philosophy of this company, and am grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting its impressive legacy. I look forward to maintaining a culture of collaboration, building meaningful, long-term relationships, and leading with an authenticity that mirrors the core pillars of Traditional Medicinals.”

Originally from Ohio, Stanziano and his family look forward to relocating to Northern California, soaking in the temperate weather, enjoying outdoor activities year-round, and serving local nonprofits. To learn more about Traditional Medicinals and the latest brand news, visit traditionalmedicinals.com. 

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Every year, the conversations around sustainability increase, and the pressure is ever-growing from consumers and stakeholders for brands to truly act to futureproof our coffee and tea industries, as well as the planet itself, for future generations. This special section of our annual Sustainability Issue highlights some of the work and projects tea and coffee brands are undertaking to enact long-lasting change and impact. By Kathryn Brand

Efforts at origin

Clipper Teas is the United Kingdom’s first and longest-standing Fairtrade tea partner, values which have been intertwined with the brand since its inception. Clipper shares its mission with Fairtrade to raise awareness of the benefits of sustainable farming for people and the planet, informing its decision to also be certified organic. This year, Clipper launched its There’s Tea, Then There’s GOOD Tea campaign across Europe, aiming to highlight its brand story and show that it takes more than just taste to make good tea, specifically ethical and sustainable growing practices. At Clipper, this means supporting tea estates and smaller farms to become more sustainable, while paying workers fairer wages, including the Fairtrade Premium, which communities can spend in areas they decide are most needed.

Recently, Clipper’s Fairtrade Premium was used to fund an ambulance for a Mozambique tea estate. Over the past three decades, Clipper has contributed an estimated GBP £6.8 million to the Fairtrade Premium, and much of the tea bought by Clipper today is the same as 25 years ago, since when Clipper has supported the farms to become biodiverse and wildlife-friendly. Long-standing support and nurtured relationships with tea farmers is essential to their sustainability.

Sustainability at origin is not only crucial for the continuation and success of tea production, but for the people in the tea growing communities. This is evidenced in DavidsTea’s Nepal Water Project. The Canada-based tea brand recognises that clean water is not just a fundamental human right, but the essence of its product, from nurturing the Camellia sinensis plant, to brewing a cup of tea. DavidsTea has aligned itself with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. DavidsTea has joined forces with Jun Chiyabari, a key partner from which the company sources its Organic Nepal Black Tea, to tackle the clean drinking water issue in Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden in Nepal’s Dhunkuta district. The local government schools, crucial for the education and well-being of the community’s children, suffer from a lack of clean drinking water. This not only hampers the health of the students and staff but also affects their overall educational experience.

The collaboration began during DavidsTea’s 2020 Giving Week, in which it dedicated five percent of all loose leaf tea sales on 28 November to find clean water initiatives in Nepal. Jun Chiyabari then matched DavidsTea’s contribution, allowing it to expand the project to encompass not just three but four schools. In August 2021, Phase 1 was completed: the installation of sustainable water filtration systems in four schools, impacting over 3,200 children and staff. In March 2022, DavidsTea continued its commitment to the project, directing one percent of the proceeds from its Organic Nepal Black Tea to the mission, allowing it to begin Phase 2 in March 2024, through which it is aiming to bring clean water to two additional schools. This latest phase is expected to reach a further 862 students and staff across six schools in seven buildings.

Last year, illycaffè launched the first coffee produced through 100 percent regenerative agriculture. Brasile Arabica Selection Cerrado Mineiro is Regenagri certified, a third-party programme that certifies regenerative agriculture claims. It supports farms and organisations to transition to holistic farming techniques that increase soil organic matter, encourage biodiversity, sequester CO₂ and improve water and energy management. Italy-based illycaffè believes investing in the people who grow coffee is just as crucial in protecting the ecosystem and so funds a number of initiatives that further this goal:

• The Seeds for Progress Foundation helps to build new schools and offers training for teachers in Nicaragua;
• Reforestation in Colombia works to restore native vegetation, clean groundwater and improve the living environments for coffee growers;
• Farmer Field School is supporting women in Rwanda since 2019 when illycaffè financed the acquisition of a coffee plantation and planted around 2,500 certified-quality coffee plants to function as a Farmer Field School for 40 women coffee producers;
• Viveiro de Atitude programme helped build nursery housing for over 100 plant species in Brazil, preserving biodiversity and water resources as well as promoting environmental education in the country.

illy is investing in quality research and collaborating with a research project to: sequence the genome of Arabica coffee to help coffee growers adapt their plants to the changing climate conditions; it is building long-lasting relationships with growers based on knowledge-sharing and sustainable growth; and implementing a new certification protocol for coffee procurement, monitoring supply chains, guaranteeing the quality of the product, and protecting the environment and worker safety.

Pact Coffee has been fundraising reforestation projects and working only with farmers that follow sustainable practices for years, but in 2020 launched Cenicafé 1, a coffee variety developed over 20 years by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC). As the world heats up, many Arabica coffee varieties struggle to grow. These warmer temperatures also bring a higher likelihood of disease to coffee plants, plus the conditions that plant-killing pests thrive in. It’s a problem that’s forcing farmers to go higher up into the mountains, causing deforestation and economic hardship. Cenicafé 1 is resistant to a number of fungal diseases, can be grown all over Colombia, and offers a high density of coffee cherries, giving farmers greater harvests on small amounts of land. It has quickly achieved high cupping scores and this year Pact launched its first limited edition Cenicafé 1 from the Buenos Aires farm. UK-based Pact is working to widen the recognition of Cenicafé 1 to increase demand for the variety worldwide and show Colombian farmers that there’s a profitable future in a sustainable variety on their existing farms.

To assess and improve conditions across the global community of coffee growers, Peet’s Coffee has partnered with Enveritas. The non-profit organisation uses technology combining AI and satellite imagery with on-the-ground surveys to: conduct 20,000 sustainability audits of smallholders each year; invest in over 30 different impact projects spanning Central America, South America, and the Indo-Pacific; work with World Coffee Research to provide funding for genetic conservation of coffee; have 24 countries verified by Enveritas for responsible sourcing; and, as part of JDE Peet’s, work towards fully validated science-based targets to contribute effectively to the fight against climate change and be at the forefront of deforestation prevention and restoration.

California-based Peet’s engages with Enveritas each year to evaluate the impacts of its projects: in Guatemala, the company has partnered with TechnoServe to train smallholder coffee farmers in overcoming agronomic and economic hurdles impeding their businesses and livelihoods; in the biodiversity hotspot, Finca Don Bosco, Panama, Peet’s collaborates with Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center to protect migratory songbirds by ensuring canopy cover, tree height, and biodiversity; and Peet’s has constructed the Butterfly School Papua New Guinea Bunum-Wo Estate, serving as educational enrichment and health care learning for nearly 200 young children of the farm’s workforce and the surrounding community.

Despite challenges such as climate change and economic instability, over the past year, 99.7 percent of Traditional Medicinals’ herbs were certified organic, and 30.1 percent were fair-certified. The California-based company advised on the creation of the FairWild standard and Foundation, which sets standards for sustainable wild collections of medicinal plants, ensuring that plant material is harvested ethically, sustainably and transparently. Traditional Medicinals has set a goal of sourcing 80 percent fair-certified herbs by 2030, to which its Fair for Life certification marks significant progress. This year, the company has reinvested over USD $174,000 in fair premiums into source communities, a 10.6 percent increase from the previous year. Traditional Medicinals has invested a further $2 million to origin community projects, local non-profits and certification standards. In Zimbabwe, 4,000 people gained access to safe drinking water, 510 farmers in Madagascar were trained in sustainable agricultural practices, and 2,300 women in Egypt participated in health education.

In-House and the community

Birchall Tea has opened its brand-new fully solar-powered tea factory in Wiltshire, England. Its roof-top solar installation features more than 460 solar panels, which are capable of generating all the clean renewable electricity for its on-site operations. The purpose built, state of the art tea factory generates so much energy, that it even puts power back into the National Grid. In addition to this, in May 2020, Birchall achieved the Carbon Neutral International Standard, which means that all of its products are 100 percent carbon neutral.

Similarly, Equator Coffees has reduced its carbon emissions by 80 percent per roasted coffee batch through its investment in energy-efficient Loring Smart Roasters. Other sustainable practices Equator undertakes in its roastery include donating its burlap coffee bags to local farms, composting its chaff locally, and upcycling coffee excess with Extrafood. For its cafés, the California-based company is always looking out for partnerships and resources to improve its sustainability efforts. In 2023, Equator launched its Too Good To Go programme in five of its cafés, aiming to fight food waste by providing surplus food to customers at a reduced price. Equator plans to expand the programme across as many of its retail locations as possible. It continues to encourage its customers to get their drinks in for-here serve ware and use their own reusable cups in its cafés, offering a USD $0.25 discount for customers who bring their own cups, both of which have seen a significant use increase since 2022. The to-go cups and containers that Equator does offer are 100 percent compostable.

Sustainable packaging has long-been a priority for illy. Its cans and tins are made from recyclable metal, and it has recently launched its new certified ESE compostable coffee pods which come in illy’s three blends: Classico, Intenso and Decaffeinato. illy was also the first Italian coffee company to obtain a B-Corp certification.

Little’s is addressing packaging sustainability by becoming the first instant coffee company in UK supermarkets to go 100 percent plastic free. Its coffee pods and ground coffee bags are fully recyclable while its jars are of UK-made glass and aluminium lids. In 2022, Little’s moved its coffee capsule manufacturing from Europe to the UK so that all Little’s roasting and pod manufacturing is done in its on-site roaster, meaning it can both reduce its carbon footprint and be certain of good practices. As a result, the brand is on its way to being carbon neutral.

Since July 2023, Pact Coffee pouches have all been 100 percent recyclable. By being made from a single material, the bag is much easier to recycle into new plastics, and its low-density plastic design using a high proportion of recycled materials ensures it uses as little new plastic as possible. These bags also fund the ‘this bag saves’ project, which stops plastic bottles from entering our oceans. For every kilogramme of packaging purchased, ‘this bag saves’ recovers and recycles the equivalent of two plastic bottles from Asian rivers. Pact explains it chose this option over ‘compostable’ alternatives because around 90 percent of people in the UK do not have the means to compost at home, and compostable packaging can take years to break down, meaning most ends up in landfill or food waste, where it blocks the recycling process. Pact’s carbon footprint is then offset by SeaTrees, a project which protects and regenerates coastal eco-system by planting and restoring aquatic plants that are highly effective in absorbing carbon.

Fostering a better balance between nature and people is something Traditional Medicinals is working towards, with its Traditional Medicinals Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to help people live consciously connected to nature through two pillars: making herbal education accessible and fostering a mindset of stewardship through interacting with nature and conserving resources.

In 2023, Traditional Medicinals aligned with the Science Based targets initiative (SBTi), aiming to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42 percent by 2030, and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The company also conducted a natural capital impact assessment that enabled it to identify, measure, and value direct and indirect impacts and dependencies on natural capital. The framework is crucial for understanding the dynamic relationships between organisations and the health of the natural world, which critically informs decision-making.

BioSense capsule. Image: AluSense

Suppliers commit to a greener future

As with the brands and companies they work with, suppliers to the coffee and tea industry are also passionate about utilising sustainable practices throughout the supply chain. This dedication to sustainability is reflected in multiple ways such as ethical sourcing, environmental protection, climate adaptation, energy efficiency and waste reduction. Below is a sampling of coffee and tea suppliers, which through their sustainable practices, are contributing to a healthier planet and a more sustainable future. By Aubrye McDonagh Leigh

IMA Coffee is committed to increasing sustainable practices to reduce roasting emissions and test alternative packaging materials, implementing advanced eco-friendly solutions throughout the industrial process to rise to the challenge of coffee sustainability. Over the past few years, IMA’s approach to sustainability has led to the design and adaptation of packaging technologies to effectively handle compostable materials, in collaboration with important partners in the field.

Recently, Italy-based IMA Coffee, in partnership with Minnesota-based NatureWorks, a leading manufacturer of polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymers made from renewable resources, developed a new compostable coffee pod solution compatible with Keurig brewers for the North American market. For the rigid capsule body, NatureWorks was able to combine non-compounded, highly crystalline, and heat resistant Ingeo PLA grades with a refined single-stage thermoforming process to achieve production rates comparable to incumbent polypropylene (PP) capsules. The rigid thermoformed capsule was then combined with a non-woven filter and multi-layer top lidding solution, also made with Ingeo. The use of one primary material through all three components of a coffee pod is more cost effective and offers greater consistency when heat sealing the components together, thus preserving the taste and aroma of the enclosed coffee.

The collaboration between NatureWorks and IMA, bolstered by IMA OPENLab, the group’s network of technological laboratories and testing facilities, laid the groundwork for a new market-ready coffee pod solution. Multiple studies and tests on the new compostable material and its performance throughout the packaging process have led to the proper configuration of IMA’s coffee-pod filling and sealing machines, enabling them to handle the rigid capsule, filter, and multi-layered top lid made of Ingeo PLA biopolymer with high precision. This will facilitate the easy setup of new production lines, thereby offering a turnkey compostable and sustainable solution at high production speeds, ensuring high-quality brewing.

With the world’s largest production capacity for empty Nespresso-compatible aluminium coffee capsules, AluSense products are distributed in over 80 countries. The Belgium-based company offered the first capsule made from 80 percent recycled aluminium, boasting CO₂-neutral accreditation to ensure zero environmental impact.

AluSense’s latest innovation, BioSense capsules, are 100 percent bio-based and compatible with all Nespresso Original Machines. These empty capsules mark a significant step towards sustainability without compromising on quality. The mono-body design and custom dome shape of BioSense capsules allow for packing over 20 percent more coffee into each capsule, the highest volume in the home-compostable market. These capsules also provide exceptional protection against oxygen and moisture, ensuring coffee retains its rich flavour.

BioSense home-compostable coffee capsules are made entirely from second-generation end-use bio-based materials, free from PLA, plastic, oil, bisphenol A, or fossil fuels. Their fully compostable nature is validated by the OK compost HOME certification. BioSense also holds certifications from Hansecontrol, SGS, TUV, ISSC, and CO₂ Neutral.

Descafeinadores Mexicanos (Descamex)’s sustainability strategy is based on three main pillars: the community, the environment and the people. Its sustainable practices include:

• Certifications: Since 2007, Descamex has been certified by the Rainforest Alliance and Bird Friendly. With these, it directly and indirectly employs better agricultural practices.
• Social Responsibility Badges: Since 2005, the company has maintained the ESR badge (Socially Responsible Company), seeking to promote social responsibility and is one of the three SMEs in Mexico that has had the badge the longest. In 2024, Descamex finalised its SMETA four pillars audit and is now 100 percent compliant.
• Planting of trees: Through its volunteer programme, Descamex planted 135 fruit trees between April 2023 and April 2024.
• Energy efficiency: Descamex uses the energy storage system obtained with cleaner generation methods (hydroelectric) with a monthly impact that stops the emission of 27.6 tons of CO2, equivalent to planting 1,660 trees.
• Waste management: At the end of 2023, Descamex’s recycling rate was 87 percent, the coffee powder generated is donated as fertiliser to the coffee plantation, which improves the soil quality.

Mexico-based Descamex also supports World Coffee Research, which unites the global coffee industry to drive science based agricultural solutions to urgently secure a diverse and sustainable supply of quality coffee today and for generations to come.

Kloth & Köhnken Teehandel GmbH offers fine teas, sophisticated formulations and flavoured/scented tea innovations and has espoused sustainable values since its formation. The Germany-based company believes that sustainable actions cannot be decreed, rather it is a learning process. FairBioTea is a private sector initiative focused on the development of healthy and sustainable, fair and ecological tea production operations and industry. Through its FairBioTea development partnerships, Kloth & Köhnken actively supports Chinese tea farmers who are growing sustainably and improving their quality management.

Since 2007, together with selected tea gardens, Kloth & Köhnken has been helping to make farming more ecological, transparent and sustainable. The company is especially proud of its long-standing cooperations in tea-producing countries where its partners dictate the pace at which they adopt environmentally friendly practices. Through FairBioTea, Kloth & Köhnken establishes a fair and reliable framework for transparent, sustainable tea production, culminating in a premium product.

Most teas Kloth & Köhnken purchases are certified (Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, organic and Fairbiotea). Its certified products exceed the EU organic regulations, and their cultivation also encompasses land use and nutrient cycles, which in the long term will help preserve soil fertility.
Additionally, for more than three years, Kloth & Köhnken’s sustainability team has been working to implement all requirements for the new German due diligence law and for the European regulations to come. This includes the Code of Conduct, which defines internal company requirements as well as minimum standards for environmental, social and ethical obligations. The Code of Conduct is the basis for developing a business relationship with Kloth & Köhnken, which supports companies that take care of their business sustainably, treat their employees well and protect the environment.

Furthermore, under the motto ‘K&K Goes Green’, the topic of sustainability will become more of a focus for Kloth & Köhnken and internal processes will be optimised and made more efficient. This includes asking all employees for suggestions and ideas and raising awareness for a more sustainable way of living.

As the world faces unprecedented environmental challenges, the importance of sustainable agricultural practices cannot be overstated. Australian Native Products (ANP) promotes sustainability through its cultivation and processing of lemon myrtle. The Australia-based company’s efforts are not just about meeting market demands but also about ensuring the health of our planet and the well-being of future generations.

ANP’s Environmental Management Policy underscores its commitment to optimising quality produce while enhancing the sustainability of natural agricultural resources. This policy is built on several key pillars:

• Resource Efficiency: Implementing precision farming techniques, optimising irrigation practices, and striving to minimise energy consumption by utilising renewable energy sources whenever possible. Soil conservation measures such as mulching and utilising waste stream materials in composting are also employed.
• Biodiversity Conservation: ANP creates wildlife habitats, maintains natural ecosystems, and minimises the use of pesticides and herbicides that may harm non-target species. Its agricultural practices are designed to support, rather than hinder, biodiversity.
• Waste Reduction: Strategies to reduce, reuse, and recycle farm waste are integral to ANP’s operations, such as composting product waste and minimising packaging waste.

ANP has also implemented a Climate Adaptation Strategy, which involves:

• Climate-Smart Practices: Utilising climate-smart agricultural practices to ensure sustainable production. This includes the use of organic and biodynamic principles to maintain plant health and soil fertility, minimising the need for chemical inputs.
• Carbon Sequestration: ANP farms contribute significantly to carbon sequestration. Its Lemon Myrtle trees absorb substantial amounts of CO₂ annually, helping to mitigate its carbon footprint.

ANP has achieved the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) and Rainforest Alliance (RA) ingredient certification for its Lemon Myrtle leaf products. Furthermore, ANP ensures that all its organic products meet the highest standards, maintaining the expectations of consumers and complying with a range of organic standards.

Looking ahead, ANP is committed to implementing its Biodiversity Action Plan, exploring adaptable cultivars, and investing in innovation for better processing mechanisms.

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In her article, “Gendered Teas: A Marketing Strategy or Women’s Reprieve?”, our associate editor, Kathryn Brand, discusses how the ‘wellness economy’ is still surging post Covid-19. Kathryn writes: “As this movement has matured, it has, by extension, expanded and brought to the forefront wellness teas specifically catered towards women. This, combined with a growing feeling of disempowerment of women’s health needs, has resulted in a strong market demand in the women’s wellness tea category.” 

But the question remains, are these teas legitimately offering women relief or are they gimmicks? 

The words ‘disempowerment of women’s health needs’ is a frustrating but oft-true reality that has been happening for far too long, and yet continues today. Not too long ago – when I was a reporter covering the retail industry – ‘PMS’ (premenstrual syndrome) was not a ‘real’ syndrome or even an ‘ailment’, it was something ‘in women’s heads’, scoffed at and therefore not legitimised (at the time there was one, maybe two PMS pain relievers on the market). But then (in my opinion) the pharmaceutical industry seemingly ‘did the math’ and acknowledged that nearly half the global population are women (today that number is 49.6%) and might suffer from PMS not only monthly, but for many years — and the money bells started ringing. Suddenly ‘PMS-relieving’ products started flooding the market coupled with major advertising campaigns. Forward to 2022 and the global PMS and menstrual health supplements market size was valued at USD $22.6 billion per Grand View Research. So, despite its auspicious beginning, PMS was eventually realised as a ‘syndrome’ most likely because of its strong revenue potential but a new category was created that does offer relief for a specifically female-related problem. 

Years later, women’s health claims and needs are still often discounted by doctors, leading them to often look for alternative methods for care and treatment, such as holistic medicine. However, there are also women who prefer natural solutions rather than medicinal when available. Women’s wellness teas go beyond the core functional areas of energy, concentration, relaxation, gut health, skin health, etc., to target needs of women during various life stages. Thus, there are products to support women during reproductive life – from menstruation, pregnancy, nursing – to perimenopause to menopause. But are these teas offering women relief or simply catering to women’s purchasing power in a previously untapped market? Perhaps a bit of both. 

While some brands may see the category as a new potentially strong revenue stream. Some of the brands highlighted in the story, are founded by women because they saw a problem and created a product to solve it. Bethan Thomas, co-founder of HotTea Mama, and a tea scientist, told T&CTJ the motivation for establishing the brand, “It wasn’t until I got pregnant that I realised the majority of the herbal blends that I was creating, weren’t suitable for pregnancy due to many of the ingredients inside. This triggered the idea for HotTea Mama, as my best friend [and I] went through motherhood and suffered with morning sickness, struggles breastfeeding and sleeping… We wanted to make teas that were suitable for this life stage, to be both delicious and supportive.” HotTea Mama has expanded its tea line to offer teas during women’s various life stages. 

Traditional Medicinals, the herbal and botanical tea company that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, says it is prioritising women’s health. In the article, Kristel Corson, chief marketing officer at Traditional Medicinals, said, “We believe in providing natural and effective support for women’s health concerns, from menstrual health to pregnancy and lactation support.” 

While I truly hope none of these are simply marketing ploys, there is nothing wrong with exploring a new avenue for revenue (as brands, companies and individuals have done for decades, even centuries), as long as they are legitimately offering some type of relief or support. Support is a key word as none of these women’s wellness teas are panaceas, they are supplementary products aiming to offer holistic solutions for women. And if, in fact, they are offering support, and the more accessible and reasonably priced they are, then female consumers will benefit, and kudos to the brands. 

I recommend reading Kathryn’s article, “Gendered Teas: A Marketing Strategy or Women’s Reprieve?”, which begins on page 30 in our June issue and is the highlighted feature in this week’s newsletter to learn more about this intriguing new category.

• Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.
  Keep in touch via email: vanessa@bellpublishing.com Twitter: @TCTradeJournal or LinkedIn: Tea & Coffee Trade Journal

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The post-Covid surge in the popularity of functional beverages is ongoing and has significantly bolstered the consumer spend and interest for such products, or rather ‘the wellness economy.’ As this movement has matured, it has, by extension, expanded and brought to the forefront wellness teas specifically catered towards women. This, combined with a growing feeling of disempowerment of women’s health needs, has resulted in a strong market demand in the women’s wellness tea category.
There is an ever growing group of companies that offer women’s wellness tea products, whether they are tea companies that have expanded their product portfolio to meet the demand, or companies which have founded themselves on the premise of supporting women through tea. HotTea Mama falls under the latter. Founded by Bethan Thomas and Kate Achilles, the brand offers consumers a selection of products to support different stages of women’s reproductive life, from menstruation, pregnancy, nursing, and menopause.

Thomas, co-founder and tea scientist at HotTea Mama, explained the premise behind the company’s founding, “It wasn’t until I got pregnant that I realised the majority of the herbal blends that I was creating, weren’t suitable for pregnancy due to many of the ingredients inside. This triggered the idea for HotTea Mama, as my best friend [and I] went through motherhood and suffered with morning sickness, struggles breastfeeding and sleeping… We wanted to make teas that were suitable for this life stage, to be both delicious and supportive. As we grew, our customers started to ask if any herbs or teas could support periods and perimenopause, and I used my tea biochemistry knowledge to create blends for this time of life too.”

Similarly, Poorvi Chordia, founder of Herbs & Kettles, which sells premium single-origin Indian teas, was inspired to create teas for women’s wellness due to personal and professional experience. “As a woman and a frontline physician, I experienced firsthand the importance of self-care and stress management, especially in the face of life’s challenges. Tea played a significant role in keeping me grounded and providing moments of solace during stressful times.”

Wollenhaupt offers a large variety of herbal teas, including a ‘Women’s Power’ blend. Image credit: Wollenhaupt

Meanwhile, Smith Tea recognised its high number of female-identifying customers and wanted to offer a product with health and wellness and “functional nourishment” as a priority, commented Sara Kaufman, product development manager and lead tea maker for Smith Tea’s Empower Mint blend, which was specifically designed with holistic women’s health in mind.

A demand for holistic wellness

Tea companies are noting and building on the idea of women as individual and important consumers with significant purchasing power. “Women’s health is a priority for Traditional Medicinals because we recognise the unique needs and experiences of women throughout their lives. We believe in providing natural and effective support for women’s health concerns, from menstrual health to pregnancy and lactation support,” shared Kristel Corson, chief marketing officer, Traditional Medicinals.

But why is it that women are turning to teas for their health needs in the age of modern medicine? It is part of the growing consensus that the Covid-19 global pandemic inspired, that self care and holistic wellness is something that should be prioritised and sought after in everyday products through functional food and drinks. “During the pandemic, we have learnt that many people have taken more time for themselves again […] People are living more consciously and paying more attention to their health and diet,” noted Michael Görres, head of product development at Wollenhaupt.

Smith Tea’s Kaufman added that “the pandemic highlighted a long-forgotten (or perhaps just overcomplicated) need for finding holistic wellness in our lives. From work-life balance to cleaner eating, the wellbeing economy supports wellness across the board and functional teas sit at the pinnacle of that.” At a time when people felt a need to have some control and agency over their health, a functional beverage market blossomed and remains a strong category even still.

But taking power and control over one’s own health, in the ways that one is able, is something particularly pertinent to women. Thomas explained that “women’s wellness and health has been hugely neglected in society and in medicine for a very long time, which has made women more open to looking at their health holistically.”

Smith Tea’s Empower Mint tea contains four herbs that cover systematic health for women of all ages and demographics. Image credit: Smith Tea

Some medical professionals cite concerns, however, that women are turning to alternative therapies “at the expense of engaging with proven medical approaches, and with conditions such as endometriosis affecting around one in ten women of reproductive age, this kind of marketing can be dangerous,” wrote Dr James Brown, senior lecturer in biology and biomedical sciences, Aston University, in a Guardian article titled “Women: beware teas with a gender agenda.”

However, this perspective overlooks the fact that many women do seek professional medical intervention, but use holistic healthcare, such as herbal teas, alongside it, or as a last resort when doctors are not able to help. “The truth is, that there is a huge medical gap in the UK, and all other countries. Women are often not recognised or heard by their doctors. Especially with conditions like endometriosis, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and adenomyosis — these are hard to diagnose and women on average have to wait 7.5 years for a diagnosis. In this time, they are forced to take charge of what they can in their diet and lifestyle to support,” added Thomas.

Studies and traditions

While it is true that women cannot necessarily expect a cure for their female-related ailments through wellness teas, there is a growing portfolio of scientific evidence and studies that show an amount of benefit can be seen from regular consumption. An example of this is an article titled “Herbal Infusions and Women’s Health: A Review of Findings with a Focus on Human Studies on Specific Infusions with Studies on Extracts to Evaluate Mechanisms,” by Gill Jenkins, Christopher John Etheridge and Pamela Mason, from the Journal of Nursing and Women’s Health sourced via Gavin Publishers. The paper demonstrated that German chamomile, rosehip and spearmint are all shown to give women health benefits in human trials. German chamomile was found to improve aspects of sleep in postnatal women, as well as being beneficial for pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), anxiety, stress, and metabolic control.

Rose hip was associated with improved symptoms of menstrual pain, and spearmint improved hormone control. “These infusions contain a range of phytochemicals, including flavonoids, which help to explain their health outcomes. Most of the human studies indicated that 1-3 cups daily with brewing times of 5-15 minutes provided the health benefit in question,” the study noted.

Raspberry leaf, red clover, ginger and turmeric are also routinely favoured in women’s wellness tea offerings and are among those that have been used as herbal remedies stretching back generations. Companies endeavouring into women’s wellness teas have to choose how to balance verifiable scientific evidence with anecdotal and traditional uses. “We’re careful to only use ingredients that have historical use but are also backed up with research in more recent years. While the research studies are often small scale, we work with a technical agency to review new research regularly and ensure that there is as much evidence as possible to suggest that the majority of women will benefit,” said Thomas.

It is this deeply rooted historical practice that also may also be bolstering the attraction of wellness teas for women, observed Corson. “The appeal of these teas to women may be rooted in their historical connection to nature and traditional herbal practices that have long been passed down through generations of women.”

Chordia also noted that women tend to be more open to “an integrative approach towards health.” She added that “they are also more [receptive to] trying Eastern medicine which has a multitude of health benefits and often functional teas and tinctures play an important role in these alternative approaches. Women more often form communities that empower each other, and that often helps them take charge or ownership of their health and wellbeing than men.”

HotTea Mama offers a range of wellness teas for different stages of women’s reproductive life. Image credits: HotTea Mama

While many companies stress that their wellness teas can benefit both men and women, they are overwhelmingly finding that their consumer base is dominated by women and as such, are marketing their teas with this in mind. However, some view gendering teas as a marketing strategy in itself. Görres explained, “In the herbal tea sector, it can make sense to develop gender-specific teas for the respective needs and with a target-group orientated approach.”

On the whole, people tend to drink herbal teas for their health benefits as well as just their flavour, and since men- and women-identifying individuals often have different wellness needs, especially in relation to reproductive health, it makes sense for teas to be targeted in this way. Corson noted that this must be done with some care; “gendering teas can be a marketing strategy to target specific demographics and highlight the relevance of certain products to their unique needs. However, it’s essential to ensure that gendered marketing does not reinforce stereotypes or exclude potential consumers. Ultimately, the effectiveness of marketing strategies depends on the authenticity of the brand’s message and its ability to resonate with consumers’ values and experiences.”

Market movements

With herbal tea market sales expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3 percent to USD $7,693.5 million between 2023 to 2033, according to market research company, Future Market Insights, there is no doubt a driver of this is consumers’ search for products to improve their health and play a functional role in their beverage consumption. The trend for customisation is expected to influence this market with consumers wanting tea formulations for their specific health concerns, including women’s wellness. These are also anticipated to grow in the organic and ‘natural’ space as “people are making a conscious decision to drink better quality teas that are organic, directly sourced and fresh, farm to cup,” said Chordia.

While some may consider women’s wellness teas a trend or marketing gimmick, and for some companies that may be true, but there are equally companies that are investing in the research and utilising centuries old traditions of herbal remedies to give women comfort, relief, relaxation, or even just a moment of pause to enjoy a delicious cup of tea. And with the functional market and ‘wellbeing economy’ ever-growing, this category is not expected to go away any time in the foreseeable future.

• Kathryn Brand is an associate editor on T&CTJ, while still writing for several of Bell’s other magazines. She joined Bell Publishing after graduating from the University of East Anglia with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. She may be reached at: kathryn@bellpublishing.com.

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Throat Coat Tea is a herbal tea blend that supports throat health and relieves irritation and discomfort. Crafted by a team of herbalists, chemists, and ethnobotanists, this tea harnesses the benefits of the slippery elm tree, which has played an important role in Native American herbal medicine for hundreds of years. Inspired by its traditional use, Traditional Medicinals has sourced slippery elm domestically for almost 50 years from Appalachia, where families collect the bark sustainably by hand to protect the trees for future generations. Featuring organic licquorice root alongside the organic slippery elm bark, this tea is silky, sweet, and caffeine-free, says the company.

“Warm liquids can be soothing, and this blend from Traditional Medicinals is designed to support throat health. It smells sweet and like licquorice. It’s also slightly woody. It’s organic, and the brand is B-corp certified,” said Good Housekeeping’s team of experts.

The team at Good Housekeeping spent months reviewing 300 kitchen, coffee, and tea products to determine the best of the best. The in-house team of Kitchen Appliance Lab analysts, Test Kitchen pros, and registered dieticians teamed up with judges Kaleena Teoh, the co-founder, and director of education at Coffee Project New York, and tea sommelier Gabrielle Jammal—plus more than 1,000 consumer testers—to find the most innovative, high-performing products on the market right now.

“We are thrilled that Throat Coat has received this well-deserved recognition. The dedicated experts at Good Housekeeping have wholeheartedly endorsed it as a warm, invigorating, and efficacious tea,” said Kristel Corson, Chief Marketing Officer of Traditional Medicinals. “Throat Coat has seamlessly woven itself into the daily rituals of countless individuals, be it as a soothing start to their mornings, a comforting companion to their bedtime routines, or an essential travel companion. Singers, announcers, podcasters, teachers, and a diverse range of professionals all rely on the soothing benefits of Throat Coat.”

Throat Coat tea is made with organic and non-GMO ingredients, free from synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms for a healthier and more sustainable choice. It is individually wrapped and requires just boiling water to steep a restorative and delicious cup of tea. The herbs are thoroughly tested from field to cup to ensure ingredient identity, purity, and composition at our local renewable energy-powered facility in Sebastopol, California.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

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Growing up, Sadler did not receive a formal education, which led her to pave her own learning path connected to nature, humanity, and community. Her school was the library where she gravitated to books and stories of brave, powerful, and intelligent women who inspired her. For the past twenty years Sadler has worked in underserved supply communities on behalf of Traditional Medicinals—which sources organic medicinal plants from 43 countries. She witnessed firsthand that the world’s supply of food and medicine is dependent upon the labor of uneducated women.

WomenServe was born out of Sadler’s travels to Rajasthan, India in 2006 where Traditional Medicinals sources senna for its bestselling Smooth Move® tea. While visiting the senna farms, Sadler spent time conversing with women in their kitchens over tea, and understanding their challenges in rural India. Moved by their stories, especially in light of her own life experience, Sadler took action and launched her nonprofit WomenServe. Her unwavering determination, compassion, and commitment to the women and girls of Rajasthan has resulted in programs supporting education, economic opportunity, and local infrastructure across Western Rajasthan. The democratization of access to education for girls and women is critical for the security and sustainability of Traditional Medicinals’ partner communities.

“Nioma Sadler’s exceptional background and experience make her an ideal candidate for this Honorary Doctorate,” said Dr. Lata Suresh, head of institutional partnership, Corporate Communications, and the Knowledge Resource Center of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India. “She serves as a perfect spokesperson for women and girls worldwide who have been denied access to education and skills development. Her dedication and passion supporting the women and girls of Western Rajasthan, as well as her extensive work in the source and supply communities of Traditional Medicinals, are truly remarkable and deserving of recognition.”

As a nonprofit organization focused on building peace and security through education, dialogue, and cooperation, the UN Global Peace Council recognizes Traditional Medicinals as a positive social enterprise business model, WomenServe’s contribution to impoverished farming communities, and Sadler’s dedicated advocacy of education for women and girls. Founded in 1999 and separate from the United Nations, the UNGPC has members from more than 100 countries. The United States International University is a California based nonprofit university with campuses around the world. Founded in 1952, its curriculum is focused on international relations, comparative cultures, and foreign languages.

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Within the specialty tea segment, loose-leaf tea has its advocates, yet tea bags remain a popular and convenient way in which most tea consumers will brew the beverage. However, with 68 percent of consumers drinking tea every day in the UK alone, 21 percent of whom drink between four to five cups a day, according to Statista, this mass consumption of single-use tea bags produces significant amounts of waste, much of which ends up in landfills. As consumer awareness of this builds, the pressure on tea brands to ensure sustainability within their operations is paramount, hence manufacturers must continue to meet the rapidly growing demand for sustainably made tea bags.

Tea bags are commonly made of bleached paper, plastic or nylon, and sealed with glue, resulting in a product that will not fully biodegrade and can contribute to the contamination of soil and waterways with microplastics. Fortunately, there has been much innovation in recent years, with many manufacturers making the switch to compostable bio-plastic-based materials, known as PLA (polylactic acid), normally made from corn or sugarcane, rather than petroleum.

Clipper Tea was among the first to make the switch in 2018, bringing to market its “world first’ unbleached, plant-based, non-GM, and fully compostable tea bags,” said Adele Ward, marketing director, Ecotone UK, Clipper Tea’s parent company. Clipper was driven by the ethical and sustainable principles it was founded on to make the change with its tea bags, but customer demand has also incentivised others.

Taylor Clayton, sustainability impact manager at Traditional Medicinals, commented, “While the launch [of its BPI-certified compostable tea wrapper] was partially inspired by the company’s vision to be a leader in finding solutions to plastic waste, we did also [consider] the feedback of our customers who feel just as passionately as we do about protecting the environment.”

Image: Traditional Medicinals

Tecpacking, while manufacturing tea bag packing machines, also produces tea-bag packing material, most of which are PLA-based and compostable, and Paul Zhang, sales manager, Tecpacking, revealed that while there was certainly some demand from customers, the company felt that it was how different industries were moving forward. “Tecpacking is committed to driving sustainable solutions to ensure that the company is directly an enabler within sustainability, so we promote the compostable material to our customers,” said Zhang.

The costs of converting

Whether companies make the switch due to customer pressure or their own sustainability principles, the demand is undoubtedly there, especially among “boutique and eco-conscious tea drinkers and tea brands,” which is where One Earth’s managing director, Erin Heryford, has noted the increase. One Earth manufactures its tea bag material in the US from non-GMO sugar cane, using a dry process so there is no waste water or water contamination, further reducing the impact of its tea bags on the environment. The eco-conscious may be driving the change towards compostable tea bags across the industry but the demand is widespread and increasing in enthusiasm.

The PLA-based compostable tea bag material used, is undoubtedly strides ahead of the conventional wrappers containing petroleum-based plastic, in terms of sourcing, waste, and consumer health, but there is still progress needed. Tecpacking’s and One Earth’s tea bag wrappers, as well as the wrappers used by Traditional Medicinals and Clipper, are only fully compostable in a commercial or industrial facility, rather than at home in a garden compost bin. Unlike biodegradability, which is a natural process where microorganisms degrade materials into simple components like biomass, carbon dioxide and water, compostability requires human intervention to contribute water and oxygen for the materials to fully break down.

“BPI-certified packaging – or packaging that meets the most stringent standards for biodegradability and eco-friendliness – requires ‘industrial aerated composting’ to fully breakdown, and this composting process only happens in a commercial-scale composting facility. In the simplest terms, in order to ensure a product truly breaks down and returns to the earth, leaving no harmful residue behind, it must be industrially composted,” explained Clayton.

In landfill, the material will break down faster than wrappers containing plastic but will still produce harmful GHGs (greenhouse gases) as a byproduct it breaks down, whereas in an industrial composting facility, the conditions are optimised for the material to break down efficiently, minimising GHG production, as well as producing a saleable product as a result: compost, farm fertiliser, or biogas. Therefore, the sustainability of the PLA-based tea bag wrappers is unavoidably reliant on the manner of which its end consumer is willing or able to dispose of it. Most consumers do not have access to industrial composting facilities, or if they do, lack the willing or awareness to separate out the conforming items. In the US, only 15 percent of consumers currently have access to an industrial composting facility, according to Clayton, and in the UK, where the figures are better but still low, almost half – 160 councils, covering 11.7 million households – of local authorities do not provide any food waste collection for their residents.

“We acknowledge that, due to limited availability, industrial composting is somewhat of an imperfect solution, however, it is the only viable option for breaking down compostable packaging at scale. We strongly believe that this is a waste solution that we should support and advocate for, and we feel that we are leading by example with the launch of this BPI-certified tea wrapper,” said Clayton, adding, “it is our hope that as more and more companies take a stance like us on the importance of industrial composting, that more and more facilities will become available.”

Having the necessary infrastructure and end-consumer awareness are not the only challenges facing bio-based tea bag material producers and tea brands. Like with so many other food and drink packaging formats, “The main challenge with compostable wrappers is finding a packaging material that effectively protects the stability of the ingredients within while also meeting biodegradability standards,” commented Clayton.

There needs to be a balance between the material being food-safe and non-detrimental to the shelf life of the product, to minimise food waste, while simultaneously being sustainable and biodegradable, to which there is seemingly slim overlap. Ward added, “It’s not an easy (or a cheap) switch. The challenge is sourcing an effective sealant that will prevent the two sides of the paper from separating and releasing the tea leaves into the cup. Clipper’s compostable heat-seal tea bag was the result of an extensive period of detailed trials and material sourcing.”

Once the appropriate material is found, the challenges do not stop there; “the traditional plastic envelope material is soft and flexible, but compostable material is a bit harder and difficult to form,” explained Zhang, and therefore the packing machine used needs to be adapted accordingly, requiring a high capital expenditure, which is a hurdle for large companies, but possibly an insurmountable barrier for smaller companies.

Image: One Earth

This is something One Earth recognises; “We work with some co-packers so that the One Earth tea and coffee filter material can be accessible to smaller tea brands,” shared Heryford, a move which is necessary for the industry as a whole to progress sustainably.

The cost of the wrapper material itself is also higher, as Clayton revealed, “Increased costs are mostly due to the use of novel, bio-based materials, such as the PLA layer in the wrapper. The bio-based inputs include more processing steps from farm to manufacturing.” But the costs should come down as it is more widely produced and used.

“Compostable tea bag material has still not captured the mass share of the market,” said Zhang, likely due to the manufacturing, disposal and cost challenges given, and until it does, manufacturers and consumers are having to absorb the additional costs associated with making the sustainable choice.

Challenges remain

Tenacity is undoubtedly necessary on the journey towards sustainability, and while there may still be numerous challenges associated with biodegradable tea bags, they are being met with innovation and persistence. Zhang explained that Tecpacking has “three points to do in the future: first is to try our best to work with our raw material suppliers to make good compostable material, second is to improve our machine to make it suitable and easy to run the compostable material, and third is to recommend and promote the compostable material to all of our customers, to try to make 100 percent of [our] customers use compostable material.” He noted that Tecpacking is a global company operating in local markets like Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, and the US, with different partners. “Our sourcing is within the local communities, and we drive the empowerment of these local communities,” as sustainability is about people as much as it is about resources.

Meanwhile, One Earth has a research lab in Naples, Florida, where it continues to develop its compostable and biodegradable products. With Traditional Medicinals’ global advocation of sustainable materials to its customers, and Clipper’s holistic approach to reduce packaging weight and improve recyclability, strides are being taken to counter decades of willful indolence by manufacturers and consumers alike.

Matching the innovation with the infrastructure and awareness needed remains a challenge, as, even if PLA packaging becomes widespread, there need to be means by which consumers can dispose of it in a way that makes the sustainability efforts of the manufacturer worthwhile. Although, it could be argued, that placing almost the full responsibility of the sustainability of a product on the consumer, rather than on the manufacturer which produced the product in the first place, may be a misdirection of accountability, and unsustainable in the long term. However, most will agree action is needed along the entirety of the supply chain, all the way to the consumer, to drive lasting and necessary change.

• Kathryn Brand is an associate editor on T&CTJ, while still writing for several of Bell’s other magazines. She joined Bell Publishing as an editorial assistant at the beginning of 2022 after graduating from the University of East Anglia with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. She may be reached at: kathryn@bellpublishing.com.

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“Music artists have been using Throat Coat tea for years as part of their voice care, including Dave Matthews,” said Traditional Medicinals chief marketing officer, Kristel Corson. “We found an opportunity to harness this fan base to expand the visibility for our top Throat Coat brand into new occasions. Our ‘Voices are for Using, Not Losing’ campaign celebrates expression and how our Throat Coat brand has championed voices for almost 50 years, with a soothing cup of tea or now lozenges that can be used while on-the-go.”

Traditional Medicinals’ campaign demonstrates how Throat Coat products can be used to support voices, such as at concerts or sports events. As a user of Throat Coat and with a penchant for environmental causes, Dave Matthews and Traditional Medicinals also found alignment advocating for the health of the planet.

Traditional Medicinals’ business is rooted in plants, and it’s a business imperative that the company care for the ecosystems where these plants live and thrive. Traditional Medicinals believes that everything is interconnected, which means supporting the ecosystems, farmers, and collectors who harvest and gather their herbs.

Traditional Maedicinals’ products are certified organic and use non-GMO ingredients and renewable energy, in order to uphold its so called three pillars of sustainability: environmental protection, social equity and economic viability.

Traditional Medicinals’ classic Throat Coat’s original formula launched almost 50 years ago, and since the company has been sourcing their slippery elm bark from Appalachia, where wildcrafters harvest the bark sustainably by hand to protect the trees for future generations.

As part of the REVERB Eco-Village activation, Traditional Medicinals will be donating up to $20,000 to nonprofit Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD), which works towards building a thriving regional food and agriculture system that creates healthy communities, respects the planet, and cultivates profitable opportunities for Appalachians.

“We’re looking forward to having Traditional Medicinals as our Eco-Village partner on this year’s Dave Matthews Band tour,” said REVERB’s director of projects Lara Seaver. “Their work to support agricultural sustainability practices and the communities where they source aligns perfectly with our mission. This year’s Eco-Village will also include opportunities for fans to learn about electric vehicles, participate in research about sustainable concert travel, register to vote, and connect with The Nature Conservancy.”

The Throat Coat family includes:

• Throat Coat Original: Sweet with a distinct liquorice taste. Organic Throat Coat tea supports mucous membrane health while creating a relaxed, healthy feeling in the throat and respiratory system.
• Throat Coat Lemon Echinacea: Using wild liquorice from Central Asia, this formula blends marshmallow root and liquorice with echinacea.
• Throat Coat Eucalyptus: This tea delivers throat-soothing support and respiratory wellness. Understanding that two of the most common seasonal challenges come paired together, it combines marshmallow root, slippery elm, and liquorice, with eucalyptus.
• Throat Coat Lozenges: These provide on-the-go support when you need to soothe a sore throat or relieve a cough. Available in Eucalyptus Mint, Lemon Echinacea, and Sweet Orange Fennel.

Throat Coat Tea and Lozenges are available at retailers nationwide and online at traditionalmedicinals.com.

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Sustainable practices and profitability, factors that were once perceived to be in conflict, are now recognised as being harmonious. Investing in origin, including paying higher wages and environmental initiatives, has improved the quality and yield in both the tea and coffee industries. At the same time, consumers are actively seeking and embracing companies that are doing better, providing external motivation for companies to act and communicate these initiatives to their market.

“The market research says that younger consumers are expecting sustainable practices, and as a business, you have to respond to that expectation especially because they have legitimate concerns,” said Jason Walker, Firsd Tea North America, Lyndhurst, New Jersey. “So, there is the loyalty aspect of having a sustainable brand, but there is also a profit side to it. There can be significant savings when things are done more efficiently, including a reduction or even elimination in pesticide use, and the integration of more efficient technologies.”

Firsd Tea’s parent company, Zhejiang Tea Group, based in Zhejiang Province, China, applied its knowledge of best practices when it expanded operations to the West of China. This included applying research on light and pheromone traps to reduce pesticide application and donating 15 million tea cuttings to support the new smallholder farms in Western China. Applying these best practices to these new farms, decreased the company’s environmental impact while increasing yield, and in turn, profitability.

Zhejiang Tea Group tested light and pheromone traps in its fields to reduce pesticide application. Image: Zhejiang Tea Group

Consumers and business partners are increasingly more cognisant of the values that companies embody. As a result, there is an expectation for companies to do better, whether itisenvironmentally, socially, or ethically.

“There is a growing level of interest in knowing whether you are buying something valuable for society, compared to a decade ago where no one was really asking those questions,” said Elisa Criscione, founder and CEO, Digital Coffee Future. “I do believe that this interest is expanding on a worldwide level. However, communicating sustainability values has become increasingly more challenging as sustainable initiatives expand beyond philanthropic activities and certifications.” Being authentic and transparent about business practices, shared Criscione, is vital in helping provide clarity to the consumer and aid in their decision-making process. The integration of digitisation throughout the supply chain is one strategy that can help provide consumers, and partners in the supply chain, with that transparency.

“Today, more than ever, our consumers are demanding sustainable options, not just in coffee, but across the total CPG market. It’s important to stay the course and ensure that our brands are communicating our commitments in transparent, honest, and authentic ways to make that connection with our consumer,” said Matt Swenson, director of coffee, Nestlé Coffee Partners. “This looks different in practice across our portfolio as each of our brands has its own unique consumer base and differing expectations and desires for engagement on sustainability. We will always try to honour the reasons consumers choose our brands and continue to evolve with them.”

Based out of Oakville, Ontario, Reunion Coffee has been actively involved in sustainability initiatives for the past 16 years. “We’ve tried to be a part of redefining what sustainability in coffee is, including adopting a more holistic approach,” said Adam Pesce, president, Reunion Coffee. Nine years ago, Reunion Coffee became B Corp certified; since then, the business has doubled, and sustainability played a significant role in that growth. “When I first became involved in the business, I thought that growth would mean that I was a sell-out; but I’ve discovered that it actually means more impact,” said Pesce. “Because of the nature of our business model, the more we grow, the bigger the impact that we have; it kind of puts sustainability on autopilot.”By placing sustainability in the blueprint of their business, Reunion Coffee has discovered that growth, translates to an increase in positive actions, including more land being set aside for conservation and more employees being treated equitably.

“Sustainability has become table stakes; it is no longer a nice thing that some companies do; it’s become a necessary thing that all companies have to do,” said Pesce. “It has opened a lot of doors for us because we are committed to sustainable practices, but you have to pay attention to the quality, or the sustainability piece will fall apart.”

Traditional Medicinals is one of a growing number of companies that are investing in B Corp certification. Image: The Narrative Group

Traditional Medicinals, Sebastopol, California, invested in B Corp certification to aid with transparency and accurately track their sustainability aspirations against their progress and challenges. These sustainability initiatives have also helped protect its supply chain. “To continue providing accessible botanical wellness, we need to maintain a supply of high-quality herbs. This requires investing in the ecosystems where these plants thrive—and the people that steward them,” said Jamie Horst, chief purpose officer, Traditional Medicinals. In this last year, their production facility became Zero Waste certified and are in the process of launching their first compostable overwrap. “There is no specific point where we will have done enough,” said Horst. “Our goal is to invite our consumers and stakeholders on a journey with us, maintaining transparency about what worked and what didn’t.”

The transition to sustainable practices

“To implement sustainable practices, the first step is surprisingly inward, the company has to look within and consider if its genuinely ready to implement sustainable values throughout its organisation,” said Robert Bird, professor of business law and Eversource Energy Chair in Business Ethics, University of Connecticut, Mansfield, Connecticut. “If companies do not authentically believe in the values of sustainability, they will not be able to optimise the return on the business case. “Adopting the sustainability mindset requires accepting that the results will not be immediate and that there is always more that can be done.

“It’s an ideology, you are continually thinking can I get closer to zero, knowing that you will most likely never get there,” said Noah Bleich, CEO, The Tea Book, Los Angeles, California “But for us, it was about changing our mindset from being perfect, to continually try to be just a little bit better.” One shift that he implemented was adding the concepts of rot and rethink to the traditional three ‘Rs’: reduce, reuse and recycle pyramid. “The first step to rethinking is that you need to think you’re wrong, because if you think you’re right, you will go back to your old ways.” Bleich emphasised that this mindset shift could aid businesses in adopting solutions that are centred on sustainability, instead of performance and profit.

Blue Coffee Box, Canterbury, England, is an ethical coffee subscription that uses direct trade to source quality coffee for its subscribers. When developing a packaging to ship their coffee, Blue Coffee Box wanted to ensure that it was fully compostable. During their research, co-founder Jon Butt, discovered that the bag was not readily available in the market, so they developed their own. “In the end, we found all of the components, the lining, the ziplock, the valve, and then we arranged to have it all put together by a manufacturer to create a fully compostable coffee bag,” he said.

Integrating the principles of sustainability into the blueprint of a business lends itself to a holistic approach to business, one that considers the entire supply chain. Conversely, failing to have these practices may result in both parties getting want they want out of the relationship and moving on. “Sustainability creates a stickiness to their relationship because now the relationship is not only instrumental, based on revenue, but intrinsic, based on values,” said Bird.

Native Root Coffee sample box. Image: Native Root Coffee

Native Root Coffee developed with the goal of rectifying the wage struggle that existed for indigenous small holder farmers in rural Colombia. Founder Ervin Liz, a third-generation native farmer, witnessed farmers in his community, including his parents, leave coffee due to it being unsustainable. The creation of Native Root Coffee helped resolve some of these challenges by paying the farmers 10 to 15 per cent above market value. The company is also actively engaged in the sustainability conversation, using social media to connect with their consumers.

“There are so many other ways to keep your business growing long-term than just the environmental sustainability,” said Braden Mosley, brand strategist, Native Root Coffee. “At the root of coffee, there is a lot of human connection, so that is something that we are trying to focus on and bring back to coffee.”

Nestlé remains focused on climate change and its impact on coffee farming, continuously seeking strategic partnerships with their supply chain to ensure that the industry is not just successful today, but the next ten to twenty years. This year is the third year, for the Chameleon Coffee Community and Anacafé partner programme in Guatemala, which is centred around the health of farmer families, including distributing clean drinking water filters, drip irrigation systems for organic gardens and education on food safety. “We’ve also funded educational farm plots to share agricultural best practices and distribution of climate adaptive varieties,” said Swenson. “We’ve already seen double-digit production volume increases on a percentage basis from the partners that are engaged in this programme.”

The integration of sustainability requires collaboration, including recognising that value of each component on the supply chain. Roaster, Luis Fernando Velez of Amor Perfecto in Bogotá, Colombia, emphasised the importance of shifting the relationship between buyers and producers to one that is a partnership. “We as roasters, need to recognise that we are not coming to the farm to help out poor people. Coffee growers are our partners, and providing that level of respect, which includes paying the farmer for their investment and labour, is how you cultivate sustainability.” Sustainability, according to Velez, must begin with the price of coffee. “As long as you have a good price, then you can start to work on all of the other projects, organic farming, certifications, water conservation, biodiversity.”

• Anne-Marie Hardie is a freelance writer, professor and speaker based in Barrie, Ontario. She may be reached at: annemariehardie1@gmail.com.

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