The four Bolivian teas are worthy of your cup.  They're also certified organic.

Bolivia Large Leaf Black is light & bright with a
apricot peach finish

Bolivian Black Tippy Small Leaf
has smaller leaves, producing a bright, amber cup with
a smooth, plum taste.

Bolivia Green Large Leaf consists of unique 2-3" length leaf producing a sparkling cup that
is slightly sweet with a herbal green bouquet

Bolivian Jasmine Green produces an inviting bright yellow green
cup with a light
jasmine taste.

These teas can  be purchased at
Simpson & Vail
www.svtea.com

July 1, 2007 Archive

Light, Bright and Lifesaving
By Laurie Nienhaus
 

  I knew I’d be dazzled at The World Tea Expo. And, I assumed I’d come away a wiser tea lover. However, I didn’t expect to feel so astonished by the long arm of tea. 

  Bolivian tea, introduced to the U.S. market barely a month ago, has the possibility of truly changing the lives of Bolivia’s people – particularly those living in the Chimate Valley, a high valley of 4,500 feet sitting where the Andes Mountains meet the Amazon River Basin - about twelve hours north of La Paz.

  The people who make their homes in the Chimate Valley are comprised of an unusual mix of lowlanders of Amazon descent and highlanders of Incan descent. They’re, sadly, among the most marginalized of Bolivia’s population with a personal yearly income of under $1000 per family. They’ve traditionally made their bare living as gold miners.

  But, Chaimate SA, a company evolving out of a agricultural expansion project organized by US AID, is up and running. Despite a number of starts and stops and thanks to investors willing to serve as business incubators, Chiamate SA has successfully organized 200 families and has overseen the current 500 acres of tea farms. With tea plants originally imported from China, the tea has now stepped beyond Bolivia’s local market into the international specialty tea market. While the production is still small at only 50 tons per year (as compared to China which produces at least 800,000 tons), the company plans on ultimately producing at least 250,000 tons.

  The importance of this is not only that the people of the Chimate valley have the potential of increasing their income by 400%. Tea will enable them to fend off a danger larger than poverty. In recent years, drug traffickers have attempted to coerce these resilient people into growing coca. While not a crop of their choosing, the promise of any sort of improvement in their lives would be hard to resist if pressure was applied and no other option was available.

  So tea, yet again, promises to directly influence lives and cultures around the world.  I would encourage all Sweet Willa readers to give Bolivian tea a try. For in doing so, we are certainly, albeit indirectly, saying no to drugs. And all said Amen as they took another sip!

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