logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
26m 28s

Women causing a stir in the tea business

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Women make up a large proportion of the workforce in the global tea industry. But despite their crucial role, women in the tea sector often face lower wages and limited access to leadership positions. Datshiane Navanayagam speaks with two tea entrepreneurs to learn more about running tea businesses.

Susie Walker-Munro from the UK runs Kinnettles Tea Garden in Angus, Scotland, where she grows cold-tolerant tea plants. She began experimenting with tea cuttings on her farm in 2007 and has since collaborated with other women to create an all-female tea garden collective.

Tea has always been central to Esha Chhabra’s life, from her upbringing in India to her family’s move to the US, where the tradition of making loose leaf tea was preserved. She co-founded Alaya Tea in 2019, a brand focused on sustainable farming and ethical sourcing from small farmers.

Produced by Emily Naylor

(Image: (L) Susie Walker-Munro credit Ashley Coombes. (R) Esha Chhabra credit Alaya Tea.)

Up next
Today
Healing with horses
Datshiane Navanayagam speaks two women from the Czech Republic and the UK about the ways in which they use horses to promote human physical and mental health.Vera Lantelme-Faisan’s professional background is in Equine Assisted Physiotherapy in the Czech Republic. Between 2004 and ... Show More
26m 28s
Aug 18
How to be a confident woman
While confidence is widely understood as important, actually building and maintaining it can feel like an impossible task. A comedian from New Zealand and a body positive writer, speaker and influencer from the UK tell Datshiane Navanayagam about how they grew their self-confiden ... Show More
26m 30s
Aug 7
Women designing affordable homes
The global housing crisis continues to grow, with the UN’s urban development agency estimating 40% of people worldwide lack access to adequate housing. Datshiane Navanayagam talks to female architects in Tanzania and Spain designing cheaper, more sustainable homes.Victoria Heilma ... Show More
26m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
Spilling the tea on matcha
Once difficult to find outside of Japan, the green tea has made it onto the menus of major coffee chains. The matcha tea industry is projected to reach US$5bn in revenue by 2031.We look at the role TikTok, celebrity and wellness endorsements have played, and ask whether the match ... Show More
17m 37s
Feb 2024
Much ado about matcha, with Victoriya Toma
Our hosts Tiffany Eslick and Devina Divecha get a Japanese tea masterclass from Victoriya Toma. Victoriya is the founder of Ikigai-cha, where they focus on single estates and single cultivators, so they work and source from small farmers directly to bring their teas to the region ... Show More
1h 2m
Oct 2021
Robert Hellyer, "Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America's Tea Cups" (Columbia UP, 2021)
Robert Hellyer’s Green with Milk and Sugar: When Japan Filled America's Tea Cups (Columbia UP, 2021) is a tale of American and Japanese teaways, skillfully weaving together stories of Midwesterners drinking green tea (with milk and sugar, to be sure), the recent and complex origi ... Show More
46m 25s
Apr 2024
Tea and Milk Owner Expands Both His Business and Customer Horizons
Tea and Milk owner Mathew Wong has gone to great lengths to create the best bubble tea possible, traveling as far as Japan to research and source his tea. He uses only the highest quality ingredients in all of his products, but found that they weren’t always popular with customer ... Show More
46m 8s
Oct 2024
The Death and Life of the Department Store
‘The department store is dying,’ Rosemary Hill wrote recently in the LRB, reviewing an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris on the origins of the grands magasins. She joins Tom to talk about their 19th and 20th-century heyday as cathedrals of consumerism as well a ... Show More
40m 2s
May 23
tara yummy
the tea is us 
57m 42s
Jan 2025
Ep517 - Erin Weed | Authenticity: Leading and Speaking with Your Head, Heart and Core
Erin Weed is the founder of Girls Fight Back, a women’s safety education company. After teaching live self-defense seminars to over 1 million people worldwide, she sold Girls Fight Back in 2013. Since then, she has been working as a speaker, author, and communication strategist w ... Show More
1h 10m
Dec 2024
Living & Worship // Season 4, Episode 2 | Honest Tea Talk
Living and worship can often feel like two separate experiences, and in this episode, we explore if and how we can close the gap between them. ________ JOIN THE DISCUSSION: — Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honestteatalk/ — Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honestteatalk/ _ ... Show More
29m 58s
Jan 2025
Brewing Market Lane’s Success | FLEUR STUDD!
Good Morning! Today we are talking to the wonderful Fleur Studd! Fleur is one of the most influential women in the coffee scene, founding Market Lane Coffee and Melbourne Coffee Merchants. Her story starts in the U.K, finding a passion for coffee before moving back to Australia i ... Show More
1h 11m
Nov 2024
Building a Six Figure Brand In Your 20's ft. Alice Olivia Cross
Alice Olivia Cross, the woman behind the successful fashion brand BOA , a social media influencer, and all round icon in our opinion sits down with us in London to share her journey starting out on social media and shares how she turned sharing her outfits into her career & event ... Show More
48m 16s